Message 14
My burden in this message is to fellowship with you concerning the practical experience and enjoyment of Christ as the offerings.
Christ today is the reality of the offerings. According to Heb. 10:7-9, Christ came in the flesh to do the will of God, which was to replace the Old Testament offerings with Himself. Verse 9b says, “He takes away the first that He may establish the second.” The “first” denotes the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament, and the “second” denotes Christ as the unique sacrifice, the unique offering. In the Old Testament there were many offerings, but in the New Testament there is one, unique offering — the wonderful person of Christ.
The book of Hebrews reveals to us what a wonderful person Christ is. In chapter after chapter, Paul opens the veil to show us the marvelous, mysterious, all-inclusive person of Christ. In particular, Hebrews speaks of the priesthood of Christ. Christ is not only our Savior — He is also our High Priest. In chapter ten we see that this One has become the replacement of all the Old Testament offerings. He came to do God’s will (Heb. 10:7, 9). In the New Testament economy, God’s will is to replace the Old Testament offerings with Christ.
If we would know Christ’s person, we need to study the book of Hebrews. This wonderful person is not only the Son of God and not only the Triune God — He is the processed Triune God. Christ is also a man, for He is the processed Triune God mingled with humanity. Eventually, Christ passed through death and entered into resurrection. Furthermore, as a man He ascended to the third heaven where, as a processed God-man, He is sitting on the throne. In His incarnation He brought God to earth, and in His ascension He brought man to the heavens.
According to the book of Hebrews, Christ, the ascended God-man, is our High Priest. In the Old Testament, the duty of the high priest was to offer something to God, either a sacrifice or a gift, not only to make propitiation but also to please God. As sinners with a sinful nature and sinful deeds, we had a problem with God, and God had a problem with us. There was no peace between us and God. Something had to be done to appease the situation between us and God. Christ has appeased this situation by making propitiation for us. Moreover, Christ has done something to make God happy. God wanted to be happy with us, but our sins made Him unhappy with us. Before we were saved, God loved us, but He was not happy with us. Therefore, Christ offered Himself not only as a sacrifice for sin but also as a gift to please God and thereby make Him happy. As the unique offering, Christ has made propitiation for us, and He has made God happy.
One of the most difficult books in the Bible for us to understand is Leviticus. Paul was the first one to open up, to expound, this book. Throughout the centuries, Bible teachers, especially among the Brethren, have expounded Leviticus. The Brethren opened up the types. We today have received much help from the Bible teachers who preceded us, and we are standing on their shoulders.
All those who have the proper understanding of Leviticus see the connection between this book and the book of Hebrews. For over sixty years we have been studying Hebrews and how it is linked to Leviticus.
In his Bible Correspondence Course, C. I. Scofield said that in every chapter of Leviticus we can see Christ. When I first heard this, I did not understand it. I could see the offerings in Leviticus, but I could not see Christ. Eventually, I was helped by the Brethren to see that in Leviticus Christ is portrayed in the types. All the offerings are types, pictures, of Christ.
Although I was helped by the Brethren to see Christ in the types, I did not realize until some time later that the offerings are God’s food (Lev. 3:11, 16; 21:6, 8; Num. 28:2). Do you realize that God is hungry, that He needs food, that He needs to eat? To say that God is hungry and needs food is not according to our natural, human concept. When we speak of the offerings as sacrifices, our only thought may be that we have a problem with God and need the offerings for propitiation that our situation with God may be appeased. We may never have realized that, in reality, one of the main purposes of the offerings is that they are food for God and also for His serving ones.
In the books of Exodus and Leviticus we see that the priests, who served in and around the tabernacle, ate the priestly food. What was this priestly food? It was the different kinds of offerings, both of the animal life and of the vegetable life. The offerings are not only for propitiating our situation and not only for pleasing God and making Him happy. The offerings are also for satisfying God and for satisfying, strengthening, and energizing God’s serving ones.
