AN OVERVIEW OF THE CENTRAL BURDEN AND PRESENT TRUTH OF THE LORD'S RECOVERY BEFORE HIS APPEARING
Message Ten
The God-men's Divine Right to Participate in God's Divinity
Scripture Reading: John 3:15; Rom. 8:14, 16, 23, 29-30; 2 Cor. 3:18; Eph. 1:4-5; 1 John 3:2
I. We need to realize that, as God-men, we have the divine right to participate in God's divinity, that is, to participate in God— John 3:15; 2 Pet. 1:4:
A. The first step in becoming a God-man is that we are born of the pneumatic Christ in our spirit with His divine life and nature— John 3:6; 2 Pet. 1:4.
B. As God-men, those who have been born of God to be children of God, we have the right to participate in what God is and even to become God in life, nature, and expression but not in the God- head— John 1:12-13; Rom. 8:16; 1 John 3:1.
II. As God-men, we can participate in various aspects of God's divinity:
A. We can participate in God's life—Eph. 4:18; John 1:4; 10:10; 11:25:
1. Life is the content of God and the flowing out of God; God's content is God's being, and God's flowing out is the impartation of Himself as life to us—Rev. 22:1.
2. The life of God is divine, having the nature of God, and is eternal, being uncreated, without beginning and ending, self-existing, ever-existing, and never changing—John 3:15; 1 John 2:25; 5:13, 20.
3. The eternal life of God is indestructible, indissoluble, and incorruptible, and it is resurrection life that passed through the test of death and Hades, conquered death, and will swallow up death—Heb. 7:16; Acts 2:24; Rev. 1:18.
4. Life is the processed and consummated Triune God dispensed into us and living in us—Rom. 8:6, 10-11.
B. We can participate in God's nature—Eph. 1:4; 2 Pet. 1:4:
1. The divine nature is what God is, that is, the constituents of God's being.
2. God is holy; holiness is His nature, and He chose us in Christ to make us holy, even as He is holy—Eph. 1:4; 1 Pet. 1:15-16:
a. To be holy is to participate in God's holy nature—Eph. 1:4.
b. Having chosen us to be holy, God makes us holy by imparting Himself, the Holy One, into our being so that our whole being will be saturated and permeated with His holy nature—1 Pet. 1:15-16.
3. To be a partaker of God's divine nature is to be a partaker of the elements, the ingredients, of God's being—Eph. 3:8.
4. Day by day we should partake of God's nature and enjoy the constituents of His being—2 Pet. 1:4.
C. Because we have become God-men through regeneration, we have the right to participate in God's mind—1 John 2:27; Phil. 2:5; 1 Cor. 2:16:
1. We are in God, and we have the elements of God; we still have our mind, but we also have God's mind in us—Phil. 2:5.
2. When the anointing is moving within us, it anoints God into us and reveals God's mind to us—1 John 2:27.
3. If we let Christ's mind be our mind, we may have Christ's mind—Phil. 2:5:
a. We have not only the life of Christ but also the mind of Christ—1 Cor. 2:16.
b. Christ must saturate our mind from our spirit, making our mind one with His—v. 16; Eph. 4:23.
D. The God-men have the right to participate in God's being—2 Cor. 3:18:
1. Our basis for saying this is Paul's word in 2 Corinthians 3:18 about our being transformed with God's very being.
2. The dispensing of the unsearchable riches of Christ into us means that we participate not only in God's life, nature, and mind but also in His being—Eph. 3:8.
E. As God-men, we have the right to participate in God's image— 2 Cor. 3:18:
1. Christ is God's image, expressing what He is—Col. 1:15; 2 Cor. 4:4.
2. According to 2 Corinthians 3:18, we are being "transformed into the same image."
3. To be transformed into the same image is to be conformed to the resurrected Christ as the firstborn Son of God, to be made the same as He is—Rom. 8:29.
F. Eventually, we will be brought into God's glory to participate in His glory—Heb. 2:10:
1. God is a God of glory; glory is the expression of God, God expressed in splendor—Acts 7:2; 1 Cor. 2:7; 2 Cor. 3:18; 4:6.
2. God's eternal goal is to bring His many sons into glory—Heb. 2:10.
3. The all-inclusive Christ dwells in us as the hope of glory— Col. 1:27.
4. As we behold and reflect the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the Lord's image from glory to glory—2 Cor. 3:18.
G. Another aspect of the God-men's divine right is to participate in God's sonship—Eph. 1:5; Rom. 8:23:
1. Before the foundation of the world—in eternity past—God predestinated us unto sonship—Eph. 1:5.
2. Before time began, God intended and determined that we should participate in His sonship—v. 5.
3. Christ's redemption brings us into the sonship of God, and we have received a spirit of sonship—our regenerated human spirit mingled with the Spirit of the Son of God—Gal. 4:6; Rom. 8:15.
H. The God-men's right to participate in God's divinity includes the right to participate in God's manifestation—v. 19:
1. When Christ our life is manifested, we will be manifested with Him in glory—Col. 3:4.
2. When God is manifested, we, the sons of God, will participate in that manifestation—Rom. 8:19.
3. God will be manifested with His sons (Heb. 2:10), who will be the same as He in life, in nature, in mind, in being, in image, and in glory (Rom. 8:19).
I. The God-men's divine right to participate in God's divinity includes the right to bear God's likeness—1 John 3:2:
1. First John 3:2 says, "We know that if He is manifested, we will be like Him because we will see Him even as He is."
2. When Christ is manifested, the Triune God will be manifested; when we see Him, we will see the Triune God; and when we are like Him, we will be like the Triune God—v. 2:
a. This clearly reveals that we will bear His likeness.
b. We will not only participate in God's life and nature but also bear his likeness—Eph. 4:18; 2 Pet. 1:4; 1 John 3:2.
J. Finally, the God-men have the divine right to be God-man kind, God's species— John 1:12-13; Rom. 8:14, 16:
1. God became man to enter into the human species, and man becomes God in life and nature but not in the Godhead to enter into the realm of God's divine species— John 1:1, 12-14; 2 Pet. 1:4.
2. In order to enter into the divine realm—the realm of the divine species—we need to be born of God to have the divine life and the divine nature— John 1:12-13; 3:3, 5-6, 15; 2 Pet. 1:4:
a. We have been regenerated to be God's species and become God-man kind— John 1:12-13.
b. Our second birth, regeneration, caused us to enter into the kingdom of God to become the species of God—3:3, 5-6.
c. All the children of God are in the divine realm of the divine species—1:12-13; 3:3, 5.
d. In the Gospel of John we see many aspects of the believers living in the realm of the divine species—1:16; 15:4a, 9, 11; 4:23-24; 14:2, 20, 23; 17:22-24.
3. Wherever we may be, we need to remember that we are God- men with the divine right to participate in God's divinity— Col. 3:4; Eph. 1:4-5; 2 Cor. 3:18; 2 Pet. 1:4.