Message 102
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Scripture Reading: Exo. 26:36-37; 36:37-38; 40:5, 28
We have seen that in the tabernacle there were two curtains, one called the veil and the other called the screen. We need to pray for spiritual understanding concerning the veil and the screen, for they imply some very important things. They indicate that through His all-inclusive death Christ has become the entrance for God’s chosen people to come into the enjoyment of God.
The tabernacle signifies God’s dwelling place. But if we see only that the tabernacle is the dwelling place for God, our understanding will be superficial. We must go on to realize that a dwelling place is a place for enjoyment, not only for living. Your home is not simply the place where you live; it is also a place for enjoyment. To live without enjoyment is actually to suffer the killing of death. The reason people commit suicide is that they feel their living is meaningless, without any enjoyment. God’s dwelling place is the place for Him to be the enjoyment for His people. We may also say that it is the place where God’s chosen people participate in the full enjoyment of God Himself. It is crucial to see this matter.
The two curtains, the veil and the screen, signify Christ in two aspects of His humanity. Through His all-inclusive death, this Christ has become the entrance for God’s people to come into the enjoyment of God. The two curtains signify the unique Christ and also Christ’s all-inclusive death. Christ died to take away our sins through the judgment of God He suffered. This judgment is indicated by the brass sockets under the pillars supporting the screen. Christ was fully judged by God on our behalf. Of course, in Himself Christ had no reason to suffer God’s judgment. In every way He was right with God and with man. He never did anything to deserve God’s judgment. But He was judged by God because of our sins. He died for our sins. The judgment through which He passed has become the brass sockets as the base on which we stand. This means that we stand on the judgment Christ suffered for our sins. Paul preached this as the first aspect of the gospel. In 1 Corinthians 15:3 he says, “For I delivered to you, among the first things, that which also I received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” Thus, in the gospel preached by Paul we see, as the first item, that Christ died for our sins.
In the book of 2 Corinthians Paul goes deeper. We may say that 1 Corinthians is partially in the outer court and partially in the Holy Place. Second Corinthians, however, is in the Holy of Holies. In 2 Corinthians 5:14 Paul says that Christ died for all. Not only did He die for our sins — He died for us. In His death we also were crucified. His crucifixion thus included all His believers. For this reason, Paul concludes that because One has died for all, then all are dead. This is not the first item of the gospel. It is more of an inward matter than the outward matter of Christ dying for our sins. This outward matter brings us into the Holy Place, but the inward matter brings us into the Holy of Holies.
In contrast to 1 Corinthians, the book of 2 Corinthians does not reveal a life partly in the outer court and partly in the Holy Place; it reveals a life in the Holy of Holies, a life which has passed through the riven veil. Second Corinthians is a book of a life in the Holy of Holies. This life is a life of resurrection through crucifixion. As ministers of the New Testament, the apostles lived a crucified life for the manifestation of the resurrection life. Thus, they could enter the Holy of Holies, for they had passed through the two curtains; they had passed through the screen and the veil. This means that they had passed through the judgment of God upon Christ for their sins and also through the crucifixion of the flesh by the death of Christ. In 2 Corinthians 4:11 and 12 Paul says, “For we who live are always being delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death operates in us, but life in you.” Paul was daily delivered to death so that the resurrection life might be manifested in him. This indicates that he had passed through the riven veil in order to live in the Holy of Holies.
One aspect of Christ’s humanity is that of a screen. In His humanity the Person revealed, described, and portrayed in the four Gospels was a screen. If we read the Gospels from this angle, we shall see that Christ is a screen keeping all the negative things away from God’s dwelling place. The life described in the four Gospels is such a screen. Every negative thing and every negative person is screened out. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were screened out by the Person of Jesus Christ. Because the Lord Jesus was a screen, the Pharisees and Sadducees could not enter into the enjoyment of God.
Whenever a sinner meets the perfect humanity of the Lord Jesus, he is either screened out, or he is subdued and convinced to believe in Christ. If he believes in Him, the screen will immediately become an entrance through which he may come into the Holy Place, where he begins to enjoy God in Christ and to participate in the rich enjoyment of what Christ is. In the Holy Place such a redeemed sinner can enjoy Christ as the life supply, as enlightenment, and as his acceptance by God. This is not a mere doctrine; rather, it is a description of our experience. From experience we know that redeemed sinners can pass through the screen, enter the Holy Place, and enjoy all the riches of God in Christ.
After a period of time enjoying the riches in the Holy Place, a believer begins to realize that behind the veil there is something deeper, richer, and higher. He also realizes that his fallen nature, the flesh, is a separation, a veil. Even though he has enjoyed a rich portion of the Lord, now he knows that there is something richer that he is not yet able to touch because of this separating veil. Eventually, he sees in the Bible that Christ’s death not only deals with his sins, but also deals with the flesh. The Lord’s death has rent, torn, the flesh. Spontaneously, by the indwelling Spirit, such a believer crucifies his flesh; that is, he puts his fallen nature to death. Furthermore, the Spirit works to arrange circumstances which will cause him to be put into death. In this way he experientially passes through the riven veil. The chorus of a hymn says,
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!I have passed the riven veil,Here the glories never fail.
Hymns,#551
We may sing these words in a very superficial way without realizing what they mean. If we would pass through the riven veil, we need both the Spirit working within and the coordination of the circumstances outwardly. This is why in Romans 8 we have the Spirit and also all things (v. 28). The Spirit and all things work together to put us into the death of Christ so that we may pass through the riven veil and thereby enter into the Holy of Holies to enjoy God in full.
