Christ was offered to God once for all to be our sin offering, and that offering had a lot of blood. That is an accomplished fact. But we are not talking about the accomplished fact. We are talking about our experience. We are not talking about Christ’s accomplishment. Christ could never accomplish the redemption for sin for us without the shedding of blood. No! That would offend God. That would never be accepted by God. So Christ was God’s Lamb. “Behold, the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29)! As the Lamb of God He had a lot of blood, and He shed all His blood on the cross.
Charles Wesley wrote a hymn which speaks of five bleeding wounds. The five wounds bleeding mean that all His blood was shed on the cross. John 19:34 says clearly that while He was dying on the cross blood and water came out of His crucified body. He had a lot of blood, and He shed it to accomplish the redemption for our sin. We are not talking about the accomplishment of the redemption for our sin. We are talking about our experience, or our application, of His accomplished redemption. The way for Christ to accomplish the redemption for our sin was absolutely according to God’s unique requirement. It was short of nothing! But when we come to apply His redemption, to appreciate His redemption, to use His redemption, to experience His redemption, our usage, our application, our appreciation is altogether too poor. Even though we may shout, “Behold the Lamb of God!” this is just our shouting. Our actual appreciation is not a lamb; it is just a handful of fine flour.
But today God is merciful; this is the day of grace. According to the Gospel of Matthew God sends the rain both to the righteous and to the unrighteous (Matt. 5:45). God’s mercy and grace today is just like the rain. When the rain comes down from the heavens, if you are open it will fill you up right away. If you are not open, still the water will find a way through a small crack. Why would God accept our different offerings of Christ? It is because God is merciful. Sometimes we may be more strict than God. God would forgive everybody, but you would only forgive yourself. And sometimes you would not even forgive yourself. This is because you don’t appreciate Christ that much, so you doubt concerning God’s forgiveness.
But God’s forgiveness does not depend upon your application. God’s forgiveness depends upon Christ’s accomplishment. As long as you would call upon His name and come to God in His name, that is sufficient. Whether you come with a handful of fine flour or you come with a big bullock, God would forgive you because of that name. God would forgive you because of the name of that One who accomplished a full redemption for your sin. The accomplishment in full is altogether completed. But our appreciation is not adequate. Most of our appreciation has no blood shed. I don’t believe you have ever appreciated the Lord’s blood so much as you appreciate His fine humanity. When I was young, I didn’t appreciate the Lord’s shed blood so much as I appreciated His fine humanity. In faith and in doctrine I believed in the Lord’s blood, but in appreciation, especially in my inner sensation, the Lord was so dear to me, not because of the blood He shed for me, but because of His fineness in His excellent humanity.
This is why the Bible says several times, “If he be not able.” If you are not able to bring a lamb, then bring a pair of pigeons. If you are not able to bring a pair of pigeons, then bring one tenth of an ephah of fine flour. This is not a picture of what God requires. This is a picture of what you are able to do. This is a picture of your experience.
So in your poor experience there is no blood. Even though in your prayer you may mention the blood again and again, it may actually occupy very little space. What occupies the space is the Lord’s fine humanity, His kindness, His meekness, His gentleness, His balancedness, His evenness, His excellency in all His human life. These nearly occupy your appreciation in full. So there is no blood.
Not only is there no blood, but there is also no oil. Of course, if your appreciation is limited to such an extent, there will not be much Spirit. This is why many times when you came to the Lord’s table and prayed, you felt it was so dry. There was no oil. It was just dry flour without any Spirit. This is because your appreciation of the Lord is nearly altogether natural. There is no enlightenment. You have never been enlightened by the Word of God or by the light of God. That could only come through the Spirit. If you have much Spirit you would have received much enlightenment and much revelation. Then you would appreciate the Lord much more. You would not appreciate the Lord merely in His fine humanity. The enlightenment will release you and expand your appreciation of the Lord. You will have a lot of oil with your offering. But with your limited appreciation of the Lord, the flour is dry. There is no oil.
Furthermore, there is no frankincense with your offering. That means there is no resurrection. Your concept concerning the Lord’s excellency is altogether natural. It is not in the resurrection life. Unless you receive some enlightenment and some anointing from the Spirit, you could never see how the Lord labored on this earth, how He worked on this earth for the fulfilling of God’s will, how He went to the cross to be slaughtered to shed His blood to accomplish a full and complete redemption. So our appreciation of the Lord is mostly that He is the fine flour with no blood, no oil, no frankincense. This means no Spirit and no resurrection. This is the poorest appreciation of the Lord, yet by God’s mercy and grace, He would still accept such an offering. This kind of word is altogether based upon our experience.