Verse 12 goes on to say, “I will declare Your name to My brothers; in the midst of the church I will sing hymns of praise to You.” The firstborn Son declared the Father’s name to His brothers after He resurrected from the dead, when He met with the Father’s many sons (John 20:17, 19-23). The church mentioned in Hebrews 2:12 is referred to as a corporate composition of the many brothers of the firstborn Son of God.
Hebrews 2:11-12 indicates that in resurrection Christ has brought forth many brothers. Through His resurrection we were regenerated (1 Pet. 1:3). His death released the divine life from within Him, and His resurrection imparted the life of God into us in order that we might become the many sons of God and His many brothers. He was the one grain of wheat falling into the ground, dying, and growing up to bring forth many grains, which we are (John 12:24). He was the one grain, and we are now the many grains, His many brothers, brought forth by Him in His resurrection. Hence, immediately after His resurrection He called us His brothers (John 20:17).
In His resurrection Christ not only brought forth many brothers but also came to His brothers and declared to them the Father’s name (Heb. 2:12). The Father’s name is simply the Father. The Father is His name. The Father means the source of life and the source of being. We are all out of Him. The Sanctifier, the firstborn Son, and all the sanctified ones, the many sons, are all out of the one Father. On the day of His resurrection, the Lord declared the Father’s name to the disciples. From that day on Peter came to realize that he had the divine nature. Thus, in his second Epistle, Peter says that we are “partakers of the divine nature,” having received “all things which relate to life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:4, 3). We have received the divine nature, and all things pertaining to life have been given to us because we were all born of the Father.
In the church the firstborn Son of God declares the Father’s name to His brothers. Because the Father is the source of the divine life and nature, to declare the name of the Father is to show the many brothers the source of this life and nature. Although the Jewish people in ancient times knew God, they did not know the Father. They knew God as the Creator but not as the Father who begets. They knew God’s creating power, but they did not know the Father’s begetting ability. They knew God’s power, but they did not realize the Father’s life. Before the resurrection, not even the disciples of Jesus knew the Father’s life and begetting ability. Before the day of resurrection, they knew only as much as the Jewish people did. However, on the day of resurrection the Lord came to them to declare the Father to make them know the Father as the source of life.
According to John 20, Jesus visited His disciples in the evening on the day of His resurrection. But John does not explicitly say that He declared the Father to the disciples. This is mentioned prophetically in Psalm 22:22. According to that prophecy, after His resurrection Christ came mainly to His disciples to make the Father known to them. The Father’s life and nature had become theirs. The Father’s being had been transferred into their being. This is what it means to declare the Father’s name to the disciples. That declaration was not merely a matter of mentioning the name; it was an impartation of all that the Father is—the Father’s life, nature, and being—into the disciples. We, the sons of God, have all become partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). To us, God is no longer only the creating God but also the begetting Father. He has begotten us; He has imparted His life, His nature, and even His being into our being. This is what it means to declare the Father’s name.
In resurrection Christ not only declared the Father’s name to His brothers but also praised the Father in the church (Heb. 2:11-12). When the Lord declared the Father’s name to His brothers, He praised the Father’s name in the church. The brothers are the church. Individually speaking, they are His brothers, and collectively speaking, they are the church brought forth in His resurrection. In the evening of the day of His resurrection His brothers gathered together, and He came to meet with them. That was the first church meeting. In the church meeting the Lord not only declared the Father’s name to His brothers, but He also praised the Father in the midst of the church.
This is the firstborn Son’s praising of the Father within the Father’s many sons in the church meetings. When we, the many sons of God, meet as the church and praise the Father, the firstborn Son praises the Father in our praising. It is not that He praises the Father apart from us and alone; rather, He praises within us and with us through our praising. In our singing He sings hymns of praise to the Father. If then we do not sing, how can He sing? The more we sing to the Father, the more we enjoy His presence, His moving, His anointing, and His life-imparting within us. Thus we will grow in Him and be brought into His glorification above all.
Today in the proper church meeting, the resurrected Christ is in our midst, although He is invisible. As Matthew 18:20 tells us, where there are two or three gathered into the Lord’s name, there He is in their midst. In the church meetings, He meets with us and sings hymns of praise to the Father. In fact, He sings in us; He sings in our singing. Because Christ is within us, if we are silent, He has no way to sing. Likewise, if we do not speak, He cannot speak. When we sing, He sings; when we speak, He speaks. Since He is not only in our midst but also within us, we need to take the initiative to speak and sing so that He can speak and sing hymns of praise to the Father in our speaking and singing.
Throughout all the centuries the firstborn Son has been continually singing hymns of praise unto the Father in the church. He does this in all of His brothers. When we sing hymns to the Father from our spirit, He sings with us in our spirit. This is wonderful. The church on earth today is one corporate Body with the firstborn Son of God. In the meetings of the church, the firstborn Son of God sings praise to the Father. Whenever we come to the meetings, we must open our mouths to praise the Father. If we do this, immediately we cooperate with the indwelling firstborn Son of God. To gain more of the firstborn Son, we need to praise the Father. The more we praise the Father, the more we gain the firstborn Son. The more we sing, the more He sings in our singing. The best way to have Christ work together with us is by singing praises to the Father.
Christ has made the Father known to us as the source of life. Now in the church meetings He is waiting for us to cooperate with Him in singing praises to the Father. The best way for us to give Him this cooperation is to open our spirit and sing praise to the Father. The more we sing, the more we will enjoy His singing. When we praise the Father, we enjoy Christ. We are one with Christ in praising the Father in the church meetings. The more we praise the Father in the church meetings, the more He praises the Father in our praising, and the more we enjoy Him and gain Him.