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We need to devote another message to the Captain of salvation. This is a great matter. The Captain of salvation is the One who leads us into glory. There is no problem with understanding the Captain; the difficulty is in understanding the meaning of glory. Although we spoke about glory in the previous message, because many of us are not clear about the true meaning of glory in the Bible, I am burdened to say something basic regarding glory in this message.
In the Bible, glory is God expressed. Whenever God is expressed, that is glory. But whenever God is hidden, concealed, there is no glory. When God is seen, there is glory. You can never see God without seeing His glory. While the unseen God is God, the seen God is glory. Glory was seen as the children of Israel journeyed from Egypt to the good land (Exo. 13:21). During the day God was seen as the cloud and during the night He was seen as the pillar of fire — that was glory. In the Gospel of John we read that the Word was God, that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and that we all beheld His glory (John 1:1, 14). John 1:18 says, “No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, Who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (Recovery Version). There is glory in the declaration of God. When we see God, we see glory.
Based upon this understanding of glory, we may ask, What is God’s eternal purpose? God’s eternal purpose is to express Himself in a corporate way. If you read Revelation carefully, you will see that the entire city of New Jerusalem bears the glory of God (Rev. 21:10-11). This means that the whole city will be the corporate expression of God. In the New Jerusalem, God is in the Lamb, and the Lamb is the lamp with God shining in and through Him as the light (Rev. 21:23, Gk.). Eventually, this light will shine through the wall of the city, a wall that is made of jasper, is crystal clear, and expresses God’s image. If you were to ask me what glory is, I would say that that is glory. To be brought into glory simply means to be brought into that glorious expression of God.
Since many of the new ones might not be familiar with this matter, let us examine the verses in Revelation more carefully. Revelation 21:11, a description of the New Jerusalem, says, “Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.” Verse 18 of the same chapter says, “And the building of the wall of it was of jasper.” The whole wall of the city is made of jasper, expressing the very image of God. If you read Revelation 4:3, you will see that God, the One sitting on the throne, has the appearance of jasper: “And He that sat was to look upon like a jasper.” God’s appearance is like jasper, and the city wall is made of jasper expressing the same appearance as God. This is the glory that the city bears. Such a glory is not an objective shining or brightness. The glory here is the divine reality expressed. The divine reality expressed through the corporate Body is glory. This is the glory that we are going to enter into. The glory into which we shall enter is not an objective shining or brightness; it is God Himself shining from, through, and out of us.
Where is the glory in the New Jerusalem? It is in the center, in the heart, of the city. God, the source of glory, is on the throne in the center of the New Jerusalem. God on the throne is the substance, essence, and element of glory. In Revelation 21 that glory is called the light (Rev. 21:23). That light is not a natural light, such as the sun, moon, and stars, nor a man-made light, such as a lamp. No, it is the divine light, God Himself. This is the source of glory. God as the light shines in and through the Lamb as the lamp, eventually shining through the entire city, causing the city to bear the appearance of God Himself. When we look at the New Jerusalem, we see the expression of God’s appearance, the light in the lamp shining through the jasper. This is glory. Glory is God expressed through His redeemed people. Oh, how we all need to see what this glory really is!
In these messages we have spoken much about crossing the river. We need to cross the river to the glory side, to the region of glory. But this does not mean that we shall enter glory in a physical sense and walk on golden streets. No, the things pertaining to God and to His eternal purpose are so mysterious, spiritual, and divine that no human words can illustrate them adequately and no human mind can comprehend them sufficiently. Because of this, the Bible uses symbols to represent the divine reality. When the Bible says that Christ is the Lamb, it does not mean, of course, that He is literally a lamb with four feet and a tail. When the Bible says that Christ is the Lamb of God (John 1:29), it is referring to the divine redemption.
As a whole, the Bible reveals that the Divine Being, the Almighty and mysterious God, wants to have a full expression through a corporate people. For this purpose, He created the universe, including the heavens and the earth. For this purpose, He specifically and especially created man as a corporate entity to contain Him, to be filled with Him, to live by Him, and to have his being by Him in order to express Him. Eventually, this corporate man will be the New Jerusalem as God’s corporate expression. God will be there as the center, essence, substance, content, life, and everything to this corporate man. God will be shining there. He will shine from within this corporate man and through this corporate man. God’s glory will be there, and all the members of this corporate man will be brought into that glory.
Now we are able to grasp the meaning of the glory into which we are being brought. This glory is not a mere objective shining; it is God Himself expressed. When God Himself comes into us, He is life; when He works in us, He is light; and when He is expressed in us, He is glory. This is God’s eternal goal into which He is leading us. God is now bringing us into the region of glory which is God Himself expressed.
