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Scripture Reading: S. S. 2:14-15
I. Delivered from the self:
А. The attainment of the lover of Christ in her pursuing after Christ for satisfaction and rest results in a condition in which she overcares for her spiritual condition before Christ concerning whether or not she remains in the perfection she has attained.
B. This causes her to fall into introspection, which becomes the seclusion as a wall that keeps her away from the presence of Christ — 2:9.
C. This peculiarity of introspection becomes one of the “little foxes” that ruin the flourishing resurrection of Christ in the churches — v. 15.
II. By the cross of Christ:
А. Hence, Christ comes as a gazelle leaping upon the mountains and as a young hart skipping upon the hills, showing forth His resurrection power over difficulties, to call her repeatedly to rise up from her down situation and come away to Him from that situation which separates her from Him — vv. 8-10, 13b.
B. Christ wants her to remain in the cross, that is, to stay in “the clefts of the rock” and in “the covert of the precipice” — v. 14a.
C. Christ wants to see her countenance and hear her voice in the cross as the clefts of the rock and the covert of the precipice — v. 14b.
D. To stay in the cross is a hard matter, like getting into the clefts of the rock and the covert of the precipice by a rugged road.
E. It could be only by the power of Christ’s resurrection shown in the leaping of the gazelle upon the mountains and the skipping of the young hart upon the hills, not by her natural life.
F. This is to “deny” herself as the Lord charged in Matthew 16:24.
G. This is also to be conformed to the death of Christ by the power of His resurrection (Phil. 3:10).
H. It is only in this way that she can be delivered from her self, which frustrates her from experiencing Christ in His resurrection, signified by the flourishing spring in S. S. 2:11-13a.
As an opening word to this chapter, I would like to share something concerning the way that we study the Bible. We study the Word of life by the way of life. This is why we have called our Bible study a life-study of the Bible. Our life-study is different from Christianity theology. In Christianity there are many kinds of theology. All these kinds of theology in a certain sense help people but in a greater sense retain them in that theology. For example, Reformed theology in a sense helps people, but in a stronger sense it holds people back and keeps them far away from the divine revelation that is unveiled in God’s holy Word. The more we compare traditional theology with the teaching of the Bible, the more discrepancies we find.
According to traditional theology, the Son of God was born to be a man, but the Bible says that God was manifested in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:16). Here is a discrepancy. Was the incarnation the incarnation of the Son only or of the entire God, the complete God? Certainly it was the Son’s incarnation, but we should never forget that the Son is a part of the Divine Trinity. Colossians 2:9 says that Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God. The Son’s incarnation was the incarnation of the Divine Trinity, including the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
Now we have gone higher from the life-study of the Bible to what we call the crystallization-study. The life-study is on the first level. The crystallization-study is on the second level. Crystallization in our usage is based upon the essence. We want to see the organic “crystals” in the Bible.
Let us consider one of these crystals in the book of Romans. Romans comprises two sections. The first is judicial. The second is organic. Romans 1:17 says, “The righteous shall have life and live by faith.” “The righteous shall have” is judicial, unveiling the legal procedure of God’s salvation in saving sinners. “Shall have life and live by faith” is organic, unveiling the purpose of God’s salvation in carrying out God’s economy according to His desire. Christ’s redemption by His blood is the first part of God’s salvation. This is judicial to fulfill the righteous requirements according to God’s righteous law. But this is just the procedure, not the purpose. The purpose is for man to have life and to live life. The church as the Body of Christ cannot be seen in the judicial part of God’s salvation. The Body of Christ is in the organic aspect. The judicial process and the organic purpose of God’s salvation are a big “crystal” in the book of Romans.
We need to be convinced that the genuine, pure revelation according to the Holy Scripture is critically different from today’s Christianity theology. Today’s Christianity is deformed and degraded. I am burdened to share this because by listening to our prayers, I can sense the oldness. Our prayers have been formed, regulated, and kept mostly according to the old theology. We should not pray according to the old theology. Instead, we should pray according to what we have seen recently.
