Message 88
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Scripture Reading: Exo. 25:17-22
In this message we shall continue to consider the significance of the ark of the testimony, especially the propitiatory cover on the ark, for our spiritual experience. In the foregoing message we saw that the ark with the propitiatory cover sprinkled by the redeeming blood is a portrait of the Christ who dwells in our spirit.
Although the record in 25:17-22 is brief, it involves a lengthy historical background. In eternity God, for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose, created the heavens and the earth with man as the center. According to Zechariah 12:1, the Lord stretched forth the heavens, laid the foundation of the earth, and formed the spirit of man within him. The spirit of man is the organ to receive God and contain Him. Because God’s intention is to dispense Himself into man, man needs a spirit in order to receive God.
Before God dispensed Himself into man’s spirit, Satan intervened to inject himself into the man created by God. When man ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Satan entered into man. In Romans chapters five, six, and seven, indwelling sin refers to Satan who injected himself into man. Romans 5:12 says, “Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin; and so death passed to all men because all have sinned.” The tree of life in the garden indicates that God’s intention is to dispense Himself into man to be man’s life. However, God knew that His enemy would act first to work himself into man. Satan as this evil source is indicated by another tree, called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When man ate of this tree, he was poisoned by Satan. In fact, Satan became the sinful nature of fallen man. Because man had fallen by eating of the tree of knowledge, God closed the way to the tree of life. Genesis 3:24 says, “So he drove out the man: and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”
In the book of Revelation we once again read of the tree of life. In Revelation 2:7 the Lord Jesus makes this declaration: “To him who overcomes, to him I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” Revelation 22:2, 14, and 19 also speak of the tree of life. Verse 14 says, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have right to the tree of life.” All these verses indicate that something has happened to open the way to the tree of life.
Who opened the way? How was the way opened, and when? In Hebrews 10:19 and 20 we have the answer to these questions: “Having therefore, brothers, boldness for entering the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He dedicated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh.” The living way, the way to the tree of life, has been opened by the blood of Jesus. This opened way has now become the new and living way for us to come into the Holy of Holies. Therefore, through the redeeming blood of Christ we can once again enjoy the tree of life.
A certain well-known Bible teacher has said that the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were both unusual trees, but that he could not say much about these trees because they are no longer in existence. According to this Bible teacher, these two trees have been removed from the scene. But according to the Bible, the tree of life will exist for eternity. Nineteen hundred years ago, when the Lord put forth the epistles to the seven churches, He promised that the overcomers would be given to eat of the tree of life. If this tree were no longer in existence, if it had been removed from the scene, how would it be possible for the overcomers to eat of it? How could all the believers have access to it in the New Jerusalem?
Many believers today have religion, ethics, and morality. But in their experience they do not have the tree of life. As far as they are concerned, it seems that the tree of life does not exist. Hallelujah, we have the tree of life, and we eat of this tree and enjoy it! We praise the Lord for the new and living way back to the tree of life through the redeeming blood of Christ. If we would properly appreciate the Christ who lives in us, we need to understand this historical background.
Suppose a person who is a typical sinner one day hears the gospel, repents, confesses his sinful deeds, and believes in the Lord Jesus. After he repents, confesses, and believes, God meets with him, and he with God. Furthermore, Christ comes into him as the One typified by the ark with all its aspects. When Christ died on the cross, He was the Lamb for redemption. But when He comes into a believer’s spirit, He comes not only as the Lamb, but also as the ark. Today, due to their limited understanding and the inadequacy of much gospel preaching, most Christians only realize that Christ is the Lamb. Very few know that this Lamb has become in them the indwelling ark with many marvelous aspects.
I can testify that I enjoy Christ in a very rich way as the ark. To me, Christ as God’s testimony is a precious container with God’s portrait concealed inside. He also has a covering with a crown. This crown is the top part of my Christ. On this top part the redeeming blood has been sprinkled. No matter how many failures and defeats I have and no matter how many mistakes I make, I can still enjoy Christ because I am standing on the blood.
If we are short of the proper knowledge, we may speak of being under the blood. Actually, the Bible does not say that the believers are under the blood. We have the blood as our ground and standing. Likewise, according to the type of the ark of testimony with the propitiatory cover, God is not under the blood, but is standing on the blood. If we have Christ as the ark, we also have the redeeming blood.
No words can describe the glory we experience when we meet with God upon Christ as the propitiatory cover. Although we may not have the understanding or the words, we have a deep sense of peace and the realization we are experiencing something glorious. Often as we meet with the Lord, we are repentant and say to Him, “O Lord, forgive me. I am so evil. I have been a Christian for many years, but I am still sinful.” But even as we are repenting and begging the Lord for forgiveness, we have the sense within of something glorious. On the one hand, we confess that we are evil, pitiful, and full of failures and defeats. On the other hand, deep within we have peace and joy. Outwardly we may weep, but inwardly we sense a deep rejoicing. This inner sense comes from the blood and the glory in the midst of which God meets with us.
