It took me many years to realize that our offering of Christ as the burnt offering cannot exceed our experience of Him as this offering. Concerning this matter, the book of Leviticus had not yet been opened to me, although it had been opened in the sense that I had learned the Brethren teachings about the offerings. Eventually I was enlightened to see that the chapters in Leviticus dealing with the offerings do not reveal to us what Christ is in totality as the burnt offering but instead reveal how to offer Christ as the burnt offering. Our offering of Him is according to our experience of Him. If we have not experienced anything of Christ in His experience as the burnt offering, we cannot offer Him to God as the burnt offering.

Christ’s being the burnt offering altogether refers to His being absolute toward God. In all His experiences as the burnt offering to God, Christ was a real man who was absolutely for God. This was the reason He could be the replacement of all the offerings. His being the burnt offering qualified Him to be the sin offering. If Christ had not been the burnt offering, He would not have had the qualification to be the sin offering.

As the burnt offering, Christ was slaughtered, stripped, and cut into pieces. Why was He willing to be slaughtered? Because He was absolute toward God. Why was He willing to be stripped and cut into pieces? Because He was absolute toward God. The reason we are not willing to be slaughtered, stripped, and cut into pieces is that we are not absolute toward God.

Why do Christians still have problems in their family life? Why are there problems among the brothers and sisters in the church and among the elders and the co-workers? Since we all have been saved and love the Lord Jesus, there should not be any problems. It is natural for there to be problems among the unsaved people in society, but why are there problems among the saints in the church? The reason we have problems in our married life and in the church life is that we are not absolutely for God.

Even in doing things for God, a married couple may argue and fight. A brother and his wife both love the Lord, but they may still quarrel, even about loving the Lord. They may also argue about offering money to God. One party may want to give an amount of money for a certain purpose, but the other party may want that money to be given for another purpose. Sometimes a brother and his wife may disagree over what hymn to use in praising the Lord in a home meeting. Because of this disagreement, the meeting is damaged. This quarreling is caused by the lack of being absolutely for God.

In Acts 15 we see that there was a problem between Barnabas and Paul (vv. 35-39). It was Barnabas who had brought Saul of Tarsus into the fellowship of the Body (Acts 9:26-28). It was also Barnabas who sought for Saul in Tarsus and brought him into the New Testament ministry (Acts 11:25-26). However, in Acts 15, after gaining the victory over the problem of circumcision, they separated from each other. We may give different reasons for this separation, but in the eyes of God the problem was due to one thing-not being absolute toward God.

Because Christ is altogether absolute for God and we are absolute for God only to a limited extent, we cannot experience Christ as our burnt offering to the uttermost. We may be absolute for God, but we are not utterly absolute for Him. Therefore, we can offer Christ to God as the burnt offering only in a limited way.

If we would offer Christ to God as the burnt offering, we need to experience Christ in His experiences, and then, according to our experiences of Christ, offer to God the Christ whom we have experienced. Suppose in our married life and in our church life we experience Christ in His being brought to the slaughter. If this is the situation, there will not be quarrels in our married life or problems in the church life. As long as we still quarrel with our spouse, we cannot offer Christ to God as the burnt offering in the church meetings because we have not experienced Christ in His experience of being slaughtered. If we do not experience Christ in His experiences as the burnt offering to God, all our talk about Christ as the burnt offering will be in vain. We will have no burnt offering to offer to God unless we experience Christ in His experience.

Let us now consider in detail our experience of Christ in His experiences as the burnt offering for God’s satisfaction.
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