In the ark of testimony, Christ is also experienced as the tables of the covenant, the tables of the testimony, the ten commandments, that is, as our inward law of life, testifying, enlightening, and regulating us according to God’s divine nature (Heb. 8:10). We have seen the law of the ten commandments was the testimony of God. It was only a figure, a form, not the reality of all God is. But the inward law of life, which is Christ Himself as the testimony of God, is the real testimony of God. When this inward law of life testifies, enlightens, and regulates us according to God’s divine nature, it infuses God’s divine nature and divine attributes into our being, conforming us to the image of God that we may express Him and represent Him. The last point in our experiences of Christ is that God’s divine nature is imparted into our being to make us the same as God in nature and expression. The function of the inward law of life is to permeate and saturate us by infusing into us the elements of the Firstborn Son of God, the standard model, making us a reprint of the standard model so that God might have a corporate expression of Himself to fulfill His eternal purpose. This is the ultimate consummation of the experiences of Christ. We should not linger at the altar, for that is simply the starting point of our experiences of Christ. We must come forward until we reach the ultimate experience, the inward law of life, the focus of all the experiences of Christ in God’s economy.
Negatively, the inward law of life, which is the automatic working of the divine life, kills the Adamic element within us, and, positively, it supplies us with all the elements of Christ. As the inward law of life works within us, the Adamic element is continually reduced and eliminated and the element of Christ, the divine element, is gradually added into our being. This discharging of the old element and adding of the new element is metabolic transformation. Eventually, we shall become exactly the same as Christ. Christ has passed through a process to enter into His perfection and glorification. Now He is repeating this process within us, bringing us into His perfection and glorification. This is the Christian life process and it must be our daily experience. When we open ourselves to the Lord and say, “Lord Jesus, I love You and I want You to occupy me, possess me, and make me one with You,” the divine life, which was sown into our being at the time of Christ’s resurrection, will work automatically. This working will bring about a thorough transformation, and we shall be conformed to the image of God’s Firstborn Son. We shall be wholly “sonized” and brought into Christ’s perfection and glorification. As this process transpires within us and the inward law of life works Christ into every part of our being, Christ is formed in us (Gal. 4:19). This is the most secret mystery in the whole universe. Eventually, God will be wrought into man and man will be mingled with God. God and man, man and God, will thus become one entity. This is today’s church and tomorrow’s New Jerusalem. This is the divine economy. How blessed we are to see this! We are truly a special people.
In the portrait of the tabernacle we see a number of threes. Firstly, there are the three sections: the outer court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. Secondly, there are the three items in the Holy Place: the showbread table, the lampstand, and the incense altar. When we come into the Holy of Holies, we see within the ark of testimony another group of three: the hidden manna, the budding rod, and the table of testimony. In each group of three, the third item is the most important. Of the outer court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies, the Holy of Holies is the most important. Of the second three, the showbread table, the lampstand, and the incense altar, the incense altar is the most important. Of the third three, the hidden manna, the budding rod, and the table of testimony, the table of testimony signifying the inward law of life is the most important.
The last and consummate experience of Christ as portrayed by the arrangement of the furniture in the tabernacle is the inward law of life. Romans 8:2 says that this is the law of the Spirit of life. The experience of Christ begins at the cross and consummates with the Spirit. Even the Triune God, the Father, Son, and Spirit, consummates with the Spirit. The Father is far from us, the Son is close to us, and the Spirit comes into us. Although the Son and the Father may be present, without the Spirit we can have no experience of Them. All the experiences of the Triune God depend upon the consummation of the Spirit. The inward law of life is just the working of the Spirit who is the Spirit of life. God is Spirit (John 4:24). Christ, as the last Adam, was made a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b); hence, He is now the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17). The third of the Triune God is the Spirit. All our experiences of the Triune God must consummate with the Spirit. Moreover, the outer court corresponds to our body, the Holy Place to our soul, and the Holy of Holies to our spirit. Of these three parts, the spirit is the most important. Eventually, the consummate point of the experience of Christ is the Spirit of the Triune God in the human spirit of the tripartite man. The inward law of life signified by the table of testimony within the ark of testimony in the Holy of Holies simply denotes the Spirit of the Triune God working in the human spirit of the tripartite man. It is like the witnessing of the Spirit with our spirit (Rom. 8:16).
All real Christians have been to the altar—the cross of Christ. We thank God for this. But many Christians insist on staying at the altar, desiring to remain at the cross for eternity. If you were to tell them that today Christ is the Spirit, they would say you are a heretic. When we say that we must turn to and be in our spirit, we are accused of practicing mysticism. How terrible is such an accusation! Many people say, “Isn’t the cross sufficient? Isn’t the Lord’s blood precious?” We appreciate the cross and the blood as much as, if not more than, all Christians do. But this is elementary; it is just the ABC’s. If we look at the portrait of the furniture in the tabernacle, we shall see that we must come forward. We must tell all Christians to come forward. Do not merely come forward to the laver, where you may have some washings of the Spirit. Come forward to the experience of the rich supply of nourishment at the showbread table and to the enlightenment of the lampstand. But there is still more than this. We must come forward to the incense altar which ushers us into the Holy of Holies. Our incense altar today is our prayer with Christ. Many times we begin praying in our mind, but our prayer ushers us into the spirit, into the Holy of Holies.
In the Holy of Holies is the ark. The first of the three items in the ark is the hidden manna. With respect to the hidden manna, there are three layers of coverings: the tabernacle covering the ark, the ark covering the golden pot, and the golden pot covering and containing the hidden manna. Here in the golden pot we enjoy Christ in the most hidden way. It is not only in the Holy of Holies and in the ark but also in the golden pot. What is the golden pot? It is the divine nature of the Triune God which contains Christ, the standard model, as our life supply. How deep is this thought! When we enjoy Christ as our life supply in such a hidden and mysterious way, we shall experience the rod budding with authority in resurrection life. If we are to be a true minister of the Word or a genuine elder in the church, we need to have this kind of authority in the resurrection life of Christ. The budding rod brings us to the consummate item of God’s economy—the inward law of life (signified by the table of testimony), the working of the Spirit of the Triune God within us. The inward law of life is working within us, infusing the element of God into our being and making us a corporate reproduction of the standard model. In this way, God can have the fulfillment of His eternal purpose. This is what God desires today.