According to the whole revelation of the Bible, God’s salvation is of three stages. It is a matter of a gradual process.
The salvation which God intended for the children of Israel to partake of was related to three places: Egypt, from which they were delivered; the wilderness, in which they wandered; and Canaan, into which they entered. Their history in these three places signifies the three stages of their participation in God’s full salvation. The children of Israel did not partake of the whole of God’s salvation in one place.
In Egypt, the Israelites participated in the first stage of God’s salvation. At the time of the Passover, they experienced the redeeming blood of the lamb (Exo. 12:7) and the nourishing meat of the lamb (Exo. 12:8) and were saved from God’s righteous judgment. When they made their exodus out of Egypt and crossed the Red Sea, they were saved from Egyptian slavery and tyranny. After crossing the Red Sea, they were a released and liberated people. In this sense, they all were saved. No one can deny that they had been saved from God’s judgment and from Egyptian bondage, tyranny, and slavery. However, they had only shared in one-third of God’s full salvation. Although they had been saved from God’s judgment and from Pharaoh’s slavery, what about God’s eternal purpose? What about God’s expression and dominion? With the children of Israel at that time, there was not yet the divine expression nor the divine dominion. The tabernacle had not yet been erected, and God’s divine government had not been established on earth. Although the children of Israel had been saved from Egypt, they had to experience two further stages of God’s salvation for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose.
After the Israelites were saved from Egypt where they ate the Passover lamb and the unleavened bread, they experienced salvation through the wilderness. Although they had had a sweet enjoyment of Christ, typified by the lamb in Egypt, that was merely the initial stage, the beginning. They had to enjoy, partake of, and experience Christ more, as typified by the manna and the rock flowing with living water. After the exodus from Egypt, God brought them into the second stage, which was signified by the wilderness. In the wilderness they enjoyed the feeding manna (Exo. 16:31-32) and the quenching water (Exo. 17:6).
Because of the influence of past teaching, whenever we hear the word wilderness we think of it as a bad word. Although it is not a good word, it is not altogether bad. If you consult a map, you will see that the children of Israel could not have gone from Egypt into the good land without passing through the wilderness. The wilderness was bad because the children of Israel did not go directly through it into Canaan but wandered in it for over thirty-eight years. It was that waste of time which made the wilderness so bad. If, however, they had crossed the Red Sea and gone directly through the wilderness into the good land, the wilderness would have been a good word. That the wilderness was not altogether bad is proved by the fact that there the Israelites enjoyed the manna and the water from the rock, both of which were types of Christ.
After wandering in the wilderness, the children of Israel crossed the Jordan River and entered into the good land of Canaan, the third stage of their salvation. Here, in the third stage, in the good land, they enjoyed something more than the lamb, the unleavened bread, the manna, and the water — they enjoyed the rich produce of the land of Canaan. Although they had eaten manna daily in the wilderness for nearly forty years, immediately after they entered into the good land, the manna ceased and they began to enjoy the rich produce of the all-inclusive land (Josh. 5:11-12). The Passover lamb, the heavenly manna, the living water, and the produce of the good land of Canaan are all types of the different aspects of the riches of Christ. If the children of Israel had only been saved in Egypt, they would have never tasted the manna. If they had not entered into the land of Canaan, they would never have enjoyed the rich produce of the good land. Hallelujah for the rich enjoyment of Christ in the various stages of salvation!
In the third stage of their salvation, salvation into Canaan, the Israelites entered into the rest (Deut. 12:9). All the rich enjoyment of Christ in the three stages of salvation is for the securing of the good land and the building up of the temple that there might be the expression of God and the divine government of God among men on earth. The full salvation of God with the rich enjoyment of Christ is for God’s expression and kingdom. Salvation from Egypt, through the wilderness, and into the good land is absolutely for God’s expression and kingdom. As we have seen, where there is God’s expression and kingdom, there is the Sabbath rest. When God’s glory filled His house, the temple, all His people rested in His presence. That was a Sabbath to God and to His saved people. Therefore, we clearly see that the three stages of God’s salvation are for His expression and kingdom so that God may have rest with His saved people.
As we have pointed out, God’s full salvation, which He intended for the children of Israel, included redemption through the Passover lamb, exodus from Egypt, feeding by the heavenly manna, thirst-quenching by the living water from the cleft rock, and partaking of the riches of the good land of Canaan. All the Israelites shared in the Passover lamb, the heavenly manna, and the living water, but of those who shared the exodus from Egypt only Joshua and Caleb entered into the good land and partook of it; all the rest fell in the wilderness (Num. 14:30; 1 Cor. 10:1-11). Though all were redeemed, only the two overcomers, Joshua and Caleb, received the prize of the good land.
