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What is the relationship between Christ and the priesthood? When we say “Christ,” we mean the all-inclusive Christ. He is the very embodiment of the Triune God, our Savior, and He is also our life. He is everything to us, for He is so all-inclusive. The priesthood has much to do with such a Christ.
According to the types revealed in the Old Testament, the relationship between the priesthood and Christ is clearly manifested. Briefly speaking, these types may be classified into several categories.
The work, ministry, and commission of the priesthood are in Christ. Christ is the very ministry of the priesthood. Thus, the priesthood takes care of nothing but Christ. First of all, the priesthood takes care of all the offerings (Lev. 6:8—7:34). All the offerings typify the different aspects of what Christ is to us. From the standpoint of experience, the trespass offering is first, the sin offering second, the peace offering third, the meal or food offering fourth, and the burnt offering fifth. Some parts of these offerings are the wave offerings, and some parts are the heave offerings (7:29-34). The priesthood must take care of these offerings. Thus, to partake of the priesthood today means that we must experience Christ as all the offerings. Only when we have experienced Christ as these offerings can we minister them to others.
First, we must experience Christ as the trespass offering. We are sinful and have many transgressions before the Lord. How can God forgive all our sins? He can forgive us only by Christ’s death on the cross as our trespass offering. This is the story of our salvation: When we first trusted in Christ, we realized that we were sinful, with many trespasses. Then when we confessed to the Lord, we realized that Christ on the cross bore all our trespasses before God. He is our trespass offering.
After we were saved, we soon discovered that it is not simply a matter of the sinful things we do or have done, but the very nature of sin within us. Sin is within us. We not only have the sinful deeds without, but also the sinful nature within. We knew that Christ died on the cross to deal with all the sinful deeds committed before God, but now we realize that the sinful nature is within. Romans 7 calls this nature “sin that dwells in me.” Then the Lord reveals to us that by dying on the cross He has not only dealt with our sins, but also our sinful nature. This means that He is not only our trespass offering but also our sin offering. Trespasses are something without, but sin is something within. Therefore, we must learn to experience Christ not only as our trespass offering but also as our sin offering.
After the experience of these two offerings, we enjoy Christ as the peace offering. Peace always depends upon dealing with all trespasses as well as dealing with our sinful nature. If we still have trespasses which are not yet forgiven and dealt with, we can never have peace within! Furthermore, if we have not dealt with the sin within us, we cannot enjoy peace within. After both our trespasses and our sinful nature have been dealt with by Christ, we can enjoy Him as our peace offering.
Following our experience of Christ as the peace offering, we find that He is also the meal or food offering. This means that Christ is our food and constant satisfaction.
The burnt offering follows the food offering. The burnt offering is the food for God! Christ is not only our satisfaction but also God’s satisfaction. He is not only our food, but He is also God’s food.
Much time is needed to realize and experience all these offerings, especially by young Christians. Many young Christians today do not know much about Christ. Have you experienced Christ as your trespass offering? No doubt you have, but what about the second offering? Have you ever experienced Christ as the sin offering? Not many Christians have had this experience. Some Christians may have experienced Christ as the peace offering, but what about the meal offering? So many Christians are simply short of these experiences! They are lacking in the experience of Christ as their daily food as seen in the meal offering. Christ is our food, and we must learn to enjoy Him as our satisfaction. Gradually, we will discover that Christ is not only our food but also God’s food and God’s satisfaction, for He is the burnt offering.
I believe that at the Lord’s table some of the brothers and sisters have had some apprehension and realization that their sins are forgiven, and they have been very grateful to the Lord for His forgiveness. Others have apprehended something deeper than this. They have realized that their sinful nature has been dealt with by the crucifixion of the Lord on the cross. They have sensed that they are released and set free from sin. They are experiencing Romans 8—there is no condemnation because in Christ the law of the Spirit of life has set them free from the law of sin and of death. Christ has dealt with their sinful nature, so by His death they can be set free from sin which dwells in their body.
