The first thing that the Lord Jesus does in resurrection is that He imparts His divine life into the believers (John 12:24; 3:15; 10:10b). Resurrection dispenses Him as life into His believers to make them His members. Through His death as a grain of wheat His life was released. When the Lord Jesus was walking and living on the earth He was like a grain of wheat. His life was not released because He was still not touched by death. The Lord Jesus knew that He would have to pass through death. This is why in Luke 12:50 He said, “But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!” Baptism in this verse refers to the death He had to go through. The divine life concealed and confined in His humanity could not be released except through His death. When Satan was causing the Lord Jesus to be crucified on the cross he was happy, but he didn’t realize that actually he was helping the Lord Jesus to release the divine life within Him.
The best thing you can do to a grain of wheat is to bury it in the earth. This is why the Lord Jesus prayed, “Glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You” (John 17:1). To sow the seed into the dirt is to glorify it. To the Lord Jesus, death was a wonderful release. When a grain of wheat rises up from the dirt, it brings forth many grains which are its manifestation, its glorification. Today we are the many grains of wheat which have come out of the glorification of Jesus. Our Jesus has been universally glorified. There are many grains all over the globe which have come out of the glorification of Jesus.
The life within the Lord Jesus, within the one grain, was released and imparted and dispensed into many grains. The many grains which come out of the glorification of one grain are exactly the same as the original grain. He was a grain, and now we have become grains. He was the unique grain, and we are the many grains. In life and nature there is no difference between the one grain and the many grains.
Even as the way to release the life within the Lord Jesus was through death, so the way for us to enjoy life is also through death. The more we experience the death of Christ, the more we will experience and enjoy His life.
Throughout the centuries different people have tried to terminate the Christians by killing them. But killing never terminates the Christians. Rather, killing germinates many more Christians. When one Christian is martyred, many more are germinated. The more the Christians have been persecuted, the more they have multiplied. Martyrdom is a kind of glorification. In 1949 I left Mainland China. At that time there were only about three million Christians including the Catholics. Today there are thirty to forty million Christians. They have been increased more than tenfold.
Through the centuries Christ has been multiplied many times through death. After His first crucifixion, Christ has gone through many deaths within His believers. He was killed in the first century, in the second century, and in many following centuries. In the twentieth century He was killed many times in China. But through every killing, that is, through the martyrdom of the believers, Christ was glorified and multiplied. Don’t be afraid of any kind of opposition. To us opposition is a glorification. The way of life is wonderful, but the way of life is through death. It is of life, but it is through death. The divine way of life is to go through death for multiplication. It is through death and resurrection that the divine life has been dispensed into us.
Christ in His resurrection raised up the destroyed temple (John 2:19, 21; 1 Pet. 1:3). In John 2:19 the Lord Jesus told the Jews, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The temple the Lord Jesus was referring to was the temple of His body. When He raised up the temple of His body from the dead, He raised up an enlarged temple including Himself as the Head and all of His members as the Body. As a member of the Body you were resurrected at the same time that the Lord Jesus was resurrected. Before you were born you were resurrected through the resurrection of Christ. The same principle applies to our being saved. We were regenerated nearly two thousand years ago when the Lord Jesus was resurrected from among the dead (1 Pet. 1:3).
Likewise, although the book of Revelation is a book of prophecy, many of the verbs are in the past tense. John said that he saw the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2). To us the New Jerusalem will come in the future, but to John’s perspective it was there already. To our way of thinking the church will be built up, but in John’s vision the church was already built up and the Bride had made herself ready (Rev. 21:2).
The Jews were used by Satan to destroy the fleshly body of the Lord Jesus by crucifying Him on the cross. In doing so they thought that they had terminated Him. They did not realize that they had helped the Lord Jesus to multiply. He was put to death in His physical body, but when He was raised up He not only had a physical body but also a mystical Body which is universally great. We all have been regenerated in the resurrection of Christ from among the dead. By His resurrection He has regenerated us. The resurrection life has been dispensed into our being. This regenerated people is the enlarged temple of God, and this is the universal church. Today in the church we are enjoying God’s dispensing in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.