When we spend time with the Lord in the Holy of Holies, we are infused by Him with all He is. We may illustrate this by the case of a young man who spends an hour in conversation with a famous university professor. After this hour spent in the presence of such a professor, many things from that person will be infused into the young man. He may even unconsciously imitate the professor’s way of speaking. How much more will the Lord infuse Himself into us if we spend an hour of fellowship with Him!
We need to enjoy Christ as the ark in our spirit, which, in our experience, is the Holy of Holies. Whenever we come to Christ, to the ark in the Holy of Holies, two things are before our eyes: the redeeming blood and the cherubim of glory. Because we have the blood as our ground and standing, we may meet with God in glory. It is impossible to come to the ark with the blood and the cherubim and fail to meet with God. We know from our experience that whenever we come to Christ with the realization of the blood and the glory, we have the sense that God is present. Even though we may not have many words before the Lord, we are infused with Him.
Recently we have spoken a great deal about living Christ. But if we do not experience Christ as the indwelling ark and if we are not infused with Him, we shall not be able to live Him. Living Christ is the spontaneous issue of being infused with Him. According to 25:22, God not only meets with man on the propitiatory cover, but speaks with him “from above the propitiatory cover, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony.” Whenever God meets with us, He also speaks to us. It is not possible to meet with God without having His speaking. Hence, we are not only infused by Him — we also are enlightened. We are instructed concerning what to do and where to go. As a result, our living and activities are according to God’s revelation. Then we shall not live in a way which is merely moral or ethical, religious or devotional. Those who simply have religious behavior or devotional activity do not experience Christ as the living ark. This is why we say that Christ is different from religion, morality, ethics, and so many good aspects of culture. Christ, and Christ alone, is the living ark.
I wonder how much you have seen of Christ as the indwelling ark and how deep an impression this has made on you. In our spiritual life we must learn to speak of Christ in this way. But because of the influence of our culture, tradition, background, and terminology, we easily neglect this fact. We may have a little enjoyment of Christ as the ark, but then automatically we revert to living according to ethics, morality, religion, or devotion. We may also endeavor to live according to Scripture, without living according to the Christ who has been infused into us. What a pitiful situation! To be ethical, religious, moral, and devotional is one thing. But to enter into the Holy of Holies and enjoy Christ as the living ark is another thing altogether.
In Colossians 1:25 Paul speaks of completing the word of God, of completing the divine revelation. Actually, the completing ministry of Paul is to reveal Christ to us as the indwelling ark with all His aspects.
However, not even Paul’s completing ministry made these things as clear as John’s mending ministry made them. The mending ministry was needed because of the damage caused to the church life in the latter decades of the first century. The Gospel of John opens with the words, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (1:1). John 1:14 says that this Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace and truth, and John 1:29 says, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” As the Lamb of God, Christ shed His blood for our redemption. In John 17 we have the glory, the cherubim. Verse 1 says, “These things Jesus spoke, and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You.” According to verse 22, the Lord prayed, “And the glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one.” In verse 24 the Lord Jesus went on to pray that we would be with Him where He is in glory: “Father, I desire that those whom You have given Me may also be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me.” In his first Epistle John speaks of the word of life and of the fellowship with the Father and the Son (1 John 1:1-3). Following this, he says, “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin” (v. 7). In all these verses we have life, blood, fellowship, and glory.
As we have pointed out, the book of Revelation speaks of the tree of life. Furthermore, as we read through this book, we can see the redeeming blood and also Christ with the cherubim. For example, Revelation 1:5 says that Christ has loosed us from our sins by His blood, and 5:9 declares that He purchased us to God by His blood. According to Revelation 12:11, by the blood of Christ the Lamb we may overcome the enemy, the accuser of the brothers. Regarding Christ with His glory, we should consider the vision of Christ in Revelation 1. Here we see Christ not with a crown of thorns, but with the shining of His glory.
We need to read the Gospel of John, the First Epistle of John, and Revelation to see how these books cover every aspect of Christ as the ark of the testimony. Instead of concentrating on such things as foot-washing in John 13 and the horns in Revelation 13, we should pay attention to the words life, blood, fellowship, and glory. I, of course, do not deny that the Bible mentions foot-washing and the seven heads with the ten horns. However, I do not pay nearly as much attention to such things as I do to Christ. When we are in the New Jerusalem, we shall be fully occupied with Christ, not with foot-washing, teachings, or prophecy. How pitiful that so many Christians pay more attention to these things than to Christ as the living ark of God!
Revelation 22:1 and 2 say, “And he showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb in the middle of its street. And on this side and on that side of the river was the tree of life.” Revelation 21:11 speaks of the glory of the New Jerusalem: “Having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, as a jasper stone, clear as crystal.” We know from Revelation 21:21 that “the street of the city was pure gold as transparent glass,” and from 21:23, that the city “has no need of the sun nor of the moon that they should shine in it, for the glory of God illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb.” In the New Jerusalem the Lamb-God is sitting on the throne, and flowing out from the throne is the river of living water. On either side of the river grows the tree of life, and the entire transparent city shines with God’s glory. If we consider this picture with spiritual understanding, we shall see that the New Jerusalem will be the ultimate and consummate issue of the experience of Christ as the ark. It will even have a cap, a crown — Christ shining with God’s glory.
