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God’s covenant of promise is for God’s chosen people to inherit the inheritance promised by God, and God’s covenant of circumcision is a confirmation of His covenant of promise. Those who inherit the promised inheritance according to this covenant should live for God as His burnt offering to satisfy God’s desire. However, God’s chosen people cannot be the burnt offering to satisfy God’s desire by themselves; they must take Christ as their Substitute. God wanted Abraham to offer his son Isaac, who would inherit God’s promised inheritance, as a burnt offering to God. When Abraham acted according to God’s command and offered Isaac on the altar as a burnt offering, he saw a ram which God had provided as a burnt offering for his son Isaac, and he went and took it as a substitute for his son (Gen. 22:1-13). This typifies that Christ replaces God’s chosen people, who would inherit God’s promised inheritance, as the burnt offering to satisfy God’s desire.
According to the God-created nature, a male signifies one who is strong, and a female signifies one who is weak and yet has the ability to reproduce. First Peter speaks of the female as the weaker vessel (3:7). Hence, the ram, the male sheep, which is a type of Christ as the burnt offering, signifies Christ as the strong One.
A sheep signifies that Christ is One who is meek, gentle, and perfect. “He was oppressed, and it was He who was afflicted, / Yet He did not open His mouth; / Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter / And like a sheep that is dumb before its shearers, / So He did not open His mouth” (Isa. 53:7). He “being reviled did not revile in return; suffering, He did not threaten” (1 Pet. 2:23a). “He will not cry out, nor lift up His voice, / Nor make His voice heard in the street. / A bruised reed He will not break; / And a dimly burning flax He will not extinguish” (Isa. 42:2-3). This shows Christ’s meekness and gentleness. He said, “I am meek...in heart” (Matt. 11:29a). He did not resist opposition, nor did He want to do anything for Himself or expect to gain something for Himself. He submitted Himself fully to the will of His Father. The lamb for the burnt offering had to be without blemish (Lev. 1:10), that is, without any defect or problem. This also shows Christ’s perfection and blamelessness.
The ram that replaced Isaac on the altar was provided by Jehovah God. Abraham called the name of the place where he offered the sacrifice Jehovah-jireh, which means “Jehovah will provide.” The ram provided by God typifies Christ as the One provided by God to replace God’s chosen people, those who would inherit God’s promised inheritance, as the burnt offering for God’s satisfaction.
As the Lamb provided by God, Christ was sent by God to the world. He left the freedom of His divinity and was confined in the flesh of humanity which He put on in His incarnation. He was the infinite God in eternity, yet He was willing to become a finite man in time to be limited by time and space. He even suffered hunger, thirst, and weariness, and was tempted in all respects like us. This is His leaving the freedom of His divinity to be restricted in His humanity as the Lamb of God to be offered to God as a burnt offering.
The ram was caught in a thicket by his horns (Gen. 22:13). In the Bible horns signify fighting power. The thicket signifies humanity. To be caught in a thicket is to be caught by humanity. Christ as the Lamb of God was willing to have His fighting power caught in His humanity that He might be offered as our Substitute. It is in His humanity that we met Him and received Him as our Substitute.
As the ram was killed on the altar instead of Isaac, so Christ, the Lamb of God, was crucified on the cross for us (2 Cor. 5:14). We all should have gone to the cross, but God replaced us with the Lamb of God. Christ as the Lamb of God lived in the world as a man absolutely for God. He offered Himself as a sacrifice without blemish to God for the carrying out of God’s will, and He became a sweet savor to satisfy the requirements of God’s holiness, righteousness, and glory. We are also accepted in Him by God through our union with Him (Heb. 10:5-8).
In His resurrection, Christ, who died on the cross for us, is now in us living on our behalf to satisfy God’s desire. In Galatians 2:20 Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” We have died in Christ through His death, but now He lives in us through His resurrection. On the one hand, we have been terminated, but on the other hand, we still exist. However, we do not exist apart from Christ; rather, we live because of Him and we live with Him (John 14:19). Hence, we have one life and one living with Him. Christ lives in us as our life; we live Christ without as His expression (Phil. 1:21a) for the satisfaction of God’s desire.
First Peter 2:24 says, “That we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness.” Righteousness is a matter of God’s government. Christ died for us that we might live to righteousness, that is, that we might live rightly under the government of God. This means that, governmentally, we are right with both God and men according to God’s righteous and strict requirements, that is, that we live in a way that matches the righteous requirements of His government.
Christ died for us not only that we might live to righteousness but also that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21). Christ was made sin for us by becoming one with us through His incarnation. Through His death He was condemned in the flesh as sin for us by God that we might be one with Him in His resurrection to be God’s righteousness. By this righteousness we are accepted by God and live a life that satisfies God’s righteous requirements as God’s burnt offering in Christ to satisfy God’s heart.
God wanted Abraham to offer his son Isaac, who would inherit God’s promised inheritance, as a burnt offering to God. When Abraham acted according to God’s command and offered up Isaac, God provided a ram as a burnt offering for his son Isaac, and Abraham took the ram as a Substitute for his son. This typifies that Christ replaces God’s chosen people, who would inherit God’s promised inheritance, as the burnt offering to satisfy God’s desire. A male typifies Christ as the strong One, and a sheep typifies Christ as One who is meek, gentle, and perfect. The ram was provided by Jehovah God, and it was caught in a thicket by its horns, typifying that Christ was provided by God and, having left the freedom of His divinity, His fighting power was caught in His humanity that we might meet Him in His humanity and receive Him as our Substitute. On the one hand, He died for us to satisfy the requirements of God’s holiness, righteousness, and glory, that we may also be accepted in Him by God through our union with Him. On the other hand, He lives for us to satisfy God’s desire that we may live to righteousness and become the righteousness of God. By this righteousness we are accepted by God and live a life that satisfies God’s righteous requirements as God’s burnt offering in Christ to satisfy God’s heart.
