Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord
of hosts. (Zechariah 4:6)
Does it not strike you as
significant, and very impressive, that when the veil was rent
Israel was set aside? Israel had been called in to maintain a
testimony in types. Christ had come and fulfilled all the types,
and being the centre of all the types, the veil, all that kept
God shut off from man, was now dealt with, and the way was open.
There was no need for types now. So the custodian of the types
departs with the types. This is not the dispensation of the
types: this is the dispensation of the reality, the dispensation
of a heavenly union with a risen Lord, and of all that that
means. Our danger is of bringing back types. The types have gone
and that is the whole message of this letter to the Hebrews.
Christ is everything. The outward order of the Old Testament is
set aside, and now all that obtains is Christ Himself. He is the Priest; you no longer have priests on earth in the Old Testament
sense. He is the Sacrifice: there is no need for any other
sacrifices. He is the Tabernacle; He is the Temple; He is the
Church.
What is the Church? It is
Christ in living union with His own, that wheresoever two or three are gathered
together in His name there He is in the midst. That is the Church. You do not
build special buildings and call them "the Church." You do not have special
organisations, religious institutions, which you call "the Church." Believers in
living union with the risen Lord constitute the Church. This is the reality, not
the figure. That is to say, His flesh, human limitation, is done away. Now in
union with Christ risen all human limitations are transcended. This is one of
the wonders of Christ risen as a living reality. We are brought into a realm of
capacities which are more than human capacities, where, because of Christ in us,
we can do what we never could do naturally. Our relationships are new
relationships; they are with heaven. Our resources are new resources: they are
in heaven. That is why the Apostle wrote to the Corinthians and said that God
hath chosen the weak things, the foolish things. The things which are despised,
and the things which are not, that He by them might bring to naught the
wise, the mighty, the things which are. Why did God appoint it so?
Because it is not by might, nor by power, but by His Spirit; and to show that
there are powers, energies, abilities for His own which transcend all the
greatest powers and abilities of this world.