Message Ten

Becoming the Sanctuary of God

Scripture Reading: S.S. 6:4a

1. Through her living in Christ’s ascension as the new creation in resurrection, the lover of Christ becomes mature in the riches of the life of Christ so that she becomes not only a garden to Christ but also the sanctuary of God, signified by Tirzah, and its safeguard, signified by Jerusalem.
2. To become a garden to Christ is to be flourishing in the element of Christ’s life with its unsearchable riches; to become the sanctuary of God is to be built up (related to the building of the Body of Christ) in the growth with the life of Christ with its unsearchable riches (Eph. 4:15-16):
   1. The sanctuary of God is divided by the veil into two sections: the outer Holy Place and the inner Holy of Holies.
   2. Although the sanctuary of God is in the heavens, it is divided into two sections by the veil, which signifies our flesh (Heb. 10:19-20).
   3. With Christ, the veil in the sanctuary of God was split (Matt. 27:51), but with the believers it still remains for the purpose of God’s dealing with them.
   4. The apostle Paul became mature in the life of Christ, living in the ascension of Christ, yet God still let him have a thorn in his flesh through a messenger of Satan to keep him from being exceedingly lifted up (2 Cor. 12:7).
   5. In God’s economy God firstly regenerates us in our spirit with His resurrection life (1 Pet. 1:3) and secondly renews us, transforms us, and conforms us in our soul through His resurrection life to the image of His firstborn Son, Christ as the first God-man (Titus 3:5; Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18; Rom. 8:29), but leaves our body to be redeemed progressively through our whole Christian life (2 Cor. 4:16; Rom. 8:11, 13) and ultimately transfigured to be conformed to the body of Christ’s glory at His coming back (Phil. 3:21).
   6. Hence, there is still the need of the Lord’s ultimate calling of us to live within the veil through a stronger experience of the cross in dealing with our flesh after our experience of His resurrection as the new creation of God.
   7. After the lover of Christ pursued Him for satisfaction and attained it in the first section of the book, the Lord firstly called her to be delivered from her self by experiencing His cross when she was secluded by introspection; then the Lord called her further to live in His ascension as the new creation of God in resurrection; now ultimately the Lord calls her to live within the veil in the Holy of Holies, God Himself, to enjoy the consummated God embodied in Christ.
   8. It is here that all the seekers of Christ who live in the Holy of Holies, the consummated Triune God, within the veil, enjoy the hidden Christ in His hidden life supply (signified by the manna in the golden pot), the resurrection life (signified by the budding rod), and the inner law of life (signified by the tablets of the covenant), hidden in the ark within the Holy of Holies (Heb. 9:4), to the fullest extent.