Message 77
(2)
Scripture Reading: Exo. 24:1-8; Heb. 9:18-20, 22; Jer. 31:33-34; Ezek. 36:25-29a
This message is a continuation of the foregoing message on the enactment of the covenant. We have seen that when Moses enacted the covenant, he built both an altar and twelve pillars. The altar indicates that we need to be redeemed, terminated, and replaced. The pillars signify that we need to become a living testimony of God, a reflection of what He is.
Exodus 24:5 says, “And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto Jehovah” (lit.). It is not difficult to understand the significance of these offerings. The burnt offering was for God’s satisfaction. We were created by God for His satisfaction. However, because of the fall man has failed to satisfy God. Eventually Christ came as the second man and fully satisfied God. Thus, He could be the burnt offering to satisfy God.
After God was satisfied through the burnt offering, there could be peace between God and man. This peace depends on the peace offering. When man and God together enjoy Christ, there is mutual satisfaction and peace. Christ first became the burnt offering offered to God to satisfy Him, and then He became the peace offering to make peace between man and God. Eventually, Christ became a feast for God and man to enjoy mutually. This is the Christ who has redeemed us and terminated us and who is now replacing us. The more we are replaced by Christ in our experience, the more we become the burnt offering and the peace offering. Day by day we satisfy God and enjoy peace with Him as we feast on Christ with God and enjoy Him with God.
By our own efforts to keep the law it is impossible for us to satisfy God, to have peace with God, or to enjoy Christ with God. I say again that God did not give the law to His people with the intention that they observe it. God’s intention is for the people to be replaced by Christ and to become a reflection of God. This is God’s economy. We thank Him that in the recovery this has been made clear to us.
According to the natural concept, the almighty God, the Creator, the holy One, has given us the law that we may observe and keep it. Although this religious concept is common among Christians today, it is far off from God’s economy. We in the recovery may still be under the influence of this concept, perhaps subconsciously, to some degree. After listening to a particular message, we may pray, “Lord, I make up my mind to live according to this message. Please help me carry out my decision.” This kind of prayer exposes the fact that we are still under the influence of the natural, religious concept. It takes a long time to be fully free from this influence. When we read a certain requirement in the Bible, it is easy for us to make up our mind to fulfill that requirement ourselves. Like the children of Israel at Mount Sinai, we promise the Lord that we shall do whatever He says. However, if we are enlightened by the Lord, we would no longer make up our mind to do what He requires. Instead, we would pray, “Lord, have mercy on me, for I am not able to do what You require. Lord, I praise You that You have redeemed me and terminated me and that You are in the process of replacing me with Yourself and making me Your reflection.”
Praise the Lord that we have the cross to terminate us and Christ to replace us! Christ is our burnt offering and our peace offering. As we experience Him, He makes us a living burnt offering and peace offering. This does not come from trying to keep the law; it issues from experiencing the altar and the sacrifice, the cross for termination and replacement to become God’s testimony. If we experience Christ and the cross in this way, we shall have not only the altar and the sacrifices, but also the twelve pillars. Hallelujah for Christ’s marvelous redemption and replacement that can transform fallen, corrupted sinners into pillars!
Do not strive to keep God’s law. Christ has redeemed you, and now He is in the process of replacing you, reconstituting you, and rearranging you to make you a living testimony of God, His reflection. If you walk according to spirit and set your mind on the spirit, automatically the righteous requirements of the law will be fulfilled in you and you will become a testimony of God.
Exodus 24:6 says, “And Moses took half of the blood, and put it in basins; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar.” The blood here was for redemption. Although we are sinful, fallen, and corrupted, we have the blood for our redemption and for the forgiveness of sins. Hebrews 9:22 declares, “And almost all things are purified by blood according to the law, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
The blood in Exodus 24 should have reminded the people of the blood of the Passover lamb. Less than a year before the covenant was enacted at Mount Sinai, the children of Israel put the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their houses.
Moses sprinkled the blood on “both the book itself and all the people” (Heb. 9:19) and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded to you,” as an indication that the children of Israel were sinful and needed the covering of the blood. This blood came from the sacrifices, and the sacrifices typify Christ. Therefore, 1 Peter 1:18 and 19 say that we were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ.
The Old Testament not only reveals the covenant enacted in 24:1-8, but also prophesies of a new covenant. Jeremiah 31:33 says, “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.” In Ezekiel 36:26 and 27 the Lord made this promise: “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep mine ordinances, and do them” (lit.). These prophecies indicate that God would make another covenant with His people, a covenant which would make up for any shortage in the first covenant. In Jeremiah 31:33 God promised to write His law in the hearts of the people, and in Ezekiel 36 He pledged to change their nature by giving them a new heart and to regenerate them by putting a new spirit and also His Spirit within them. For the law to be inscribed on our inner being means that we are regenerated, that we receive a new nature, and that God’s Spirit is placed within us. The result, as indicated by the enactment of the covenant, is that we are replaced by Christ and spontaneously live in a way which corresponds to the righteous requirement of God’s law. Then instead of being those who try to keep the law, we shall be a living reflection of the law.
We have seen that for God’s people to become His living testimony and reflection, they had to be redeemed, terminated, and replaced. According to Ezekiel 36, this results from a profound inward change, from receiving a new heart, a new spirit, and the divine Spirit.
