“And he shall take a censer full of coals of fire from off the altar before Jehovah, and both his hands full of finely ground incense of spices, and bring them inside the veil. He shall put the incense on the fire before Jehovah, that the cloud of incense may cover the propitiatory cover which is upon the testimony, so that he will not die” (vv. 12-13). This signifies that in His resurrection the Lord Jesus became a sweet fragrance to be the means and the protection for us to draw near to God with all boldness and be accepted by God without suffering death. This is one of the results produced through the redemptive, blood-shedding death (signified by the coals of fire from off the altar and the finely ground incense of spices) of the Lord Jesus on the cross.
On the one hand, in God’s redemption Christ is the offerings that we may be redeemed from sin and that our sins may be taken away from us. He is the sin offering and the burnt offering. On the other hand, Christ is the sweet-smelling incense for our acceptance. The sweet savor, the fragrance, of the incense comes from the burning. Without being burned, the incense would not have a sweet savor. The fire with which the incense was burnt came from the altar in front of the tabernacle. For our redemption Christ is the offerings on the altar in the outer court. For our acceptance Christ is the incense burnt on the incense altar, the golden altar, in the holy place with the fire from the altar in the outer court. This means that His being burned as the incense to be our acceptance before God depends on His death on the cross for our sins.
As sinners, we were sinful in the sight of God. Furthermore, we were not at all acceptable to Him. No fragrance came out of us, only unclean discharges. Therefore, on the negative side, Christ first became the offerings to take away our sin. Then on the positive side, with His death on the cross as the basis, He became the incense for our acceptance.
In Leviticus 16 we have two particular pictures of Christ. One picture shows us Christ as our offerings to take away our sin and to send it back to Satan. This solves the problem of our sin. However, we still are not fragrant to God. Thus in the second picture we see that Christ, based upon His death, is burnt as a fragrance to God for our acceptance.
Now we can understand why we must come to God in Christ. “In Christ” does not only mean without sin; it also means with fragrance. This fragrance satisfies God. When He smells it, He is happy and satisfied. In His resurrection Christ is such a satisfying fragrance to God.
“He shall take some of the blood of the bull and sprinkle it with his finger upon the front of the propitiatory cover; and he shall sprinkle some of the blood with his finger before the propitiatory cover seven times” (v. 14). This signifies that the redeeming blood of Christ was brought into the presence of God to meet God’s righteous requirement for our propitiation.
The Lord Jesus shed His blood on the cross. Then this blood was brought into the holy of holies in the heavens and sprinkled upon the propitiatory cover there and also before God. In this way Christ made complete redemption for us. In the words of Hebrews 9:12, He “found an eternal redemption.” “Eternal” here means perfectly complete not only in quantity but also in time. This redemption is also complete in its efficacy. It is eternal in time, in quantity, and in efficacy.
“Then he shall slaughter the goat of the sin offering which is for the people, and bring its blood inside the veil, and he shall do with its blood just as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it upon the propitiatory cover and before the propitiatory cover” (v. 15). This signifies that the Lord Jesus was crucified on the cross, and His blood was brought into the heavens and sprinkled before God for our propitiation. Now we have the eternal redemption, which brings us directly into the presence of God so that we may serve Him as the living God (Heb. 9:14).
“Thus he shall make propitiation for the holy of holies because of the uncleannesses of the sons of Israel and because of their transgressions, even all their sins. And so he shall do for the tent of meeting which dwells with them in the midst of their uncleannesses” (v. 16). This signifies that although we have been redeemed and washed by the blood of Christ, we are still in the old creation and still live in uncleanness. Hence, in our worship of God there is still the consciousness of sin, which also needs the propitiation by the blood of Christ.
Because we are still in the old creation and still live in uncleanness, we still have the consciousness of sin. This is why we need to say to the Lord again and again, “Lord Jesus, I take You as my trespass offering and as my sin offering.” We shall continue to have this consciousness of sin until we are raptured and transfigured in our body, fully conformed to the image of Christ in His glory. One day we shall be in that state. But while we are still in the old creation, we still have the consciousness of sin and need Christ as our sin offering and trespass offering.
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