I also believe that at the Lord’s table some of the brothers and sisters have had the sense of enjoying the Lord as their peace offering. What wonderful peace within! Others may have the feeling of satisfaction, for the Lord is their food, their meal offering. A few may realize that the Lord is the satisfaction not only to them but also to God. Christ is the meal offering to them and the burnt offering to God.
We must experience all these offerings in such a way; then we will be in the real priesthood. Christ is so much to us! He is the trespass offering, dealing with our sinful deeds; He is the sin offering, dealing with our sinful nature; then He becomes our peace and satisfaction as well as the satisfaction to God.
But this is not all. We must also learn to experience Christ as the wave and heave offerings. First, we must experience Him as the resurrected One—as the wave offering. He is waving; that is, He is so living! He has been resurrected; thus, we must know the power of His resurrection as the living One who is waving within us all the time. No Christian should be so quiet. We all must be very living. If we know Christ as the resurrected and living One, we cannot be still. We cannot be quiet. We will be waving and full of energy. We will not come to the meetings so quietly. If we do, it probably means that we are a little bit dead. However, the One within us can never be dead. He is the living One! When He came back to speak to the churches in the book of Revelation, He told them, “I am...the living One...and behold, I am living forever and ever” (1:17-18). His church should be neither dead nor deadened. His church must be living and waving all the time. We must learn to enjoy this waving Christ, for He is our wave offering.
Then Christ is our heave offering. He is not only the resurrected One but also the ascended and transcendent One. He has ascended to the heavens, and He is transcendent far above all. We must experience Christ as such a One. Many times, different brothers and sisters have said to me, “O brother, I’m finished. I’m through!” They were very depressed. If this is true of us, we can never minister Christ to others as the heave offering. We need to experience Christ as the ascended One. He is so transcendent that nothing can oppress, depress, or suppress Him!
For us to be in the priesthood, we must experience these aspects of Christ and then help others to experience Christ in such a way. As the real priesthood, we must first take care of all the offerings before we can help others to realize that Christ is their trespass and sin offering. We must also help them to experience Christ as their peace and as their food and satisfaction. They must see that He is not only their satisfaction but God’s satisfaction as well. Also, they must be helped to realize the resurrected Christ as their wave offering and the ascended Christ as their heave offering.
When the apostle Paul was put into prison, he experienced both the wave and the heave offerings. Just because he was in prison did not mean that he was through. He was so energetic, so waving, because he had the living Christ within him as the wave offering. He even tried to sleep, but the waving One within him did not agree, so he sang hymns. He was not in prison; he was in heavenly places. He was not in jail; he was in the Holy of Holies. He was so transcendent, experiencing Christ as his heave offering.
Sometimes our home becomes a kind of jail. It is our “home sweet home,” yet it becomes a prison to us. If this is true, it proves that we do not know how to experience Christ as our heave offering.
Many times in my experience the surrounding circumstances have been just like a thick wall. There was no entrance and no window. But I could say, “Lord, all these surrounding circumstances are like many walls, but, Hallelujah! I have a window upwards. I am in the ark, and the window is open toward heaven” (referring to the window in Noah’s ark in Genesis 6:16).
We must learn to experience Christ as our heave offering. Only through the enjoyment of these offerings can we be in the real priesthood. But, as most of us know, the offerings are just in the outer court. We may say that they are quite good, deep, and spiritual, but they are still in the outer court. We are still at the bronze altar and not yet in the tabernacle. These offerings are the outward experiences, not the inward. They are still superficial and not so deep. When we realize this, we see how poor many Christians are today. Most of them have not even experienced all the items of these offerings; even those who have are still in the outer court.
“You shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it; two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake. And you shall set them in two rows, six in a row, on the table of pure gold before Jehovah. And you shall put pure frankincense on each row, so that it may be a memorial for the bread, an offering by fire to Jehovah. Every Sabbath day continually he shall set it in order before Jehovah; it is an everlasting covenant for the children of Israel” (Lev. 24:5-8). “You shall set the bread of the Presence upon the table before Me always” (Exo. 25:30).