We may talk much about serving God, but with what should we serve Him? We need to serve God with Christ as food. This food should not be merely of one form or course; rather, like a Chinese feast, it should be of many courses. Each of the offerings is a different course. The burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the trespass offering, the sin offering, the wave offering, the heave offering, the free will offering, the drink offering — all these offerings are Christ as different courses with which we may serve God.
Christ is God’s food, and He is also our food. Since Christ is our food, we need to eat Him. Some Christians, however, may be bothered when they hear us speak about eating Jesus. We would remind them of the Lord’s word in John 6:57. “As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me shall also live because of Me.” As our food, Christ strengthens us and energizes us.
We serve God with Christ as our food. Apart from Christ we have nothing to offer to God, nothing with which to please and satisfy Him. Therefore, we should not come to God empty-handed but with hands full of Christ to present to God. The top portion of Christ as the offerings is God’s food for His enjoyment, and the remainder is our food for our enjoyment. From this we see that both God and His serving ones are satisfied with Christ and by Christ as food.
Each of the four Gospels reveals something concerning Christ. In a sense, Leviticus is also a gospel revealing Christ. Christ is surely revealed in Leviticus, but He is revealed here in a “language” different from that used in the Gospels. We may say that this is a “Leviticus language.” One example of this language is the Hebrew word translated “burnt offering” in chapter one. Literally, this word denotes something that is ascending. If we know the language of Leviticus, we will realize that this ascending refers to Christ.
In the book of Leviticus we can see many of the details related to the enjoyment of Christ. In the Gospel of John the Lord Jesus revealed that He is the bread of life, that He is the bread which came down from heaven and is good for our eating (6:48, 50-51). But although the Lord said this clearly in John, the details concerning this cannot be found in John. For the details concerning eating Christ, we need to come to Leviticus.
It is crucial that we find a way to experience and enjoy Christ as He is revealed in Leviticus. We need to experience and enjoy Him daily and practically. If we would do this, we need to know the reality of all the offerings.
Some may say that the reality of the offerings is Christ. This, of course, is correct. In John 14 the Lord Jesus even tells us that He is the reality. “I am the way, and the reality, and the life” (v. 6). Elsewhere in the same chapter He speaks of the Spirit of reality (v. 17). Christ cannot be the reality to us if He is simply the reality itself. In Himself He is the reality, but He is not yet the reality to us. In order for Christ to be the reality to us, there is the need of the Spirit of reality.
John 1:17 says, “The law was given through Moses; grace and reality came through Jesus Christ.” This indicates that when the Lord Jesus came, reality also came. Christ Himself is the reality. On the one hand, the Lord Jesus tells us that He is the reality; on the other hand, He speaks of the Spirit of reality. “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever; even the Spirit of reality” (14:16-17a).
According to the revelation in the New Testament, the Spirit of reality is the transfiguration of Christ. When Christ walked on earth as a man in the flesh, He was not yet the Spirit of reality. But after He had been crucified to accomplish an all-inclusive redemption and had entered into resurrection, He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b). The Christ who was once in the flesh has become the Spirit who gives life. This Spirit is the Spirit, the consummation of the processed Triune God. The life-giving Spirit today is the consummation of the processed Triune God. What the Father is, what the Son is, and what the Spirit is have all been consummated into this all-inclusive Spirit. This is the reason Revelation 22:17 speaks of “the Spirit.” “The Spirit and the bride say, Come!”
The Spirit is not only power, strength, and energy — He is a person. However, we may not realize that we have such a person living in us and walking with us. We are not alone; we have another person — Christ as the Spirit of reality — in us and with us. This means that when we take Christ in and enjoy Him, we are taking in and enjoying a person. We all need to realize that we have Christ as a person within us.
In Matthew 28:20 the Lord Jesus said, “Behold, I am with you all the days.” This means that He is with us every day. Do you have the sense that the Lord Jesus is with you as a person? Even though this person still has the human nature as well as the divine nature, He is no longer in the flesh, for He has been transfigured to be the Spirit. He is now the consummated Spirit, the Spirit who is the consummation of the processed Triune God.
