Let us consider the truth of the resurrection of Christ as an illustration. This is very common among Christians. Every Christian can say that resurrection is to be raised up or to rise up from the dead. But we need to see that resurrection implies three big things.
First, in resurrection, Christ was born to be the firstborn Son of God. How many have ever heard that resurrection was a birth to Christ? Who has ever thought that besides the incarnation, Christ had another birth in His resurrection?
Acts 13:33 says, "That God has fully fulfilled this promise to us their children in raising up Jesus, as it is also written in the second Psalm, `You are My Son; today I have begotten You.’" Today in this verse was the day of resurrection. Christ was begotten by God in resurrection to be God’s firstborn Son. How many Christians have heard this truth? But this truth is in the Bible. Christ was the only begotten Son of God even before His incarnation (John 1:18). His incarnation was the coming of the only begotten Son of God (3:16). This Son of God was incarnated to be a man. But Acts 13:33 unveils that in resurrection God begot Christ to be the firstborn Son of God among many brothers (Rom. 8:29).
Also, the Bible tells us that we, the God-chosen people, were regenerated in Christ’s resurrection. First Peter 1:3 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 the dead." God has regenerated us through the resurrection of Christ. In resurrection God begot a Son, Jesus Christ, and in resurrection God regenerated many sons. This shows us that the resurrection of Christ was a great delivery. In that same delivery, the Firstborn was Christ, and this firstborn Brother had many "twins" to follow Him. In the unique resurrection Christ was born and we were regenerated, so we were His "twins" in the same delivery.
Although this is in the Bible, who has seen it or even heard it? I can never deny this truth. This is like saying that I can never deny America because I am here in America. According to our natural idea, we were regenerated on a specific date in time after Christ’s resurrection. But the Bible tells us that we were regenerated when Christ was resurrected. What a difference there is between the natural understanding and the unveiled truth!
Now we come to the third great thing accomplished in Christ’s resurrection. We have seen that in the same resurrection, Christ was born to be the firstborn Son of God, and we the God-chosen people were born to be the many sons of God, who are the "twins" of Christ. Also, in this same resurrection, Christ became a life-giving Spirit. The holy Scripture says in 1 Corinthians 15:45b, "The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit."
If you ask someone what has been accomplished by God in Christ’s resurrection, he may simply say that God raised up Christ from the dead. Surely this is fundamental and according to the Scripture. But in the same Bible there are three marvelous verses which show us the intrinsic significance of Christ’s resurrection. First, Acts 13:33 tells us that in resurrection God accomplished a birth. In resurrection God begot Christ to be His firstborn Son. Then 1 Peter 1:3 tells us that through resurrection God regenerated us, the millions of God-chosen people. There was such a great delivery, a great begetting, in resurrection. Third, 1 Corinthians 15:45b tells us that in resurrection the last Adam, the man Jesus, became a life-giving Spirit. These three great things took place and were accomplished in the resurrection of Christ.
The shallow teaching of Christianity tells us things mostly according to the black and white. But we have realized more by our further and deeper study. I have been studying this Book further and further for over sixty-nine years. Gradually my study of the Bible has been getting deeper and deeper and higher and higher. Today my study of the Bible concerning resurrection has become a crystallization. This crystallization is that Christ’s resurrection is not merely God’s raising Him from the dead. God’s raising up Jesus Christ from the dead was God’s act. In this one divine act, God accomplished three big things. He begot not His only Son, but His firstborn Son; He begot His many sons in this one delivery; and He made this Jesus Christ, who had just been begotten of God, the life-giving Spirit. Three great accomplishments took place in one act.
Christianity teaches people mostly to behave according to the printed pages of the Bible. There is nothing wrong with this. It is absolutely right. But they have never seen that in the raising up of Christ, in this divine act, God accomplished three big things. He produced the firstborn Son, the many sons, and the life-giving Spirit. The entire economy of God is carried out by these three items. If you were to delete Acts 13:33, 1 Peter 1:3, and 1 Corinthians 15:45b from the Bible, the firstborn Son of God, the many sons of God, and the life-giving Spirit would be absent from the divine revelation. Even though these items concerning the resurrection of Christ are in the Bible, they are mostly absent from the fundamental teaching of today’s Christianity. Without these major items of the Lord’s resurrection, there would be no church, no Body of Christ. If there were nothing in the Bible revealing the firstborn Son of God, the many sons of God, and the life-giving Spirit, there would be no economy of God. These items are new to many Christians, but they are not new to the Bible.
(The Practical Way to Live a Life According to the High Peak of the Divine Revelation in the Holy Scriptures, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee)