It is very interesting to notice that the garments of the priests are composed of the same materials as the tabernacle. Their garments were made of gold, fine linen, blue, purple, and scarlet; the tabernacle was also made with gold, fine linen, blue, purple, and scarlet. This simply means that what the priests wore was their abiding place. Their clothing was their housing.
What is the church but the expression of Christ from within so many saints. Christ expressed from within us all is the church. If we do not have this expression of Christ, we do not have the church. In a sense we may rightly say that we are the church, but the real church life is the expression of Christ. So the clothing of the priests is their housing and their dwelling place. Their clothing was the same as the tabernacle, and the tabernacle was the place where they dwelt.
We must realize that the priests today are God’s dwelling place which was typified by the tabernacle. First Peter 2:5 says, “Ye also, as lively (living) stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood.” We have pointed out previously that the word “priesthood” here means a body of priests. It does not mean the office of the priests. “Priesthood” in Hebrews 7:11 means the office of the priests, but here in 1 Peter 2:5, it means the body of priests. The holy priesthood is a spiritual house, a corporate body of priests. When we are filled and saturated with Christ, expressing Him in an accurate and full way, we will become God’s dwelling place. We will become the tabernacle according to type. The tabernacle could never be separated from the priests. Where there are the priests, there is always the tabernacle, and where there is the tabernacle, there are always the priests. The priests go with the tabernacle, and the tabernacle goes with the priests. The New Testament tells us clearly that the priests are the spiritual house—the tabernacle.
How do we consider ourselves? Do we consider ourselves to be a proper dwelling place of God—a spiritual house? As we have mentioned, the tabernacle is an expression of gold, fine linen, blue, purple, and scarlet. If we say that we are God’s dwelling place, God’s tabernacle, do we express the gold? Do we have the purity? Do we express the blue, the purple, the scarlet? If not, then what do we express? Is it something natural? Something of the flesh? If we express something natural, something of the flesh, we are not a suitable tabernacle of God. We must only have the expression of gold, pure linen, blue, purple, and scarlet. Then we are qualified to be God’s spiritual house—the tabernacle. When we express Christ in such an adequate way, we have put on the new man. That is, we have put on the church; we are clothed with the Body of Christ.
Let us check ourselves: if we say that we are the Body of Christ, what do we express? Do we express the divine nature or something else? I am afraid that many times, in contrast to expressing the divine nature, we express self and even the flesh, which is worse. Many times we express self, the flesh, the soul, the old man, and the natural life, instead of the gold of the divine nature. When we express all these negative things, we are simply outside the church life.
If we say that we are the Body of Christ, we must check what we express. Do we express sin and wickedness or the purity and righteousness of Christ? Do we express worldliness rather than heavenliness? We say that we are the Body of Christ, but I fear that others can see only worldliness in our daily life. How then can we say that we are the Body of Christ? What we express is not the same as what the curtains of the tabernacle express. The curtains of the tabernacle express all the beauties of what Christ is.
Do we express the kingship as seen in the purple? Sometimes we just express that we are babies, so weak and low. Then what about the redemption? I fear that many dear brothers and sisters do not sense that they are dirty. I have been watching and listening to so many of the saints pray, and not many of them deeply sense that whenever they contact the Lord, they need the blood. Not many realize that they are defiled and filthy. We lack the consciousness of being sinful before the Lord. In a sense we are self-righteous. We do not sense that we are dirty, but we always feel that we are right. How we need to express the Lord’s redemption.
We must express all that Christ is. Then we not only become a part of the tabernacle, we become the tabernacle. It is then that we are not homeless. Unless we come to this point, regardless of how many years we have been a Christian, we are always homeless. We do not have rest, because we do not have a proper and genuine church life. When we are filled with Christ and express Him in a proper way, we become part of the church and the church is always with us. Then we have a place to rest, to dwell, and to abide.
