Verse 9 of chapter 1 says, “You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of exultant joy above Your partners.” The Lord Jesus was anointed with the oil of the eternal Spirit. Because God poured out the Spirit of exultant joy upon Him, He could offer Himself to God by this eternal Spirit. The word Christ means “the anointed One.” By being anointed by the Father with the Spirit of exultant joy, He became the Christ.
The book of Hebrews also speaks of our human spirit. Verse 9 of chapter 12 says, “We have had the fathers of our flesh as discipliners and we respected them; shall we not much more be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?” In regeneration we are born of God in our spirit (John 1:13; 3:6). Hence, God is the Father of our spirits. The context of Hebrews 12 is God’s dealing with His sons. God deals with us in our spirit because He is the Father of our spirits.
Verse 23 says, “To the church of the firstborn, who have been enrolled in the heavens; and to God, the Judge of all; and to the spirits of righteous men who have been made perfect.” God perfects righteous men in their spirit. God’s dealing with us is related to our spirit, and His perfecting work is also in our spirit.
Verse 12 of chapter 4 says, “The word of God is living and operative and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” God is the Father of our spirits, the One who deals with us in our spirit and perfects us in the spirit. Moreover, Christ Himself as the Spirit is in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22; Rom. 8:16). Therefore, we need to discern our spirit from our soul.
Hebrews 10:19 says, “Having therefore, brothers, boldness for entering the Holy of Holies in the blood of Jesus.” This is not merely the Holy of Holies in the heavens. If the Holy of Holies were only in heaven, we could not enter into it today while we are still on this earth. Therefore, this must be the Holy of Holies in our spirit. The Holy of Holies in our spirit corresponds with the Holy of Holies in the heavens. In principle, these are two aspects, two ends, of one entity. Subjectively speaking, the Holy of Holies today is in our spirit. Therefore, we must discern our spirit from our soul so that we may enter into the Holy of Holies where Christ, the Ark, the Shekinah glory of God, and the presence of God are, where we can contact God, obtain mercy, and find grace as the flowing, living water for us to enjoy. This flowing, living water is simply the Spirit of grace who transmits the riches of Christ as grace into our spirit for our enjoyment to meet our timely need. This is the key to the experience of the things of Christ revealed in this book. Without the key of our spirit, Christ would be only objective to us, and we would have no way to enter into Him.
On the one hand, we need to have an objective vision of Christ as the One who is superior to Judaism in every aspect. On the other hand, we must realize that today He is the eternal Spirit, the holy One, who brings Christ into our spirit. God the Father deals with us in our spirit, so in order to contact God, experience Christ, and realize the Spirit, we must discern our spirit from our soul. This means that we must always turn to the spirit and divide our spirit from our soul. When we turn to our spirit, we enter into the Holy of Holies. Then we have Christ as the presence of God. We can contact God in all His fullness and enjoy Christ as the tree of life in the flow of the living water (Rev. 22:1-2). The tree of life is Christ as our grace, and the flow of living water is the transmitting Spirit.
Again I say, the key to our experience of Christ in an inner and subjective way is to discern our spirit from our soul and to learn how to turn to the spirit. Whenever we turn to the spirit, we immediately find the flowing of the Spirit of grace who transmits the riches of Christ into us as grace to meet our timely need. This is the key to experiencing all the riches of Christ as revealed in the book of Hebrews.