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Scripture Reading: S. S. 2:8-13
I. In order to empower and encourage His lover to rise up and get away from her down situation in her introspection of the self:
А. Christ empowers her by showing her the power of His resurrection by the gazelle’s leaping upon the mountains and the young hart’s skipping upon the hills — S. S. 2:8-9:
1. It is by this power of Christ’s resurrection that we, the lovers of Christ, determine to take the cross by denying our self (Matt. 16:24).
2. It is also by this power of Christ’s resurrection that we, the lovers of Christ, are enabled to be conformed to His death (Phil. 3:10), to be one with His cross as staying in the clefts of the rock, in the covert of the precipice (S. S. 2:14).
B. Christ encourages her by the flourishing riches of His resurrection — vv. 11-13:
1. The dormant days (winter) are past, and the trials (rain) are over and gone.
2. The life in all appearances is blossoming.
3. The time of praising — singing — has come.
4. The fruit tree has ripened in its fruits.
5. The vines are in blossom, giving forth their fragrance.
II. Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, was resurrection (John 11:25) before His death, indicating that the entirety of the Triune God is resurrection in the universe:
А. Christ as the God-man in His humanity was made the firstborn Son of God in resurrection (Acts 13:33; Rom. 1:3-4; 8:29).
B. Christ as the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit in resurrection (1 Cor. 15:45).
C. God regenerated many sons through the resurrection of Christ (1 Pet. 1:3), making them His new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15).
III. The resurrected Christ becoming the life-giving Spirit as the reality of His resurrection (John 11:25):
А. The resurrection of Christ is linked with the Spirit who gives life.
B. This life-giving Spirit indwells our spirit (Rom. 8:11; Eph. 2:22).
C. Hence, our regenerated spirit indwelt by the life-giving Spirit becomes the Holiest of all as God’s dwelling place linked with the Holiest of all in the third heaven (Heb. 4:16).
D. This Christ as the life-giving Spirit becomes the heavenly ladder that brings heaven to earth and joins earth to heaven at Bethel — God’s dwelling place in the spirit of the believers on earth (Gen. 28:11-22; John 1:51).
E. We have to discern our spirit from our soul:
1. In our soul we are the old man (Eph. 4:22), the soulish man, the natural man (1 Cor. 2:14).
2. In our spirit we are the new man (Eph. 4:24), the spiritual man (1 Cor. 2:14-15), that lives and walks in our spirit, as God’s Holiest of all, indwelt by and mingled with the life-giving Spirit, the pneumatic Christ.
3. It is in such a mingled spirit that we participate in and experience the resurrection of Christ, the reality of which is the all-inclusive, life-giving, compound Spirit, the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God.
In the previous chapter we saw that we need to be delivered from the self by the cross of Christ. Most of us are short of this kind of experience. We have the light of the truth and even speak the deep things of God’s economy, but we do not have the support of the adequate experiences of Christ. Hymns, #482 by A. B. Simpson is concerning the experience of being crucified with Christ. Stanza 5 says, “This the balm for pain and sickness, / Just to all our strength to die, / And to find His life and fulness, / All our being’s need supply.” If we die to our self and take the Lord’s resurrection life and power as our life supply, this conformation to the death of Christ by the power of His resurrection in our daily life heals us. According to the revelation of God’s complete gospel, Isaiah 53:4-5 makes it very clear that in His redeeming death on the cross, Christ has borne all our griefs and carried our sorrows; furthermore, by His chastening we receive peace and by His stripes we are healed. No one can be healed before God without Christ’s death for his redemption.
Christ’s redemption has accomplished two things: our sins can be forgiven, and our illnesses can be healed. Without Christ’s death there is no healing. Many Pentecostals stress miraculous healing, but they have no idea that healing is the consummation of Christ’s death. Such miraculous healing is called in Hebrews 6:5 “the powers of the age to come.” Eventually, God will give us the consummate healing, which will be our resurrection from the dead and rapture.
