After showing us the heavenly Christ within the veil, the book of Hebrews encourages us to enter within the veil (10:19-20, 22). Within the veil, we can look away unto Him (12:2) and can consider Him (12:3; 3:1). We need to have direct contact with Him. Since He is within the veil, we also must enter within the veil that we may see Him, look at Him, and consider Him in order to receive the transfusion and infusion of Him. Of course, we can only do this by exercising our spirit. As we have seen, our spirit is joined to the heavenly Holy of Holies. When we turn to our spirit and exercise it, we enter within the veil. Here we participate in the heavenly ministry of the heavenly Christ. Here we are saturated and permeated with all the divine riches that make us the corporate reproduction of the Firstborn Son of God for His expression. Here we receive grace and are strengthened to go outside the camp and follow Him on the pathway of the cross.
After the children of Israel worshipped the golden calf (Exo. 32), Moses moved “without [outside] the camp,” where everyone who sought the Lord went to meet with him, for both the Lord’s presence and speaking were there (Exo. 33:7-11). Likewise, we must go outside the camp, wherein is the worship of the idol, that we may enjoy the Lord’s presence and hear His speaking. This is necessary for the practical and proper church life.
The religion, either Judaism, Catholicism, or Protestantism, which has rejected the Lord, is a camp, a human organization, given up by the Lord. The great Babylon mentioned in Revelation 17 is even a worldly city, an earthly realm, from which the Lord’s people must come out (Rev. 18:4).
The Devil has injected religion into our blood. Because of this, the camp is not merely outside of us; it is deep within us. Since the day Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, religion has been in man’s blood. When the serpent tempted Eve, he did not ask her to do anything immoral. Rather, the serpent spoke to her in a religious way, saying, “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” (Gen. 3:1). Here we see that the serpent even spoke of God. This is religion. The serpent seemed to be saying, “Eve, I know that you and your husband are both for God. I am not here to talk with you about worldly entertainments. I want to talk with you about God.” Talking about God is an aspect of religion. Do you know what religion is? It is the mere talk about God. Some may say, “Isn’t it wonderful that people talk about God? Why do you condemn them for this? In religion people are taught to know God. Their subject is not fornication or gambling; it is the true God.” Nevertheless, as Genesis 3 reveals, religion began with the serpent’s talking to Eve about God. Eve answered the serpent, saying, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die” (Gen. 3:2-3). To this the serpent responded, “Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:4-5). Knowing good and evil is also a matter of religion. Religion teaches people to know about God and to know good and evil. Eventually, Eve ate of the tree of knowledge, and religion was injected into man’s blood.
There is no need for anyone to be taught religion; we all were born religious. This is the reason that whenever we preach in a religious way we are welcomed. But if we preach the gospel in the way of the Holy of Holies, the people will shout, “Crucify him!” as they did to the Lord Jesus. Because we were born and raised in religion, religion is not only in our concept, but also in our being, in our blood. Day after day we must go outside religion, outside the camp.
In a sense, religion closely resembles God’s economy. In both the Old Testament and the New Testament we can find verses which seem to be for religion. But we must understand those verses in the light of the basic revelation of the Bible, which is the economy of God, the dispensing of God into man for His expression. God does not care for religion; He cares for His economy. He is for the dispensing of Himself into man. While God’s intention is to work Himself into man, so many Christians only know their religion. They know nothing of God’s economy, nor what it means to say that the Triune God is dispensed into our being. Having become a religion, Christianity is far off from God’s economy. But we in the Lord’s recovery do not care for anything religious. We just care for the dispensing of the Triune God into us.