Hebrews 10:5-10 tells us that when Christ came, God had no more desire for or pleasure and interest in the animal sacrifices (vv. 6, 8). Christ’s coming annulled the Levitical offerings. Nevertheless, the significance of all these offerings remains with Christ.
God prepared a human body for Christ, the incarnated God-man (v. 5), so that He could be the replacement of all the Old Testament offerings. By replacing the offerings of the first covenant with Himself, Christ did the will of God (vv. 7, 9), taking away the first, the offerings of the Old Testament, and establishing the second, Himself as the reality of all those offerings.
In Leviticus we have the first category of the offerings. As the replacement of these offerings, Christ is the second category of offerings. He is now the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering. He is also the wave offering, the heave offering, the consecration offering, the freewill offering, and the offering for thanksgiving. Therefore, God no longer has any pleasure in the sacrifices of the first covenant. Today God’s pleasure is only in a unique person-Jesus Christ. He, the all-inclusive Christ, is all the offerings.
All the aspects of Christ revealed in Hebrews are inexhaustible. He is the Creator, the Upholder, the Heir, the One who has destroyed the Devil, the Apostle, the High Priest, the Forerunner, the Surety, the heavenly Minister, the One appearing before God on our behalf, and the replacement of all the Old Testament offerings. Christ is the reality of every positive thing (Col. 2:16-17), including you and me (Phil. 1:21; Gal. 2:20).
Such a wonderful Christ is our perpetual due. This means that the all-inclusive Christ is our eternal portion for us to enjoy. We not only offer Christ to God-we also enjoy Him as we offer Him to God. We thus enjoy Christ with God, for we and God are co-eaters, eating Christ together in fellowship. This enjoyment is marvelous, and it is impossible for human words to describe it adequately.
Christ is God’s gift to us. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16). In the offerings, Christ is also the gift we offer to God. (The Hebrew for offering in Leviticus 1:2, corban, means a gift or present.) What gift could be greater than Christ? Christ is surely the greatest gift!
We enjoy Christ as God’s gift in the “gift shop” of the church. Every local church is a gift shop displaying Christ. This unique gift has thousands of aspects. Just as a diamond has many facets, so Christ has a great many facets. In one facet He is the Father, while in another facet He is the Son.
Enjoying Christ in His aspects and facets is for our worship of God; it is also for our fellowship with Him and with one another and for our eating in our daily living. Worship that is humanly manufactured is an abomination in the eyes of God. Real worship is to give Christ to God as a present, as a gift, and then to enjoy this gift with God. Hence, Christ is for God and also for us. In our worship we may say, “Father, I offer Your Son as a present for You to enjoy.” When we do this, the Father may say, “A portion of this gift is for you and for all your brothers and sisters to enjoy.”
The central thought of Leviticus is that the universal, all-inclusive, and inexhaustible Christ is everything to God and to God’s people. Today we can speak of the enjoyment of Christ, but one day all things will be headed up in Christ (Eph. 1:10). At that time, Christ will be everything to God and man. The enjoyment of this one person will be the unique celebration in the universe. This wonderful One has thousands of aspects, titles, and names, and every one is for us to enjoy.
Hebrews 13:21 tells us that God equips us for every good work in the doing of His will, doing in us that which is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ. This verse indicates that the great, wonderful, and inexhaustible Christ is now in us. This Christ in us is the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). As the Spirit within us, He is so available and easy to experience. If we would simply pray a little, we would pray ourselves into our spirit to touch this One and enjoy Him. He is inexhaustible yet so available. As we enjoy Him in the above-mentioned aspects, we will be led into the experience of His humanity, His divinity, His death, His resurrection, and His ascension, and we will grow in Him in all these aspects.
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