In the previous message, we saw that transformation in the church life is carried out by the transforming Spirit. Second Corinthians 3:18 says that we are transformed by the Lord Spirit. Ultimately, the Spirit, the Third of the Divine Trinity, has been processed, consummated, and compounded into the transforming all-inclusive Spirit, who is the consummated Triune God. The consummated Triune God is the transforming One.
In this transforming work there is the need of the Triune God to be the transforming Spirit, and there is the need of the coordination of some “transformers.” In Ephesians 4 these transformers are referred to as perfecters. Ephesians 4:11-12 says that God has given some apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers to perfect the saints to do the work of the ministry, that is, to build up the Body of Christ. Where are the perfecters today who know how to cooperate with the transforming Triune God? But here in this poetic book, which is very short, such a crystal point is covered.
The transforming God is transforming us from a mare to a lily. Eventually, the seeker’s hair is bound into plaits of gold. Suppose that a woman’s hair grew straight up into the air, shooting to the heavens. This kind of hair “attacks” God’s throne. To have plaited hair is an indication of submission to the Head, to the throne. But regretfully, very few sisters have their hair plaited, bound. When the sisters work with submitted hair, bound hair, this is a glory to the Lord. If they are not in submission, their hair is “scattered,” not bound.
The lover of Christ has been transformed by the transforming Triune God to have plaited hair. Then the coordinators, the perfecting ones, say, “We will make you plaits of gold” (1:11). Notice the word we, which refers to the perfecters. This means that the perfecters coordinate with the perfecting Spirit to put gold into the seeker’s plaits. Gold refers to God the Father in His divine nature. Our submission to God’s headship under His throne must be according to the divine nature. This is seen in the New Jerusalem. In the New Jerusalem the gold signifies God’s nature as the base (Rev. 21:18b). This gold is wrought into the seeker’s bound hair. This signifies her submission to God through the transformation of the Spirit with the divine nature of God.
The plaits of gold are fastened with studs of silver. The silver studs are the fasteners and refer to the redeeming Christ. Only the redeeming Christ holds us, fastens us, so that we are not scattered. Christ accomplished God’s complete redemption, so whatever He has done is altogether legal, judicial.
The element of gold is wrought into the lover’s bound hair, and the plaits of gold are fastened by silver studs. Also, the seeker’s neck is adorned with strings of jewels (S.S. 1:10). Jewels are precious stones. These precious stones put together as one into strings signify the transforming Spirit.
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3 that we need to take heed how we build the church (vv. 10, 12). We should not build with wood, hay, and stubble, but with gold, silver, and precious stones. This corresponds to Solomon’s mentioning of gold, silver, and precious stones in Song of Songs. Eventually, what is built at the end of the Bible will be a city of gold, precious stones, and pearls to replace silver. Silver signifies Christ the Son as the One who met all the legal requirements. The pearls bear the same significance. The pearl gates of the New Jerusalem are under the observation of the angels, through whom the law was ordained (Gal. 3:19), as the gatekeepers. Only God could have written such a book as the Bible, which is so unique and consistent. The entire Bible speaks the same thing concerning God’s economy to produce the church as the Body of Christ, consummating in the New Jerusalem. This is the spiritual world which God is building up.
I would like to say again that our Christ is no longer physical. Christianity preaches mainly a physical Christ, but God is building up a spiritual world. The Epistles of the New Testament reveal that today Christ is pneumatic. He is no longer physical, because He became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). This is a great vision. More than ever I am strengthened to proclaim that Christ is the life-giving Spirit.
We need to see that for the building up of God’s spiritual world Christ visited us in two steps. The first step was His incarnation. He visited us personally and affectionately as a physical man. But during that period of time when He was a physical man, His disciples did not know anything spiritual. The kingdom which they and the other Jews expected was a physical one, but the kingdom of Christ is spiritual. Those in the physical world do not realize what God is doing with us. The Lord’s concern is to gain the New Jerusalem through the precursor of the organic Body of Christ produced in the churches and composed of all the believers, not physically but spiritually. To perfect others with gold, silver, and precious stones is to build up God’s spiritual world.
After many years of writing books on the Bible, J. N. Darby in his old age said, “O the joy of having nothing and being nothing, seeing nothing but a living Christ in glory, and being careful for nothing but His interests down here.” Surely, Darby was in God’s private and spiritual move. Are we? By the Lord’s mercy Brother Nee and I worked together and saw the same vision of God’s private and spiritual world. I have the full assurance that what I am doing here will go to the New Jerusalem. If we want what we do to be in the New Jerusalem, we need to learn how to add gold into the plaits of hair, how to make silver studs to hold the plaits of hair, and how to make strings of jewels, precious stones, to cover the naked neck. In other words, we need to learn to build with gold, silver, and precious stones. We must learn to minister the Triune God in a practical way to others for their transformation.