Message 9
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In the foregoing message we saw that we may experience Christ in His experiences of being brought to the slaughter, of being slaughtered, of being skinned, and of being cut into pieces. In this message we shall consider further aspects of our experiences of Christ in His experiences as the burnt offering to God.
1 Cor. 1:30 tells us that Christ has become wisdom to us from God. In Leviticus 1 Christ’s wisdom is typified by the head of the burnt offering. We need Christ’s head; that is, we need His wisdom.
If we would take Christ as our wisdom, we must live Christ. The proper Christian life, a life of abiding in the Lord that we may enjoy His life, is a life of doing things not by ourselves but by Him. As long as we do things by ourselves, we cannot have the wisdom of Christ and He cannot be wisdom to us. For example, if you speak to your husband or wife and to your children in your self and by your self, Christ will not be wisdom to you in your speaking. If we would speak and do all things by Christ, we need to pray, “Lord, live in me. I have been crucified, and it is no longer I who live. Lord, I don’t want to do anything by myself — I want to do everything by You. Actually, Lord, I would let You live in me and do everything for me.” When we let Christ live in us and do everything for us, He becomes our wisdom.
Our problem today is that we want to live a victorious and perfect life, yet we do not live and act by Christ. We have the heart to live by Christ, even to live Christ, but we are not accustomed to doing this. On the contrary, we are accustomed to living ourselves. We spontaneously live ourselves without trying to do so and without deliberately exercising any part of our being. However, in order to live Christ, we need to exercise our entire being.
Concerning the matter of living Christ, the question is not whether or not something is sinful but whether or not we are the ones who are living. We usually consider whether or not a certain thing is sinful, but God considers whether we are living by ourselves or by Christ. When we lose our temper, we do something sinful. However, even if our behavior does not seem to be sinful, if we live by ourselves and not by Christ, sin will issue forth. When we live ourselves, we eventually do something sinful, simply because we are the ones living. But if Christ lives in us, we shall be victorious, and He will become our wisdom.
If we live Christ in our married life, Christ will be not only our life but also our wisdom. Whenever we find it difficult to deal with our husband or wife, we are short of Christ as wisdom. If we do not live Christ, we shall have trouble in our married life. The way to avoid trouble with our husband or wife is to live Christ and thereby have Him as our wisdom.
Christ is very wise. As He lives in us, He repeats in us His life of wisdom. In this way we experience Christ in His wisdom and live a life with Christ as our wisdom.
Concerning our experiencing Christ in His wisdom, Paul says, “We speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom which has been hidden, which God predestined before the ages for our glory” (1 Cor. 2:7). God’s wisdom is Christ (1 Cor. 1:24), who is the hidden mystery (Col. 1:26-27), predestined, predesignated, and foreordained before the ages for our glory. Christ is the wisdom of God, and He is the wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, and the One predestined by God before the ages for our glory. We may think that this glory is something only for the future. However, if we live Christ and He becomes our wisdom in our living, we shall experience a little of this glory even today.
We may experience Christ also in His being a delight to God. The Lord Jesus was always a delight to God. On two occasions a voice from the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I delight” (Matt. 3:17; 17:5). If we today live a life of Christ as our burnt offering, we too shall be a delight to God.
Paul experienced Christ in this way. In Galatians 1:10 he says, “For am I now persuading men or God? Or do I seek to please men? If I were still pleasing men, I would not be a slave of Christ.” Paul lived a life which was a repetition of Christ’s life, pleasing God all the time. His life, therefore, was a delight to God.
We may think that Paul was extraordinary, that his living was incomparable, and that his standard is too high for us. Yet Paul told us to be imitators of him (1 Cor. 4:16; 11:1). Paul was the same as we are. He was a human being, he was part of the old creation, and he lived in the flesh. Whether we imitate Paul in being a delight to God depends on whether we live or Christ lives in us. If we are the ones living, we cannot be a delight to God. But if we let Christ live for us and if we live by Christ and even live Christ, our life will surely be a delight to God. Whenever our life is a delight to God, we shall have within us a deep sense regarding this. We shall know that we are living a life which is a repetition of the life of Christ and which is a delight to God.
I believe that all of us have had at least a limited experience of this and have had the deep sense that we are pleasing to God and pleasing also to ourselves. Quite often, however, we are not pleasing to God and thus are not pleasing even to ourselves.
What kind of life is pleasing to God? The only life that is pleasing to God is the life that is a repetition of the life Christ lived on earth. A life that experiences Christ in His experiences as the burnt offering is a God-pleasing life. Such a life is a delight to God.
In Romans 14:18 Paul says, “He who in this serves Christ as a slave is well-pleasing to God.” The “this” here refers to verse 17, which tells us that the kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. He who serves as a slave in this — in the kingdom of God — is well-pleasing to God. When we live a kingdom life, we live a life that is righteous and full of peace and joy. Such a living is a repetition of Christ’s life as the burnt offering, which is always a delight to God.