Oh, we all must have this heavenly vision! I hope that we all shall have a vision that is beyond description. We all need to see something which is beyond our capacity to describe adequately. If this is our experience, then what we have seen is genuine.
Both the completing ministry of Paul and the mending ministry of John speak of the things related to Christ as the ark with the propitiatory cover. In a foregoing message we saw that in Romans 3:25 Paul says concerning Christ, “Whom God set forth a propitiation-cover through faith in His blood.” God has set forth Christ Jesus as a propitiatory cover. As the propitiation cover, Christ is the One who shed His blood and who shines with the glory of God.
The Greek word rendered propitiation-cover in Romans 3:25 is hilasterion. It refers to the place of propitiation. For this reason, in Hebrews 9:5 it is used for the cover, the lid, of the ark. In Exodus 25:17-22 and Leviticus 16:12-16, the Septuagint also uses this word for the cover of the ark. In Hebrews 2:17 Paul uses the Greek word hilaskomai, which means to appease, to reconcile one by satisfying the other’s demand; hence, it means to propitiate. According to Hebrews 2:17, the Lord Jesus made propitiation for our sins to reconcile us to God by satisfying God’s righteous demands on us. Both in 1 John 2:2 and 4:10 the Greek word hilasmos is used. This word denotes something which propitiates, that is, a propitiatory sacrifice. In 1 John 2:2 and 4:10 the Lord Jesus is the propitiatory sacrifice for our sins. Therefore, two apostles, the completing apostle and the mending apostle, used Greek words related to propitiation. Both were concerned with matters related to Christ as the living ark.
Translators sometimes have had difficulty with the words hilasterion, hilasmos, and hilaskomai. Hilasterion denotes the place of propitiation; hilasmos denotes a propitiatory sacrifice; and hilaskomai means to propitiate. Propitiation is needed when one party is indebted to another and unable to meet that party’s demands and requirements. Should a third party appear on the scene, he may solve the problem between the first two parties by paying what the first party owes and causing the second party to be satisfied with this payment. This is precisely what the Lord Jesus did in offering Himself as the propitiatory sacrifice to solve our problems with God.
We praise the Lord that Christ is not only the One who propitiates and the propitiatory sacrifice, but even the place of propitiation, the propitiatory cover. Here God is satisfied, and we are happy. Here on the propitiatory cover God can meet with us and speak with us. Therefore, with Christ as the propitiatory cover of the ark, God and man can meet and have fellowship under a mutually satisfying situation.
The two cherubim of glory with their faces toward the propitiatory cover signify that God’s glory has been satisfied with what Christ has done. The propitiatory blood sprinkled upon the propitiatory cover (Lev. 16:14-15) satisfies the requirements of God’s law under the cover and God’s glory above the cover and thus gives peace to man’s conscience.
Inside the ark, under the propitiatory cover, is the law with its demands, which exposed us and condemned us. Furthermore, above the propitiatory cover is God’s glory watching and observing everything that takes place. But through Christ both the demands of God’s law and the requirements of God’s glory have been satisfied. Now we can meet with God in glory on the propitiatory cover sprinkled with the blood. By the lid of the ark with the redeeming blood sprinkled on it the whole situation on the sinner’s side is fully taken care of. Therefore, upon this lid as the propitiatory cover, God can meet with the people who broke His righteous law without any governmental contradiction of His righteousness, even under the observing of the cherubim, which bear His glory overshadowing the lid of the ark. Because the law with its demands is covered and God’s glory is satisfied, God can speak with sinners, and these sinners can be at peace with God and receive grace from Him. Therefore, this propitiatory cover equals the throne of grace (Heb. 4:16).
When we look at the redeeming blood on the propitiatory cover, our conscience is at peace. We know that Christ died for us and that the blood, the emblem of His death, has been sprinkled for us on the propitiatory cover to satisfy the requirements of God’s righteousness. At such a time God may ask, “Child, are you happy?” and we may respond, “Oh, yes, I am very happy, Father.” Then the Father may say, “I am much happier than you are. Let us embrace and enjoy intimate fellowship.” This is the experience and enjoyment of Christ as the propitiatory cover on the ark of the testimony.
This vision of Christ as the ark with the propitiatory cover is wonderful and inexhaustible. I hope that after hearing of such a Christ, the Christ who lives in you will become much more precious to you than ever before. The Christ who dwells in us is not simply the Lamb; He is the ark with the cap, the top part. He is the all-inclusive Christ living in us for our continual enjoyment and experience. Because we have such a Christ, we need not be troubled by anything. God’s righteousness does not condemn us. On the contrary, His glory justifies us, and God Himself is happy, knowing that everything between us and Him is in harmony and that we can freely enjoy a mutually satisfying fellowship.
The result of this intimate fellowship with God upon Christ as the ark in the Holy of Holies is that we are infused with God. When we contact God in this way and are infused with Him, we are different from what we were before. Eventually, when we enter into the Holy of Holies to be infused time after time, we shall be transformed and become transparent. The ultimate issue will be the New Jerusalem. This is the experience of Christ as the ark of the testimony.
