In this message we will consider further the matter of being called more strongly to live within the veil through the cross after resurrection.
Song of Songs 6:4-13 speaks of a life within the veil. The intrinsic significance of this section is that a loving pursuer of Christ needs to experience His ascension by living in the heavenly Holy of Holies within the veil through the cross after she has experienced His resurrection.
Verses 4 through 10 are the Beloved’s praise.
“You are as beautiful, my love, as Tirzah, / As lovely as Jerusalem” (v. 4a). Her Beloved, treasuring her as His love, praises her that she is beautiful as the heavenly sanctuary (Tirzah—1 Kings 14:17) and lovely as the heavenly Jerusalem (Gal. 4:26; Heb. 12:22), indicating that she lives in the Holy of Holies within the veil, experiencing the ascension of Christ through the cross after her experience of His resurrection.
In the heavens there is the sanctuary of God, which is divided into two sections. The first section is called the Holy Place, and the second is called the Holy of Holies. In between, there is a partition, a separation, a veil. Hebrews 10:20 tells us that the veil in the sanctuary signifies the flesh. In the heavenly sanctuary there is the flesh; this is according to God’s economy.
One basic principle in God’s economy is that God is not a God of time and space. With Him there is no time element, for He is a God of eternity. We care for location, thinking that there is no flesh in the heavens, but God cares for the fact. Seemingly we are in the heavens, but we still have the flesh, and we will continue to have it until God accomplishes and consummates His economy absolutely.
In our spiritual experiences we were attracted by the Lord’s love and drawn by the Lord Himself in His sweetness. We followed Him by taking the footsteps of the saints in the church through the centuries. Then we entered the fellowship with Him in our spirit. In this fellowship we were instructed concerning how to enter into the church life, and in the church life we are being transformed. We have beauty through this transformation, and we also have rest, covering, and satisfaction. All these spiritual significances match Solomon’s writing.
The next stage is that of living in the heavenlies as God’s new creation in resurrection. After experiencing this stage we need to go on to experience the rending of the veil. The veil in the temple was split by Christ’s death (Matt. 27:51). However, the veil of the flesh has not been taken away. Rather, the veil still remains for God to use in perfecting His seeking saints. For example, Paul was surely a matured brother, having passed through the age of living in the heavens as the new creation of God in resurrection. But according to 2 Corinthians 12 God allowed a “thorn in the flesh” to be given him (v. 7). Here we see that even such a mature and spiritual person could still be troubled by the flesh. This indicates that no matter how much of God’s element we may have in our regenerated spirit, or how much we have been sanctified, renewed, transformed, and conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God, as long as we are living on earth, we still have the flesh.
Whereas the regeneration of our spirit was instantaneous, the transformation of our soul is progressive. The redemption of our body is also progressive. Paul said that our inner man is being renewed but that our outer man, our body, is decaying day by day. This is God’s arrangement according to His economy. God has no plan for us to reach such a high standard of spirituality that the flesh is no longer present. God’s economy is to keep us living in ascension as a new creation in resurrection, no matter how spiritual we may be. We might think that in resurrection there should no longer be the flesh, but God still needs it in order to work something in us.
Because the flesh is still with us, we need to deal with the flesh every day by watching and praying. If we do not watch, the flesh will act. In our prayer we need to be watchful, praying in the spirit.
In Song of Songs 6:4 Jerusalem is a sign of royalty. The more heavenly we are, the more royal we become. To be royal is to reign like a king. Romans 5 says that those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life (v. 17). Nevertheless, even though we may be royal and live in ascension as God’s new creation in resurrection, there is still a veil in the heavenly sanctuary. This indicates that no matter how spiritual we may be, we are still in the flesh, which is the veil. Therefore, we need to learn to pass through the veil by the dealing of the cross every day. Then we will live within the veil, in the Holy of Holies, which is just God Himself. This is the highest stage in the experience of the lover of Christ as presented in Song of Songs. When we reach such a stage, we will have nothing to do but to wait and hope for rapture.