After taking care of the offerings, the priests must proceed to spread the bread of the Presence in the Holy Place. Christ is not only our life within; He is also our life supply as the bread of life. Thus, we must experience Him as our life supply. This is to spread Christ as the bread of the Presence. When we experience Christ as our inner life supply, we will be able to spread Him before others and God. When we come to the meetings or contact those in other places, we can present Christ to them as the inner life. We must go deeper with the Lord and not be so superficial, emotional, and outward. Christ is within us, but we must experience Him as the indwelling One and the hidden One within who is our life supply. This life supply is to be presented not only as a satisfaction to others but also as a satisfaction to God.
Some may ask, “What is the real experience of the indwelling Christ?” Allow me to give an illustration which I believe will help. Suppose you are in trouble. If you pray, just asking the Lord to take care of your trouble, then you are an outward Christian, that is, a Christian in the outer court. The Lord is willing to hear this kind of prayer from those who are newly saved. Perhaps, after you pray in this way, the Lord will take away your trouble, and you will shout, “Hallelujah, praise the Lord!” But you are only in the outer court.
However, a time will come when you will be brought into a situation where the more you pray and ask the Lord to take away the trouble, the more trouble you will have. Then you may think that it is better not to pray. Regardless of what you pray, the trouble increases. But this forces you into the Holy Place. It forces you to solve the problem inwardly, not outwardly. The trouble forces you to know the Lord, not only as the ascended Christ but also as the indwelling Christ.
Do you see why there is trouble after trouble, trial after trial? You may say, “Brother, this is not the gospel, the good news.” But this is really the good news! Trouble after trouble and trial after trial force us to be an inward Christian rather than an outward one. They force us to go deeper with the Lord, causing us to realize that He is not only the resurrected and ascended One but also the indwelling One. Then we will experience Him as the inner life and the life supply. We will learn that His grace is sufficient (2 Cor. 12:9). The more trouble we have outwardly, the more experiences of Christ we will have inwardly. This will cause us to experience Christ as the inner life supply.
“Then Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, Command the children of Israel to bring to you pure oil of beaten olives for the light, to make the lamps burn continually. Outside the veil of the Testimony in the Tent of Meeting Aaron shall set it in order from evening to morning before Jehovah continually. It shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations. He shall keep the lamps in order on the pure lampstand before Jehovah continually” (Lev. 24:1-4).
With the spreading of the bread of the Presence in the Holy Place, the priests must light the lamp. The bread is the life, and the lamp is the light. When we have life, this life is the light. “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). When we have the experience of Christ as our inner life, this life will be the inner light shining within us. We will not just read the Bible by exercising our mind to gain some knowledge, teaching, or doctrine, but something within will be enlightening. Something within will be shining as the very light of life. This is a deeper item of the priesthood. In the outer court, the priesthood takes care of the many offerings; in the Holy Place, the priesthood must take care of something deeper, something within, not simply something without. We must experience these items of Christ in the Holy Place: Christ as the inner life and Christ as the inner light.
When we read the Bible, we must not exercise our mentality too much to understand it. If we understand it too much, it will become the tree of knowledge to us. We must pray-read the Bible and not try to merely understand it mentally. Then, we will be in the priesthood. We must open ourselves to let the Lord fill us, possess us, and occupy us. Then the word of the Bible will be shining from within, not from the written Word but from the living Christ. The written Word will shine within through the living word. Then we will have the inner light, not simply the outward knowledge.
Why should a Christian not go to the movies? Is it because there is a rule demanding that Christians should not go to the movies? That is not the Christian life; that is a religion with rules and regulations. But when we experience Christ as the light of life, something within is enlightening and controlling us by the inner light. This is an inward control, enlightening, and shining, which is typified by the lamp in the Holy Place. The outer court has the outward light of the sunshine, but the Holy Place has the inward light of the lamp. This is the light of life.
The priesthood must also burn the incense at the golden altar in the Holy Place. The lighting of the lamp and the burning of the incense are taken care of at the same time. These two things can never be separated. “You shall put it [the incense altar] before the veil that is over the Ark of the Testimony, before the expiation cover that is over the Testimony, where I will meet with you. And Aaron shall burn on it fragrant incense; every morning when he dresses the lamps he shall burn it. And when Aaron sets up the lamps at twilight, he shall burn it, a perpetual incense before Jehovah throughout your generations” (Exo. 30:6-8).
