The trespass offering deals with our sins but the sin offering deals with our sin, that is, with our sinful nature. If we would be priests serving God, we need to realize that even though we have been saved, we still have a sinful nature.
We shall continue to have this sinful nature until our body is transfigured. I can testify that no matter how long we have been saved, our sinful nature does not change. I have been saved for more than fifty-five years. Nevertheless, I must testify that my sinful nature is still with me. We should never believe the doctrine of eradication, the teaching that the sinful nature is eradicated when a person becomes a believer in Christ. No, our sinful nature still exists. Therefore, whenever we come to serve God as priests, we must remember that we have a sinful nature and that we need Christ as our sin offering to deal with this nature.
Christ has fulfilled God’s requirements to satisfy Him, and He has borne God’s judgment on our behalf. In Him our sinful nature has been judged. Whenever we take Christ as our sin offering, we judge ourselves as sinners, even as sin. Again and again, we need Christ as our sin offering and we need to be judged. Paul refers to Christ as the sin offering in Romans 8:3, when he says that God sent His own Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin, and condemned sin in the flesh.
Exodus 29:10 says concerning the sin offering, “And you shall bring the bull near before the tent of meeting and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands upon the head of the bull. And you shall slaughter the bull before Jehovah at the door of the tent of meeting.” We today must lay our hands upon Christ and be fully identified with Him.
If we would serve God as priests, we must first have the realization that we still have a sinful nature and that we need Christ experientially to be our sin offering. In ourselves we are sinful. We are sinners, even sin itself. How we need Christ as our sin offering! This is the reason Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “Him who did not know sin He made sin on our behalf, that we might become God’s righteousness in Him.”
The sweetness and richness of Christ’s perfection satisfies God, ascending through burning for His satisfaction. As the sin offering, Christ was also abandoned by God and judged by Him for us. The washing of the word mainly deals with outward defilement. The sin offering deals with the sinful nature within. To be a priest, it is not adequate simply to confess that we have been defiled by the earthly touch and need to be washed. We must also realize and admit that even we who would be priests serving God still have a sinful nature. We are still sinners. Therefore, we need Christ to be our sin offering. We need Him with all His perfections to be burned for God’s satisfaction. We also need Christ to be burned to bear God’s judgment on our behalf.
If we realize that we have a sinful nature and if we lay our hands on Christ to be fully identified with Him, we shall be protected and, according to typology, prepared to enjoy the priestly food. If we would be priests serving God, we need the outward washing of the word, and we also need to put on Christ as our garment. However, we also need the inward nourishing and filling. This nourishing requires a deeper cleansing, a cleansing by Christ as our sin offering. This cleansing deals with our sinful nature. Whenever you come to serve God as a priest, you must realize and confess that your nature is still sinful. If you do not have this realization, you will not be able to enjoy the Christ typified by the rams, the unleavened bread, the unleavened, perforated cakes, and the unleavened wafers. We cannot enjoy Christ adequately without realizing that we have a sinful nature and need Christ to be our sin offering.
Fifty-five years ago I began to realize that my nature is sinful. Today, however, I have a much deeper realization regarding this. After many years of experience, I know fully that I was born sinful, that I was born a sinner with a sinful nature. In fact, I was born sin. This sinful nature has not changed during the years I have been with the Lord. The more I realize this, the more I take Christ as my sin offering. On the one hand, realizing that I have a sinful nature and taking Christ as my sin offering causes me to be judged and subdued. On the other hand, it preserves me, for it causes me not to have any confidence in myself. I am reminded again and again that in my flesh I am nothing but sin.
Sometimes believers wonder how any brother who is spiritual and experienced could fall into serious sin. We should realize that we are capable of such sin. Consider David as an example. David, of course, was an Old Testament saint. He truly was saintly and wrote many spiritual songs. But was David’s sinful nature eradicated? Certainly not. For the sake of his lust he had a certain man murdered, and then he took that man’s wife. Even someone as saintly as David was capable of such sin. David did not become saintly after committing that sin; he was saintly beforehand. Nevertheless, he still fell into sin.
Suppose when David was tempted to commit that sin, he remembered that he was sinful and offered a sin offering to God. If that had been the case, I do believe that he would not have committed that sin. It might have been that David committed sin because he temporarily ceased to remember how sinful he was. He lost the realization that his nature was sinful. We should learn from his experience not to have the slightest confidence in ourselves.
Elsewhere I have pointed out that a brother and sister should not have a long talk alone in a private room. To do that indicates that we do not realize our need of Christ as our sin offering. If we remind ourselves of our need for Christ as our sin offering, we shall not engage in long conversations with members of the opposite sex in private. Furthermore, with respect to many other things, we shall not have any trust in ourselves, for we shall know that we are still sinful.
Every day we need Christ as our sin offering. After rising up in the morning, we need to recall and realize once again that we are sinful in nature, that we were born sinners, and that we need Christ as our sin offering. Yes, we have been regenerated, but our sinful nature remains with us. We have the Holy Spirit in our spirit, but our nature is still sinful. Therefore, if we would enjoy Christ as the ram, wafers, cakes, and bread, we must first apply Christ as the sin offering. Applying Christ as the sin offering will prepare us for further enjoyment of Christ.
This word concerning the sin offering should not be a mere doctrine to us. We all need to have more experience of Christ as our sin offering. Let us all be encouraged to experience Christ in this way more and more.