After the experience of the cross is the experience of resurrection. Resurrection is always an empowering and an encouraging factor. Christ’s resurrection power is signified by the gazelle’s leaping on the mountains and the young hart’s skipping on the hills. We can be conformed to Christ’s death by the power of His resurrection. Another A. B. Simpson hymn on our being crucified with Christ says, “’Tis not hard to die with Christ / When His risen life we know” (Hymns, #481). To remain in Christ’s death we need the power of His resurrection. Romans 6:4 says that we were baptized into Christ’s death. From the time of our baptism we should bear the cross daily to remain in His death (Luke 9:23).
The book of Song of Songs is a romance in poetic form between a king and a country girl. This is a figure of the romance of God and man. In the first two chapters is the initiation of the portrait of this excellent romance. In this initiation the female pursues the male for her satisfaction. Then the male leads her into the secret chamber. In that chamber this female is brought into fellowship with the king and so many of his lovers. Through that fellowship in the inner chamber, the king directs his follower to go forth on the footsteps of the flock, which means that our King, Christ, directs us to take the way of the church life (1:6-8). This portion of Song of Songs presents a picture of how to discern the proper church life in the midst of today’s confusion of divisions.
In today’s church life the main thing is transformation. God intends not to improve us but to re-create us, to make us new persons. He does this first by regeneration and second by transformation. Romans 12:2 says that we are transformed by the renewing of the mind. Then 2 Corinthians 3:18 says that we are transformed into the image of the glory of Christ. Transformation is a divine metabolism. It is not an outward change but an inward process to transform us into different persons. Regeneration has been accomplished once for all, but transformation is a lifelong process. Eventually, we will be conformed to the image of Christ. Romans 8:29-30 says that we are called, then justified, and then conformed to the image of the firstborn Son of God. Conformation implies transformation and consummates in glorification. When we are glorified, our transformation will be completely consummated to make us totally new persons.
In the church life there is also our gaining of Christ and His gaining of us — a mutual gaining. We also enjoy Christ and He enjoys us — a mutual enjoyment. The beginning of this mutual gain and enjoyment is a feast, and the conclusion is a banqueting house.
Following the initial stage, the Lord comes in to call us to go on to the stage of the cross. Many in Christianity exalt the cross. They have the cross on the top of their cathedrals, and they adorn themselves with the cross. They know the cross mostly in a physical sense. We need to see why the cross of Christ is so precious, especially in the eyes of God.
The cross is precious to the uttermost because the cross terminated all the enemies of God. God has four main enemies: Satan, sin, the flesh (the fallen man), and the world (the satanic cosmos). By one crucifixion Christ terminated these four enemies of God. Satan was crucified (Heb. 2:14; John 12:31), sin was condemned (Rom. 8:3), the old fallen man was crucified (6:6; Gal. 2:20), and the world was crucified and judged (6:14; John 12:31). At the same time, the cross of Christ released the divine life (v. 24). Christ crucified all the negative things and then released something positive to supply God’s eternally chosen people. The divine life released by the cross of Christ is God Himself.
John 19:34 says that when Christ was crucified, two substances flowed out from Him: blood and water. The blood is for the judicial need, and the water, the flowing divine life, is for the organic need. The released divine life was then dispensed in Christ’s resurrection. This is why the cross is so precious in the eyes of God. God loves the cross.
Following the cross is the resurrection of Christ, in which three great things took place. First, in the resurrection of Christ, Christ in His humanity was begotten to be God’s firstborn Son (Rom. 1:4; 8:29). In that resurrection His humanity, which He inherited from the seed of David (1:3), was designated the Son of God by the Spirit of holiness, which was Christ’s divine essence. His divine essence in the resurrection uplifted His humanity from the human level to the divine level. God came in to beget Him on that day. Acts 13:33 says that on the day of resurrection Christ was begotten by God: “You are My Son; this day have I begotten You.” “This day” is the day of resurrection.
