In order for the believers to be joined to God the Father, it was necessary for them to be born of God as the begetting Father. John 1:13 speaks of the believers as those “who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” This verse clearly tells us that we have been born of God. This birth took place when we believed in the Lord Jesus. When we were born of God to become His children, we were not born of our physical life, our fallen life, or our created life—we were born of God, the uncreated life.
James 1:18 also refers to God as the begetting Father: “Having purposed, He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a certain firstfruit of His creatures.” God brought us forth, regenerated us, of His own will, by His intention, to carry out His purpose, so that we might be the firstfruit of His creatures. To be the firstfruit of God’s creatures is to be the vigorous life that matures first. This is by the divine birth, our regeneration (John 3:5-6), which is carried out according to God’s eternal purpose.
God brought us forth, regenerated us, by the word of truth. The word of truth is the word of the divine reality, the word of what the Triune God is (John 1:14, 17). This word is the seed of life by which we have been regenerated (1 Pet. 1:23).
God the Father brought us forth, regenerated us, by the word of truth, by the word of divine reality. When we heard the gospel, we heard the word of God’s reality. We received this word and were reborn. Through the divine birth the divine life was imparted into our being. Now we not only possess the divine life, but we also are enjoying this life with its divine nature.
The believers’ being joined to God the Father involves three matters: repentance, baptism, and regeneration. We have turned to God through repentance, we have been baptized into Him, and we have been born of Him. In this way we have been joined to God the Father.
As those who are joined to the processed Triune God, we are joined to God the Son, Christ, as the embodiment of the processed Triune God (Col. 2:9; Matt. 28:19b). God the Father is the source, the origin, of the Trinity, and God the Son is the embodiment of the processed Trinity. All that the divine Trinity is, has, and does has been embodied in one all-inclusive person—Christ. Christ, therefore, is the embodiment of the processed divine Trinity.
Now we need to see in what way we are joined to God the Son as the embodiment of the processed Triune God. First, we are joined to Christ by God’s having shined Him into our hearts. He has “shined in our hearts for the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6b). When we heard the preaching of the gospel, there was the shining of Christ into our hearts. God’s shining Christ into our hearts results in the illumination of knowing the glory of God in the face of Christ, that is, in the enlightenment that causes us to know the glory of the gospel of Christ. The illumination, the enlightenment, that makes the glory of Christ’s gospel known to us issues from God’s shining Christ into our hearts. The proper preaching of the gospel is not only a matter of speaking but of God’s shining. When we preach the gospel to others, we need to exercise our spirit by faith to speak in a shining way. Then through our speaking God will shine the living Christ into others.
When God shined Christ into our hearts, we received Him. The living Christ has been shined into us, and we have received Him into the depths of our being. John 1:12 speaks of receiving Christ: “As many as received Him, to them He gave authority to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” This indicates that to believe is to receive. We have received Christ by believing in Him.
In Colossians 2:6 Paul tells us that we “have received Christ Jesus the Lord.” Christ is the portion of the saints (Col. 1:12) for our enjoyment. As the all-inclusive Spirit, He has entered into us and dwells in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22) to be everything to us. Although we have received Christ, our receiving of Him goes beyond the initial receiving of Him once for all. On the contrary, we shall continue to receive Christ eternally. Receiving Christ can be compared to breathing. Just as breathing is a continual process, so our receiving of Christ should take place continually. If we do not receive Christ continually, we shall not enjoy the full benefit of the Christ we have received initially. Therefore, in addition to receiving Christ once for all for our eternal salvation, we need to receive Him consistently and continually as the One who is everything to us.