Message 25
Scripture Reading: Lev. 6:24-30
In this message we will consider the law of the sin offering.
It is not difficult for us to consider as law the Ten Commandments given through Moses. However, we may find it hard to regard as a law something that concerns the enjoyment of Christ. We may think that if there is a law concerning the enjoyment of Christ, there will not be any enjoyment. Nevertheless, each of the five offerings has its own law. Therefore, the sin offering has its law, and with this law there are a number of regulations.
As descendants of Adam we have a fallen life, a lawless life unwilling to be ruled, governed, or controlled by anyone. Our Adamic life is rebellious, and our Adamic nature is lawless. But when we were saved and regenerated, we received another life — the divine life, the life of God — and this life is the opposite of our fallen, lawless life. This means that as genuine believers in Christ, we have two lives, an old one and a new one. The first is the natural, human life, and the second is the divine life, the eternal life. It is not too much to say that the divine life is God Himself; it is God within us to be our life. Whereas the fallen, natural life is lawless, the divine life within us is absolutely according to law and regulation.
Every kind of life has its own law. For example, a bird flies according to the law of the bird life, and a peach tree bears peaches according to the law of the peach tree life. The divine life also has its own law.
The law of the sin offering is according to the law of what we have enjoyed of Christ. In our enjoyment of Christ as the burnt offering, we need to realize that Christ is a life and this life has a law. The law of the burnt offering, therefore, is written according to the law of the Christ whom we have enjoyed. The principle is the same with the other offerings. The peace offering and the meal offering are a living person, Christ. As a living person, Christ has a life with a law. Thus, the law of the peace offering and the law of the meal offering correspond to the life law of Christ. Apparently, the written law concerns only the peace offering and the meal offering. Actually, in our experience, the law of the peace offering and the law of the meal offering become a living law, a law of the very life of the Christ whom we enjoy.
Every law in letters is written according to a certain life. If we were to write a law concerning elderly people, that law would have to correspond to the life of elderly people. The same would be true with a law written concerning young people. This principle applies to the law given to us by God. God has given us a law that we should worship Him because we have a worshipping life. God would never give such a law to animals, because they do not have such a life.
Three portions in the New Testament indicate that even in the enjoyment of Christ we need to be regulated. In 1 Corinthians 9:26 and 27 Paul says, “I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so I box, not as beating the air; but I buffet my body and lead it as a slave, lest having preached to others, I myself should become disapproved.” Literally, the Greek word translated “buffet” means to beat the face under the eye black and blue. This is not to ill-treat the body as in asceticism, nor to consider the body evil as in Gnosticism. This is to subdue the body and make it a conquered captive to serve us as a slave for fulfilling our holy purpose. In these verses we see not only requirements but demands. Here we have the strongest demand of the strongest law.
Galatians 6:15 and 16 say, “Neither is circumcision anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as many as shall walk by this rule, peace be upon them and mercy, even upon the Israel of God.” In verse 15 Paul tells us that “neither is circumcision anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.” This is grace. Today we do not need circumcision or uncircumcision — we only need grace. But in verse 16 Paul goes on to tell us that the way to receive mercy and peace is to “walk by this rule,” the rule of the new creation. God has saved us to the state and condition of a new creation with Christ as its life. Now we need to walk by the rule of this new creation.
The rule of the new creation will regulate us in the time we go to bed at night and rise in the morning. On the Lord’s Day in particular, the rule of the new creation will urge us to rise up a little earlier, pray for the meeting, and come to the meeting early to meet with the Lord and worship Him.
The reward for walking according to the rule of the new creation is mercy and peace. I can testify that when I walk according to this rule, I have mercy and peace. If we walk according to the rule of the new creation in the way we prepare for and come to the meeting on the Lord’s Day, we will receive mercy and peace.
Walking by the rule of the new creation is a matter of law. In the new creation, there is a new life, and within this new life, there is a new law. This new law is actually the Lord Himself within us, regulating us all the time.
We are God’s new creation, and we have the life of this new creation. With this life there is a regulating law. In our daily living, we need to be regulated by this law.
In Philippians 3:13 and 14 Paul tells us that he is forgetting what is behind, stretching forward to what is before, and pursuing “toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Then in verses 15 and 16 he says, “Let us therefore, as many as are full-grown, have this mind; and if in anything you are otherwise minded, this also God shall reveal to you. Only this, whereunto we have attained, by the same rule let us walk.” The Greek word translated “walk” here means to walk orderly; it is derived from a word which means to range in regular line, to march in military rank, to keep step, to conform to virtue and piety. Thus, Paul is here charging us to walk in line, in order, and in a regulated way.
These three portions of the New Testament all indicate the same thing — that in the enjoyment of grace we need to be ruled.