Although God created man with such an intention and purpose, man has been ruined and corrupted. In a sense, ruined mankind has become Chaldea, Babylon, the land of idolatry. The Bible often uses lands and cities as figures to symbolize man. So Chaldea and Babylon signify the ruined and corrupted man filled with idolatry. Since man has fallen, there is the need to cross the river out of the corrupted land into the elevated, new land, that is, into an elevated, new mankind. So God came in and called Abraham out of that ruined mankind, that is, out of Chaldea, making him the head and father of the called race. Abraham crossed the river and became the first Hebrew, the first river crosser. Abraham’s crossing the river and entering into the new land signified his entering into an uplifted, new mankind which is to be used by God to be His expression.
God’s expression was symbolized by His temple, His habitation on earth. God’s intention in calling Abraham was to obtain such a habitation. Abraham’s being called was eventually for the producing, the building up, of God’s habitation. This is not a small thing. We must look at the Bible and the people in it as a whole, and not just consider a few individuals, such as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. What was God’s intention in calling Abraham? His intention was that all of Abraham’s descendants might be built up as a habitation of God on earth. Eventually, the result of Abraham’s being called was the temple. The crossing of the river was for the building of the temple. What is the significance of the building of the temple? It is the corporate expression of God. The temple, the habitation of God, is the corporate expression of God on earth. The temple was filled with the glory of God (1 Kings 8:10-11). When the temple was erected during the reign of Solomon, the shekinah glory filled it. At that time, all the children of Israel were brought into glory. The physical temple symbolized the people of Israel. God’s habitation on earth was not a house made of stone. That was only a symbol. The real habitation of God on earth at that time was the people of Israel. When God’s glory filled the temple, it signified that God’s glory had filled the children of Israel. The children of Israel were brought into glory. This is the real goal of crossing the river, the real goal of being a Hebrew.
If you know the kernel of the Bible, you will realize that everywhere there is a river for God’s people to cross. As I have already mentioned, there was a standing river, the laver, in front of the tabernacle (Exo. 40:30-32). Whenever a priest wanted to come into the presence of God, he had to pass that little river. To say that it was sufficient for the priests to wash themselves once and for all would be ridiculous. How many times did the priests have to be washed? It depended on how many times they went into the presence of God. Likewise, we need to be washed more than once. How many times do we need to be washed? Whenever we are dirty. To wash is just to cross the river. This washing will not be finished until we are on the sea of glass (Rev. 15:2-3). When we get into the New Jerusalem, there will be no more dust, only gold, pearl, and precious stones. There we shall never be dirty again. There will be no laver, no sea of glass, in front of the New Jerusalem. But there will be the lake of fire, and everything that has been washed away will go there. Now we understand what it means to cross the river; it is to wash ourselves from anything old, anything ruined, and anything that does not match God’s glory.
Abraham was called to cross the river. After that one, initial crossing of the river, how many crossings followed? Firstly, there was the crossing of the Red Sea and secondly the crossing of the Jordan River. At the time of the crossing of the Red Sea, the Egyptian forces were buried (Exo. 14:28). What was buried under the Jordan River? The self. When the children of Israel crossed the Jordan River, twelve stones, representing the old Israel, were buried there, and another group of twelve stones, representing the new Israel, were brought out of the river and set up in the good land (Josh. 4:8-9). We need to cross out of Egypt. We need to cross out of the Egyptian forces and Egyptian power. We need to cross out of the Egyptian department stores and modern fashions. Eventually, we need to cross out of ourselves. We need to cross the Red Sea and we need to cross the Jordan River. Then we shall have the temple built.
Do not think that after crossing the Red Sea and the Jordan River there are no more rivers to cross. Every time you desire to enter into the temple you need to cross the river — the laver. You still need to cross the sea of glass. Day by day and time after time, you need to cross the river to get into the Holy of Holies, into the presence of the shekinah glory, where God dwells. This is what it means to be brought into glory. The crossing of all the rivers brings us into glory, the glory that is God Himself expressed.
For this, we not only have the clear type of Abraham and his descendants consummating in the building of the temple, but we have a typical example — the Lord Jesus. The Lord as the Pioneer and Forerunner is the example, the model, of a person who has crossed the river and entered into God’s glory. He has crossed the river Jordan and has fully entered into the divine glory. He suffered and entered into glory (Luke 24:26; 1 Pet. 1:11).