All these matters have their counterpart in the New Testament. The New Testament reveals the cross of Christ through which we are redeemed, terminated, and replaced. The New Testament also reveals that, as those who believe in Christ, we have a new nature, that we have been regenerated to receive a new spirit, and that the divine Spirit, God Himself, dwells in our spirit. Now if we walk according to the mingled spirit, the divine Spirit mingled with our spirit, we shall have a living which is the reflection of God. All this is made possible because we have the precious blood of Christ to cleanse us of our sins. Thus, our sins are cleansed, and we become God’s reflection.
Exodus 24 exposes the ignorance of the children of Israel. Verse 3 says, “And Moses came and told the people all the words of Jehovah, and all the ordinances: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which Jehovah hath said will we do” (lit.). The people spoke in such a foolish way not only once, but twice. Verse 7 says that after Moses “took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people,” they said, “All that Jehovah hath said will we do, and be obedient” (lit.). This shows that they were spiritually blind. In their fallen, natural condition they did not see what God was and they did not know themselves. Being self-confident, they had a foolish trust in themselves. Lacking revelation and vision, many of today’s Christians are the same as the children of Israel in this respect. We also may still be under the influence of the religious concept and think that we are able to obey the law of God. We all need the altar, the pillars, the sacrifices, and the blood. We need to apply the blood and be replaced by Christ to become a reflection of God.
Exodus 24:1-8 is a picture of God’s economy. According to this picture, we should not be observers of the law. Rather, we should be terminated and replaced in order to become pillars as God’s living testimony, a reflection of God in Christ. No longer should we speak to God in a nonsensical way, promising to do whatever He says. To make such an oath or pledge to God is to speak in a natural way. We simply do not have the means to fulfill such a pledge. Our lives are filled with failures and shortcomings. What ground do we have to promise to fulfill God’s requirements? We need redemption, termination, replacement, and reconstitution. Instead of making ridiculous promises, we should pray, “Lord, I have nothing, and I can do nothing. But with You there is the possibility for me to be redeemed, terminated, and replaced. Lord, by working Yourself into me You can reconstitute me and make me a living pillar as Your testimony.” May we all see that God’s desire is to work Himself into us and to reconstitute us with Himself that we may be His testimony. This is the significance of the altar, the pillars, the sacrifices, the blood, and the foolish talk of the children of Israel in Exodus 24.
Religion instructs people to worship God and obey His commandments. Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism all have this emphasis. Such an emphasis, however, is according to man’s natural concept. Under the influence of this concept, we may try our best to keep God’s laws in order to be approved by Him and to please Him. We may think that God gave the law to His people so that by keeping the law they would maintain a good relationship with Him. This concept is natural and religious, utterly contrary to God’s intention in His economy.
We have pointed out that the way Moses enacted the law was very different from what we would expect as the common human way. Instead of commanding the people to be faithful and to observe the law, Moses enacted the covenant by means of the altar, the pillars, the sacrifices, and the blood. By enacting the covenant in this way, Moses seemed to be telling the people that even though they were sinful and corrupted, hopeless in their fallen condition, God could make them pillars to be His testimony. As we have emphasized again and again, this can take place only by the cross of Christ, by the blood of Christ, and by Christ Himself. By the cross we are redeemed and terminated, by the blood we are cleansed from our sins, and by Christ Himself we are replaced, reconstituted, and rearranged. While we are undergoing the process of being replaced by Christ, we often fail the Lord. But we have the blood to cleanse us.
The Lord is working to terminate us and replace us in order to make us pillars, a reflection of God in Christ. To be such a pillar is to magnify Christ in our daily living. This is God’s economy. If we see how the enactment of the old covenant portrays God’s economy, we shall turn from the natural, religious concept to God’s concept and to His intention in His economy.
In the Ten Commandments themselves we do not see redemption, termination, or replacement. Neither do we see the redeeming blood, the altar, or the sacrifices. Of course, the altar and the sacrifices are mentioned later. Although the law itself does not depict God’s economy, the enactment of the law does portray the economy of God. Furthermore, in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36 we read of another covenant. According to these chapters, God will inscribe His laws into our inner being, change our heart, regenerate our spirit, and put His Spirit within us in order to replace us, and He will also forgive us and cleanse us. Jeremiah 31:34 says, “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Ezekiel 36:25 declares, “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.” These verses indicate that God will wash us, cleanse us, and forgive us. Thus, we need not be troubled by our failures, sinfulness, and uncleanness.
However, the main point regarding the enactment of the covenant is not that we are forgiven and cleansed. The crucial matter is that God’s nature is put into us as the law of life. Just as the law of sin is Satan’s nature, so the law of life is God’s nature. By putting His nature into us as the law of life, God changes our heart, regenerates our spirit, and imparts Himself into us as the Spirit. In this way we are gradually replaced and reconstituted to become a living testimony, a living portrait, of what God is. This is the way to become God’s reflection.
Through the ministry of Paul in the New Testament, we see that God desires to reconstitute us of Christ and thereby make us His testimony. Peter says that we are partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4) — this statement is the highlight of Peter’s ministry — but Peter does not say clearly that Christ is in us or that Christ is being wrought into us. Paul is the one who presents the details of how we are terminated by the cross and replaced by Christ to become a living testimony of our God. May all the saints see this revelation and experience the tremendous difference it makes in our Christian life.
