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In this lesson we will continue to see Christ as the portion of the saints for our experience and enjoyment.
Second Corinthians 4:6-7 says, "Because the God who said, Out of darkness light shall shine, is the One who shined in our hearts to illuminate the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not out of us." This shows that God's shining in our hearts brings into us a treasure, the Christ of glory, who is the embodiment of God to be our life and our everything. But we who contain this treasure are earthen vessels, worthless and fragile. A priceless treasure is contained in worthless vessels! Furthermore, out of these vessels the excellency of the divine power will be made manifest. This excellency of the power is of God and not out of us.
The indwelling Christ as the treasure in us, the earthen vessels, is the divine source of the supply of the Christian life. By the excellent power of this treasure we are able to experience the killing of the cross so that the resurrection life of Christ may be made manifest. Thus, we manifest the truth for the shining of the gospel. This is Christ as the treasure with the excellent power in the believers.
First Corinthians 2:10 says, "The Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God." According to the context of this verse, the depths of God refer to the deep things of God, which are Christ in many aspects as our eternal portion, foreordained, prepared, and given to us freely by God. These deep things have never arisen in man's heart but are revealed to us in our spirit by God's Spirit. The Spirit of God explores the depths of God concerning Christ and shows them to us in our spirit for our realization and participation. Hence, we must be spiritual in order to partake of them. We must move, act, and live in our spirit so that we may enjoy Christ as everything to us.
To know only that Christ is the Savior who died on the cross for our sins is superficial. But to know the depths of God, that is, to know Christ in many aspects as our eternal portion, is deep and mysterious. Christ, the all-inclusive and extensive One, is the center of God's economy, the wisdom of God in a mystery, predestined by God before the ages for our glory (v. 7). He was God incarnated to be a perfect man. Through His death on the cross He terminated the old creation and released the divine life that it might be imparted to all those who believe in Him. Now, in resurrection He is the life-giving Spirit who indwells our spirit and who has become one spirit with us. In our intimate fellowship with God, when we love Him and our entire being becomes one with Him, through His Spirit God will reveal in our spirit all the secrets of Christ as our allotted portion. Thus, we not only realize but also experience, enjoy, and fully participate in the deep and hidden things of God.
First Peter 2:21 says, "Christ also suffered on your behalf, leaving you a model so that you may follow in His steps." Here, the Greek word for model literally means "a writing copy, an under-writing (used by students to trace letters and thereby learn to draw them)." The Lord has set His suffering life before us as an under-writing so that we can copy it by tracing and following His steps. This does not refer to a mere imitation of Him and His life but to a reproduction of Him that comes from enjoying Him as grace in our sufferings, so that He Himself as the indwelling Spirit, with all the riches of His life, multiplies (reproduces) Himself in us. We need to become a reproduction of Him as the original writing-copy, not a mere imitation of Him by taking Him as our outward model.
Hebrews 12:2 says, "Looking away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith." The Greek word for author may also be rendered "originator," "inaugurator," "leader," "pioneer," "forerunner." Jesus is the Author of our faith. He is the Originator, the Inaugurator, the source, and the cause of our faith. In our natural man we have no believing ability. We do not have faith by ourselves. The faith by which we are saved is the precious faith that we have received from the Lord (2 Pet. 1:1). When we look unto Jesus, He as the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) transfuses us with Himself, with His believing element. Then, spontaneously a kind of believing arises in our being, and we have the faith to believe in Him. This faith is not of ourselves but of Him who imparts Himself as the believing element into us that He may believe for us. Hence, the Lord Himself is our faith.
Once Christ has originated this faith within us, He will finish it. In this verse, the Greek word for perfecter may also be rendered "finisher," "completer." Jesus is the Finisher, the Completer, of faith. He will finish what He originated. He will complete what He inaugurated. He cut the way of faith and, as the Forerunner, He took the lead to pioneer it. Hence, He can carry us in His footsteps through the pathway of faith. He is the Originator of faith in His life and in His path on earth, and He is the Perfecter of faith in His glory and on His throne of glory. As we look to Him, turning away from other goals and gazing on Him with our full concentration, He transfuses and even infuses us with the faith that He originated and perfected until He will finish and complete the faith that we need for the running of the heavenly race.
Hebrews 2:10 says, "For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in leading many sons into glory, to make the Author of their salvation perfect through sufferings." The last step of God's great salvation is to bring His many sons into glory. In order to accomplish this, God needs an example, a model, to be the Author of salvation. Hence, He made Jesus perfect through sufferings. However, this does not mean that there was any imperfection of virtue or attribute in Jesus, but only that the completing of His experience of human sufferings was needed to make Him fit to become the Author, the Leader, of His followers' salvation. As the self-existing and ever-existing God, the Lord Jesus is complete from eternity to eternity. However, He needed to be perfected through the processes of incarnation, the partaking of human nature, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension that He might be qualified to be God's Christ and our Savior.
The salvation spoken of here saves us from our fallen state into glory. Jesus, as the Pioneer, the Forerunner (Heb. 6:20), took the lead to enter into glory, and we, His followers, are taking the same way to be brought into the same glory, which was ordained by God for us (1 Cor. 2:7; 1 Thes. 2:12). He cut the way, and we are now taking the way. Hence, He is not only the Savior who saved us from our fallen state but also the Author, the Pioneer, who took the lead to enter into glory that we may be brought into the same estate.