Christ’s inwards denotes all the inward parts of His being, including His mind, emotion, will, and heart with all their functions.
The leading part of our inwards, of our inner being, is the mind. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). The mind which was in Christ should be in us today. This means that we should take His mind as our mind. We should be those not with our own, natural mind but with the mind of Christ.
In 1 Corinthians 2:16b Paul says, “We have the mind of Christ.” Because we are organically one with Christ, we have all the faculties He has. The mind is the intelligence faculty, the understanding organ. We have such an organ of Christ so we can know what He knows. Therefore, we may have not only the life but also the mind of Christ. Christ must saturate our mind from our spirit, making our mind one with His.
In Romans 8:6 Paul speaks of setting the mind on the spirit. This word is not as strong as his word concerning the mind of Christ. We should not merely set our mind on the spirit but have the very mind of Christ.
“I long after you all in the inward parts of Christ Jesus” (Phil. 1:8). The Greek word translated “inward parts” literally means bowels, signifying inward affection, then tender mercy and sympathy. Paul was one with Christ even in the bowels, the tender inward parts of Christ, in longing after the saints. This indicates that Paul did not keep his own inwards but took Christ’s inwards as his. He took not only Christ’s mind but also His entire inward being. Paul’s inner being, therefore, was changed, rearranged, remodeled, reconstituted. His inner being was reconstituted with the inwards of Christ. Paul did not live a life in his natural inner being; he lived a life in the inwards of Christ.
“The truth of Christ is in me” (2 Cor. 11:10). “Truth” here means honesty, faithfulness, trustworthiness. What was in Christ as truth, that is, as honesty, faithfulness, trustworthiness, was also in the Apostle Paul.
“My love be with you all in Christ Jesus” (1 Cor. 16:24). Paul’s love for the Corinthians was not his love but the love in Christ, which is Christ’s love. Paul loved the saints not by his natural love but by the love of Christ.
If we put these verses together, we shall see that Paul was a man who continually experienced Christ’s inwards. Because he experienced Christ in this way, he surely was able to offer Christ according to his experience of Him.
In Leviticus 1, the legs of the burnt offering signify Christ’s walk, just as the head signifies His wisdom. We need to experience Christ in His walk.
In Matthew 11:29 the Lord Jesus says, “Take My yoke on you and learn from Me.” This is to take the Lord’s legs, His walk, and to experience Him in His walk.
“You did…so learn Christ” (Eph. 4:20). To learn Christ is to have His legs and feet in order to live, walk, and move exactly as He did.
“Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). This verse indicates that Paul did not walk by his own legs and feet but walked by the legs and feet of Christ.
Peter also experienced Christ in His walk. This is indicated by his word about following in Christ’s steps: “Leaving you a model that you should follow in His steps” (1 Pet. 2:21). Both Paul and Peter walked by the legs and feet of Christ as a burnt offering to God.
Finally, we may experience Christ in His experiences as the burnt offering in His being kept by the Holy Spirit from defilement. This is indicated in Leviticus by the washing of the legs and inwards of the burnt offering.
Paul refers to our experience of this washing in 1 Corinthians 6:11 and in Titus 3:5. First Corinthians 6:11 says, “You were washed…in the Spirit of our God.” If we daily experience such a washing and then come to offer Christ as our burnt offering, we shall be able to offer Him according to our experience. If we do not have the experience of being washed by the Holy Spirit, we shall not have the capacity to offer a burnt offering that has been washed. We need to experience Christ in His being washed by the Holy Spirit.
In Titus 3:5 Paul speaks of the “renewing of the Holy Spirit.” This renewing is also related to our experience in our daily life of being kept from defilement by the washing of the Holy Spirit.
We need to offer to God as a burnt offering the Christ whom we have experienced. In Romans 8:11 Paul says, “He who raised Christ Jesus from among the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.” Then in Romans 12:1 he goes on to say, “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well-pleasing to God, which is your most reasonable service.” In Colossians 1:28 Paul speaks of presenting “every man full-grown in Christ.” This is to offer to God as the burnt offering the Christ we have experienced.
The situation among Christians today is that very few have Christ to offer as the burnt offering. Where can you find a group of Christians who daily offer to God as a burnt offering the Christ they have experienced? Regarding this, what is the situation among us? I am concerned about the fact that we also are short of experiences. This is the reason many saints have nothing to utter in the Lord’s table meeting or in the prayer meeting. We may want to offer praise to God, but if we are lacking in the experience of Christ’s experiences, we shall not have anything to utter. However, if we are full of the experience of Christ’s experiences as the burnt offering, we shall have rich utterance in praise not only in the meetings but also in our private time with the Lord. Therefore, we should endeavor to experience Christ daily in all His aspects as the burnt offering. Then, having much experience of Him, we shall be able to offer to God the Christ we have experienced. Our prayers and praises will be the release of our experiences of Christ.
