Our experiences of Christ in the holy place are all good, yet they are still not adequate. Between the holy place and the holiest of all we are confronted with the problem of a veil (Exo. 26:33). The veil signifies the flesh (Heb. 10:20), the self. The idols have been terminated, the problem of sin is past, and the entanglements of worldliness have been abandoned, but our self is still with us! God has four major enemies: idols, which symbolize evil spirits or satanic forces, sin, worldliness, and self. As Christians, we may be delivered from the first three, and we may be presently enjoying Christ as everything to us. But what about our self? Most of us must admit that it has not yet been broken.
Many times we use the very Christ whom we enjoy as an element to glorify ourselves. We feel: “Now I am such a wonderful person; I am so full of Christ. I know Christ as my life, my food, my light, and my incense to God. Christ is my everything!” But it is all “I, I, I”-the terrible self! We are still very shallow. Though we are enjoying Christ so much, the big problem now is the self.
Consider the picture in Exodus carefully. It is not till we enter the holiest place of the tabernacle and there experience the ark that we could be a proper board, a board which is overlaid with gold on every side, a board which is good for the building of God. Only the boards of the ark are overlaid with gold on both sides. The table of showbread in the holy place is only overlaid with gold on one side. In the holy place the overlaying work has not been fully accomplished. We must go on to experience the ark that we may be perfected by being overlaid with the divine gold within and without. Then we will be the proper and adequate material for God’s building. We must be perfected; we must become like the boards of the ark. The boards used to build God’s tabernacle correspond exactly to the boards of the ark. This signifies that it is only as we experience the ark that we are the adequate boards for God’s building. In other words, until we attain the experience of the ark, we are not perfected and available for the building. Although many Christians talk much concerning the church life, strictly speaking, they are not available material for the church.
The boards of the tabernacle itself are produced by our experience of the ark, for both are completely overlaid with gold. The principle is the same as that which we have seen in the producing of the brass sockets for the foundation of the outer court. That foundation came from the experience of the brass altar and the brass laver. Now we must go on from the outer court, through the holy place, and into the holiest of all that we may be brought forth as the boards for God’s building. It is only in the holiest of all that we are perfected and fully available for God’s building.
How may we go on from the holy place and enter into the holiest of all? By having the self broken and put to death! Our troublesome self must be dealt with, denied, and broken! The veil which separates the holiest of all from the holy place must be riven. Then we may enter into the holiest of all and enjoy Christ more fully.
The separating veil typifies our flesh, our old, fleshly nature. Just as the veil must be riven, so our fleshly nature, our self, must be broken that we may enter the holiest place. Our self, our old man, has already been crucified with Christ on the cross (Rom. 6:6). Thus, it is through the cross that entry into the holiest of all is made possible. We must apply the cross of Christ to ourselves. We must realize that we ourselves are the separation hindering us from entering into God’s holiest place. Our self must be crossed out! The old nature must be fully abandoned! The old man must be broken! It is by the practical experience of the Lord’s death, by the practical application of the cross to our troublesome self, that we may enter into the holiest place to share Christ as the very embodiment of God as typified by the ark.
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