The law of the peace offering is a long law concerning the enjoyment of Christ. No Christian would ever imagine that the enjoyment of Christ would be so regulated. Both the Old Testament and the New Testament have warnings concerning the improper, or lawless, enjoyment of Christ. First Corinthians 11:17 says that we could meet together not for the better but for the worse. Verse 27 says, “Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner shall be guilty of the body and of the blood of the Lord.” Verse 29 speaks of the one who “eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the body.” Here we see that the word in the New Testament is more solemn than that in the Old Testament.
Let us now consider a number of points related to the law of the peace offering.
The first kind of peace offering is the peace offering for thanksgiving. Of all the different peace offerings, this one is the weakest. Concerning this kind of peace offering, Leviticus 7:12 says, “If he offers it for thanksgiving, then with the thanksgiving sacrifice he shall offer unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and cakes of fine flour saturated, mingled with oil.” This signifies that Christ, whether mingled with the Spirit without sin, or anointed with the Spirit without sin, or as the fine One saturated with the Spirit, as the meal offering in our enjoyment of Him in His conduct, is our peace offering, crucified with the shedding of His blood on the cross (Col. 1:20), in our thanksgiving to God.
“With the thanksgiving sacrifice of his peace offering, he shall offer his offering with cakes of leavened bread” (v. 13). This signifies that the offerer, though enjoying Christ as the One without sin, still has sin.
The reason the peace offering for thanksgiving is the weakest kind of peace offering is that it includes leaven. This indicates that the offerer still has sin and is therefore in a weak condition.
“And from it he shall offer one from each offering as a heave offering to Jehovah; it shall be for the priest who dashes the blood of the peace offering” (v. 14). This has a twofold significance. First, since the heave offering is a type of Christ in His ascension, this signifies that Christ as the meal offering in all His aspects is offered to God as the One in ascension. Second, this signifies that such a Christ is partaken of and enjoyed as food by the one who ministers Christ as the peace offering. When we minister the ascended Christ to others, we partake of the very Christ whom we minister.
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