The sanctuary of God is divided by the veil into two sections: the outer Holy Place and the inner Holy of Holies. 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). In God’s economy, such a marvelous thing—the sanctuary of God—has a negative thing—our flesh.
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.
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). Paul received exceedingly great revelations from the Lord, and he wrote fourteen Epistles in the New Testament. In this sense, no one besides the Lord Jesus can compare with Paul. Because of the transcendence of the revelations that he received, Paul could not avoid being proud, so the Lord gave him a thorn, a messenger of Satan, to subdue him. If the apostle Paul could not avoid being proud by receiving so many revelations, who among us can avoid becoming proud? Paul prayed three times that the suffering of the thorn would be removed, but the Lord responded by saying, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). The Lord’s sufficient grace is the overshadowing power of resurrection. This grace is actually the Lord Himself. The Lord indicated that Paul would enjoy Him as grace more than ever. Thus, Paul boasted in his weaknesses, not in the revelations he had received, so that the sufficient grace as the power of resurrection might overshadow his weakness.
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). However, He 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). We, the descendants of Adam, can become the “twins” of Christ, the firstborn Son of God, by transformation. Ephesians 4:30 tells us that the Spirit seals us unto, or for, the day of the redemption of our body. Day by day the sealing of the Spirit is going on. That sealing is the dispensing of the transforming Spirit as the sealing ink. The sealing Spirit dispenses all the elements of Christ progressively, little by little, into our being. Ultimately our body will be transfigured to be conformed to the body of Christ’s glory at His coming back.
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. Logically, after we experience Christ’s resurrection, we should not need to go back to deal with the flesh. But in our actual experience, we need to go back because our flesh is still with us. Often I find that the biggest hindrance frustrating me from doing God’s perfect will is the flesh. Thus, the flesh needs a stronger cross.
Brother Nee’s interpretation of Song of Songs includes these two calls to the cross: the call for the cross to break the self (S.S. 2:14), and the call for a stronger cross to deal with the flesh in a deeper sense. The self becomes a secluding wall of introspection that secludes the Lord’s seeker from the presence of Christ. Thus, there is the need for the seeker to remain in the cross by the power of Christ’s resurrection to be delivered from the self. Later, we see that in the sanctuary there is the veil of the flesh. Thus, there is the need of the highest calling to experience a stronger cross to deal with our existing flesh. This is according to the understanding of the hidden, intrinsic significance of the book.
We find this out in our marriage life. Who can live in their marriage life without their self being the center? This is why we have to be called to go to the clefts of the rock and the covert of the precipice and remain there. Furthermore, marriage life exposes our flesh. This is why we need a stronger cross. Brother Nee’s interpretation, no doubt, depends upon his understanding of the intrinsic situation of this romance.
Through these two steps of the cross’s dealing, we become God’s sanctuary. This sanctuary is the Holiest of all, which is God Himself. When we enter into the Holiest of all, we enter into God. Then we become the sanctuary. In this sense, we become God. Later, we will see that the Shulammite becomes a duplication of Solomon. That is a figure of us as the reproduction of Christ, who is the embodiment of God. Thus, the many lovers of Christ eventually will become duplications of God in life and in nature but not in the Godhead. This is the fulfillment of God becoming a man that man might become God, which is the high peak of the divine revelation.
In John 14:23 the Lord Jesus told us that He and the Father would come to the one who loves Him to make this lover God’s abode. This is the mutual abode of God and man. Ephesians 3:17 says that Christ today is making His home in our hearts. These verses prove that the very God whom we are pursuing is making us His duplication. To make us His duplication means to make us His dwelling place, His Holy of Holies.
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. 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.