Acts 13:33 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." (34) And as to His having raised Him up from the dead, no longer to return to corruption, He spoke in this way, "I will give you the holy things of David, the faithful things."
In his preaching in Acts 13 Paul indicates that in resurrection Christ became the firstborn Son of God. He applies Psalm 2:7 to the resurrected Christ to indicate that to Christ resurrection was a birth. We may not realize that Christ's resurrection was His birth. According to the Bible, in resurrection Christ in His humanity was begotten of God to be His firstborn Son. Whereas the only begotten Son of God is for the embodiment of the divine life, the firstborn Son of God is for the propagation of this divine life. In resurrection He was born to be the firstborn Son of God for the propagating reproduction of the divine life. In his "mining" of the Word Paul also found that Christ in His resurrection became all the holy and faithful things, the trustworthy and sure things, of David. Paul realized that "the sure mercies of David" (Isa. 55:3) refer to the Christ in His resurrection. Today some enjoy singing Psalm 89:1: "I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations." However, those who sing this psalm may not have an adequate understanding of what mercy is. They may think that mercy is simply a feeling of pity that God has towards us. But according to Paul's understanding, the mercies of the Lord are Christ in His second birth, that is, Christ in His resurrection. Paul's digging into the Word is marvelous, and we admire his study of the Scriptures. In Acts 13 Paul preached the all-inclusive Christ.
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study of Acts, p. 335. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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