I would emphasize the fact that if we would raise Christ as a lamb, we must first have Him as the sin offering. I know from experience that when we raise Christ as a bull for a sin offering, we also raise Him as a lamb for a burnt offering. Offering Christ as the sin offering is the way to raise Christ as a lamb.
Revelation 14:1 says, “And I saw, and behold, the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with Him a hundred and forty-four thousand, having His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads.” As part of a description of the hundred and forty-four thousand with the Lamb, Revelation 14:4 says, “These are they who follow the Lamb wherever He may go.” This is a strong verse related to growing Christ as a lamb. Those who are faithful follow the Lamb wherever He goes. To follow Christ as the Lamb is to raise Him as a lamb. Eventually, we shall raise Christ as a flock of lambs. This does not mean, of course, that there is more than one Christ. Christ is uniquely one, but in our experience we may have Him in many ways. Therefore, experientially we may raise Christ as a flock of lambs.
To understand a matter in a doctrinal way is one thing, but to view the same matter experientially is very different. Regarding Christ, I do not want to remain merely in doctrine, but I long to have the adequate spiritual experience.
Those who care primarily for doctrine often oppose those believers with experience. Toward the end of the last century and in the first part of this century, certain Bible teachers criticized Andrew Murray because he emphasized experience more than doctrine. His books on spiritual experience have been helpful to thousands of seeking Christians. His masterpiece is The Spirit of Christ. I have received great help from this book, and I encourage you all not only to read it, but also to study it. Apart from the writings in the Lord’s recovery, no book other than The Spirit of Christ has been so helpful to Christians in knowing Christ as the life-giving Spirit. Nevertheless, Andrew Murray has been condemned by certain Bible teachers, in particular by some of the Brethren. Furthermore, Jessie Penn-Lewis has also been severely criticized by these same Bible teachers. Years ago, a certain bookstore in China sold all of Brother Nee’s books with the exception of The Spiritual Man. Those who operated this bookstore knew that one chapter in The Spiritual Manwas a translation of Mrs. Penn-Lewis’ writings on spiritual warfare. They regarded that book as unclean because it contained a portion of her writings. Although thousands of believers have been helped by the writings of Jessie Penn-Lewis, some who focus on doctrine condemned her not only as a heretic, but even as a witch.
When we speak about raising Christ as a flock of lambs, we are talking about our experience of Christ. My concern here is not merely with teaching the Bible. With the Bible as my basis, I wish to speak concerning the experience of Christ. Thus, speaking from the experiential point of view, I would say that we can have Christ as a flock of lambs.
In ancient times, the children of Israel brought the firstlings of their flocks and of their herds to Mount Zion to offer to God. All these firstlings typified Christ. We have pointed out that Christ is uniquely one. But in our experience we may have Christ in many different ways. There is only one Christ, but the experiences of Christ are countless.
We have seen the way to raise Christ as a bull for the sin offering and as lambs for the burnt offering. In Exodus 29 the lamb is not for propitiation; rather, the lamb is a burnt offering as food for God. It was offered to God for Him to eat. Many Christians have never heard that Christ may be offered not only for propitiation, but also as food for God’s eating. Those with some knowledge of theology may wonder about this. Nevertheless, according to the Bible, certain offerings were not for atonement, not for propitiation, but were for God’s eating. This is clearly portrayed in Exodus 29. In this chapter the bull was offered as a sin offering; that is, it was offered for propitiation. The lambs, however, were offered to God for His eating. For this reason, Exodus 29 does not mention blood with respect to the lambs. The blood is for redeeming, for propitiation, and for atonement; it is not for eating. But the lambs offered as the burnt offering were wholly for God to eat.
Do you know by what way God eats His food? God eats with fire. When God comes to eat the food you have prepared for Him, He will eat it by His holy, consuming fire. Perhaps you have never heard before that fire is the means by which God eats His food.
Now we know how to raise Christ as a bull for a sin offering and as a lamb for a burnt offering. The whole lamb was burned. This means that it was absolutely for God. No part of the lamb of the burnt offering was for the offerer or for the priests. The lamb was God’s food and was entirely for His eating.
If we continue to practice offering Christ as our sin offering, we shall live by Christ as the lamb, as the One obedient to God and meek before man. Then in the meetings we shall have Christ as many lambs to offer to God as food for His satisfaction.