What is this glory into which Christ has entered? It is the full expression of God. When the Lord was in the flesh, God was concealed within Him. Within Him was the seed of the divine glory. In Jesus, the Nazarene with blood and flesh, was the seed of God’s divine glory. But this glory was concealed within Him just like the glory of a carnation is concealed within the carnation seed. When the carnation seed falls into the earth, dies, and grows again until it reaches the stage of blossoming, the carnation seed will be brought into glory. Jesus was such a seed. He fell into the earth, died, and grew up (John 12:23-24). By His growing up, His whole being, including His humanity and His human nature, was brought into the glorious expression of God. That was His glory. The Lord suffered death, crossing the river of death, and entered into the glory, into the full expression of the Divine Being. What was typified by Abraham and by his descendants at the time of the building of the temple, was fulfilled in the Lord Jesus. After living on earth for thirty-three and a half years, the Lord fulfilled the type. Jesus crossed the river. He firstly crossed the river at the time of His baptism. For three and a half years after His baptism, He was continually crossing rivers. Eventually, on the cross, He crossed the death river. By crossing that ultimate river He entered into glory. The glory into which He entered is the reality of the expression of God’s divine being. After His resurrection, He was God’s glorious expression. That was the glory into which He entered. He is the example, the model, because He was the first One who pioneered into glory, the One who paved the way.
This Pioneer, this Forerunner, entered within the veil (Hebrews 6:19-20). What is the veil? The veil is that which separates us from God’s expression. Every river is a veil separating us from God’s expression. By passing through the Jordan, the river of death, Jesus entered within the veil. There within the veil is nothing but the expression of God. He is there now in glory. There is a man in the glory. This means that there is a man in God’s expression. Even more, there is a man who is God’s expression, a man who is God’s glory.
This wonderful man Jesus, who is the model, example, Forerunner, Pioneer, and Captain, one day entered into us. We might have been unconscious of it, but He entered into us. Although we may know that Jesus has entered into us, we probably do not know what kind of Jesus He is, for most believers understand Him according to a low level of gospel preaching. Who is this Jesus who has come into us? He is not only the Savior, He is the One who took the lead to run the race into glory, the One who has entered into the full expression of God, the One who, even today, is this full expression of God. This Jesus, who is God’s expression, the effulgence of God’s glory (Heb. 1:3), is the Jesus who has come into us. Therefore, Colossians 1:27 says, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” In the past, probably the most we could say was that Christ was the eternal life in us. If we did not have Colossians 1:27, we would never imagine that the Jesus who is in us is the hope of glory. Our hope of glory is just Christ Himself.
This glory is still a hope to us because, as yet, it has not come out of us. Once you sow a carnation seed into the earth, you have the hope of its blossoming. Though you cannot see it blossoming yet, you believe that it is going to blossom. Christ within us is the hope of glory. Since the seed of glory has been sown into us, we all hope to see it blossoming.
On the one hand, this wonderful One is within the veil, dwelling there in the expression of God and as the expression of God. On the other hand, He has come into us. We should not try to understand this with our little mind, saying, “Christ was within the veil and now He has come into me. Since He is in me, He must no longer be there.” That is our natural thought. We should not stay in our small mind — we must cross the river. We may use the example of electricity to illustrate how Christ can be there within the veil and here within us at the same time. The electricity is in the power plant as well as in our room. When the electricity comes into the room, it does not leave the power plant. Likewise, on the one hand, Christ is there within the veil and, on the other hand, He is within us. He does not have to leave the glory in order to come into us. While He is within the veil and within us, He is ministering from there to here. He entered within the veil as the Pioneer, the Forerunner, entering into the glory which is the full, glorious expression of the Divine Being. Now He is in glory as the Captain of our salvation. One day this Captain of salvation came into us. But in His coming into us He never left the glory. Rather, He brought the glory into us. This is wonderful. When the Captain of salvation came into us, the glory came with Him. In other words, the Captain of salvation came into us to be the glory. At the very least, He came in to be the seed of glory. Now we all have this seed of glory, that is, the Captain of salvation Himself, within us. Why is He called the Captain? Because He took the lead to pioneer the way into glory. Since He was the first to enter into glory, He, as our Forerunner, is fully qualified to be our Captain.
Now we are prepared to understand the matter of Jesus’ being perfected through sufferings (2:10). How is it that His sufferings qualified Him to be the Captain? Because without passing through sufferings He could not be in the glory, and, if He were not in the glory, He would not be perfected or qualified. But by passing through the sufferings He entered into glory. He is now fully qualified, fully perfected, to fulfill His office of Captain. Therefore, He can come into us as the Captain as well as the glory.