We need to offer Christ to God as our burnt offering according to our experiences of Him. Two verses which indicate this are 1 Peter 2:5 and Hebrews 13:15. First Peter 2:5 speaks of offering up “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” These spiritual sacrifices are Christ in all the varied aspects of His riches as the reality of all the sacrifices of the Old Testament types. In particular, the spiritual sacrifices include Christ as the reality of the burnt offering. Hebrews 13:15 says, “Through Him then let us offer up a sacrifice of praise continually to God.” Both of these verses indicate that we can offer Christ to God as our burnt offering only to the extent to which we have experienced Christ in His experiences.
If we experience Christ in His experiences, not only shall we have something of Christ to offer to God, but we shall also be able to offer Him with a procedure that is according to our experiences. Suppose you offer Christ as a bull. First, you will bring this offering to the altar, the place of slaughter. Then you will kill it, skin it, and wash its legs and inwards. This procedure will be a review of your experience of Christ in His experiences of being brought to the slaughter, of being slaughtered, and of being skinned and washed. In your daily life you have experienced Christ in this way, and now as you offer Christ to God as your burnt offering, you review your experiences. Your way of offering, therefore, is a demonstration of your experience of Christ.
Those who witness such a review and demonstration will surely be impressed by it. Of course, because we are short of experience, we do not often witness this. Nevertheless, sometimes in a meeting we hear a praise or a testimony which is a review and a demonstration of one’s experience of Christ, and we admire that praise or testimony.
For the most part, the burnt offering we offer to God in our meetings is an offering of two pigeons. Both the sacrifice itself and the way of offering it are poor. The reason for this is the lack of the experiences of Christ as the burnt offering. If we are short of the experiences of Christ, we shall not have anything to review or to demonstrate. But if we have the rich experience of Christ in His experiences, we shall be able to go through a procedure to review and demonstrate our experiences of Christ. Such a review and demonstration are a treasure in the eyes of God.
We need to experience Christ and then offer Him to God. To experience Christ in His experiences is to follow in His steps. It is to live Christ, repeating the life He lived on earth. If we live Christ, we shall certainly have many experiences of Christ. When we come to offer this experienced Christ to God, we shall offer Him according to a procedure of review and demonstration that is impressive not only to human beings but also to the demons and the angels and especially to God. God is happy to see His children offering His Son to Him by a procedure which reviews and demonstrates their experiences of Christ in their daily life. How wonderful the church meetings would be if they were full of this kind of offering!
Concerning worship, the New Testament gives us clear words and principles, but it does not provide the details that we see in the Old Testament types, especially the types in Leviticus. For example, in John 4:23 and 24 the Lord Jesus tells us that genuine worship is to worship God in spirit and in truth, and in 1 Corinthians 14 Paul gives us certain principles related to how we should meet. But neither in John 4 nor in 1 Corinthians 14 do we find the details about worship or about how to meet. For the details we need to consider the types in Leviticus.
The book of Leviticus has much to say about the worship of God. To offer the burnt offering and the other offerings is to worship God. God wants us to worship Him with Christ as the reality of the offerings. God does not want a people who worship Him by bowing down, kneeling, or even merely by singing and praising. Genuine worship, the worship which satisfies God’s heart, is a matter of our coming to worship God by offering to Him the Christ whom we have experienced and offering Him according to our experiences, reviewing the experiences we have had in our daily life. This is the worship the Father is seeking, the worship He desires.
The Father wants us to worship Him by offering His Son to Him according to a procedure in which we review our experiences. This requires much experience. We thank the Lord for showing us from Leviticus that we need to experience Christ in His experiences not only to have Him as the burnt offering but also to be able to go through a procedure in which we offer Christ to God by reviewing our experiences of Him.
You may feel that it is impossible for you to experience Christ in His experiences as the burnt offering. However, in Philippians 3:10 Paul tells us that we can be conformed to Christ’s death if we experience the sustaining and strengthening power of Christ’s resurrection. In one of his hymns, A. B. Simpson says, “ ‘Tis not hard to die with Christ when His risen life we know” (Hymns, #481). If we see the vision concerning the experience of Christ in His experiences and are attracted to live such a life, we must have the faith that the very Christ who presents His experiences as an example is now in us as our life supply. We have an all-sufficient supply within us, and this supply is the Spirit of Christ in His resurrection. This was the reason Paul could say, “I can do all things in Him who empowers me” (Phil. 4:13). Therefore, since Christ is in us and for us, we should not be disappointed.
Concerning the burnt offering, we need to experience Christ in His experiences. Then what we offer to God as a burnt offering will be accepted by Him. But how can we experience Christ in this way? We cannot do this in ourselves, but we can do it by the indwelling, resurrected Christ, who Himself is resurrection. In Him and by Him we can do all the things related to experiencing Christ as the burnt offering. In Him and by Him we can live an overcoming life in our married life and a victorious life in the church life, overcoming all difficulties in our family life and all problems in the church life. We can do all things in Him who strengthens us. Therefore, we can experience Christ in His experiences and have Him to offer to God as the burnt offering.
