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Scripture Reading: S. S. 4:6-9
I. After the lover of Christ has experienced Christ in His sweet death and His fragrant resurrection, she determines to stay in the sweet death of Christ (the mountain of myrrh) and His fragrant resurrection (the hill of frankincense) until her Beloved comes back when the day dawns and the shadows flee away — S. S. 4:6.
II. At this juncture her Beloved calls her to live in His ascension, as He called her to join with His cross in 2:14:
А. To look from His ascension (Lebanon) — 4:8a:
1. Here is the truth, the reality, of the consummated Triune God, the all-inclusive Christ with His complete redemption, and the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving, sevenfold intensified Spirit (Amana).
2. Here the fighting is over, signified by “soft armor” (Senir).
3. Here is the destruction of all the enemies (Hermon).
B. To look from the heavenlies (Eph. 6:12), signified by the lions’ dens and the leopards’ mountains — S. S. 4:8b:
1. Here are Satan and his subordinates — Eph. 6:12; 2:2.
2. Here the believers fight with Satan and his power of darkness — 6:12:
а. By being empowered in the Lord and in the might of His strength — v. 10.
b. By putting on the whole armor of God — vv. 11a, 13a.
c. By standing against the stratagems of the devil — v. 11b.
d. By receiving the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit (the word of God) — v. 17.
e. By praying always in spirit — v. 18a.
f. For the building up of the Body of Christ and the spreading of the gospel — vv. 18b-20.
In the previous chapter we saw that we need to be those who are moving with God and united with Christ. A pursuer and follower of Christ should be one who moves with God on earth. We can be such people only by being united with Christ. We have to be impressed that it is only when we are united with Christ that we can move with God.
Our union with Christ is seen in Song of Songs in a threefold way: a bed, a palanquin, and a couple. The bed is for the wartime, the palanquin is for the daytime, and the couple is for the day of exhibition. Eventually, the New Jerusalem as a couple is for God’s expression. The Bible reveals that God became a man to court us. Now He wants us to court Him by our becoming divine for His expression.
We have seen that incarnation as a mother crowned her Son with humanity. This shows how much the Triune God treasures man. Eventually, we, the wife of the Son, need to be transformed in our humanity so that we can be a crown to Him. Here are two crowns concerning Christ the Son. First, Christ Himself at the time of incarnation received a crown; that was His humanity. Eventually, He will have a human wife transformed into His divinity, and this wife will become a crown to Him.
The death, resurrection, ascension, and Spirit of Christ are not merely objective, having nothing to do with us. Actually, all of these are Christ Himself. Death, resurrection, ascension, and the Spirit are the four conditions in which Christ is enjoyed by us.
To die with Christ is to enjoy Christ in His death. To experience the death of Christ is one thing, but to experience Christ in His sweet death is another thing. If you have Christ, you have His sweet death. He and His sweet death are one. He is always in His sweet death for our enjoyment. Most Christians know that Christ died for us objectively on the cross, but who realizes that we have to die with Christ subjectively in order to enjoy Him? Paul says, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). This is to enjoy the crucified Christ.
To be resurrected with Him is to enjoy the resurrected life-giving Christ. To live in ascension is to enjoy Christ in the condition of ascension. We need to live in ascension as God’s new creation in resurrection. If we enjoy Christ in ascension, we also enjoy Him in resurrection as God’s new creation. Ascension, God’s new creation, and resurrection are one. Christ is not only in the conditions of His death, resurrection, and ascension but also in the condition of the life-giving Spirit. He is the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit of Jesus Christ to us. Where the Spirit is, Christ is, and it is in this Spirit that we enjoy Christ.