Hebrews 6:19-20 says, "Which we have as an anchor of the soul, both secure and firm and which enters within the veil, where the Forerunner, Jesus, has entered for us, having become forever a High Priest according to the order of Melchisedec." Anchor signifies that we are on a stormy sea. As the Forerunner, the Lord Jesus took the lead to pass through the stormy sea and enter the heavenly haven. As such a Forerunner, He cut the way to glory. The heavens (4:14; 9:24), into which the Lord Jesus entered, are today the Holy of Holies within the veil. Our hope, as a secure and firm anchor, has entered there, and we may now enter there in our spirit (10:19-20). Therefore, we need to follow Him in our spirit and go on to enter the Holy of Holies that we may reach God's New Testament goal.
Hebrews 3:1 says, "Consider the Apostle...of our confession, Jesus." The Apostle is the One who was sent to us from God and with God (John 6:46; 8:16, 29). As the Apostle, Christ came to us with God to share God with us that we may partake of His divine life, nature, and fullness. This is typified by Moses, who came from God to serve the house of God. Christ as the Apostle was sent to take care of and to be over the house of God. In His humanity Christ is the good material for God's building, and in His divinity He is the Builder. He is not only a part of God's house; He is even the Builder of God's house. Today in the church as the house of God we may practically enjoy and experience Christ as such an Apostle.
Hebrews 4:14 says, "Having therefore a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast the confession." The Lord Jesus first was sent from God to us through incarnation to be our Apostle, our Author, and our Leader. He then went back from us and with us to God through resurrection and ascension to be our High Priest to bear us in the presence of God and to care for all our needs.
As our great High Priest, Christ is excellent, wonderful, glorious, and most honorable. He is great in His person, work, and attainment. He is the God-man, who is merciful and faithful (Heb. 2:17) and who is fully qualified to be our High Priest, continually ministering God and the riches of God's life to us. He was appointed the High Priest not according to the powerless letters of law but according to the powerful element of an indestructible life (7:16), which nothing can destroy or dissolve. This life is endless, being the eternal, divine, uncreated life and the resurrection life, which passed through the test of death and Hades (Acts 2:24; Rev. 1:18). It is by such a life that Christ ministers today as our High Priest.
"Hence also He is able to save to the uttermost those who come forward to God through Him, since He lives always to intercede for them" (Heb. 7:25). Christ as our High Priest undertakes our case by interceding for us. He appears before God on our behalf and prays for us that we may be saved and brought fully into God's eternal purpose. "For such a High Priest was also fitting to us, holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners and having become higher than the heavens" (v. 26). In His ascension Christ passed through the heavens, and He is higher than the heavens, far above all the heavens. Christ, as the High Priest in the heavens, brings us into heaven, from the earthly outer court into the heavenly Holy of Holies. As the One who ministers as a priest in heaven, Christ is the Minister of the heavenly tabernacle (Heb. 8:2), who ministers heaven (which is not only a place but also a condition of life) into us that we may have the heavenly life and power to live a heavenly life on earth, as He did while He was here.
In 2 Corinthians 11:2 Paul said, "For I am jealous over you with a jealousy of God; for I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ." Christ is the unique Husband to us, the believers, and we have been betrothed as a virgin to Him. Therefore, we should belong only to Him, and we should present ourselves to Him to love Him, to appreciate Him, and to enjoy Him as our life and everything. We should not allow anything to replace His position in our hearts. When our entire being is focused on Him, is attracted by Him, and is single and pure toward Him, we will be preserved and be sanctified unto Him and will enjoy Him as our unique portion.
Christ, our portion, is not only our Husband but also our Bridegroom. In the Gospel of John, John the Baptist introduced the Lord Jesus as the Lamb of God (1:29), who takes away the sin of the world, and as the Bridegroom, who has the bride (3:29) and who is the most pleasant One. Through regeneration we, the believers in Christ, not only receive the life of God and have the satanic nature in our flesh annulled, but also have become a corporate bride as Christ's counterpart for Christ's increase. As the unique, genuine Bridegroom in the universe, Christ is our attraction, delight, and satisfaction.
Christ to us is the treasure with the excellent power. He as the embodiment of God enters into us, the earthen vessels, to be our life and everything, and from these earthen vessels He will manifest the divine power of excellency. He is also the depths of God, foreordained, prepared, and given to us freely by God as our eternal portion. He is also our model who, with all the riches of His life, is reproducing Himself in us that we may become His reproduction for His expression. He is also the Author and Perfecter of faith to transfuse us with the faith that He has originated and perfected until He finishes the faith that we need for the running of the heavenly race. He is also the Author of salvation, who was made perfect through sufferings and who took the lead to enter into glory. Now we, as His followers, are taking the same way and will be brought by Him into the same glory ordained by God for us. He is also the Forerunner, who took the lead to pass through the stormy sea and enter the heavenly haven, the Holy of Holies within the veil. Now we need to follow Him in our spirit and go on to enter the Holy of Holies that we may reach God's New Testament goal. He is also the Apostle, who came to us with God to share God with us that we may partake of His divine life, nature, and fullness. He is also the High Priest, who went back from us and with us to God to bear us in the presence of God and to care for all our needs. He is great, merciful, and faithful, and He is always living to intercede for us to save us to the uttermost. He is also our unique Husband; we should belong only to Him, love Him, appreciate Him, and enjoy Him as our life and everything. He is also the Bridegroom, and we, the believers in Christ, are the corporate bride. Hence, He is our attraction, delight, and satisfaction.