This is not doctrinal. To argue doctrine means nothing and brings us nowhere. We must check the reality. Do we really sense that we have a spiritual home all the time? Do we always have this sense? Praise the Lord, I do have a spiritual home, and that home is the genuine church life of which I am a part. The new man becomes my clothing, and this clothing is my housing. When I wear this new man, I am just at home. Here I have rest; here I can dwell; and here I can abide. My whole life is now at home. Where are you? Are you at home? Do you have a spiritual home? I can say that for so many years I have been enjoying the home life, and this home is the genuine church life. But whenever I express something of self, something of the soul, or something of the flesh, immediately I am outside the church life. I just become homeless.
It is only when we are filled with Christ by enjoying Him that we express Him as these five aspects. In this way we have the clothing, and the clothing becomes our housing. We have the church life, we are a part of the church life, and we are at home. We can now rest and abide in this expression.
In the previous chapter we mentioned that upon the garment of the priest is the building. All the precious stones, representing the people of God, are set into the settings of gold. They are built up with the divine nature, and they are related to one another in the divine nature. Therefore, they are the Body, the church. It is at this time that we will serve in a corporate way. First Peter 2:5 tells us that when we as living stones are built up as a living, spiritual house, as a holy body of priests, as a priesthood, then we will offer spiritual sacrifices unto God. Not until then will we be able to serve the Lord adequately in a corporate way. We say that we should not be independent in the service of the Lord, but regardless of how much we say it, people will still be independent because they were born independent. Teaching by itself can never help people to be dependent, because dependency comes through a transforming work. When we are transformed into the image of Christ and express Him fully, automatically our individualism will be gone. Only then will we be in the coordination and relatedness of the Body.
Regardless of how many messages I may give telling others to be dependent on, coordinated with, and related to others, nothing can be worked out. It is only when we feed on Christ and become filled and saturated with Him that we will be transformed into His image. Then we will express Him in the five ways we have mentioned. By this time, our individualism will be gone. Spontaneously, we will be one with the saints in the genuine church life. This is the Body of Christ, and this is the building of the church.
The building of the stones set into the gold is upon the garment of the priests. This garment is the very expression of Christ from within the priests who enjoy Christ as their food. While we enjoy Christ as our nourishment and food and digest Him, He will be saturating and permeating us so that we may express Him. Then this expression becomes our garment, and upon this garment there is the building of the saints as the precious stones set into the gold. Thus, the building up of the church is in the expression of Christ, and this expression comes out of the enjoyment of Christ.
Therefore, the enjoyment of Christ is very basic. We all must learn how to enjoy Christ. This is why we have been stressing again and again that the church life does not merely come out of teachings or gifts. Regardless of how many teachings we learn or how many gifts we have, merely by these we cannot have a genuine church life. The real church life only comes out of the true enjoyment of Christ within. We must enjoy Him at all times in all things. We must not take this as a doctrine, but as a daily practice. All day we must feed on the Lord and take Him as our nourishment. Out of this enjoyment we will have the “garment” as the expression of Christ. It is in this expression that there is the building up of the saints who are set into the divine nature. This is the only way for the building of the church.
Our eyes must be opened to see these things thoroughly. History tells us clearly that there is no other way. For one and a half centuries many teachings have been taught in Christianity, but divisions have always been the result. Doctrines have brought divisions into Christianity. And within the past several decades, the Pentecostal gifts have mostly resulted in confusion. This is why we believe that in these last days the Lord is going to recover the priesthood of the inner life. It is not a recovery of teachings or gifts, although they do have a certain value, but it is the recovery of the church life through the priesthood. The church life through the priesthood does not come out of merely teachings or gifts, but out of the inner life.
Every moment we must be found enjoying Christ so that an expression of Him might emanate from within us. Then, in this expression, we will have the building up of the Body. And in this building of the church we will have the revelation of the Urim and the Thummim to tell us the right way to go on with the Lord. This is the light and the perfection. The enlightenment and the completeness come out of this building up of the saints who are transformed into the Lord’s image and set into the divine nature. May the Lord bring us into such a priesthood.