God’s intention is to produce many sons that He may have His full, corporate expression. This is the unique goal of God’s divine economy. His Only Begotten Son, who is the express image of His substance and the effulgence of His glory (1:3), became a man to declare Him and to express Him in human life. In His humanity, Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, expressed God. In His humanity, He was also begotten of God through His resurrection to be the Firstborn Son of God with both divinity and humanity. Now, as the Firstborn Son of God with divinity and humanity, Christ is the model, the pattern, for a mass production. Through His resurrection, all those who believe in Him have also been regenerated to become the many sons of God. We, the many sons of God, who are the many brothers of the Firstborn Son of God, are those who constitute the church.
The Firstborn Son of God has been perfected and glorified, and He is now the Pioneer who has entered into the realm of glory. He is also the Captain of our salvation who has fought the battle and who is taking the lead to bring us, His many brothers, into His glory. Now in the heavens as our High Priest, He is ministering into His believers whatever He is, whatever He has accomplished, and whatever He has attained. His ministry in the heavens is a better ministry, a more excellent ministry (8:6), because through it He ministers to us in His resurrection life all that He is and all that He has done. On the one hand, He is in the heavens as the High Priest ministering life into us, and, on the other hand, He, as the life-giving Spirit, is now in our spirit to be our life. In this life within us, which is the wonderful Christ Himself, there is the law of the divine life which constantly works and functions in the depths of our being.
According to the type, the law was God’s testimony, for the law was the expression of what God is. This law was placed into the ark which was in the Holy of Holies of the tabernacle, God’s dwelling place. The book of Hebrews tells us that we are the many brothers of God’s Firstborn Son (2:11), that we are the church (2:12), that we are the partners of God’s appointed and anointed One (1:9, 3:14), and that we are also the house of God (3:6). The house of God is the equivalent of God’s dwelling place which was typified by the tabernacle wherein was the Holy of Holies. Therefore, we, the many brothers of God’s Firstborn Son, the church, the partners of God’s appointed and anointed One, and the house of God, are God’s real dwelling place today. In this dwelling place there is the Holy of Holies. This Holy of Holies is our regenerated human spirit which is joined to the heavens where the glorified Firstborn Son of God is.
Christ is now both in the heavens and in our spirit. In the heavens, He, as the High Priest in His kingly and divine priesthood, is ministering into us all that He is and all that He has done. In our spirit, He is working within us as the life-giving Spirit with the law of life. Thus, His ministry in the heavens and His working in our spirit correspond with each other. His ministry in the heavens is carried out by His functioning, His working, in our spirit. Whatever He is and whatever He has done are now being wrought into us through the working of the law of life in our spirit.
By means of the clear picture portrayed by all the furniture in the tabernacle, we can see that the aim of the experience of this wonderful Christ is to bring us into the Holy of Holies so that we may fully participate in the function of the law of life. As we have seen, we firstly experience Christ as our redemption at the altar in the outer court. After this, we experience Him as the washing and cleansing Spirit at the laver. This brings us into the Holy Place where we may enjoy Christ as our showbread, the bread of life, and as our lampstand, the light of life. Following this, we experience Christ as the incense altar through which we are ushered into the Holy of Holies. Here in the Holy of Holies, we enjoy Christ as the hidden manna and as the budding rod. By this enjoyment we are enabled to participate fully in the law of life. It is only here in the Holy of Holies, that is, in our regenerated human spirit, that we can fully participate in the function of the law of life. The function of the law of life is not mainly to regulate us from doing wrong, but to conform us to the image, the form, of God’s Firstborn Son that we may become the same as the model.
The book of Hebrews is very deep. It is deep in its revelation of Christ as the appointed and anointed One of God, as the Pioneer into the realm of glory, as the Captain of salvation leading His many brothers into His glory, and as the High Priest in His kingly and divine priesthood ministering all that He is in His divinity and humanity and all that He has attained into His brothers to make them the reproduction of Himself so that God may have His corporate expression. Hebrews is also deep in its unveiling of the fact that this wonderful Christ is now joined to our spirit, which is the very Holy of Holies of God’s dwelling place today, to be our life with the law of life functioning and working to conform us to His image. This is the most crucial point of the whole book of Hebrews. It is the vital focus of the experience of the Christ revealed in this book. This is why 4:12 says that our human spirit must be divided from our soul so that we may enter into the Holy of Holies to touch the throne of grace and enjoy grace in our time of need. And this is also why we are charged in 10:22 to come forward with boldness to the Holy of Holies so that we may participate in the function of the law of life. It is through this functioning of the law of life that the very Christ who is now ministering in the heavens can minister all that He is and all that He has accomplished and attained into our very being, not only to transform us, but also to conform us to His image so that we, His many brothers, may be absolutely the same as He is. In this way, God will have the many sons as His full expression. This is the goal of God’s divine economy. This goal can only be attained by Christ’s ministering in the heavens as the High Priest and by His working as the life-giving Spirit within our spirit through the law of life.