After the lover of Christ has experienced Christ in His sweet death and His fragrant resurrection, she determines to stay in the sweet death of Christ (the mountain of myrrh) and His fragrant resurrection (the hill of frankincense) until her Beloved comes back when the day dawns and the shadows flee away (S. S. 4:6). If we have Christ, we have His sweet death because He and His death are one. If we determine to stay in Christ, He is in His sweet death and in His fragrant resurrection. This is to enjoy Christ, to experience Christ. But we cannot experience Christ’s death and resurrection as something separate and apart from Christ. God in His economy does not want us to experience something of Christ. Instead, He determined that we have to enjoy Christ Himself in many things. The lover in Song of Songs did not care whether her Beloved was with her or not, as long as she remained on the mountain of myrrh and the hill of frankincense. However, if we are in Christ, if we have Christ with us, we will be in His death, resurrection, and ascension. Colossians 2:16-17 reveals that Christ is the reality of all positive things.
At this juncture her Beloved calls her to live in His ascension, as He had called her to remain in His cross. In Song of Songs 2:14 He called her to be with Him in the clefts of the rock and in the covert of the precipice. Now He calls her again to be with Him in His ascension instead of remaining on the mountain of myrrh and on the hill of frankincense.
Song of Songs 4:8 says, “Come with me from Lebanon, my bride; / With me from Lebanon come. / Look from the top of Amana, / From the top of Senir and Hermon, / From the lions’ dens, / From the leopards’ mountains.” Lebanon signifies ascension. In Christ’s ascension there are the positive peaks of reality, victory, and the destruction of the enemy. Amana means “truth, reality.” This is the truth, the reality, of the consummated Triune God; the all-inclusive Christ with His complete redemption; and the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving, sevenfold intensified Spirit. These realities are the three of the Triune God. Senir means “soft armor,” signifying that the war is over and victory has been gained. We do not need to wear the hard armor to fight. Satan is the defeated foe. We do not need to fight, because he has been defeated already (Heb. 2:14; Col. 2:15). We are now wearing the soft armor to enjoy our victory in Christ. Hermon means “destruction.” In ascension the enemy is destroyed.
With Christ Satan is a defeated foe, but with us he is still a troublesome one. Therefore, Ephesians 6 says that we need to wrestle with the evil one. Christ calls us to look from the heavenlies (v. 12), signified by the lions’ dens and the leopards’ mountains (S. S. 4:8b). Here are Satan and his subordinates (Eph. 6:12; 2:2). Here the believers fight with Satan and his power of darkness (6:12) by being empowered in the Lord and in the might of His strength (v. 10), by putting on the whole armor of God (vv. 11a, 13a), by standing against the stratagems of the devil (v. 11b), by receiving the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, the word of God (v. 17), and by praying always in spirit (v. 18a) for the building up of the Body of Christ and the spreading of the gospel (vv. 18b-20). This is the reality of living in the ascension of Christ.
For us to experience Christ we must see that the death, resurrection, ascension, and Spirit of Christ are one group. When I was a young Christian, I read some books which said that I had to be crucified with Christ, but I did not know how I could crucify myself. One day Brother Nee said that death by crucifixion can never be carried out by ourselves as suicide. There must be others who do the crucifying. Romans 8:13 says, “If by the Spirit you put to death the practices of the body, you will live.” According to this verse, we put to death the activities of the body not by ourselves but by the Spirit. Thus, it is by the Spirit that we crucify ourselves. Today, according to the New Testament, the Spirit is in our spirit (v. 16).
To know Christ in His death, His resurrection, His ascension, and His bountiful Spirit, we need to see that these four things are one. Death is a condition in which Christ died for us and with us, and resurrection is a condition in which Christ was resurrected by God from the dead to release the divine life. If we have Christ in these conditions, we enjoy Him. It is the same with ascension and the Spirit. We cannot separate Christ from His ascension or from the life-giving Spirit. Christ is the life-giving Spirit. If He were separate from the life-giving Spirit, He would no longer be pneumatic. We can live in ascension by living in the pneumatic Christ, the Christ who is the Spirit in our spirit.
In the Lord’s recovery our reading and studying of the Bible are unique. When we come to the Bible, we exercise our spirit to contact the Lord Himself in His Word by both reading and praying. We pray-read the Bible to receive life, light, and revelation from the Spirit in our spirit. This is our way of studying the Bible. If we practice this way of studying, every verse will become meaningful. Because of this, what we have learned of the Lord over these many years is altogether new.