The Passover lamb, the heavenly manna, the living water, and the good land of Canaan are all types of the different aspects of Christ. According to what has been depicted of the children of Israel, not all believers who have been redeemed through Christ will partake of Christ as a prize to them as their rest, their satisfaction, both in the church age and in the coming kingdom. Only those who, after being redeemed, seek Christ diligently will do so. This is why the Apostle Paul, though fully redeemed, was still pressing toward the mark that he might gain Christ as the prize (Phil. 3:10-14). In Philippians 3, Paul tells us that he was in Judaism but that for Christ’s sake he gave it up (vv. 4-9). Here in the book of Hebrews the writer holds the same concept in encouraging the Hebrew believers to forsake Judaism and press toward Christ that they may not miss the prize.
According to the type of the salvation of the children of Israel, the salvation of the New Testament believers is also in three stages. Firstly, we experience salvation from the world. We are justified through the blood of Jesus (Rom. 3:22-25) and separated from the world (Gal. 1:4; 6:14). If anyone has not made his exodus from the world, he has not completed the first stage of his salvation. The salvation offered in Christianity is mainly a salvation with justification by faith through the blood of Christ, but without an exodus. Today there are millions of real Christians who have been justified by faith through the blood of Christ but who are still in the world. They need an exodus. We praise the Lord that we are out of the world, which includes religion. We are out of Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism.
The second stage of our salvation is salvation through the soul, which includes being sanctified (Rom. 6:19, 22) and being transformed (Rom. 12:2). Many think that the word soul is not a good word. We should not say this. The soul may be either very good or very bad. The New Testament reveals that after we have been justified and regenerated, we need to be sanctified and transformed. In the past years, it has been made clear that transformation, including sanctification, concerns our soul. Our soul, that is, our being, must be sanctified and transformed, saturated with all that Christ is. The very essence, element, and substance of Christ in our spirit must spread into our soul. Undoubtedly, Christ’s divine essence has been sown into our spirit. Now it must permeate and saturate our soul until our soul is completely transformed by His divine element. Transformation is not merely a change; it means that the divine essence of Christ is wrought into us. Andrew Murray used the word “woven,” saying that something of Christ is woven, like textile, into us. During the early years of our ministry we also used this expression as an illustration. Although it is not wrong, we cannot find such a term in the Bible. Instead, the Bible uses the words mingling or mingled.
Leviticus 2:4, speaking of the meal offering, says that fine flour is to be mingled with oil. The word mingled, a biblical term, is much better than the term woven. Consider the picture of the meal offering in Leviticus 2. Fine flour is mingled, that is, permeated and saturated with oil. Eventually, the fine flour is transformed, not by changing itself but by having the oil mingled with it. The fine flour signifies humanity and the oil signifies divinity. God’s intention in His economy is that our humanity be mingled with His divinity. We, the fine flour, and He, the oil, shall be mingled together. When the fine flour is mingled with the oil, both the fine flour and the oil still have their own substance. Likewise, in the mingling of divinity with humanity, the substance of humanity and divinity both remain, but these two substances are mingled together as one entity. This is a marvelous and clear picture of God’s mingling with us. This mingling is our transformation.
What is transformation? It is not a moral correction nor a change of ethical behavior. Transformation means that our humanity is firstly cleansed by the Lord’s redeeming blood and then mingled with the anointing oil — the Holy Spirit — until we are sanctified, made holy, both positionally and dispositionally. In this stage, the second stage of our salvation, we enjoy Christ as the heavenly manna and as the living water, as the life-giving Spirit which comes out of the cleft rock which is Christ Himself. In this stage of transformation, we enjoy Christ in a richer and more subjective way. We praise the Lord that in the past years many saints in the Lord’s recovery have been brought into the actuality of such a transformation. Although there has been some outward adjustment and correction, our trust is not in this but in the Lord’s marvelous transforming work. Second Corinthians 3:18 says, “But we all, with unveiled face beholding and reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit” (Gk.). We all need this transformation. Hallelujah, we are now passing through the second stage of our salvation!
The real church life is filled with transformation. I am more than encouraged with the transformation taking place among the young people in the churches. The churches are going on. We do not need to correct the saints very much, although we do need to take care of the young ones in the way of life. We are seeing the young people in the church being transformed by the divine life. What a wonderful transformation!
The third stage of our salvation is salvation into our spirit. We must all leave the wilderness and cross the river into our spirit, where we enjoy Christ as our life (Rom. 8:10; 2 Tim. 4:22) and where we should live and walk (Rom. 8:4; Gal. 5:16, 25). Here, in the spirit, we have God’s habitation, the heavenly ladder, and the gate of heaven. Therefore, in our spirit is the expression of God with the kingdom of God. Here we are enjoying the Sabbath of the heavenly rest.
Since the tabernacle and the temple are of three sections, the three stages of God’s salvation correspond to the experiences in the tabernacle and the temple. Firstly, we have the experiences in the outer court, where we are redeemed at the altar (Lev. 4:7) and washed at the laver (Exo. 30:18-21). The washing at the laver is the real crossing of the river. This corresponds to our salvation from the world.
Secondly, we have the experiences in the Holy Place, where we are fed with the showbread (Exo. 25:30), enlightened by the lampstand (Exo. 25:37), and accepted through the incense altar (Exo. 30:7). This corresponds to the transformation in our soul.
Thirdly, we have the experiences in the Holy of Holies, where we enjoy God’s presence (Exo. 25:22) and share God’s shekinah glory. Here, in the Holy of Holies, we are in God’s habitation. Here we are in the Sabbath rest. This corresponds to the salvation into our spirit.
The Hebrew believers had been saved in the first stage but were staggering in the second stage. They were wandering in the soul by wondering in the mind and were in danger of drifting back to the first stage. The book of Hebrews was written to warn them and to encourage them to go on and enter into the third stage — into the rest of the good land (Heb. 4:11) and into the Holy of Holies in the spirit (10:19-20). To enter into the rest of the good land is to enter into the church life with the expectation of being ushered into the coming kingdom. To enter into the Holy of Holies is to be in the spirit. Entering into the Sabbath rest and into the proper church life are altogether a matter of our spirit. Today the throne of God and the Holy of Holies, both of which are in the heavens, are joined to our spirit. Hence, our spirit is a most crucial spot. Here, in our spirit, we have God’s habitation, the heavenly ladder, the gate of heaven, the throne of God, and the Holy of Holies. Here, in the spirit, we enjoy the church life and are in the present Sabbath which will usher us into the Sabbath rest in the coming kingdom.
In 4:11 the writer said, “Let us therefore be diligent to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.” As the rest covered in this portion of the Word is the all-inclusive Christ, so to fall from it is to fall from Christ (Gal. 5:4, Gk. “you are severed from Christ”). In Galatians, the danger was that the Galatian believers would drift into the bondage of law from the liberty of grace (Gal. 5:1-4). Paul advised them to stand fast in the liberty of grace, that is, not to be severed from Christ. Here in Hebrews, the danger was that the Hebrew believers would not forsake their old religion which was according to the law and press on into the enjoyment of Christ as their rest. If they still staggered in their old religion, that is, in Judaism, they would come short of Christ, who is their rest. The writer of this book earnestly encouraged them to press on with Christ as His partners into the rest so that they, as His partakers, might enjoy Christ as their rest.
Hebrews 3:7 through 4:11 refers to the children of Israel falling away from entering into the rest of the good land. We have seen that with them there were three places — Egypt, the wilderness, and Canaan — that their history in these three places signifies the three stages of their participation in God’s full salvation, and that this is a type of us, the New Testament believers, in our participation in the full salvation of God. In the first stage we received Christ and were redeemed and delivered from the world. In the second stage we became wanderers in following the Lord. This wandering always transpires in our soul. In the third stage we partake of and enjoy Christ in a full way. This is experienced in our spirit. When we pursued the pleasures of material and sinful things, we were in the world, typified by Egypt. When we wander in our soul, we are in the wilderness. The wilderness in which the Israelites wandered signifies our soul. When we enjoy Christ in our spirit, we are in Canaan. When the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness, they were always murmuring, reasoning, and chiding. That was surely in their soul, not in their spirit. But Joshua and Caleb believed in the word of God, obeyed the Lord, and pressed toward the goal. This was surely not in their soul but in their spirit. The receivers of this book, the Hebrew believers, were at that time wondering what they should do with their old Jewish religion. This wondering in their mind was a wandering in their soul, not an experience of Christ in their spirit. Thus, the writer of this book says that the word of God, that is, what has been quoted from the Old Testament, can pierce like a sharp two-edged sword into their wondering and divide their soul from their spirit.
As the marrow is concealed deep in the joints, so is the spirit concealed deep in the soul. The dividing of the marrow from the joints requires mostly the breaking of the joints. In the same principle, the dividing of the spirit from the soul requires the breaking of the soul. The Hebrew believers’ soul with its wondering mind, doubting concerning God’s way of salvation and considering its own interest, had to be broken by the living, operative, and piercing word of God that their soul might be divided from their spirit. Hence, the writer of this book advised the Hebrew believers not to stagger in the wandering of their soul, which soul they must deny, but to press on into their spirit to partake of and enjoy the heavenly Christ that they may participate in the kingdom rest of Christ’s reign in the millennium. If they staggered in the wandering of their soul, they would have missed God’s goal and suffered the loss of the full enjoyment of Christ and the kingdom rest.