Do you realize that we have a processed God and that this processed God has become the consummated Spirit? I can testify that I have the deep sense that such a person is in me and with me, helping me, strengthening me, energizing me, and watching over me. Because Paul had this kind of realization, he could say, “I can do all things in Him who empowers me” (Phil. 4:13).
The Bible reveals that Christ is a wonderful person and that this wonderful person is today the life-giving Spirit. He is the consummated Triune God as the compound Spirit who is with us all the time for our enjoyment. How may we enjoy Him? We may enjoy Him as all the offerings.
The thought that we may enjoy Christ as the offerings is hidden in the book of Leviticus. For example, we may enjoy Christ as the burnt offering. We cannot be absolute for God, but Christ as the burnt offering is absolute for Him. Therefore, we should take Christ as the burnt offering and enjoy Him as the burnt offering. To have this experience and enjoyment of Christ we need to pray, saying, “Lord Jesus, You are a wonderful person. You are the consummated Spirit with me all the time, and You are with me to be my burnt offering. Lord, I cannot satisfy God, but You can satisfy Him. I cannot be absolute for God, but You have always been and still are absolute for Him. Now, Lord Jesus, I take You as my burnt offering.” By praying like this we will enjoy Christ as our burnt offering.
We may also enjoy Christ as our meal offering. As the meal offering, Christ is food for God and also for us. With this food we have frankincense and salt but no leaven or honey. The salt refers to Christ’s death and the frankincense to Christ’s resurrection. The meal offering, therefore, is full of the death and resurrection of Christ.
The more we pray concerning Christ as the offerings with the realization that He is the life-giving Spirit, the more we will enjoy Him as the offerings. The way to enjoy Christ is to contact Him and take Him in as the Spirit of reality.
If we would experience and enjoy Christ as He is revealed in Leviticus, we should pray not in a mental way but by releasing our spirit through the word in the Bible. This will cause the constant word in the Bible to become the instant word to us. This is the way to enjoy Christ.
Among Christians today, including us, there is a lack of enjoying Christ by releasing our spirit through the word in the Bible. We may learn many things and we may pick up different practices, but we still do not have the adequate exercise of our spirit in prayer with the constant word in the Bible to make it the instant word in our experience that we may enjoy Christ in a practical way. If for a period of time we pray by releasing our spirit through the word, we will have the deep sense that the Lord Jesus is with us to supply us with whatever we need.
If we daily enjoy Christ by releasing our spirit through the word and touching the Spirit, we will be full of Christ. Then we will minister Christ to whomever we contact. Even if we do not actually mention Christ, we will minister Christ to others through our fellowship with them.
Enjoying Christ as the offerings is a matter of eating Christ that we may serve God. The more we eat Christ, the more we will be filled with Him and be satisfied with Him. This will enable us to serve God and to worship Him.
Worshipping God does not require that we kneel or bow down. We may worship God even as we minister Christ to others. Such a ministering of Christ to others is a real worshipping of God with Christ.
First, we ourselves need to be satisfied with Christ as the offerings. Then, enjoying Christ as the capacity to love others, we will minister Christ to them. For instance, on the one hand, we need to take Christ as our sin offering, enjoying His propitiation. On the other hand, we need to minister the Christ we have enjoyed to others, especially to weaker ones who are still living in sin. Through such a ministering of Christ, they will be supplied and enlightened to confess their sins. Eventually, they will go on to be victorious over their sin and to overcome it.
My burden in this message is that the saints in the Lord’s recovery would know how to enjoy Christ actually and practically, realizing that He, a wonderful, living person, is our offerings. As the consummated Spirit of the processed Triune God, Christ is everything. He is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit; He is the processed One; He is a man mingled with God. He is also our holy food. This means that He is the offerings becoming our food. He is even our worship to God and the One within us who pleases God. Our need today is to enjoy such a Christ that we may preach Him and minister Him to others.