At this very moment, He is ministering from there to here. As He ministers to us in this way, He is not only the Captain but also the High Priest. He is the High Priest ministering Himself to us as bread and wine. The Lord continually ministers Himself to us as grace. First Peter 5:10 speaks of the God of all grace. When Paul was suffering because of a thorn in the flesh, he asked the Lord three times to remove it (2 Cor. 12:7-8). But the Lord answered Paul, saying, “My grace is sufficient for thee.” The Lord seemed to be telling Paul, “I shall not be so foolish as to take away the thorn. Rather, I shall afford you My sufficient grace. I shall minister Myself to you as the supply, as the grace, as the bread and wine, that will sustain and support you as you pass through all the sufferings. These sufferings will produce glory in you.”
Paul knew that sufferings help to bring us into glory and so he could say, “For which cause we faint not; but though our outer man is consumed, yet the inner man is being renewed day by day. For the present lightness of the affliction worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4:16-17, Gk.). In 2 Corinthians 4:17 Paul made a comparison, comparing the “present lightness of the affliction” with the “far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” He was saying that the eternal weight of glory far surpasses the present lightness of the affliction. Here we see three comparisons: affliction with glory, lightness with weight, and present with eternal. Whatever sufferings we pass through are the lightness. This present lightness of affliction cannot compare with the eternal weight of glory. Do not be troubled by your sufferings. Rather, you must tell Satan, “Satan, regardless of the sufferings that I am passing through, I am happy. This is not a weight; it is lightness.” Brothers and sisters, do you feel that you are under a heavy weight? Many sisters have come to me saying, “Brother, you don’t know how hard and heavy my situation is. You don’t know what a weight is on me.” Sisters, it is wrong to say this. Your suffering is not a weight; it is a lightness. The real weight is the glory. All our sufferings are just the lightness, the present lightness of the affliction that works for us the eternal weight of glory.
Once again we need to ask, “What is glory?” Glory is the expression of God. There is no need to wait for eternity to have the expression of God. Even today, after the saints have experienced a certain lightness of affliction, we may see the glory in them. I can testify that I have seen many dear saints who are like this. They have passed through sufferings and eventually the expression of God has come out of them. The more they suffer, the more they are brought into the expression of God. Not only in the future, but even now, the sufferings bring us into the expression of God. This is the weight of glory.
Romans 8:30 says that those “whom He justified, these He also glorified.” This does not mean to put us into glory. To put us into glory is one thing and to glorify us is another. Then 2 Thessalonians 1:10 says, “When He shall come to be glorified in His saints.” One day, at the right time, Christ will come to be glorified in us. This means that He will come out of us. If you know the Bible, you will realize that, on the one hand, Christ is coming from without, and that, on the other hand, He is coming from within us. He has been sown into us as the seed of glory. This seed will grow until it reaches the stage of blossoming. Then the glory will come out. I do believe in the literal second coming of the Lord. But in the Bible the concept of His coming is not that shallow. Why has the Lord not yet come? It is very easy for Him to come down from above. He can do it at any time. But it is not easy for Him to come out of us. Although He can come down from above at any time, where is the people out of whom He can come? It is very easy for Him to shine upon us, but it is difficult for Him to be glorified in us. It is easy for Him to put us into glory, but it is not so easy to glorify us. For example, if a person has a pale complexion, it is easy to color it by adding some outward coloring. But for his paleness to be inwardly transformed to pinkness needs time for growth. The Bible does say that God is leading many sons into glory, but it also says that He will glorify us. To glorify us means to have the glory that has been sown into us saturate our whole being. When our whole being has been permeated and saturated with the element of glory, that glory will come out of us. This is what it means to glorify us. When we experience this glorification, we shall be in the expression of God. At that time we shall be fully on the other shore, fully in the expression of God. This is our glory.
Now we understand what it means to enter into glory, what it means for God to lead us into glory. Praise the Lord that we are crossing the river! We are still crossing the river — crossing the river from old Christianity into the new church life, crossing the river from the old self into the new spirit, crossing the river from all things other than God Himself into the expression of God. Every day we are the real river crossers. Day by day we are crossing the river. Our Captain has passed over all the rivers. He has cut the way and now He is the Pioneer, the Forerunner, and the Captain leading us into glory. For this, He has come into us as the Captain and as the seed of glory. Even now He is ministering to us from God’s glory, ministering Himself into us as the bread and wine to sustain and support us. This is the Captain of salvation. While we are heading toward glory, the glory is within us. Praise Him!