We have pointed out again and again that the two curtains, the screen and the veil, were attached to pillars. This indicates that today people can have an entrance into the enjoyment of God. Yes, Christ in His all-inclusive death is the entrance. Nevertheless, the entrance requires pillars to bear the testimony of the incarnated and crucified Christ. Without these pillars there is no way for the Christ who is the entrance into the enjoyment of God to be revealed to man. This means that there would be no place where He could show Himself to others. In the four Gospels Christ was the entrance into the enjoyment of God. But on the day of Pentecost the testimony of this Christ was borne by the one hundred twenty in Jerusalem. If it were not for the believers who bore the testimony of the incarnated and crucified Christ on the day of Pentecost, how could Christ reveal Himself to the people, and where could He be revealed? Would He be revealed on a mountain, or on the throne in the heavens? It is a fact that if there were no pillars to bear Him, He could not reveal Himself. Thus, on the day of Pentecost Christ was attached to the one hundred twenty, and they became pillars bearing the testimony of Christ. Therefore, it was possible for Christ to reveal Himself to sinners.
The three thousand who were added to the Lord on the day of Pentecost entered into the dwelling place of God, that is, into the enjoyment of God, not only through Christ Himself, but also through the one hundred twenty. These one hundred twenty had been attached to Christ, identified with Him. Thus, they and Christ were one. For this reason, the three thousand who believed on the day of Pentecost could enter into the enjoyment of God through Christ and through the one hundred twenty.
In the book of Acts we have the experience of the Holy Place and also the experience of the Holy of Holies. The so-called communal life recorded in chapters two and four is a life in the Holy Place. The first several chapters of Acts are a description of the enjoyment of Christ in the Holy Place. We know this by the fact that the flesh, the fallen nature, of certain believers still had not been dealt with. For example, Acts 6:1 says that “there was a murmuring of the Hellenists against the Hebrews, because their widows were overlooked in the daily dispensing.” Even though the believers had all things in common, they were still murmuring and striving. Having all things in common did not prevent quarreling and fighting. Thus, after chapter six of Acts, there is no further mention of the communal life. Because of the flesh, the communal living did not last. Furthermore, in Acts 5 we have the record of what was done by Ananias and Sapphira. We could say that they did not remain in the Holy Place, but went back to the outer court. Eventually, after a long period of time, we can find in Acts the implication that certain believers became not only the pillars at the entrance of the church life, but the pillars in the inner chamber. Through these pillars the saints who were living in the Holy Place had a way to enter into the Holy of Holies.
The Epistles written by Paul all had the Holy of Holies as the goal. In his Epistles Paul was trying to bring God’s people either from the outer court into the Holy Place or, as was more often the case, from the Holy Place into the Holy of Holies. Take the church in Corinth as an example. The majority of the saints were still in the outer court, and a minority were in the Holy Place. In 1 and 2 Corinthians Paul was endeavoring to bring all the saints into the Holy of Holies through the crucified Christ, the Christ who is the riven veil. Paul and his co-workers were the pillars on which Christ as the riven veil was hanging. They were the pillars not only at the entrance, but also in the inner chamber. On the one hand, they bore Christ as the first curtain, the screen; on the other hand, they bore Christ as the second veil, the riven veil. Therefore, with them there was an entrance for God’s chosen people to enter into the enjoyment of God.
It is crucial that we see the all-inclusive death of Christ. In particular, we need to see Christ’s death as portrayed in the tabernacle. To repeat, the record of the tabernacle is presented not only according to doctrine, but also according to spiritual experience. Christ’s unique death, as indicated by the two curtains, has two aspects: the objective aspect related to our sins and the subjective aspect related to our flesh. Writers such as Mrs. Jesse Penn-Lewis speak of the subjective death of Christ; that is, the death of Christ for us. In the book entitled Gospel Dialogue (p. 90), Brother Nee answers a question concerning the difference between Christ dying for us and Christ dying for our sins. The following is his answer:
“Christ died for us” means that Christ died for us sinners. The purpose of His death is to save us sinners. What He has accomplished is for us; that is, to gain us, and to deliver us from ourselves.
“Christ died for our sins” signifies that He died for the sins committed by us sinners. The purpose is to take away our sins so that they may be forgiven, and to save us from the penalty and the power of sin so that we are no longer under its dominion.
Generally, today’s Christians know only the first aspect of Christ’s death, that He died for our sins that we may be forgiven by God. They are not as familiar with the second aspect of His death, that He died for us that we may live to Him in the resurrection life (2 Cor. 5:14-15). In the first aspect of His death He bore our sins (1 Pet. 2:24); in the second He was made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21). This was the reason Mrs. Penn-Lewis was burdened to put out message after message concerning the subjective experience of the cross. To speak of the cross in this way is to speak of the subjective aspect of Christ’s death.
A. B. Simpson also knew the subjective aspect of the death of Christ. One of his hymns opens with these lines:
I am crucified with Christ,And the cross hath set me free.
Hymns,#482
Both the writings of Mrs. Penn-Lewis on the subjective experience of the cross and the hymns of A. B. Simpson on being crucified with Christ are neglected by Christians today. This indicates that a great many believers have only a superficial understanding of Christ’s death. Therefore, in His recovery the Lord is leading us into a deeper experiential understanding of the all-inclusive death of Christ.
