In His resurrection Christ in His humanity was designated the Son of God, not in mere word but in power according to the Spirit of holiness. No doubt the divine power was very much exercised in His resurrection, yet we need to see that the divine power in which Christ’s humanity was designated the Son of God is the power of life. The phrase in power in Romans 1:4 corresponds with 1 Peter 3:18, which says that Christ’s flesh was put to death, but His Spirit was made alive. Here, to be made alive means to be empowered. In Christ’s death His humanity, His flesh, was crucified. Then in His resurrection God the Spirit as Christ’s divinity was enlivened with the new power of life to put divinity into the humanity of Christ to make it divine. In other words, before Christ’s resurrection, Christ’s humanity was merely human, but in Christ’s resurrection, the Spirit was made strong to impart divinity into His humanity to make it divine. Thus, in His resurrection Christ’s humanity was designated the Son of God in the divine power, and the reality of the power of Christ’s resurrection is the Spirit.
An especially marvelous word in Romans 1:4 is resurrection. Christ’s humanity was designated the Son of God “out of the resurrection of the dead.” In 6:5 Paul says that “we will also be in the likeness of His resurrection.” Christ was designated by resurrection, and we shall be in the likeness of this resurrection. As we share Christ’s resurrection, we undergo the process of being designated the sons of God. It is by resurrection, in fact, that we are designated. It was in resurrection that Christ in His humanity was designated the Son of God. By means of such a resurrection we also are in the process of being designated the sons of God.
Romans 8:11 says, “If the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.” In this verse resurrection is linked to the Spirit. The Spirit is the reality of resurrection. The Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from among the dead dwells in us as the reality of resurrection. The resurrection we experience is actually the Holy Spirit Himself. The Spirit who dwells in us is the rising-up Spirit and the designating Spirit. Day by day, this Spirit is designating us to be the sons of God.
We should praise the Lord that we have the designating Spirit within us. We have the designating Christ as resurrection within. Do not try to improve yourself or to make yourself sinlessly perfect. Rather, enjoy and experience the designating Spirit. If by the Spirit we put to death the practices of the body, we will live (v. 13). We need to walk according to the Spirit, set our mind on the Spirit, and by the Spirit put to death the practices of the body. If we walk daily according to the Spirit, we will be fully in the process of designation by resurrection. By the power of resurrection, we will be transformed, conformed, and eventually glorified.
Designation is by resurrection, which includes sanctification, transformation, conformation, and glorification. All these wonderful things are in the Spirit. By touching the Spirit, we enjoy resurrection and everything included in it. Resurrection is not a matter of doctrine; it is a matter of touching the Spirit. The simplest way to contact the Spirit is to call on the name of the Lord Jesus. The more we touch the Spirit, the more we enjoy resurrection and the more we are sanctified, transformed, and glorified. In this way we experience being designated the sons of God by the Spirit.
The more we contact the Lord by calling upon His name, the more we sense His presence and the more we are conscious of His anointing within. By calling on the name of the Lord, we are watered, refreshed, sanctified, satisfied, and strengthened. The kind of teachings we need today are those regarding how we are designated by enjoying and experiencing Christ as the life-power. If we have this kind of teaching, we will realize that in ourselves we are hopeless and helpless, and we will no longer try to improve ourselves. Rather, we will exercise our spirit to contact the Lord so that we may enjoy His anointing and participate in the process of designation by resurrection.
The goal of the gospel as revealed in Romans is that God is transforming sinners in the flesh into the designated sons of God in the spirit for the building up of the Body of Christ. We have pointed out that even the Lord Jesus as a man according to the flesh had to be designated the Son of God. Before His designation, according to the flesh He was only the seed of David; in that part of His being He was not yet the Son of God. However, by resurrection He was designated the Son of God according to the Spirit of holiness. In the same principle, according to the flesh we are sinners, but now that we have been regenerated, we can have our being according to the spirit. The more we walk according to the mingled spirit, the more we undergo the process of designation (v. 4). Day by day, we are resurrected, sanctified, transformed, and glorified. The way to be designated sons of God is not to acquire more teachings; it is to have our being according to the mingled spirit.
The center of the book of Romans, which is on the gospel of God, is an unlimited, all-inclusive, and all-extensive person, the most wonderful person in the whole universe—Jesus Christ the God-man, the seed of David and the Son of God. We should praise the Lord that He has both humanity and divinity, both the flesh and the Spirit of holiness, both the human essence and the divine essence. With Him as the prototype, there is the Spirit of holiness, the flesh, and the designation as the Son of God; we as His mass production also have the Spirit of holiness within and the human flesh without, and will be designated in full as sons of God.
According to Romans 1:7b, Christ is revealed as the source of grace and peace: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Grace is God in Christ as everything to us for our enjoyment (John 1:14, 16-17); it is the source. Peace is the result of our enjoyment of God in Christ (16:33); it is the issue. This peace is the inward rest, comfort, and satisfaction, not something outward. Furthermore, Christ with God our Father is the source of this grace and peace; both Christ and the Father are the source of grace and peace. That the Lord Jesus Christ is ranked with God the Father as the source of grace and peace indicates the divinity of Christ, that is, the Godhead, the deity, of Christ (Rom. 9:5; Col. 2:9). This is our wonderful Savior Jesus Christ, in whom we believe and whom we follow and worship.