“Speak to Aaron and to his sons and say, This is the law of the sin offering: in the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered the sin offering shall be slaughtered before Jehovah” (Lev. 6:25a). This signifies two things. First, it signifies that Christ as our sin offering was slain before God. Second, it signifies that Christ was offered to God as our sin offering based upon His being the burnt offering to God.
We may think that if we bring an offering to God, we may slaughter it anywhere. However, here God requires His people to slaughter the sin offering before Him in the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered. The offering must be presented according to God’s regulations. From this we see that even though we today are enjoying Christ as grace, there are still regulations that we must follow in the enjoyment of Christ.
The sin offering is most holy (6:25b). This signifies that Christ as our sin offering offered to God was most holy in that He dealt with sin in our nature intrinsically and with the whole of our sinful nature. The sin offering deals not only with the sin in our conduct outwardly but also with the sin in our nature intrinsically. This offering deals with the whole of our sinful nature. Therefore, the sin offering is most holy.
“The priest who offers it for sin shall eat it. In a holy place it shall be eaten, in the court of the tent of meeting” (6:26). This signifies that he who serves sinners with Christ as their sin offering shares the enjoyment of Christ as the sin offering. If we serve sinners with Christ, we are serving as priests. When we minister Christ to others in this way, both we and the ones we are serving will enjoy Christ as the sin offering.
The priest’s eating the sin offering in a holy place, in the court of the tent of meeting, also signifies that he who ministers Christ as the sin offering to sinners enjoys Christ as this offering in a separated, sanctified realm, in the sphere of the church.
We may think that as long as we are serving others with Christ, we can do this anywhere. However, according to the spiritual rule, we must do this according to God’s regulation.
Whoever touched the flesh of the sin offering was holy (6:27a). This signifies that whoever touches Christ as the sin offering is separated and sanctified, forsaking sin and having his natural flesh dealt with, for Christ as the sin offering has dealt with sin and our sinful flesh on the cross.
We need to realize that when we bring Christ as the sin offering to a sinner, this Christ is holy. When a sinner touches this holy Christ, he becomes sanctified and is made holy. Immediately this sanctified one will forsake sin and have his natural flesh dealt with.
We need to have such a realization and faith concerning Christ as the sin offering. Then we should bring the gospel — that is, Christ Himself — to others and let them touch Him. The Christ whom we minister to others is the sin offering. On the cross He dealt with the intrinsic sin in our being and with our sinful flesh.
“When any of its blood is spattered on a garment, you shall wash what it was spattered on in a holy place” (6:27b). This signifies that the daily walk of the one who has received redemption through the blood of Christ as the sin offering should be dealt with (cf. Eph. 4:22-24). Our daily walk, signified by the garment, should be dealt with continually.
The garment on which the blood of the sin offering was spattered was washed in a holy place. This signifies that the daily life of one who has received redemption through the blood of Christ as the sin offering should be dealt with in a separated, sanctified realm. From this we see that we should have regard for the blood of Christ and never consider it common.
“An earthen vessel in which it is boiled shall be broken” (6:28a). This signifies that the one who, as an earthen vessel, has a relationship with Christ as the sin offering should be broken. To preach Christ to others as the sin offering, we as the earthen vessels need to be broken. If we are not broken and yet preach the gospel in our natural life, we will not see much result. We need to be broken vessels.
“If it is boiled in a bronze vessel, then it shall be scoured and rinsed with water” (6:28b). This signifies that the one who has been enlightened and judged by the Spirit (likened to a bronze mirror) to be regenerated needs not to be broken but dealt with by being scoured and rinsed.
If we would go to preach Christ as the sin offering to others, we must be dealt with, either by being broken or by being scoured and rinsed. We cannot go in a natural way.
“Every male among the priests may eat of it; it is most holy” (6:29). This signifies that all the stronger ones can enjoy Christ as the most holy offering in ministering Christ as the sin offering to sinners.
We should not think that preaching the gospel is a small thing. It requires us to be strong in the life of Christ.
“No sin offering shall be eaten from which any of the blood is brought into the tent of meeting to make propitiation in the holy place; it shall be burned with fire” (6:30). The propitiation mentioned here was made in the Holy of Holies (16:27). This verse signifies that Christ as the sin offering dealing with our sin and with our sinful nature on the cross to accomplish God’s redemption for us is wholly for God’s enjoyment, and we should not share it. But in our ministering Christ as the sin offering to sinners, we can share Him.
Concerning Christ as the sin offering, there is a portion that is only for God, and there is a portion for us to share. The top portion is for God’s enjoyment. God made Christ a propitiation for sinners, and we have no share in this. This is absolutely for God. However, when we preach Christ to others, ministering Him as the sin offering, we can share Him. Thus, God has His part, and we have our part.
These regulations concerning the sin offering are called “the law of the sin offering.” This indicates that even in the enjoyment of Christ, we must go along with all the regulations in life. We should not have our own choice in the way to enjoy Christ. We must enjoy Christ in the way chosen by God.
