After the second veil in the tabernacle is the Holy of Holies, in which there was the ark of the covenant (covered in gold on the inside and the outside), in which were the golden pot (that had the manna) and Aaron’s rod (that budded) and the tablets of the covenant (see Heb. 9:3-4).
The ark of the covenant – also called the ark of the testimony – is a type of Christ, the testimony of God, the mingling of God (signified by the gold) with man (signified by the acacia wood). Inside the ark, there were three main things: the golden pot with the hidden manna, the budding rod, and the tablets of the law (the tablets of the covenant). Since the ark is a type that can be applied to our Christian experience today, each element in the ark is also something for us to experience.
The hidden manna is the portion of Christ that we, as God’s people, enjoy in God’s presence when there’s no distance between us and Him (Exo. 16:31-36). The open manna was for everyone to enjoy outside, on the ground, signifying that Christ as the heavenly food is always available for His people to eat at every time, but the hidden manna is for those who have no distance between them and God, and they enjoy Christ in the most hidden and intimate way; this is the enjoyment of the hidden manna, the hidden portion of Christ.
The budding rod shows us that in serving God we need to rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead, the God of resurrection; the budding rod signifies that the resurrected Christ should be our life, our living, and the resurrection life within us, and that this life should bud, blossom, and bear fruit to maturity (Num. 17:8). In ourselves, we are dead rods, dead sticks, but when we come to the end of ourselves, God can come in as resurrection life and bring forth buds, blossoms, and even fruit to manifest God’s authority and feed others with God Himself.
Today we want to see how can we experience and enjoy the tablets of the covenant, the tablets of the testimony, which signify the law of the divine life – the law of the Spirit of life.
The Tablets of the Covenant signify the Law of the Divine Life Operating in us
What do the tablets of the covenant signify, and how can we apply these to our Christian experience? According to the entire revelation in the Bible, the tablets of the covenant – which are the tablets of the law – signify the law of the divine life, which is the spontaneous power, the automatic function, the innate ability, and the divine capacity of the divine life we have received through regeneration.
After realizing that there’s a law working in his members called, the law of sin and of death, which law caused him to sin even when he didn’t want to sin, Paul discovered that there’s yet another law, the law of the Spirit of life, which has freed us in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death (Rom. 8:2). This law that has freed us from sin is of the Spirit of life; in a sense, it is not God or the Spirit who delivers us from the law of sin in our flesh, but the law of the Spirit of life – the spontaneous power of the Spirit of life.
Whenever we are in Christ by exercising our spirit to be one spirit with the Lord, the automatic and spontaneous law of the Spirit of life operates in us to deliver us from the law of sin and of death (see Rom. 8:2 and footnote in Recovery Version). This is the law that God promised in the new covenant to put into our inward parts and write on our hearts (see Jer. 31:33).
According to its life, the law of the new covenant is the Triune God, and according to its function, it is the almighty divine capacity. This divine capacity can do everything in us for the carrying out of God’s economy. According to this capacity we can know God, live God, and be constituted with God in His life and nature that we may become His increase, His enlargement, to be His fullness for His eternal expression (Eph. 1:22-23; 3:19-21). Furthermore, the capacity of the inner law of life constitutes us the members of the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:27; Eph. 5:30) with all kinds of functions (Rom. 12:4-8; Eph. 4:11, 16). (Jer. 31:33, footnote 1, Recovery Version Bible)
Hallelujah, this is so wonderful! Just as by our human birth we have received the human life, and this life has a law that causes us to be shaped and become a man who functions in a normal and proper way, so through regeneration, we have received the divine life, and this life has a law that causes us to be shaped into the image of Christ and develop in a normal way, functioning as members in the Body of Christ.
As long as we turn to our spirit and are in Christ, we overcome sin and death, and the capacity of the inner law of life constitutes us with God and makes us members of the Body of Christ with all kinds of functions.
We just need to make sure we fulfill the requirements for this law to operate: we need to be in Christ, be in our spirit, and the law of the Spirit of life, the law of the divine life in us, operates in us spontaneously and automatically!
