The trespass offering, the last of the five kinds of offerings, denotes the Lord Jesus who bore our sins. All our sins-including lying, coveting, and all other actions by which we offend either God or man-were borne for us by the Lord Jesus. The sin offering deals with us, the sinners, whereas the trespass offering deals with our sinful acts. Therefore, both our person and our actions have been dealt with by Christ. Simply speaking, sin is the person while trespasses are the actions of sin. As such, the sin offering deals with our person, while the trespass offering deals with our actions of sin. When these problems are resolved, we are reconciled to God. Therefore, before the Lord could be the peace offering, He first had to be the sin offering and then the trespass offering; the trespass offering is dependent on the sin offering. If the Lord had not been made sin on our behalf, He could not have borne our sins. If He had not become our sin offering, He could not have become our trespass offering. If He had not dealt with us, the sinners, He could not have resolved the problem of our actions of sin. Therefore, these two offerings are closely linked together-the trespass offering follows the sin offering, and the two offerings are actually one.
These five kinds of offerings all denote Christ. When the Bible mentions these five categories of offerings, it always follows this sequence: first, the burnt offering; second, the meal offering; third, the peace offering; fourth, the sin offering; and fifth, the trespass offering. However, when we experience and enjoy these offerings, the sequence is reversed: first, the trespass offering; second, the sin offering; third, the peace offering; fourth, the meal offering; and fifth, the burnt offering. This is because according to our experience, when we are first saved, we firstly see that we have so many sins, trespasses, transgressions, and other terrible things. At this time we see that the Lord Jesus was hung on the tree to bear all our sins. This moves us to receive Him as the sin-bearing Savior; thus, instantly we are at peace. This is our experience of Christ as the trespass offering.
Actually, our conduct is only the secondary problem; the primary problem is our being. Therefore, after we are saved for a period of time, we see that not only our conduct is poor, but even our being is problematic. Thus, we are enlightened to see that we are basically sin and that when the Lord Jesus was on the cross, He not only bore our sins, but having been made sin on our behalf, He judged and condemned us, the sinners. In this way we take a second step in knowing Christ. We then may pray, “Lord, I thank You. Since You became sin for me and died on the cross, I also died there. Lord, I experience You as my sin offering.” Whenever we see how corrupt and evil our conduct is and thus acknowledge that Christ died for us, we receive Christ as our trespass offering. When we see that our being is exceedingly wicked and even incurable, that every part of our being is sin, we would then receive Him as our sin offering. Seeing that through His blood He made redemption for our sins and that through His death He judged our person, we then have peace before God and with God. God is satisfied, and we also are satisfied.
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