The Bible reveals that God wants to have many sons. Ephesians 1:4-5 says, “Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before Him in love, predestinating us unto sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.” In eternity past, before we were created or born, God selected us. God was able to do this because He has infinite foresight. In eternity past God selected us because He foresaw us, foreknew us, and loved us. The reason each one of us is a believer in the church life today is that in eternity past, before the universe was created, God chose us.
Following His selection, God predestinated us. In Greek predestinate means “to mark out beforehand.” God put a mark on us. Then one day after we were born, God laid hold of us. We may have tried to avoid God for a long time, but eventually, we had to follow Him because He had already selected us and marked us out. No matter how often we may stray from God, we must always come back to Him because we were selected before the foundation of the world and predestinated, marked out.
God is a purposeful God; He does everything with a purpose. God selected us and predestinated us with a definite purpose—sonship. The goal of God’s choosing and predestinating us is to make us sons of God. To accomplish this purpose, God first created us. We need to realize that we are living on the earth today not because of our intention but because God created us. Among all the created items, none is as wonderful as man. Not only is man’s mind higher than that of the animals, but also man has a spirit, which the animals do not have. With our spirit we may know, contact, receive, possess, contain, enjoy, eat, and drink God. Animals hunger only for physical food, but we hunger for God, because we have an organ that the animals do not have—a spirit. Having a spirit is what distinguishes man from the animals. When we consider the way God created us, we will marvel at how wonderful and valuable we are. Simply to be a man is great, but as believers we have something more. We have been predestinated to be made sons of God. We are not only men but also children of God.
Our Father is God, and we are children of God. We have millions of brothers. The most wonderful thing in the universe is that men can be sons of God. Regrettably, the gospel that most Christians preach today concerns only forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation. This gospel is too shallow and too low. The goal of the gospel is sonship—to make sinners sons of God.
In order for us, who are God’s creatures, to become God’s sons, we must be born of God. For this reason, the New Testament emphasizes regeneration, which is to be born again. John 1:12-13 says, “As many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name, who were begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” To be born of God is the divine birth. God is divine; He is a divine Father. Therefore, to be born of God is not a birth of blood and flesh but of the divine Spirit, not a physical, human birth but a spiritual, divine birth. Just as a physical birth produces a physical babe, a spiritual birth brings forth a spiritual child. This living, spiritual child is in our spirit. It is spiritual, for it is born of the divine Spirit in our human spirit. “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (3:6b).
To be born of God is not merely a theological teaching but a fact and our experience. Every genuine believer has experienced the divine birth—a birth of the divine Spirit in the human spirit. Because we have been born of God, we are children of God. We should rejoice at seeing this wonderful fact. If we were given a precious diamond, received a great sum of money, or earned a high academic degree, we would be happy for at least several days. However, we should be more joyful at being born of God. We have the most precious, valuable thing, yet we do not value it as we should. This shows that we do not have a clear vision of what we have gained. The divine birth is much more valuable than any diamond, sum of money, or degree. Such things cannot compare to the divine birth. We need to look to the Lord to show us what a birth we have received.
The divine birth is altogether related to the two spirits, for it is a birth by and of the divine Spirit in our spirit. After experiencing this birth, we have three divine things in our spirit—the divine Spirit, the divine life, and the divine nature. Some Christian teachers think that it is blasphemous to say that we are divine. However, as those who are born of God, who is divine, we must be divine sons. Just as it is not wrong to say that whatever is born of a dog is canine, so also it is not wrong to say that those who are born of God are divine. Because we have been born of God, we have the divine life and nature and the divine Spirit. We are therefore humanly divine and divinely human. We are still human, yet something within us is divine.
We may compare our becoming divine to the process of making tea. When tea is added to water, the water is “tea-ified” and becomes tea-water. Before we were born of God, we were only human, like a glass of plain water. However, when we believed and called on the Lord’s name, He came into us like tea being added to water, and we were “tea-ified,” made divine. Receiving the divine life and nature in regeneration is not a mere theological doctrine but a Christian experience. As believers, we know that something has been added into our being. Furthermore, once the Lord comes in, He never leaves. Many of us can testify that we may temporarily leave the Lord, but He will never leave us. Eventually, He always brings us back to Himself. Because we have been reborn of God, we have the divine life and nature and the divine Spirit. All these divine things are in our spirit. For this reason, Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.” Thus, God has accomplished His intention and eternal purpose to have many sons. When God looks at us, He is joyful to see His sons.