Lord Jesus, thank You for the law of the Spirit of life which has freed us in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and of death. Lord, we don’t want to fight sin or death – we simply turn to our spirit to be in Christ, and sin and death are overcome! Lord, we praise You for the law of the Spirit of life working in us automatically as we turn to our spirit! Hallelujah, we are being constituted with God in His life and nature so that we may become His increase, and we are being constituted to be members of the Body of Christ, functioning in our measure!
As the Divine Life Grows in us, the Law of Life Shapes us to the Image of Christ
Many times we believers think that the law of life – the law of the Spirit of life – mainly regulates us from within so that we would not speak lies, not argue with others, and not do evil things. But the main function of the law of the Spirit of life is not to limit us, constrain us, or rebuke us, but to shape us into the image of Christ.
The law of the apple tree operates in the tree to shape it and the apples into the proper form, as long as the tree grows. As long as we grow in the divine life, the law of life shapes us into the image of Christ, conforming us to the image of the firstborn Son of God (Rom. 8:29).
The law of life is not in us merely to correct us; this law is not a low law, a law that merely deals with sin and death. We may be concerned and occupied with sin, desiring to overcome bad habits, the world, or our flesh, but God is more concerned with gaining many sons who are just like Christ, His firstborn Son! The working of the law of life is not as low as we have thought; this law operates beyond the realm of sin, the world, or the flesh – it operates in the realm of the divine life!
Through regeneration we entered into a new realm in which there’s no sin, no world, and no flesh; here we only have the divine life, and the law of life works to not mainly regulate us to but to shape us into the image of Christ, making us the same as He is in every possible way! As long as the divine life grows in us in a normal way, the law of life operates in us to conform us to the image of Christ, the firstborn Son of God.
However, if the divine life doesn’t grow in us in a normal way, the automatic function of the law of life is hindered from operating in us. The law of life doesn’t primarily function in the negative sense of telling us what to do and what not to do; rather, while the divine life grows in us, the law of life functions in a positive sense of shaping us, that is, conforming us to the image of Christ.
We just need to make sure we allow the divine life to grow in us by opening to the Lord, cooperating with His inner operation, and giving Him room to spread in our heart. While the divine life grows in us, the law of life functions to shape us and conform us to Christ’s image. It is through the function of the law of life that we all will become mature sons of God to be God’s universal expression (Heb. 6:1).
How will God gain a corporate expression? Not by regulating us outwardly and not even merely by restricting us inwardly but by growing in us as life to shape us into the image of Christ. We as believers in Christ need to know that there’s a law of the divine life operating in us every time that we cooperate with the Lord to grow in life.
When the divine life grows in us, the law of life operates in us to conform us to the image of Christ. The more we grow in the divine life, the more we look like Christ; however, if we don’t grow in life, we still look like Adam, the old man, with the flesh.
Lord Jesus, we want to cooperate with You so that Your divine life in us would grow more in us today. Lord, may Your life in us grow so that the law of life would operate in us to shape us into the image of Christ. Amen, Lord, make us the same as You are in life and nature through Your daily growth, increase, and spread as the divine life into all our being. Amen, Lord, may Your life in us grow so that the law of life would conform us to the image of Christ and make us all mature sons of God for God to obtain His universal expression!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, brother Ed Marks’ sharing in the message for this week, and Life-study of Hebrews, msgs. 64-65, 69 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (3), week 1 (week 25), The Ark of the Testimony.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
# Thy law of life in heart and mind / My conduct regulates; / The wealth of Thy reality / My being saturates. (Hymns #539)
# There is now then no condemnation to those / Who are in Christ Jesus. / For the law of the Spirit of life has freed me / In Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. / For the mind set on the flesh is death, / But the mind set on the spirit is life. / So I will walk in the Spirit today, / Being filled with life and peace! (Song on the law of the Spirit of life)
# Amen!—The growth in life! / There’s nothing that Your life can’t do; / Our every part renew. / We’ll make it, we’ll make it just by You. / Lord Jesus, grow in us. (Hymns #1132)
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