The five elements of the anointing oil—the four spices and the olive oil—all had to pass through a process that involved either pressure or cutting. For instance, if olives are not put into the press, they cannot give forth olive oil. Likewise, in order to have myrrh and cinnamon, some kind of incision must be made on the bark of a tree. Someone has said that when a tree flows out the resin of myrrh, this resin has the appearance of tears. This points to an experience of suffering. The blood and tears that issue from our body also are signs of suffering. When the myrrh tree flows out its resin, we may say that it is shedding tears.
As we pointed out in a previous message, cinnamon comes from the inner part of the bark of a tree, and cassia comes from the outer part of the bark. Cinnamon can be used to stimulate the heart, and cassia, to repel insects and snakes.
All the spices were prepared for use through suffering. This indicates that the Spirit of God could become the Spirit of Christ as the compound ointment only through Christ’s sufferings. Actually, the compounding is the suffering. It was through the sufferings of Christ that the spices were blended with the oil to form the compound Spirit.
The Lord Jesus suffered death throughout His life, not only during the six hours He was on the cross. As soon as He was born, He began to suffer. This suffering is signified by myrrh. In the past we have pointed out that the Lord Jesus lived a crucified life. A crucified life is a life of suffering. The Lord Jesus was crucified continually. He was crucified by His mother, by His brothers in the flesh, and by His disciples. Daily He lived a life of crucifixion. This is the experience of myrrh dropping as tears from cuts made in the tree.
After the Lord Jesus was born, the magi expressed their appreciation of Him by offering Him gold, frankincense, and myrrh. At the time of His death, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea also showed their appreciation of the Lord by putting myrrh upon His body when they buried Him. Therefore, at the beginning of the Lord’s life on earth and at the end, at His birth and at His death, there was myrrh. This indicates that the Lord’s life from birth to death was a life of suffering, a life of tears. He lived a crucified life, a life of myrrh.
We need to learn how to apply the myrrh in our experience. Where is the death of Christ today, and how can we apply it? The death of Christ is in the Spirit. In our language the word “spirit” in a particular usage can mean the essence of a substance as extracted in liquid form, especially by distillation. Therefore, the extract of a particular substance is the spirit of that substance. For example, alcoholic beverages made from extracts of grains are known as spirits. Likewise, the aloes used with myrrh to anoint the body of the Lord Jesus for burial may also be regarded as a kind of spirit. When a plant, a grain, or some other substance is subjected to pressure, we can extract from it the spirit of that substance. We can apply this principle to the Lord’s death and ask this question: What is the extract of the death of Christ? The answer is that the extract of the Lord’s death is an element in the Spirit of Christ. The real essence or element of any substance is its spirit. For example, when we drink tea, we actually drink the spirit, the extract, of the tea. The effectiveness of the tea is in this extract or spirit. In like manner, the effectiveness of Christ’s death is one of the elements of the compound Spirit.
In speaking concerning the subjective experience of the cross of Christ, Jessie Penn-Lewis emphasized the Spirit. In her writings she has much to say about the Spirit. A. B. Simpson also saw something regarding the subjective aspect of the death of Christ. However, with respect to the subjective experience of the cross, he did not emphasize the Spirit as much as Jessie Penn-Lewis did. A. B. Simpson’s presentation is good doctrinally, but it is not so helpful experientially. Concerning our identification with Christ in His death, A. B. Simpson emphasized the matter of reckoning. He even wrote a hymn on the subject of reckoning.
Brother Watchman Nee pointed out that if we would experience the death of Christ, we need the Spirit. He also said that the fact revealed in Romans 6 that our old man has been crucified with Christ can only be experienced through the Spirit in Romans 8. In other words, apart from the Spirit we cannot experience the death of Christ. The fact of our identification with Christ in His death is in Romans 6, but the experience of this is in Romans 8.