The second great thing that was accomplished in Christ’s resurrection was that He, as the last Adam, became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). Before that “becoming,” Christ was physical. He was in the flesh. Wherever He was, people saw Him as a man in the flesh. Even He was hanging on the cross as a man in the flesh. But after not more than three days He was transformed into the life-giving Spirit. Christ’s physical body was buried in a tomb, but in resurrection His physical body was transformed. When Peter and John entered into the tomb, they saw the grave clothes, but they did not see Christ’s body. The physical Jesus had been transformed into the life-giving Spirit. In the evening of the day of resurrection, He came back to His disciples as the physical Jesus who had been transformed to be the life-giving Spirit (John 20:19-22). The transformed Christ is the life-giving Spirit. The twenty-two Epistles of the New Testament do not teach a physical Christ but a pneumatic Christ, a Christ who is the totality of the Spirit of God.
The third great thing that took place on the day of resurrection was that God regenerated all His chosen people (1 Pet. 1:3) when He begot Christ to be His firstborn Son. We have been regenerated, but many of us do not know our birthday. We were regenerated, born again, about two thousand years ago on the day of Christ’s resurrection. This is according to the biblical calendar. Christ is the firstborn Son of God, and we are His many “twins.” Thus, the resurrection produced the firstborn Son of God, the life-giving Spirit, and the many sons of God. The firstborn Son of God is the Head, and His many brothers, the sons of God, are the members of Christ. The Head with all the members is a complete organism, the Body of Christ. This is what the Bible unveils concerning the resurrection of Christ.
The Lord wants us to experience His cross so that we may enter into His resurrection. The calling for the cross and the resurrection figured by the springtime is in Song of Songs 2. The Beloved calls His lover by saying, “Rise up, my love, / My beauty, and come away” (v. 10). He calls her into the springtime. The winter is a time of dormancy, but now there is budding and blossoming to replace dormancy. The flowers, the fruit, the time of singing, and the voice of the turtledove are a picture of resurrection. The Lord’s seeker is disappointed by her introspection. When she looks into herself, it is the wintertime of dormancy. But when she looks away to the resurrected Christ, she enters into the stage of spring, signifying the stage of resurrection.
Let us consider how to apply this fellowship with an illustration. Suppose that a brother would not take the cross in dealing with his wife. Then he would have no spring, no time of praising and singing. But if he accepts the cross in dealing with his wife to be conformed to the death of Christ, he will enjoy the springtime of Christ’s resurrection with everything budding and blossoming. When he stays in the cross, he enjoys Christ’s presence. If a brother does not have such an experience of the cross, his speaking in the meeting will be without the content of resurrection. In his speaking we would sense no power, no blossoming, no bearing of fruit. But when he has the experience of the cross, we can sense the springtime in his speaking. Do we spend our days sighing instead of singing? Our sighing is the sign of our rejection of the cross. If we receive the cross, right away the resurrection comes. Resurrection always follows the cross.
The reality of the resurrection is the pneumatic Christ who is the consummated Spirit. This consummated Spirit is in our spirit. Our spirit has become His dwelling place. Our spirit is the Holy of Holies for the Triune God as the consummated Spirit living within us. This is why we say, “Turn to your spirit.” About thirty years ago when we were in Elden hall in Los Angeles, everyone was singing this. That was the springtime. But why has the spring gradually ceased among us? This is because we do not accept the cross. The rejection of the cross causes us to suffer the winter, the dormant stage.
In order to empower and encourage His lover to rise up and get away from her down situation in her introspection of the self, Christ empowers her by showing her the power of His resurrection by the gazelle’s leaping upon the mountains and the young hart’s skipping upon the hills (vv. 8-9). It is by this power of Christ’s resurrection that we, the lovers of Christ, determine to take the cross by denying our self (Matt. 16:24). Have we ever had such a determination? Often we forget what we determined to do before God. We need to be reminded. It is also by this power of Christ’s resurrection that we, the lovers of Christ, are enabled to be conformed to His death (Phil. 3:10), to be one with His cross as staying in the clefts of the rock, in the covert of the precipice (S. S. 2:14).
