The first case concerning the offerings in the Gospel of John is the case of Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a proper gentleman, full of qualifications. He was old with a high position as a ruler and teacher of the people. He was also a Pharisee. He came to the Lord Jesus not realizing that he had been bitten by the poisonous serpent. He never realized that he himself was a little serpent. Outside he was a gentleman and perfect, but inside he had a serpentine nature, so the Lord Jesus told him that he needed to be born again. Because he didn’t understand rightly, the Lord Jesus explained to him that to be born again is to be born of the water and of the Spirit (John 3:5). Eventually he understood so he asked how this could be.
The Lord Jesus then referred him to the story of the brass serpent in Numbers 21. The children of Israel had been bitten by the serpents and were dying. Then God designed a way of salvation. He told Moses to lift a brass serpent up on a pole and whosoever would look upon that brass serpent would live. This word should have indicated to Nicodemus that he was a serpent. He had been bitten by the old serpent. Satan had bitten his forefather Adam, and he was born of Adam. This was to help Nicodemus realize that he was a bonafide and typical sinner. So he needed the sin offering.
Christ knew no sin, but He was made sin for us. He came in the likeness of the flesh of sin. He was not a serpent, but He took the form of a serpent. He didn’t have the nature or the poison, but He had the form of a serpent. This was the sin offering. This is not just a matter of washing away your sinful doings. This also is a matter of regenerating you. The problem is not mainly the outside wrongdoing. The main problem is the inside sinful nature. Inside you are a serpent. You need another life. You need to have another person, another nature. The only way to have another life is by Jesus Christ who died on the cross in the form of a serpent to terminate your serpentine being. If you believe into Him you receive the eternal life, the life of God. When you receive this life of God you will have another life. You will have another birth. You will be born of the life of God to be another person. You will be a re-born person, a new person with a new nature. This is Christ as the sin offering.
Following chapter three of John there is another case, that of the Samaritan woman. This person was not moral; she was immoral. The Lord Jesus did not talk to her about the brass serpent. She pretended to be very religious, although she was altogether immoral. She talked with the Lord Jesus about worshipping God. How good this seems to be! What a wonderful subject. But the Lord Jesus knew her story, and He had a way to attract her and to cause her to desire the living water. Once she thirsted for the living water, the Lord asked for her husband. Then she lied by telling the truth. She said, “I don’t have a husband” (John 4:17). This sounds very good. The Lord agreed with her that she did not have a husband, but He said that she had had five already and that the one she had now was not hers. This was the Lord’s confession of her sins, her trespasses. By changing from one husband to another she was living a life full of trespasses. So the Lord presented Himself to her as the trespass offering, while He presented Himself to Nicodemus as the sin offering. No doubt in these two chapters you have these two basic offerings—the sin offering and the trespass offering.
You have to realize that we all are Nicodemus inwardly; and we all are the Samaritan woman outwardly. Outwardly everything seems good, but inwardly we are sin. So we all are Nicodemus, needing Christ to be our sin offering. We also are the Samaritan woman needing Christ to be our trespass offering. Hallelujah! He is both the sin offering and the trespass offering to us. He has been given, and He has been offered on the altar. This is grace. We can surely lay our hands upon Him, taking Him as our sin offering and as our trespass offering. What a grace this is! Grace is not merely an unmerited favor. That is too vague. The real grace is very solid. Grace is Christ as all our offerings.
In the initial cases in the Gospel of John, such as the case of Nicodemus and the case of the Samaritan woman, you have the sin offering and the trespass offering. In the following cases you have the burnt offering and the meal offering. The main and striking characteristic of the burnt offering is the matter of absoluteness. The burnt offering was absolutely for God. The whole offering was burnt unto God. Nothing was left for man. The entire burnt offering was burnt for God’s food and for God’s enjoyment and for God’s satisfaction. That is a full portrait of Christ’s absoluteness. Christ was not only for man; Christ was absolutely for God.
In John 7:16-18, you could see the absoluteness of Christ. Christ was so absolute for God. He was for nothing else. He did not care for what His flesh brothers thought. He didn’t care for His own name or His own will. He only cared for God’s will. These verses show us that Christ is not only the sin offering and the trespass offering, but also the burnt offering. He is not only the sin offering for sinners and the trespass offering for trespassers, but He is also the burnt offering for God Himself. He is not only for Nicodemus or only for the Samaritan woman; He is also for God absolutely.