The peace offering signifies Christ as our peace with God that we may enjoy Him with God and with man in fellowship and joy (Num. 10:10; Deut. 27:7). It is fulfilled primarily in our enjoying Christ at the Lord’s table in the breaking of bread for the remembrance of Him and in the offering of Christ to the Father for the worship of the Father (Matt. 26:26-30). The peace offering, which implies fellowship with the Triune God and includes the enjoyment of the Triune God, is illustrated in Luke 15:23-24 by the fattened calf as the peaceful enjoyment between the receiving father (God) and the returned prodigal (a sinner).

The peace offering is the Old Testament type of the Lord’s table. At the Lord’s table the believers enjoy Christ as their peace offering for their fellowship with God and with one another. This enjoyment of the peace offering issues from the burnt offering, the meal offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering (v. 5 and note Lev. 3:5¹). Our enjoyment of Christ as these four offerings has an issue, a result — the enjoyment of Christ as our peace offering for us to have fellowship with God and with our fellow believers. See note Lev. 3:3¹.

The peace offering could be of different animals from the herd or from the flock, and it could be either male or female. The different kinds of peace offerings signify the different conditions of the offerers’ enjoyment of Christ. Here the male signifies that the offerer’s enjoyment of Christ is stronger, whereas the female signifies that the offerer’s enjoyment of Christ is weaker (cf. 1 Pet. 3:7). Cf. note Lev. 3:7¹.

As our peace offering, Christ is without blemish, without sins and transgressions (Heb. 9:14; 1 Pet. 1:19; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15).

See note Lev. 1:4¹. So also for v. 8 and v. 13.

See note Lev. 1:3³.

The sprinkling of the blood of the peace offering on and around the altar (vv. 2, 8, 13), where the offerer was standing, indicates that the blood is for peace in the offerer’s conscience, giving him the assurance that his sins have been washed away (Heb. 9:14b).

Christ as the peace offering is for the fellowship and enjoyment of five parties: God, the serving priest, all the priests (the priesthood), the offerer, and the congregation of cleansed people. The fat and the inward parts of the offering were God’s portion (vv. 3-5); the four kinds of cakes and the right thigh as a heave offering were the portion of the serving priest (Lev. 7:14, 32-34); the breast as a wave offering was for all the priests (Lev. 7:30-31, 34); the flesh, the meat, of the offering was the portion of the offerer (Lev. 7:15-18); and the remaining flesh of the cattle, under the condition of cleanness, was for all the congregation (Lev. 7:19-21). In the New Testament there are no clergy and no laity (see note Rev. 2:6^1a). Thus, all the believers in Christ should be the serving priests, the priestly body, the offerers, and the congregation.

The fat signifies the inward riches of Christ as the abundance of life for God’s satisfaction according to His glory, and the inward parts signify the tenderness, smallness, and preciousness of what Christ is in His inward being toward God (cf. Phil. 1:8; John 7:3-18 and notes) for God’s satisfaction, which can be apprehended and appreciated only by God (Matt. 11:27a). The burning of the fat and the inward parts of the peace offering as an offering by fire to Jehovah (vv. 3-5, 9-11, 14-16) signifies that God should be the first Enjoyer, enjoying the first, the best, part of the peace offering.

The peace offering is based on God’s satisfaction in the burnt offering (Lev. 6:12). According to the sequence of the offerings presented in 1:1—6:7, it is also the issue of the enjoyment of God and man in the meal offering. If we would enjoy Christ as peace in a practical, daily way, we must first take Him as our burnt offering to satisfy God, and then we must feed on Him as the meal offering, enjoying Him as our food.

According to the sequence of the offerings in 6:8—7:38, the peace offering is also based on the sin offering and the trespass offering. When the problem of our sin and trespasses is solved by Christ as the sin offering and trespass offering, and when God and we are satisfied with Christ as the burnt offering and the meal offering, we can offer Christ to God as the peace offering for our mutual enjoyment in peace. See Lev. 7:37 and note Lev. 7:37².

A lamb signifies that the offerer enjoys Christ in His perfection and beauty, whereas a goat (v. 12) signifies that the offerer enjoys Christ not much in His perfection and beauty but in His being made sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21).

This signifies that the peace offering is a kind of burnt offering (Lev. 1:9, 13, 17) as food to God for His satisfaction and enjoyment.

Not eating the fat signifies that the best part of Christ is for God’s satisfaction. Not eating the blood signifies that Christ’s blood shed for our redemption fully satisfies the requirements of God’s righteousness, holiness, and glory (see note Gen. 3:24^1a). Thus, in the universe only Jesus’ blood is edible to His believers (John 6:53-56 and note John 6:54²). To eat any other blood would make Christ’s blood common (cf. Heb. 10:29 and note Heb. 10:29³).