In the previous message, we saw that we need to be those who are moving with God and united with Christ. A pursuer and follower of Christ should be one who moves with God on earth. We can be such people only by being united with Christ. We have to be impressed that it is only when we are united with Christ that we can move with God.
Our union with Christ is seen in Song of Songs in a threefold way: a bed, a palanquin, and a couple. The bed is for the wartime, the palanquin is for the daytime, and the couple is for the day of exhibition. Eventually, the New Jerusalem as a couple is for God’s expression. The Bible reveals that God became a man to court us. Now He wants us to court Him by our becoming divine for His expression.
We have seen that incarnation as a mother crowned her Son with humanity. This shows how much the Triune God treasures man. Eventually, we, the wife of the Son, need to be transformed in our humanity so that we can be a crown to Him. Here are two crowns concerning Christ the Son. First, Christ Himself at the time of incarnation received a crown; that was His humanity. Eventually, He will have a human wife transformed into His divinity, and this wife will become a crown to Him.
The death, resurrection, ascension, and Spirit of Christ are not merely objective, having nothing to do with us. Actually, all of these are Christ Himself. Death, resurrection, ascension, and the Spirit are the four conditions in which Christ is enjoyed by us.
To die with Christ is to enjoy Christ in His death. To experience the death of Christ is one thing, but to experience Christ in His sweet death is another thing. If you have Christ, you have His sweet death. He and His sweet death are one. He is always in His sweet death for our enjoyment. Most Christians know that Christ died for us objectively on the cross, but who realizes that we have to die with Christ subjectively in order to enjoy Him? Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). This is to enjoy the crucified Christ.
To be resurrected with Him is to enjoy the resurrected, life-giving Christ. To live in ascension is to enjoy Christ in the condition of ascension. We need to live in ascension as God’s new creation in resurrection. If we enjoy Christ in ascension, we also enjoy Him in resurrection as God’s new creation. Ascension, God’s new creation, and resurrection are one. Christ is not only in the conditions of His death, resurrection, and ascension, but also in the condition of the life-giving Spirit. He is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit of Jesus Christ to us. Where the Spirit is, Christ is, and it is in this Spirit that we enjoy Christ.
After the lover of Christ has experienced Christ in His sweet death and His fragrant resurrection, she determines to stay in the sweet death of Christ (the mountain of myrrh) and His fragrant resurrection (the hill of frankincense) until her Beloved comes back when the day dawns and the shadows flee away (S.S. 4:6). If we have Christ, we have His sweet death because He and His death are one. If we determine to stay in Christ, He is in His sweet death and in His fragrant resurrection. This is to enjoy Christ, to experience Christ. But we cannot experience Christ’s death and resurrection as something separate and apart from Christ. God in His economy does not want us to experience something of Christ. Instead, He determined that we have to enjoy Christ Himself in many things. The lover in Song of Songs did not care whether her Beloved was with her or not, as long as she remained on the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense. However, if we are in Christ, if we have Christ with us, we will be in His death, resurrection, and ascension. Colossians 2:16-17 reveals that Christ is the reality of all positive things.