Because God comes into our being as the Son, we have been born of God in the Son and have the sonship. This means that we all have become sons of God. We are not simply saved sinners but also sons born of God. This is not a small thing. Before Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead, God had only one Son, the One whom the Bible calls the Only Begotten Son (John 3:16). Before His resurrection, Christ was the unique Son of God. But after His resurrection, He was no longer the unique Only Begotten Son of God, for in resurrection He became the Firstborn among many brothers (Rom. 8:29).
How many sons does God have? On the one hand, John 3:16 speaks of the Only Begotten Son. But Hebrews 2:10 says that God is leading many sons into glory, and Romans 8:29 says that Christ is the Firstborn among many brothers. Does God have two kinds of sons? No, He has just one kind. In China, the Fukienese like to have many sons. If they cannot beget enough sons, they may buy some others. A certain man may beget only two sons and later buy another ten sons, giving him a total of twelve. These twelve sons, however, are of two kinds, the born sons and the purchased sons. Deep in his heart, this man feels that only two of his sons are sons in life, sons in reality, while the other ten are merely sons in term. Does God have two kinds of sons, the Only Begotten Son being one kind and the many sons being the other kind? No, the Bible reveals that the Only Begotten Son of God has become the Firstborn among many sons, proving that God has just one kind of son. The Firstborn is the Son of God, and the many sons are also sons of God. The Firstborn Son and the many sons are all of the same one Father (Heb. 2:11).
In saying that God has only one kind of son, are we saying that we, the many sons, are exactly the same as Jesus Christ? If God has only one kind of son and if we also are the sons of God, then are we not the same as Jesus Christ? How can we answer this question? Are you exactly the same as Jesus Christ, the Son of God? Jesus Christ has come into our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22; 1 Cor. 6:17). According to our spirit, we are exactly the same as Christ. But, as a human being, we also have a soul composed of the mind, the emotion, and the will. Although in our spirit we are the same as the Son of God, in our mind, emotion, and will we are not yet the same as He.
The Son of God is in us, not partially but wholly. The complete Person of the Son of God is in us. He did not cut Himself into pieces and then put a small piece of Himself into us. Christ, the Son of God, has come into us as a whole, perfect Person. Although the whole Person of Christ is in our spirit, time after time our thinking does not originate with Christ in our spirit but with our ugly mind. Perhaps even today you were thinking about a certain brother, saying to yourself, “I don’t like Brother So-and-So. He should be excluded and cut off.” But as long as he is a brother, whether he is good or bad, you should not say that you do not like him. This thought comes from your ugly mind, not from Christ in your spirit.
What about your emotion? When you love, do you love from the spirit where the Son of God is, or do you love from your emotion? I do not ask what you love, but from where you love—from your natural emotion or from the indwelling Christ. If we, like Christ, are sons of God, then why is our emotion different from His? Because Christ is only in our spirit. He has not yet spread into our emotion, and thus our emotion is still independent of Him.
Let us say a word about our will. Whether your will is wild or tame, it is still your will. When you go shopping, you must examine the source of your going shopping. Is the source the indwelling Christ in your spirit, or your own natural will? Sisters, when you decide to go shopping, how often do you decide from Christ and how often from your will? Out of ten times, perhaps hardly once have you decided to go shopping from the indwelling Christ. This shows that your going shopping is not pure. It is a mixture, coming mostly out of your own will. What about the decisions you make day after day? How many times do you make a decision by Christ and not by your own will? As a son of God, what is the source of your decisions—Christ or your own will? I am not talking about being good or bad, nor about anything religious. I am asking whether you make decisions from your spirit, the place where the Son of God is, or from your own will. Although we are sons of God, we must admit that most of our decisions are made from our will, not from the Son of God, Jesus Christ, in our spirit. When we sing hymns in the meetings we take one way, but when we make decisions in our practical living we take another way, the way of using a source other than Christ. Therefore, although we have Christ in our spirit, we cannot express God, because Christ is confined within us. After coming into us, He has been imprisoned within us, for He does not have the freedom to spread out from our spirit.