This God-Man is also a priest. He has all the virtues with no shortage whatsoever. Suppose His priestly garment were short, exposing His feet and legs. This would indicate that He lacks some virtues. However, His long robe signifies that He is short of nothing. In the Bible, a priest should not be exposed in any part (Exo. 20:26). All parts of His body must be clothed. Clothing in the Bible means righteousness (Isa. 64:6; Rev. 19:8). This means that we have been justified by the righteous God; we can stand in the righteousness of God. This God-Man has human virtues that are sufficient to cover His whole being. This is indicated by His long priestly robe. He is fully qualified to be a priest. But now He is not a priest at the altar in the outer court. That work is over. Now He is in the Holy Place, taking care of the lampstands.
This wonderful Christ is also the shining One. His face is like the shining of the sun, and His eyes are like flaming fire. His two feet are also like shining brass. This means that He has passed through all kinds of testing. He was tested and He was burned. Every step He took on this earth was tested. He passed all the tests, and now He is qualified to test others. He does not test us by His opinion, but by His two feet. From His head to His feet, He is a shining Person. When we come into His presence, there is no darkness. Instead we are under the absolute shining. Nothing can be hidden or concealed in His presence. Everything is exposed. Do you like this kind of Christ? Our brother John was frightened to death. We should not forget that the Apostle John was the one who leaned on His breast when Christ was on earth (John 13:23). At that time there was no burning and shining, but here John fell at His feet as dead. In the church life, everyone needs to have such an exposure. Sooner or later, whether it is this year or next, we will be in His presence and have an exposure that will frighten us to death. We will see that whatever we are, whatever we have, and whatever we do cannot stand His testing. Then we will fall down at His feet as ones dead.
Why will we be so exposed in His presence? It is simply because we are short of eating. We are undernourished. In reading chapters two and three of Revelation, we see the concept of degraded Christianity. This religious concept is altogether a matter of doctrine. There is the doctrine of Balaam, the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, and the teaching of Jezebel (Rev. 2:14-15, 20). The word “doctrine” is mentioned three times and “teaching” once. What is religion? Religion is something composed of doctrines upon doctrines. The more doctrines there are, the better religion it is. The degraded churches only care for doctrines. But the concept of the living Christ who has such a care for the churches is to give His dear ones something to eat.
In all seven epistles to the churches there are three promises of eating. There is one in the first epistle concerning the tree of life. There is one in the middle concerning the hidden manna. There is also a promise of eating in the last epistle. “Behold I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will feast with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3:20, Gk.). This is a promise of feasting. Some Christians only use this verse half way. They speak of the Lord knocking at our heart’s door, wanting to come in. If we will open the door, He will come in. This is all they say. It is right, but it is only half of the verse. What about the other half? When I was in Christianity, I listened to this message concerning the Lord’s knocking many times. I never heard anyone say that when Jesus comes in, He will feast with us. They do speak about the coming in, but they forget about the feasting. But the coming in is for the feasting! Jesus did not say that when we open the door in answer to His knocking He will come in and feast by Himself. He said that He would feast with us. The first two promises were concerned just with eating, but in the last promise there is the feasting together with the Lord. This is wonderful!