If we burn the incense, we must light the lamp, and if we light the lamp, we must burn the incense. This shows us that to receive the light from the Word, we must pray by burning the incense; and if we pray by burning the incense, we must light the lamp by reading the Word. Reading and praying must be mingled as one. While we pray, we must read, and while we read, we must pray. To read the Word is to light the lamp, and to pray is to burn the incense.
What is the incense? It is the sweetness of Christ. It is the sweet odor of Christ as our acceptance to God. When we experience Christ in such an inner way, He becomes our inner life, our inner supply, and our inner light. At the same time we have a deep sense that the sweet odor of Christ is going up to God. The preciousness of Christ becomes our acceptance to God. It is not an outward improvement of our behavior; rather, it is an inward sweetness. When we experience Christ as the inner life and inner light, and enjoy Him as the inner life supply, there is a sweet and precious feeling that we are so acceptable and pleasing to God. This is to burn the incense on the golden altar. Christ as the sweet incense is ascending to God as our acceptance.
“Then Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, Take up the Ark of the Covenant, and cross over before the people. And they took up the Ark of the Covenant and went before the people. And Jehovah said to Joshua...You shall command the priests who carry the Ark of the Covenant, saying, When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan...And when the soles of the feet of the priests who carry the Ark of Jehovah, the Lord of all the earth, come to rest in the waters of the Jordan; the waters of the Jordan, the waters that flow down from upstream, will be cut off, and they will stand in a heap” (Josh. 3:6-8, 13).
The fifth item which the priesthood must take care of is the Ark. The Ark is the very testimony of God, which is Christ Himself. Not only should we experience Christ as the offerings, the inner life, the inner light, and the inner acceptance, but we must go on to experience Him as the very testimony of God. The priests must bear the Ark at all times. The third chapter of Joshua mentions clearly that the priests must bear the Ark. As the priesthood we must experience Christ as life, as light, and as our acceptance to God, and we must especially bear Christ as God’s full testimony. We must experience the riches of Christ and then bear the living, all-inclusive Christ as the very testimony of God. The experiences of the offerings, the bread of the Presence, the lamp, and the incense are the experiences of all the different aspects of the riches of Christ. But these experiences lead us to Christ as God’s testimony.
To have the experience of Christ only as our life and light is not enough. Even the experience of Christ as our acceptance to God is not enough. We should experience Christ as the full and complete testimony of God among us. He is the living testimony of God borne by the priesthood. The priesthood must take care of and bear the Ark. If we are really in the priesthood, we will bear Christ as the living testimony of God. This testimony will not be simply in one aspect but will be complete in all aspects. We will bear Christ as the whole testimony of God.
We have seen five things which must be taken care of by the priesthood: the offerings, the bread of the Presence, the lamp, the incense, and the Ark. The sixth item which the priesthood must take care of is the tabernacle, which typifies the enlarged Christ as the dwelling place of God. After we, as the priesthood, richly experience Christ, we must take care of the whole church, the whole Body of Christ. The church is simply the enlargement of Christ. Christ enlarged is the church; Christ increased is the Body.
In chapter 4 of Numbers, the priests take care of the tabernacle—the boards, the coverings, and all the utensils within the tabernacle. The priests must take care of the tabernacle, whether it is set in a certain place or while it is traveling on a long journey. This shows us that the priesthood must take care of the church, that is, the Body of Christ. The experiences of Christ as the offerings, as the inner life, as the inner light, as the inner acceptance, and as the testimony of God are for the church. The more we experience Christ in all these items, the more we will be for the Body of Christ, the church. As the priesthood of God experiencing Christ as everything, we must take care of the church so that the Body of Christ may become God’s dwelling place on the earth. All the experiences of Christ must eventually be for the church, the Body of Christ. The partaking of Christ as our life in so many aspects is for the church life. The church life comes out of our experience of Christ as the inner life. This is all that the priesthood must have and take care of. We must ask the Lord to bring us into all these experiences and make them real to us.