Song of Songs 2:14-15 portrays the lover’s deliverance from the self by the cross of Christ.
The attainment of the lover of Christ in her pursuing after Christ for satisfaction and rest results in a condition in which she overcares for her spiritual condition before Christ concerning whether or not she remains in the perfection she has attained. When I was young, after giving a good message, I could not forget about it. I would remain in it to enjoy it. Eventually, I would make it the standard for my upcoming messages. All the messages had to be as good as that one. This meant that I had attained to a certain condition and that I wanted to remain in it. When some of the sisters give a testimony in the meetings, they are looking for strong Amens from the saints. One day a sister may give a wonderful word, and the saints may respond with strong Amens and Hallelujahs. That makes the sister feel that she has been exalted to the third heaven. She would never forget this experience and would make it her standard because that became a condition to which she had attained.
This boasting produces the self. The self is produced by self-boasting, self-exaltation, and self-glorification. The more we boast of ourselves, the stronger our self becomes. Based upon our boasting, we exalt ourselves. Then we glorify ourselves. We may not admit this. Instead, we may say, “I gave all the glory to God.” But still we received the exaltation. Exaltation means glorification. To exalt God is to glorify Him. Pride is the source of self.
Overcaring for her spiritual condition causes the lover of Christ to fall into introspection, which becomes the seclusion as a wall that keeps her away from the presence of Christ (v. 9). The Bible tells us to look away unto Jesus (Heb. 12:2), but introspection always directs us to look into ourselves. Introspection is an inward inspection of our inner condition. In our introspection we may ask, “Am I still perfect? Am I still so good in the eyes of God, or have I degraded a little bit?” Such introspection increases the self, resulting in a kind of seclusion as a wall to separate us from the presence of Christ.
Since we have this introspection, there is a wall built up between us and our Lord. We find that He is outside and we are within, and this discovery causes us to be more introspective. We may ask, “Why don’t I have the Lord’s presence? It seems that I am within the wall, and He is outside the wall. Why?” This becomes a cycle in which the self is growing and increasing. The self then becomes a prison to imprison us.
This kind of spiritual sickness is not experienced by the cold ones but by the ones who are burning for the Lord. The more burning for the Lord you are, the more your self may be built up. The more you pursue after the Lord, the more you attain to something, and the more you may build up your self. Eventually, the self becomes a center. Your whole life with all its details becomes centered on your self.
This peculiarity of introspection becomes one of the “little foxes” that ruin the flourishing resurrection of Christ in the churches (S. S. 2:15). Our peculiarity frustrates our experience of Christ’s resurrection. A brother’s peculiarity may be his quick temperament, which has been built up over many years. But every time we are willing to have our self with our peculiarity crucified, resurrection will follow. Resurrection is signified in 2:11-13 by the passing of winter, the ceasing of rain, the appearance of flowers, the time of singing, the voice of the turtledove, the fig tree ripening, and the vines blossoming and giving forth their fragrance. If we are unwilling to be crucified and we remain in our peculiarity, this “little fox” will destroy our experience of Christ’s resurrection.
Hence, Christ comes as a gazelle leaping upon the mountains and as a young hart skipping upon the hills, showing forth His resurrection power over difficulties, to call her repeatedly to rise up from her down situation and come away to Him from that situation which separates her from Him (vv. 8-10, 13b). According to our condition and situation, we surely need to cross out our peculiarity. But to get into the cross and remain there is not easy. If we have a quick temperament and are with a slow person, some may advise us to exercise patience. But the more we exercise our own effort to cross out ourselves, the more Satan will come in to stir up our reasonings. This is related to spiritual warfare. In order to receive the crucifixion of Christ, to be put to death, we need the power of the resurrection of Christ (Phil. 3:10).
