In this message we shall consider further the subjective aspect of the Man-Savior’s resurrection. We have seen that the Man-Savior’s resurrection was His transfiguration into the life-giving Spirit in order to enter into His believers (1 Cor. 15:45b; John 14:16-20). Now we shall go on to see that His resurrection also involves both germination and propagation.
In John 12:24 the Lord Jesus says that if a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it bears much fruit. This is a matter of germination through resurrection. Concerning this, Peter says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has regenerated us unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead” (1 Pet. 1:3). When Christ was resurrected, we His believers, were all included in Him. Hence, we were resurrected with Him (Eph. 2:6). In His resurrection, He imparted the divine life into us and made us the same as He is in life and nature.
In the foregoing message we pointed out that all fallen human beings are dying. A person begins to die from the moment of birth. Although we may say that people are dying, the Bible reveals that sinners are already dead. Ephesians 2:1 and 5 say that, as sinners, we were dead in offenses and sins. Colossians 2:13 also says that we were dead in offenses. In these verses God seems to be saying, “You may think that human beings are living. You are mistaken. Fallen human beings are not living—they are dead.”
In John 5:25 we see that when we preach the gospel, we are actually preaching to those who are spiritually dead: “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear shall live.” Here we see a positive point: those who are spiritually dead still have ears to hear the voice of the Son of God. This means that the dead in spirit are still able to hear the gospel. On the one hand, the Bible tells us that fallen human beings are dead. On the other hand, the Bible says that even those who are spiritually dead can hear the gospel. It is of God’s mercy and sovereignty that the dead have ears to hear the gospel.
When a spiritually dead person hears the gospel, he may say, “I believe in Jesus; I love Him.” Then as he calls on the name of the Lord Jesus, the divine life is imparted to him, and he is germinated to become a new creation.
Before we were germinated through the Man-Savior’s resurrection, we were the old creation. But from the time of our germination we began to be the new creation. The old creation does not have the divine life and nature, but the new creation, which consists of believers born again of God (John 1:13; 3:15; 2 Pet. 1:4), does have the divine life and nature. Therefore, we are a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15), not according to the old nature of flesh, but according to the new nature of the divine life.
When the old creation is germinated with the divine life it becomes the new creation. We, the believers in Christ, who have been germinated through His resurrection, are now the new creation. The old creation does not have God in it. But the new creation begins by God coming into us in the way of germination. Praise the Lord that we have been germinated! This germination is the impartation of the divine life into the believers. Through this impartation of the divine life we were regenerated. Therefore, germination is the impartation of the divine life into the believers for their regeneration. The second point related to the subjective aspect of the Man-Savior’s resurrection is that it is His germination of the new creation to impart the divine life into the believers for their regeneration.
Perhaps we did not realize what happened to us when we were regenerated. Now we see that when we were regenerated we were germinated. We may say that this germination was a divine injection. The divine life was “injected” into us at the time we believed in Christ and were regenerated, and that injection was our germination. Hallelujah, the divine life has been injected, infused, into our inner being! That infusion was our rebirth, our regeneration.