Saturday

Related Verses
John 1:12-13
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name,
13 Who were begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

2 Pet. 1:4
4 Through which He has granted to us precious and exceedingly great promises that through these you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption which is in the world by lust.

John 15:1-2, 6-11
1 I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman.
2 Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes it away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it that it may bear more fruit.
6 If one does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is dried up; and they gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you.
8 In this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and so you will become My disciples.
9 As the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.
10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
11 These things I have spoken to you that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full.

Related Reading
The revelation of the kingdom of God in John is based upon two verses in John 3. Verse 3 says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Then verse 5 says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”…To see the kingdom we need to be born anew. To enter into the kingdom we need to be born of water and the Spirit. Water signifies the death of Christ, into which we all have been baptized, and the Spirit signifies resurrection. (CWWL, 1994–1997, vol. 4, “Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John,” p. 438)

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[In John 3] Nicodemus, a real seeker…came to the Lord in the night (v. 2). He came with much knowledge and many concepts…He might have thought that he needed better teachings to improve himself, but the Lord’s answer unveiled to him that he needed to be born anew. 

If we are not born anew, we do not have the capacity to see the kingdom of God. To be born anew is to be born of water, signifying the death of Christ, and of the Spirit, signifying Christ’s resurrection. We need to die with Christ and be resurrected to be a new person of another, new species, new kind. 

The kingdom of God is the reign of God. This divine reign is a realm, not only of the divine dominion but also of the divine species, in which are all the divine things. The vegetable kingdom is a realm of the vegetable species, and the animal kingdom is a realm of the animal species. In the same way, the kingdom of God is a realm of the divine species. 

God became flesh to enter into the human species, and man becomes God in His life and nature, but not in His divine Godhead, to enter into His divine species. In John 3 the kingdom of God refers more to the species of God than to the reign of God. 

To enter into the divine realm, the realm of the divine species, we need to be born of God to have the divine nature and life…That man was created in the image of God and according to His likeness indicates that man was created in God’s kind, in God’s species. Genesis 1 says that each of the living things was created according to its kind. But God created man, not according to man’s kind but in God’s image and according to God’s likeness to be God’s kind. 

The believers, who are born of God by regeneration to be His children in His life and nature but not in His Godhead (John 1:12-13), are more in God’s kind than Adam was. Adam had only the outward appearance of God without the inward reality, the divine life. We have the reality of the divine life within us, and we are being transformed and conformed to the Lord’s image in our entire being. It is logical to say that all the children of God are in the divine realm of the divine species. 

Thus, in regeneration God begets gods [in His life and nature but not in His Godhead]. Man begets man. Goats beget goats. If goats do not beget goats, what do they beget? If God does not beget gods, what does He beget? If the children of God are not in God’s kind, in God’s species, in what kind are they? If they are not gods, what are they? We all who are born of God are gods. But for utterance, due to the theological misunderstanding, it is better to say that we are God-men in the divine species, that is, in the kingdom of God. 

These God-men, who are children born of God, not only constitute the house of God (1 Tim. 3:15; 1 Pet. 4:17; John 14:2) but also are the constituents with which the Body of Christ is built up, and the Body of Christ will consummate the New Jerusalem as the eternal kingdom of God and of Christ (1 Cor. 6:9; Eph. 5:5; 2 Pet. 1:11; Rev. 11:15). (CWWL, 1994–1997, vol. 4, “Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John,” pp. 438-440) 

Further Reading: CWWL, 1994–1997, vol. 4, “Crystallization-study of the Gospel of John,” ch. 12

Further Reading:
Further Reading: The Kingdom, ch. 6

Hymn: #739
1 In those regenerated by the Lord
There is an inner knowledge bountiful;
Thus we the outward teachings do not need,
But God we inwardly may know in full.

2 Eternal life, the highest and the best,
Possesses full divine capacity,
That by this life God’s knowledge we may have
More than by knowledge given outwardly.

3 The law of life is put within our mind
And on our heart ’tis written sovereignly,
Inwardly ruling us that God we know
More than by teachings given outwardly.

4 Holy anointing in our spirit dwells,
Showing the things of God to mind and heart;
By this anointing we God’s knowledge have
More than man’s teachings can to us impart.

5 We have the triune God indwelling us,
Living and acting, working all the time,
That by the inner sense we have of Him
God we may know in magnitude sublime.

6 This inner knowledge obviates the need
Of outward knowledge, human eloquence,
But in the spirit we must ever live
And walk according to the inner sense.

7 The more we live in Christ, the life divine,
And by the inner consciousness behave,
The more we’ll have the inward knowledge true,
And on our heart God will His Son engrave.

8 ’Tis by this living inward knowledge gained
That fellowship with God in life we hold;
’Tis by this hidden knowledge thus obtained
God unto us His fulness doth unfold.