Now we need to come back to solve some of the problems related to the trespass and sin offerings. First of all we need to see how one of the two birds of the trespass offering could become a burnt offering and how the second could become a sin offering. If you just read these verses according to the letter you cannot understand them. You have to go to the experience. Your experience will render a lot of help to you in understanding these verses.
Have you noticed that with the lamb for the trespass offering there is no mention of the burnt offering? It is only with the two pigeons or the two turtledoves that there is the mentioning of the burnt offering. When you offer Christ as a lamb for your trespass offering, that is the regular size. A lamb is the regular size for the trespass offering. For example, a regular size letterhead is eight and one-half by eleven inches. If it is shorter or narrower, it is not the regular size. The regular size for a trespass offering is a lamb, but too many times we are not able to offer a lamb. Then what shall we do? Then we offer two pigeons or two turtledoves. In other words, we should use a regular size letterhead, but we are poor. We don’t have the regular size. So instead we use smaller pieces of paper.
Because we are not able to offer a lamb, we offer two pigeons. At that time because of your disenablement you feel that the Lord Jesus is so sweet. Though you are so poor and unable to offer a lamb, yet you can still be accepted by offering two pigeons. This gives you a sweet sense, a sweet feeling. When you begin to have such a sweet feeling, you feel you should be absolute for the Lord. Right away at least half of what you have offered to the Lord as the trespass offering becomes a burnt offering.
The significance of the burnt offering is being absolute to the Lord. The burnt offering is just for the Lord. It is just to satisfy God. It is not to make propitiation for your sin or for your trespass, but to satisfy Him. Let me repeat: when you offer Christ as your trespass offering under the regular size with two small pigeons, you feel so grateful to the Lord that even though you are so poor and unable to do what you should do regularly, you still are accepted. You have the sense of gratitude. You feel that the Lord is so sweet to you. At this juncture you have a deep sense that you should be absolute for the Lord. This means that while you are enjoying the very Christ whom you offered for your trespass offering, you also enjoy this One at least fifty percent as a burnt offering.
Many times when I offered Christ as my trespass offering under the regular size I was so grateful to Him that I could be accepted that spontaneously I had the sweet sense that I should be absolute for Him. But at the same time I realized that I could not make it to be absolute to the Lord. But thank Him, He can! He was absolute to God for me. So spontaneously I prayed: “Lord, thank You! You are not only my trespass offering, You are also my burnt offering.” This is the kind of burnt offering that comes from one half of your trespass offering which is under the regular size.
How then could the trespass offering become the sin offering? I believe this is easy to figure out even logically. All the trespasses are the fruit of the tree. The tree is sin and every piece of the fruit which comes from the tree is sin. The tree is the father, and all the fruits are the children of the father. Trespasses are children of sin. Not only is sin sin, but all the trespasses are also sin. So the trespass offering could become the sin offering because the trespass comes from the sin. Sin is the father and the trespass is the child. From where does your gossiping come? It comes from sin. From where does your lying come? From sin. From where does your temper come? From sin. In other words, from where do all your activities of trespasses come? From one father—sin. A trespass is sin. So the trespass offering for the trespass is also the sin offering for the sin.
Then you might wonder why the Bible needs to have a difference, to use two expressions: sin offering and trespass offering. There is a difference. All the fruit may be peaches, but the tree is only one. The peach tree is the sin, and the peach fruits are the trespasses. The Bible is more than logical. The only thing is that we are short of experience.
According to your experience, when you offered Christ as your trespass offering, didn’t you realize that that trespass came out of your sinful nature? Actually, that trespass does not belong to another category. It belongs to the same category as sin. So you realize that your trespass offering is not merely a trespass offering. Your trespass offering actually is a sin offering.
Don’t excuse yourself by saying that you have a little weakness. Don’t excuse the loss of your temper to your wife as a little weakness. Don’t excuse your gossiping as a little weakness. You have to realize that all these things come from your sinful nature. If you don’t realize this in such a thorough way it indicates that your offering of Christ as the trespass offering is not absolute. If your offering of Christ as the trespass offering is thorough, you will realize that even a little negative speaking concerning a brother comes from your sinful nature. That is sin. So whatever you offered is not merely a trespass offering; it is also a sin offering.
As husbands we have a lot of experiences with the wife. If you were to ask my dear wife she couldn’t say that I lose my temper very often. Even within a year, I may not lose my temper once. But too many times I had a lot of feelings. Too many times a lot of thoughts have gone through me. I was not so happy with her. For example sometimes I like to change my food a little bit, but nearly every morning I get the same kind and the same quantity of food for breakfast. Although I have never said anything to her, many times when I came to the breakfast table there were some feelings within me. Too many times, I am sorry to say, I didn’t offer Christ for this trespass. I took the excuse that it was such a small thing. Actually, when I would offer Christ as the trespass offering for this kind of weakness, I would begin to realize that is sin. I would begin to realize that this comes from the sinful nature within me. Now you can understand why the trespass offering also is a sin offering.
Now we come to the weakest and the smallest of the trespass offerings, the one tenth of an ephah of fine flour (Lev. 5:11-13). With this smallest and weakest of the trespass offerings, the sin offering is mentioned twice. The smaller your trespass offering is, the more you should realize your sinful nature. Never take any excuse. Sometimes you might just be standing and looking out the window. A lot of thoughts come in: you don’t like your room. It is a little bit too small. It doesn’t have such a good bathroom. The bed is too soft. You are not talking but just thinking. Suddenly the question comes: What are you doing here? Committing trespasses!
I don’t believe many of us have ever practiced confessing these kinds of things. We excuse them, saying these are small things. This is just natural for someone to think about. We just forget about them. This means we excuse all these things. Don’t excuse yourself. You have to condemn them. You have to see they are from your nature, from the inward sin. They are abominable to you. They are against the divine nature within you and frustrate your living Christ. So you need to offer Christ as your trespass offering and also as your sin offering. The trespass offering eventually becomes your sin offering, not just for your outward doing but also for the root, for the source, for the nature. Why wouldn’t you stand before the window and let thoughts concerning Christ’s loveliness, His greatness, His beauty go through your mind? It is because you are so natural. What does it mean to be natural? It is to be sinful. If you are natural you are sinful. To say you are natural may not sound like such a bad term. Actually it means you are sinful.
In the next message we need to take care of the most puzzling point: how the vegetable life without any blood to shed for sin could be our trespass offering and eventually our sin offering.