It is difficult for us to reach the cross (signified by the clefts of the rock and the covert of the precipice) and remain there. At this time Christ is seen by His lover as a gazelle leaping upon the mountains and as a young hart skipping upon the hills. The way to reach the covert of the precipice is rugged. To receive the crucifixion of Christ to put us to death is a rugged way, not easy to reach. Even after reaching this place, it is hard to stay there. Do we want to stay in the covert of the precipice? Do we want to stay in the clefts of the rock upon the high mountains? This is why we need the power of the resurrection of Christ. Philippians 3:10 says that we are to be conformed to His death by the power of His resurrection. Christ is a gazelle full of leaping power and a young hart full of skipping power. This is the power of resurrection. Our being crucified is not by our natural life or natural strength but by Christ’s power of resurrection.
All the experiences of Christ are related to His death, His resurrection, and His Spirit. His death goes along with His resurrection, and His Spirit is the realization of His resurrection. In order to know the power of Christ’s resurrection, we must learn to turn from our mind to our spirit continually (Rom. 8:6). When we turn to our spirit, we have nothing to do but pray. When we turn to our spirit and pray, immediately the Spirit is with us as the power of resurrection. Then as we take the cross, those around us may not know that we have been crucified and are in resurrection. This may cause us to sing, “Hallelujah, Christ is Victor!” When we enjoy the power of His resurrection, He is the Victor in our experience, and we are the conquerors. The way to experience Christ in His crucifixion by the power of His resurrection is by the Spirit Himself who is in our spirit. Romans 8:6 says, “The mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.”
In order to experience Christ and to gain Christ, we need to know the all-inclusiveness of Christ. We also need to know that we have a regenerated human spirit and that today the Spirit of God has become the consummated life-giving Spirit of Christ as the power of His resurrection. We must know these three things. Then we can experience Christ and gain Him.
Christ wants His seeker to remain in the cross, that is, to stay in “the clefts of the rock” and in “the covert of the precipice” (S. S. 2:14a). Christ wants us to remain in the cross continually. The brothers need to be crossed out in their relationship with their wives. Christ wants us to remain in a crucified condition all the time. We may say that some of the things that come to us in our environment to trouble us are Satan’s work, but they are also God’s assignment. God’s assignment is to put us to death. In the midst of our troubling environment we must learn to turn our mind to our spirit to receive the strengthening of the Spirit as the power of resurrection.
Christ wants to see His seeker’s countenance and hear her voice in the cross as the clefts of the rock and the covert of the precipice (v. 14b). To stay in the cross is a hard matter, like getting into the clefts of the rock and the covert of the precipice by a rugged road. It could be only by the power of Christ’s resurrection shown in the leaping of the gazelle upon the mountains and the skipping of the young hart upon the hills, not by her natural life. This is to “deny” herself as the Lord charges in Matthew 16:24. This is also to be conformed to the death of Christ by the power of His resurrection. It is only in this way that she can be delivered from her self, which frustrates her from experiencing Christ in resurrection.
God’s salvation is to transform us, to make us a new man, a part of the new creation. We must be transformed through denying ourselves. To deny the self is to leave the self on the cross so that we can be renewed. Day after day by the crossing out we become newer and newer. Eventually, we mature to be a new man. This is the reason that God deals with us in the way of crucifixion. God’s way is not to correct or improve us. God wants to re-create us through transformation, and this transformation is by our being crucified.
Previously, we have seen that we need to perfect others with gold, silver, and precious stones. The lover needs gold added to her plaits of hair, silver studs to hold the plaits, and strings of jewels, precious stones. We need to experience the Triune God as gold, silver, and precious stones, and then we can perfect others with the Triune God by helping them to deny themselves so that they can be with the Lord in a new way to be renewed and transformed to become absolutely a new man in God’s new creation. It is only by being conformed to the death of Christ by the power of His resurrection that we can be delivered from our self to be transformed. Through the crossing-out way, we become completely a new man in God’s new creation for God to fulfill His economy so that we can be the organic Body of Christ. The organic Body of Christ comes out of this kind of crossing out.
Stanzas 1 and 2 with the chorus of Hymns, #477 speak of the experience of being delivered from the self by the cross of Christ:
