In the tabernacle we see a clear picture of the anointing and of the law of life. The anointing was upon the tabernacle, for the tabernacle and everything in it were anointed with oil (Exo. 40:9). As we have seen, the inmost item of the tabernacle was the tables of the law, the testimony of the law. By this picture we see that the anointing was outside but that the law of life was inside. In the Old Testament the anointing was for inauguration into function. For example, there was an altar in the outer court, but before it was anointed it could not function. Likewise, although the tabernacle had been erected, it could not function until it had been anointed. Hence, anointing is neither a matter of life nor of nature; it is a matter of inauguration for function. Every time you are anointed, you are inaugurated into your function.
The law was not spread upon the tabernacle; it was placed in the center of it. At the center of God’s people, the children of Israel, was the tabernacle which was enclosed by a wall of linen curtains. Within the tabernacle was the Holy Place, within the Holy Place was the Holy of Holies, within the Holy of Holies was the ark, and within the ark was the heart of the universe, the place where God was. In ancient times, God did not require His people to work nor to engage in certain activities; He required them to live and walk according to the law. If anyone was wrong with the law, he was wrong with God. God was the God of the children of Israel according to the law, and they were His people according to the law.
In the New Testament the anointing is mentioned several times. For instance, in Luke 4:18 the Lord Jesus said that He was anointed to preach the gospel, and Hebrews 1:9 says that the Lord was anointed with the oil of gladness. The Apostle John also speaks of the anointing a number of times (John 9:6; 1 John 2:20, 27). The New Testament also mentions the inner law of life which comes out of the nature of God. In the New Testament the divine life is referred to more than a hundred times. This divine life has been imparted into our being. Most Christians pay attention to the outward anointing, but neglect the inner law of life. Many of those in the so-called Pentecostal movement talk about the anointing. Although they may experience the anointing which is upon the tabernacle, they do not enter into the ark in the Holy of Holies and touch the tables of the law.
Our eyes must be opened to see that the Lord’s recovery is not so much in the anointing as it is in the law of life. In the New Testament the anointing is mentioned less than twenty times, while life is mentioned more than a hundred times. Many Christians are familiar with verses like Galatians 2:20, which says, “Not I, but Christ liveth in me,” and Galatians 4:19, which says, “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.” Although many Christians know these verses, they pay no attention to them. Rather, the Pentecostalists devote their attention to the manifestation of the gifts. In His recovery, the Lord turns us again and again from the outward to the inward.
Although we are saved and in the church life, many of us are still in the church’s outer court. Some might not even be in the outer court, but on the street outside the outer court. Others have gone farther than the outer court, having passed from the altar and the laver into the Holy Place where they enjoy Christ as the showbread and the lampstand, as the life supply and the light of life. Thank the Lord that many of us enjoy Christ in this way. However, this is still only the Holy Place. We must come forward and enter into the Holy of Holies. In the Holy of Holies we touch the ark, Christ Himself. The hidden manna, the budding rod, and the law of life are all in Christ. How we need to touch Christ Himself! Christ today is in the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies signifies that our spirit has been joined to heaven, for the very Person of Christ is the ladder joining earth to heaven and bringing heaven down to earth (John 1:51). If we continually touch Christ in our spirit, we shall enjoy Him as the hidden manna and as the budding rod. Then our daily life and walk will not be according to any teaching, work, activity, or movement, but according to the law of life, the function of the nature of the Triune God. God’s nature is now moving and working within us, adding Christ’s element into our being, transforming us, and producing the many sons whom God desires.
Most Christians are off-center. When I was young, I read a number of books about victory over sin. Those books presented various ways to overcome sin. However, not one of those ways ever worked. Eventually, I discovered a precious word in 1 John 3:9: “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” Whether we sin or not depends upon whether or not we have been born of God. He who has been born of God never sins. Furthermore, 1 John 5:4 says, “Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world.” Therefore, overcoming sin and the world does not depend upon a method; it depends upon the birth of God. When we were born of God, the divine life with its nature and law was imparted into our being. As long as we have this divine life with its nature and its law, everything will be all right.
In understanding the Bible, we have been influenced too much by our natural concepts. In the past, I said that the function of the law of life was to regulate us. According to this concept, if we are about to argue with our wife, the law of life will regulate us. This teaching, which is according to our natural concept, is not accurate. Consider an apple tree. Its apple-tree life has the apple-tree nature, and issuing from this apple-tree nature is the law of the apple life. Does the law of life in the apple tree regulate it from being wrong? Absolutely not. The law of the apple life does not function this way. How then does it function? As the life of an apple tree grows, its law shapes the form of its life. Thus, when an apple tree bears fruit, it bears fruit with the proper form, the form of apples. The same is true of a peach tree. Hence, the law of life does not regulate us from doing wrong; it regulates the shape of life.
If a certain life does not grow, the law of that life cannot function. The law only operates as the life grows. The law of life does not primarily function in the negative sense of telling us what not to do. No, rather, while life grows the law of life functions in the positive sense of shaping us, that is, conforming us to the image of Christ. This is the function of the law of life.
Do not think that the law of life will always correct you. For example, when you are about to exchange words with your wife, the law of life will not merely restrict you from arguing with her. The working of the law of life is not as low as we have thought. Due to our human, natural, religious concept, we have greatly depreciated the function of the law of life. We all have been sin-centered and sin-conscious, but we should be neither sin-centered nor sin-conscious. Though we are occupied with overcoming sin, the world, our ugly flesh, and our bad habits, God would say, “Forget about these things! Don’t you realize that on the day you were regenerated you were transferred out of one realm into another? Will you please forget about the old realm?” Praise God that we have been born of Him! This divine birth has transferred us into a new realm, a realm in which there is no sin, world, or flesh. In this realm there is the function of the law of life. Remember that the law of life is not mainly regulating us; it is mainly shaping us, conforming us to the image of Christ.
In the past, I saw this matter of the law of life, but being under the influence of my natural understanding, I thought that the function of the law of life was mainly to regulate us. This natural understanding frustrated the vision of the function of the law of life. Recently, I was rebuked by the Lord. The Lord asked me, “Who told you that the law of life mainly regulates? You cannot find such a word in the Bible. Why don’t you use the words of Romans 8:2 and 29?” The law of life in Romans 8:2 does not regulate us from being wrong. This concept is according to our human, natural, ethical, religious understanding. We need a vision of Romans 8:29. We are now in another realm and do not need any regulations. In this realm there is no sin, world, flesh, or self. Consider two trees, an apple tree and a peach tree. They have no sin, world, flesh, or self. But both trees have a law of life which shapes them. This shaping by the law of life is the meaning of the word “conformed” in Romans 8:29. The law of the Spirit of life conforms us to the image of the Firstborn Son of God. As the life grows, the law conforms us to the image of Christ. How can Christ be formed in us? Only by the positive working of the law of life which shapes us to His form. What a difference between this reality and our natural concept!
Satan is subtle. Although the Bible tells us clearly of the function of the law of life, we have been blinded by our natural concept. Many saints who were seeking after the Lord but who were blinded by their natural concept have written books on how to overcome sin. If you do not try to overcome sin, it may lie dormant in you. But if you try to overcome it, it will say, “What! Are you trying to defeat me?” Many of us have some weak points. If we pay no attention to them, they will remain idle and dormant. But if we are aware of them and, for the sake of our holiness, try to overcome them, they will rise up and defeat us. It is best for us not to touch them. Praise the Lord that we have had a new birth, a divine birth. In this new birth there are no weak points. There is only the divine life with the divine nature and the divine law which shapes us and conforms us to the image of Christ. However, this shaping requires the growth in life, for the law of life only functions as life grows. The law of life does not regulate us from sin, because it is not in the realm of sin; it is in the realm of the divine life where there is no sin, world, flesh, or self. As life grows, its law works, not mainly to regulate or correct us, but to shape us, to conform us to the image of the Firstborn Son of God. Eventually, through the function of the law of life, we all shall become the mature sons of God, and God will have His universal, corporate expression.
God’s intention is to produce many sons that He may have His full, corporate expression. This is the unique goal of God’s divine economy. His Only Begotten Son, who is the express image of His substance and the effulgence of His glory (1:3), became a man to declare Him and to express Him in human life. In His humanity, Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, expressed God. In His humanity, He was also begotten of God through His resurrection to be the Firstborn Son of God with both divinity and humanity. Now, as the Firstborn Son of God with divinity and humanity, Christ is the model, the pattern, for a mass production. Through His resurrection, all those who believe in Him have also been regenerated to become the many sons of God. We, the many sons of God, who are the many brothers of the Firstborn Son of God, are those who constitute the church.
The Firstborn Son of God has been perfected and glorified, and He is now the Pioneer who has entered into the realm of glory. He is also the Captain of our salvation who has fought the battle and who is taking the lead to bring us, His many brothers, into His glory. Now in the heavens as our High Priest, He is ministering into His believers whatever He is, whatever He has accomplished, and whatever He has attained. His ministry in the heavens is a better ministry, a more excellent ministry (8:6), because through it He ministers to us in His resurrection life all that He is and all that He has done. On the one hand, He is in the heavens as the High Priest ministering life into us, and, on the other hand, He, as the life-giving Spirit, is now in our spirit to be our life. In this life within us, which is the wonderful Christ Himself, there is the law of the divine life which constantly works and functions in the depths of our being.
According to the type, the law was God’s testimony, for the law was the expression of what God is. This law was placed into the ark which was in the Holy of Holies of the tabernacle, God’s dwelling place. The book of Hebrews tells us that we are the many brothers of God’s Firstborn Son (2:11), that we are the church (2:12), that we are the partners of God’s appointed and anointed One (1:9, 3:14), and that we are also the house of God (3:6). The house of God is the equivalent of God’s dwelling place which was typified by the tabernacle wherein was the Holy of Holies. Therefore, we, the many brothers of God’s Firstborn Son, the church, the partners of God’s appointed and anointed One, and the house of God, are God’s real dwelling place today. In this dwelling place there is the Holy of Holies. This Holy of Holies is our regenerated human spirit which is joined to the heavens where the glorified Firstborn Son of God is.
Christ is now both in the heavens and in our spirit. In the heavens, He, as the High Priest in His kingly and divine priesthood, is ministering into us all that He is and all that He has done. In our spirit, He is working within us as the life-giving Spirit with the law of life. Thus, His ministry in the heavens and His working in our spirit correspond with each other. His ministry in the heavens is carried out by His functioning, His working, in our spirit. Whatever He is and whatever He has done are now being wrought into us through the working of the law of life in our spirit.
By means of the clear picture portrayed by all the furniture in the tabernacle, we can see that the aim of the experience of this wonderful Christ is to bring us into the Holy of Holies so that we may fully participate in the function of the law of life. As we have seen, we firstly experience Christ as our redemption at the altar in the outer court. After this, we experience Him as the washing and cleansing Spirit at the laver. This brings us into the Holy Place where we may enjoy Christ as our showbread, the bread of life, and as our lampstand, the light of life. Following this, we experience Christ as the incense altar through which we are ushered into the Holy of Holies. Here in the Holy of Holies, we enjoy Christ as the hidden manna and as the budding rod. By this enjoyment we are enabled to participate fully in the law of life. It is only here in the Holy of Holies, that is, in our regenerated human spirit, that we can fully participate in the function of the law of life. The function of the law of life is not mainly to regulate us from doing wrong, but to conform us to the image, the form, of God’s Firstborn Son that we may become the same as the model.
The book of Hebrews is very deep. It is deep in its revelation of Christ as the appointed and anointed One of God, as the Pioneer into the realm of glory, as the Captain of salvation leading His many brothers into His glory, and as the High Priest in His kingly and divine priesthood ministering all that He is in His divinity and humanity and all that He has attained into His brothers to make them the reproduction of Himself so that God may have His corporate expression. Hebrews is also deep in its unveiling of the fact that this wonderful Christ is now joined to our spirit, which is the very Holy of Holies of God’s dwelling place today, to be our life with the law of life functioning and working to conform us to His image. This is the most crucial point of the whole book of Hebrews. It is the vital focus of the experience of the Christ revealed in this book. This is why 4:12 says that our human spirit must be divided from our soul so that we may enter into the Holy of Holies to touch the throne of grace and enjoy grace in our time of need. And this is also why we are charged in 10:22 to come forward with boldness to the Holy of Holies so that we may participate in the function of the law of life. It is through this functioning of the law of life that the very Christ who is now ministering in the heavens can minister all that He is and all that He has accomplished and attained into our very being, not only to transform us, but also to conform us to His image so that we, His many brothers, may be absolutely the same as He is. In this way, God will have the many sons as His full expression. This is the goal of God’s divine economy. This goal can only be attained by Christ’s ministering in the heavens as the High Priest and by His working as the life-giving Spirit within our spirit through the law of life.
