At this point we need to see that the book of Hebrews is a definition of the ark. If we would know the ark of the testimony, we need to study Hebrews. Speaking of Christ, Hebrews 1:3 says, “Who being the effulgence of His glory and the express image of His substance.” Christ as the effulgence of God’s glory is the cherubim. He is God, and He has the golden nature out of which come the cherubim, the glory. In Hebrews 2 we have the element of acacia wood, the human nature of Christ. From verse 14 we see that Christ took on a human nature of blood and flesh. Verse 17 says, “Wherefore He ought to be made like His brothers in all things, that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”
The book of Hebrews has much to say concerning the redeeming blood. Hebrews 9:22 says that “without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Verse 12 says that Christ “through His own blood, entered once for all into the Holy of Holies, having found an eternal redemption.” Verse 14 goes on to say, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”
In Hebrews 9:5 Paul speaks explicitly of the propitiation-cover on the ark. This verse says, “And above it cherubim of glory overshadowing the propitiation-cover.” How rich and all-inclusive is the Christ signified by the ark! We can never exhaust the definition of this ark. Just as the ark of the testimony was in the Holy of Holies, so now the Christ typified by the ark dwells in our spirit.
The understanding of most Christians regarding the ark is extremely superficial. Most Bible teachers have expounded the record of the ark merely in a doctrinal way. They do not emphasize the place of the ark in Christian experience. Do you know of any Bible teacher who has said that the ark is the Christ who dwells in our spirit? Many believers do not even know the human spirit; they consider the spirit and the soul synonymous terms. Even many Bible teachers believe in dichotomy—the doctrine that man is made of two parts, body and soul—and not trichotomy—the truth that man is composed of three parts, spirit, soul, and body. Certain Christians who emphasize the inner life do stress that man is made of three parts and that the spirit and the soul are not identical. If we do not realize that we have a human spirit, there is no way to see that the ark in the Holy of Holies typifies Christ dwelling in our spirit.
We need to consider this matter in a practical way from the standpoint of our experience. Where is it that you have fellowship with God? Do you go to the heavens to have fellowship with Him? Certainly not. Hebrews 4:16 encourages us to come forward to the throne of grace. But when you come forward to the throne of grace according to this verse, where do you come? Do you not come to your regenerated human spirit? Practically speaking, the throne of grace is now in our spirit. If we do not know Christ as the ark in our spirit, we shall not know how to come to the throne of grace.
To say that the throne of grace is in our spirit is practical and experiential. It is not merely a matter of doctrine. Whenever we pray by turning to the spirit, we touch the throne of grace. What is the throne of grace? It is the all-inclusive Christ typified by the ark, in particular typified by the top part of the all-inclusive Christ, the propitiatory cover.
Two important symbols are related to the cover of the ark: the blood and the cherubim. The blood signifies the redemption accomplished by Christ in His humanity, and the cherubim signify the glory of Christ’s divinity. It is on this cover, the propitiatory cover with the cherubim of glory and sprinkled with the redeeming blood, that God and we can meet together. Here on this cover we and God have fellowship. Furthermore, this is also the place where we hear a word from God and receive vision, revelation, and instruction to control our daily life.
Our daily walk as Christians should not be controlled by ethics, morality, devotion, piety, or religion. Our daily life should not even be controlled by the Scriptures alone. Then by what should our daily living be controlled? It should be controlled by the vision we see when we meet with Christ on the cover of the ark. Proverbs 29:18 says that where there is no vision, the people run wild (lit.). This indicates that it is the vision which controls us. Where do we receive this vision? We receive it when we meet with God on the top part of Christ, the propitiatory cover. How meaningful and deep this is!
Daily we may enter into the Holy of Holies through the new and living way opened by the blood of Jesus shed in His humanity. When we come into the Holy of Holies, we meet the all-inclusive Christ. With the redeeming blood as our standing, we can meet with God and have fellowship with Him in the midst of Christ’s shining glory. Then we shall be infused with God and receive revelation, vision, instruction, and direction. We should then walk according to this infusion and direction. This is to be a genuine Christian and not a devotional Christian or a pious, ethical, moral, or religious Christian.
To be a Christian who receives God’s infusion in the Holy of Holies and walks according to it is to be a Christian in the most wonderful sense of all. In order to be such Christians, we need to turn from devotion, piety, religion, morality, and ethics and turn wholly to Christ. Because of their lack of understanding, some may oppose what we say regarding this. Their opposition simply exposes their pitiful situation and shows that they do not see into the depths of God’s Word. In His mercy, God has opened many things to us, and we believe that He intends to open more.
We also believe that we are in the last recovery, the ultimate move of God on earth. The world situation has come to an ultimate point. The Lord’s ultimate recovery is the recovery of Christ and the church. It is the recovery of the all-inclusive Christ typified by the ark. However, we must remember that the measurements of the ark are halves of complete units. This indicates that just as a wife is the other half of her husband, so the Christ typified by the ark also has another half—the church. Christ is the Bridegroom, and the church will be His bride. With the Bridegroom and bride we have the testimony in full. For this reason, in His recovery today, the Lord is emphasizing not only Christ, but Christ and the church, the great mystery. Praise the Lord that we are in His recovery! By His ultimate recovery the Lord will terminate this age and usher in the age of the kingdom.