Christ encourages His seeker by the flourishing riches of His resurrection (vv. 11-13). The dormant days (winter) are past, and the trials (rain) are over and gone. The life in all appearances is blossoming. The time of praising — singing — has come. The fruit tree has ripened in its fruits, and the vines are in blossom, giving forth their fragrance. This is a portrait of the riches of Christ’s resurrection.
Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God, was resurrection (John 11:25) before His death. When He came to the tomb of Lazarus, Christ said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life.” That “I” is the embodiment of the Triune God, indicating that the entirety of the Triune God is resurrection in the universe. Resurrection is God Himself. We have seen that Christ as the God-man in His humanity was made the firstborn Son of God in resurrection (Acts 13:33; Rom. 1:3-4; 8:29). Christ as the last Adam became the life-giving Spirit in resurrection (1 Cor. 15:45). Also, God regenerated many sons through the resurrection of Christ (1 Pet. 1:3), making them His new creation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15).
The resurrected Christ became the life-giving Spirit as the reality of His resurrection (John 11:25). The resurrection of Christ is linked with the Spirit who gives life. This life-giving Spirit indwells our spirit (Rom. 8:11; Eph. 2:22). Hence, our regenerated spirit indwelt by the life-giving Spirit becomes the Holiest of all as God’s dwelling place linked with the Holiest of all in the third heaven (Heb. 4:16).
This Christ as the life-giving Spirit becomes the heavenly ladder that brings heaven to earth and joins the earth to heaven at Bethel — God’s dwelling place in the spirit of the believers on earth (Gen. 28:11-22; John 1:51). While Jacob was escaping from his brother Esau, in the night he had a dream in which he saw a vision of a ladder set up on the earth with its top reaching to heaven. He called the name of that place Bethel, the house of God. The ladder brings heaven to earth and joins earth to heaven. At the end of John 1, Jesus said that the angels of God would ascend and descend upon the Son of Man, indicating that He was that ladder (v. 51).
Jacob’s dream and the Lord’s prophecy are both fulfilled in us. We are a part of God’s house, Bethel, which brings heaven to earth and joins earth to heaven. We need to realize that as the duplication of Christ, we are a heavenly ladder bringing heaven to earth and joining earth to heaven. When we minister Christ to sinners, they will appreciate Christ and receive Christ. This is to bring heaven to the earth. Then when we help them to grow, we are joining them to heaven. Every day we should be persons bringing heaven to earth and joining earth to heaven. This is Bethel, which is our regenerated spirit and the chamber where God dwells.
In order to experience the life-giving Spirit as the reality of resurrection in our spirit, we have to discern our spirit from our soul. In our soul we are the old man (Eph. 4:22), the soulish man, the natural man (1 Cor. 2:14). In our spirit we are the new man (Eph. 4:24), the spiritual man (1 Cor. 2:14-15), that lives and walks in our spirit as God’s Holiest of all, indwelt by and mingled with the life-giving Spirit, the pneumatic Christ. It is in such a mingled spirit that we participate in and experience the resurrection of Christ, the reality of which is the all-inclusive, life-giving, compound Spirit, the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God.
By this we can see that resurrection has a base, and this base is the death of Christ. This resurrection today is realized in the Spirit. The Spirit is the reality of the resurrection. Thus, these three things — the death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, and the Spirit of Christ — are the means for us to enjoy Christ, experience Christ, and gain Christ in our spirit. The death, resurrection, and Spirit of Christ are one in our spirit as a living person, and this living person is the compound Spirit, the all-inclusive Spirit, as the consummation of the processed and consummated Triune God. We can enjoy, experience, and gain this wonderful One day by day as the resurrection to empower and encourage us to take the way of the cross.
