Laying our hands on Christ as the burnt offering is not just a matter of identification; it is also a matter of propitiation. Propitiation means that our problems with God and God’s problems with us are taken care of. Laying our hands on Christ not only makes us one with Him but also takes care of our problems, propitiating our situation with God and enabling us to have peace with God.
Once we had problems with God, and God had problems with us. Christ propitiated our situation with God and took care of the problems. Now we simply need to lay our hands on Him. When we lay our hands on Christ, the problems between us and God and between God and us will be solved. Therefore, the laying of our hands on the burnt offering is for propitiation.
“And he shall slaughter the young bull before Jehovah; and Aaron’s sons, the priests, shall bring the blood and dash the blood all around on the altar which is at the entrance of the tent of meeting” (v. 5). The slaughtering of the offering was for the shedding of blood for forgiveness. The sprinkling of the blood around the altar was for the acceptance by God of the offering burned on the altar.
Verse 6 tells us that the offering was to be skinned and cut into pieces. As our burnt offering, Christ passed through this kind of mistreatment. He was skinned and He was cut into pieces.
The skin of the burnt offering is its outward expression of its beauty. Hence, to skin the offering is to strip it of its outward expression. This skinning of the burnt offering signifies Christ’s being willing to let the outward expression of His virtues be stripped. When Christ was crucified, His clothing was removed. This indicates that He was “skinned.”
The cutting of the offering into pieces signifies Christ’s being willing to let His entire being be broken without any reservation. As our burnt offering, Christ, with His entire life and history, was cut into pieces.
If we did not have Christ as our burnt offering, we would have to suffer being slaughtered, skinned, and cut into pieces. We need to realize this whenever we offer Christ to God as the burnt offering. We also need to realize that He was slaughtered, stripped of His outward expression, and cut into pieces. All these sufferings were for Christ to do God’s will. Christ’s going to the cross to be slaughtered, stripped, and cut into pieces was His doing the will of God.
If we realize that we need Christ as our burnt offering, we then need to have a proper prayer. Proper prayer is simply to lay our hands on the Lord. We should not pray, “Lord, have mercy on me and do something for me.” This kind of prayer is objective. We need to lay our hands on the Lord in order to have a subjective prayer. In such a prayer we may say, “Lord, I lay my hands on You, causing myself to be identified with You and You to be identified with Me.” When we lay our hands on Christ through subjective prayer, the life-giving Spirit, who is the very Christ on whom we lay our hands, will immediately move and work within us to live a life that is qualified for the burnt offering.