Christ as the tabernacle is for us to experience and to pass through; Christ as the offerings is for us to enjoy that we may gain Him and become one with Him. We have to clearly differentiate between these two aspects-Christ as the tabernacle and Christ as the offerings. Christ as our offerings is more subjective and deeper than Christ as our tabernacle. This is because Christ wants us not only to be joined to Him and to pass through Him but also to receive Him into us. As the offerings Christ is not only God’s food, but He also becomes our food and our element within. Thus, we are not only joined to Him but also mingled with Him. When a person enters into the tabernacle, at most he is joined to the tabernacle, not mingled with it. However, when a person receives Christ as the offerings, Christ enters into him, not only to be joined to him but also to be mingled with him to be his element. Therefore, the offerings are not only for union but even more for enjoyment and mingling.
In the Old Testament, Leviticus chapters one through seven show us five kinds of offerings: the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering. All these five kinds of offerings are for dealing with the situations we are in before God. Since the fall of Adam our situation before God has not been pleasing to Him. First, we are not for God; second, our living and conduct are not acceptable to God; third, there is no peace between God and us; fourth, our very being is sin, and we ourselves are just sin; and fifth, we have wronged and transgressed against both God and man. These are the five situations we are in before God.
Christ as our offerings is mainly to meet our need in dealing with these five situations. The burnt offering deals with our first situation before God, which is that we do not live for God. When Christ was on the earth, He lived for God wholly and absolutely. At the end He even offered His own body as a burnt offering that He might live for God in our stead to satisfy God’s desire.
The meal offering, the second kind of offering, speaks of how Christ lived His human life before God. He was so balanced, fine, and perfect, and as such, He presented Himself before God for God’s satisfaction and enjoyment.
Besides the two offerings mentioned above, there are the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering. The peace offering is for peace between us and God. Formerly we were not one with God and had no peace before Him. Before we were saved, we had no peace within whenever we thought of God; we felt that we did not conduct ourselves properly and were full of transgressions and shortcomings. But then Christ as our peace offering became our peace. When we repented and received the Lord Jesus as our Savior, believing that He shed His blood for us for the redemption of our sins before God, immediately we had peace within us. That kind of peace is indescribable. The more we draw near to Him, the more we feel that He is so dear and lovable; the more we pray to God, the sweeter and happier we feel within. It is not like the past in which we were frightened and fearful within whenever we thought of God. This is because Christ as our peace offering before God has solved the problem between us and God and has therefore reconciled us to God. Romans 5:11 says, “Boasting in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.” Previously we had been afraid of God, whereas now we boast and exult in God through Jesus Christ.
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