In the remainder of this message and in the two following messages, we shall give our attention to four matters seen in 1 Corinthians: birth, growth, transformation, and identification. First we have the birth of the members of the church and then the growth and transformation of these members. We also have the identification of the members of the church with the Lord. These four matters of birth, growth, transformation, and identification are profound. Birth is through the gospel (4:15) and in Christ Jesus. Growth is through the planting and watering of God’s fellow-workers (3:8-9) and with the essence of God, who gives the growth (3:6-7). Transformation is through the builders’ building work (3:10-12) and by the indwelling Spirit with the divine essence and element (3:16). Identification is a matter of being one spirit with the Lord as the embodiment of the Triune God. This is by the indwelling Spirit as the mingling and saturating Spirit (6:17, 19) and involves having the Spirit of God (7:40).
No one can fully explain what human birth is, much less the divine birth. Although it is easy to understand the process of making a wooden table, we do not understand fully what is involved with either a human birth or the divine birth. We all were born of our parents, but we are not able to adequately explain this birth.
Although we do not know thoroughly what birth is, we can be certain of a basic principle related to birth. This principle is that birth is altogether a matter of the dispensing of life. Adopting a child, on the contrary, is not related to life. Instead, adoption involves the fulfillment of certain legal requirements. But birth is a matter of life. In particular, birth comes through the dispensing of life. A father’s life is dispensed into his child. Therefore, the story of one’s birth is a story of life-dispensing.
Paul says a word concerning spiritual birth in 4:15: “For though you have ten thousand guides in Christ, yet not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel.” The Greek word translated “guides” here means child-conductors. These guides or child-conductors give instructions and directions to the children under their guardianship. Fathers, however, impart life to the children whom they beget. Paul was such a father. He had begotten the Corinthian believers in Christ through the gospel. He had imparted the divine life into them so that they could become children of God and members of Christ.
In 4:15 Paul seems to be telling the Corinthians, “You Corinthians were all reborn through me. I am your begetting father. It was through me that the divine life was dispensed into you.” Through this life-dispensing the Corinthians had experienced the new birth.
Perhaps you have never realized that when you were regenerated, you received a rich dispensing of life. Apart from the dispensing of the divine life into our being, we never could have experienced the divine birth, a spiritual birth. The spiritual birth, the new birth, is totally a matter of the dispensing of the divine life. Our regeneration was the beginning of the dispensing of the divine life into us. From the time we were born of God, this dispensing has not ceased. As we shall see, the divine life in us will grow, will increase, through the continuation of the divine dispensing.