Now we need to see how the Christ-seeker goes on to experience being satisfied with Christ mutually in the churches. At the beginning she was seeking her personal satisfaction, but then she was taught to seek satisfaction mutually with Christ. Is our spiritual satisfaction personal or mutual? First, it has to be personal; then gradually it has to be mutual with the very Christ whom we seek for our satisfaction. We should not be seeking our personal satisfaction so much that we forget about Christ’s satisfaction. When we satisfy Him, we surely will be satisfied. If Christ has not been satisfied by us, we can never be satisfied by Christ. This satisfaction is mutual.
The lover of Christ is brought to a feast as the expression of the initial result of the mutual gain and enjoyment of Christ and His lover in the churches (1:12). Christ is the host, and His lover is the main guest to show their mutual enjoyment and satisfaction. Christ spreads a feast for the lover and her companions to enjoy.
Christ as the King is feasting with His lover at the table, and the love of His lover toward Him as spikenard spreads forth its fragrance. The feast is fragrant, and the spikenard is even more fragrant. The invited one would say, “Host, thank You for Your feast.” Then the Host would say to the invited one, “Dear guest, thank you for your spikenard.” This is mutual enjoyment.
Whether or not we can have some spikenard to satisfy Christ depends upon whether or not we have that kind of love toward Him. The spikenard is the lover’s, but the fragrance is Christ’s. Christ’s fragrance is expressed by the lover in her spikenard. Our experience of Christ should be constituted into spikenard. Otherwise, we have nothing to contain the fragrance of Christ. First, Christ satisfies us so that we gain the spikenard. Then we satisfy Christ by His fragrance. Such a mutual enjoyment for a mutual satisfaction is in the church life.
When we want to feast with Christ, we need the other church members. Christ would not go to the feast by Himself. At least we have to invite another five or seven to come. Then we will have a small group. But I am concerned that in our small group meetings, there is no feast with no table, spikenard, or fragrance.
The word gain is very strongly used by Paul in Philippians 3, where he expresses his aspiration to gain Christ (v. 8). We need to see how to gain Christ.
The lover gained Christ as a bundle of myrrh (S.S. 1:13a), signifying Christ’s sweet death for her, and as a cluster of henna flowers, signifying Christ in His resurrection in the churches built upon the fountain of His redemption (v. 14). If we are going to gain Christ, we must gain Him in His death. Christ today is in His death, in His resurrection, and in His Spirit. To gain Christ is to gain Him in His death, His resurrection, and His Spirit. His Spirit is in our spirit, His Spirit is the reality of His resurrection, and His resurrection always implies His death. These three—the death, the resurrection, and the Spirit of Christ—always go together. If we have the death of Christ, we have His resurrection. If we have His resurrection, we have His Spirit, who is in our spirit.
We may say that we have exercised our spirit quite often, but when we exercise our spirit, do we receive Christ’s death and resurrection? Because of his quick disposition, a brother may be bothered by his slow wife. Then the Lord may say to him, “When you die with Me, you gain Me.” If he would take this word, immediately he will enjoy Christ in His death as a bundle of myrrh. The next morning he will be very refreshed with Christ’s resurrection. Then when he comes to the meeting, the Spirit of Christ will be in his speaking. The Spirit is constituted with Christ’s death plus Christ’s resurrection. We gain Christ through His death and resurrection in His Spirit, and this Spirit is in our spirit.
The lover enjoys Christ as a bundle of myrrh between her breasts in the night. This is Christ in His death for her to embrace privately (1:13). Then she enjoys Christ as a cluster of henna flowers, which is Christ in His resurrection for her to express openly. This cluster of henna flowers is in the vineyards of En-gedi (v. 14). En-gedi means “the fountain of the lamb.” This signifies that Christ in His resurrection in the churches is built upon the fountain of His redemption. This fountain, which is through Christ’s redemption, is the Spirit. In the night we embrace Christ as a bundle of myrrh in His death. In the morning we wear Him as a cluster of henna flowers in His resurrection. This resurrection is in the church built upon the fountain of redemption. Here are the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ. This is the way that we gain Christ. Through the experience of His death and resurrection in His Spirit we gain Him.