First Peter 1:3 tells us that God has regenerated us through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead. We must realize that when Christ was resurrected we were regenerated. When He was resurrected, we were resurrected in Him also (Eph. 2:5-6). We, as human beings, were all divinely sonized through His resurrection to be many sons of God to participate in His divine sonship. We were regenerated before we were born since His resurrection was our regeneration. Before we came into existence, God the Father had regenerated us already. From God’s point of view we were regenerated about two thousand years ago. According to our physical life we do not have that many years, but according to our spiritual life we were regenerated that many years ago. Every child of God was begotten of God nearly two thousand years ago through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Before we became part of the old creation, we were already a part of the new creation through Christ’s resurrection, so we are the many brothers of the firstborn Son of God in His resurrection (Rom. 8:29). God is our Father and the Firstborn of God is our Brother. This is marvelous! Christ, the only begotten Son of God, as the unique grain of wheat, fell into the earth to die. Through His life-releasing death, His divine life within Him grew and rose up to produce many grains to be God’s many sons and His many brothers.
In John 16:20-22 the Lord told the disciples that they would be sorrowful, but that their sorrow would be turned into joy because He as “the child” (v. 21) would be brought forth in His resurrection (Acts 13:33; Heb. 1:5; Rom. 1:4). The Lord’s death and resurrection were the process of delivery. A new child was delivered through His death and resurrection. This was a universal delivery, not of a single child, but of a corporate child, which included the Son of God as the Head and His many brothers as the Body. This was the birth of a new corporate child comprising Christ and us, the believers. Actually, this was the birth of the new man (Eph. 2:15). The old man was created by God in Genesis 1 and 2, but the new man was born through the death and resurrection of Christ referred to in John 16. We were born into the old man, but we were regenerated into the new man.
Remember that before we were born into the old man, we were already regenerated into the new man, since we were regenerated before we were born according to 1 Peter 1:3. This is a divine mystery which our human mentality cannot solve, but the fact is that we were regenerated as the new man before we were born as the old man. We do not need to try, struggle, or endeavor to be a new man. We are already a new man. We were a new man two thousand years ago. All of us should declare, “Hallelujah! I am a part of the new man!” Do not look at yourself. When you look at yourself, you will be disappointed. When you look at yourself, you will see the old man. We do not need to look at ourselves, but we need to say amen to God’s word. All of us should declare, “I am a part of the new man through the wonderful death and resurrection of the Son of God!” Through His resurrection, He as the only begotten Son of God became God’s Firstborn, and through His resurrection, His many brothers were brought forth. Also, through His resurrection, a new child was born, and this new child comprises all of us.
After accomplishing incarnation, human living, death, and resurrection, He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b) to apply whatever He had accomplished to us. He accomplished incarnation, human living, crucifixion, and resurrection. He became the firstborn Son of God, He brought forth His many brothers, and a new child was born through His resurrection. Now He wants to apply all this to us, His many brothers. He can apply all this to us since He has become a life-giving Spirit. As the life-giving Spirit He has come into us to apply to us all that He has achieved, accomplished, attained, and obtained. All of His accomplishments now become ours! His incarnation becomes ours, His human living becomes ours, His crucifixion becomes ours, and His resurrection becomes ours. His being the firstborn Son of God becomes ours, His producing many brothers becomes ours, and even the birth of the new child becomes ours. Whatever He has achieved, accomplished, attained, and obtained have become ours because this life-giving Spirit is the totality of His wonderful Person, including all His wonderful accomplishments.
This all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit is the ultimate consummation of the Triune God. All that the Triune God is and all that the Triune God has achieved, accomplished, attained, and obtained are compounded together into the life-giving Spirit. After His resurrection, the Lord Jesus became such a Spirit and breathed this Spirit into His disciples (John 20:22). Then after His ascension, He poured out this Spirit upon His disciples (Acts 2:1-4, 16-17). On the day of resurrection He breathed this all-inclusive Spirit into His disciples essentially. Then after 50 days, on the day of Pentecost, He poured out this Spirit upon His disciples economically. Essentially, the Spirit was breathed into His disciples, and economically, such a Spirit was poured out upon His disciples. Now within His disciples is the Spirit of life essentially, and upon His disciples is the Spirit of power economically.
We are now persons with the Spirit within us essentially and with the Spirit upon us economically. Therefore, we are persons of the Spirit. You may not feel that you are a person of the Spirit, but your feeling means nothing. The Word of God means everything. We should not forget that the Word of God is a testament, a will. We must learn to say amen to the bequests of this will. We should say amen to every item. Amen to the Spirit of life bequeathed to me! Amen to the Spirit of power bequeathed to me! Amen to the Spirit in me and amen to the Spirit upon me! Amen that I have the Spirit essentially and amen that I have the Spirit economically! Amen! I am a man of Spirit! If we amen the Word of God, we will be filled with the Spirit. As believers in Christ we should follow the New Testament. Hallelujah for the testament and hallelujah for all the bequests in this testament! Amen to every item of the New Testament.