In the previous message we considered the different aspects of Christ in His experiences as the burnt offering to God. In this message and in the next, we shall consider our experiences of Christ in His experiences.
The burnt offering is not a light matter but a very weighty matter. The Hebrew word translated “burnt offering” literally means “that which goes up” and thus denotes something that ascends to God. What is there on this earth that can ascend to God? The only thing that can ascend to God from earth is the life lived by Christ, for He is the unique person to live a life absolutely for God.
In ourselves we cannot live a life that is absolutely for God. Recently, I have had the deep sensation that even our holiness and our confession of sins are not pure but are dirty. We human beings are nothing but dirt. Whatever comes out of our being is dirty, and anything we touch becomes dirty. For this reason, according to the typology in the Bible, even when we come to God to do the most holy thing we still need the sin offering and the trespass offering. Whenever I speak the holy word, I am deeply conscious of my need of the sin offering and the trespass offering, and I trust in the Lord’s washing and cleansing.
The burnt offering indicates a life absolutely for God. Such a life is absolutely out of a pure source, with no element of the fall, no defect, and no sin. This kind of life is pure and holy. In ourselves we cannot live this kind of life. We have fallen to such an extent that we have become the world, which is altogether dirty. Actually, the world is we ourselves, and we are the world. Every part of our substance, our essence, our fiber, our element, is dirty. We could never be a burnt offering to God. Therefore, we must take Christ as our burnt offering.
As far as our situation is concerned, the burnt offering is for propitiation (Lev. 1:4). We need propitiation through the blood of Christ as the burnt offering.
To take Christ as our sin offering and trespass offering, there is no need for us to experience what Christ experienced. However, to take Christ as our burnt offering, we need to experience what Christ experienced. Offering Christ as our burnt offering is not effective unless we have had some experience of His experience as the burnt offering. We can offer Christ as the burnt offering only to the extent to which we have experienced Him as this offering.
A person does not need any experience of Christ in order to offer Him to God as the sin offering and as the trespass offering. A sinner may hear the gospel, repent, and say, “O God, have mercy on me! I take the Lord Jesus as my Savior.” A sinner who prays like this will be forgiven immediately, for he is not required to experience Christ. The repentant sinner simply takes Christ as his sin offering and trespass offering. The situation is absolutely different with the burnt offering. We can take Christ as the burnt offering only to the extent to which we have experienced Him in His experience.
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