When you first came into the church life, your way of offering Christ, either by a prayer or by a testimony, may have been quite natural. You did offer something of Christ, but you offered Christ in a natural way. Throughout your years in the church life, your way of offering Christ has become less and less natural. Now what you offer of Christ is mainly something that has been processed. However, your way of offering Christ may still be somewhat natural. For instance, you may praise the Lord for His kindness, but your understanding of the Lord’s kindness may be natural.

We may say that in Leviticus 1 the offering of the turtledoves or pigeons was in two stages-the stage before it was processed and the stage after it has been processed. In the first stage the offering was still whole and in a natural condition. When the offering was still in this stage, it could not be accepted by God. After the offering had been processed, it was in the second stage, and it was ready to be accepted by God.

We all need to see that the difference in the burnt offerings is not only in their size but also in the way they are offered. The young ones in the church life offer a Christ who is very small in size, and they offer Him in a way that is natural, in a way that is without process. The mature, experienced ones not only offer a larger Christ, but they offer Christ absolutely in a processed way. For instance, the inwards and legs of their burnt offering will be washed in water, indicating that they have experienced Christ in His being kept clean by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The mature saints experience Christ in a detailed way. They understand His thoughts, feelings, and decisions. Those who experience Christ in this way will appreciate the details concerning the Lord’s life recorded in the four Gospels. In their experience, Christ has been cut into pieces, and they appreciate Him in a fine, detailed way. They do not merely experience Christ as a whole in an outward way; they enter, through their cutting Christ into pieces, into the depths of His being. I can testify that many years ago I did not experience Christ in such detail as I experience Him today. Now when I offer Christ to God as a burnt offering, I offer a Christ who has been cut into pieces.

Those who offer Christ in a natural way as birds need the older saints to be the priests to help them to process their offering. However, if the older saints process the offering presented by a young saint, he may be offended. He may be troubled by their wringing off the head of his offering and removing its crop and feathers. In a meeting a young brother may testify of the Lord’s gentleness, saying that He is always gentle. Later, an experienced brother may cite the cases of the Lord’s cleansing the temple and His rebuking the Pharisees and point out that sometimes the Lord Jesus is not gentle. When the young brother hears this, he may feel that the experienced brother has wrung off the head of his offering, an offering which he had presented whole and unprocessed.

I would ask those who have been in the church life for many years to recall their experience of offering Christ in the church meetings. Has not much of what you have offered in prayer and testimony been processed by the priests? Perhaps the greater part of your offerings have been “torn.” At times you might have said, “I will never offer something in that way again.” Eventually, you became not only an offerer but also a priest helping to process the offerings of other saints.

The burnt offerings in Leviticus 1 do not signify Christ’s size in Himself. Not even a bull is an adequate type of the actual size of Christ. No one, including Paul, is able to realize Christ in His full size. Therefore, what we offer of Christ as the burnt offering is only what we have apprehended, realized, and appreciated of Christ.

In our preaching and teaching we may present Christ in a natural way. For instance, someone in a Christian meeting may preach Christ, but this preaching may be almost entirely natural, for the one preaching presents Christ according to his natural understanding. The Christ thus presented is not Christ as He actually is but Christ as understood by the one presenting Him.

In the early years of my ministry, my presentation of Christ was natural to a great degree. At that time I did not know Christ as I know Him today. Now, by the Lord’s mercy, the presentation of Christ in my teaching and preaching is no longer very much in a natural way.

My point here is that the way we offer Christ as the burnt offering is according to our realization, apprehension, appreciation, and experience of Christ. As our realization, apprehension, appreciation, and experience of Christ improve, our way of offering Christ will also improve. Eventually, anything natural, especially any natural concepts, in our way of offering Christ will be dealt with. If we are still offering Christ as two birds, we will need the experienced saints to process our offering. But after we become experienced and matured, we will no longer need this kind of help from the serving priests. May we all enter into the depths of Christ’s being and experience Him in a deep, fine, and detailed way!

If we offer Christ as a bull or a lamb and if we slaughter this burnt offering, skin it, cut it into pieces, and wash its inwards and its legs, this will indicate that we appreciate Christ and experience Him not merely as a whole but in a detailed way. Then what is burned on the altar will be accepted by God as a sweet incense. This is the kind of burnt offering that satisfies God.
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