In His New Testament economy, God does not want us merely to be good men—He wants us to be God-men, those who are mingled with the processed Triune God. The more the ointment, the completed Triune God, is applied to us, the more we become God-men. Once again, we may use painting as an illustration. Before a wooden article is painted, it has nothing to do with the paint. But when the paint is applied to the wooden article, it becomes a painted article. It is no longer merely a wooden article; it is now a wooden article to which paint has been applied. In like manner, we are being painted with the processed Triune God. The more we are painted by Him and with Him, the more we are mingled with Him to become God-men.
Since God has prepared such a great provision for us, what should we do? We should offer ourselves to the Lord to receive His provision. Although God has prepared this provision for us, we may not come to Him, or we may come to Him without offering ourselves to Him and submitting ourselves to Him. To offer ourselves to the Lord means that we surrender to Him. We must receive the divine provision by offering ourselves to the Lord, submitting and surrendering to Him. We should pray, "Thank You, Lord. You have prepared everything for me. Now I surrender to You." This is to offer ourselves to Him.
In Numbers 7 we first have the anointing on God's side and then the offering on our side. God has been processed to become the ointment that is to be applied to us. To receive the application of this ointment, we need to be willing to surrender to the Lord, placing our entire being into His hands and saying, "O Lord, do whatever You like to do." The Lord likes to paint us with Himself within and without, making Himself one with us.
After we offer ourselves to the Lord to enjoy His provision, Christ is available to us as the replacement for and consummation of all the offerings. In the Old Testament there are many different kinds of offerings, but today we have one, all-inclusive offering—the all-inclusive Christ. The offering of ourselves to God is God's second provision, and the all-inclusive Christ is the third divine provision.
For our practical experience and enjoyment, Christ is mainly three kinds of offerings—the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offering. As those who are being anointed by God and who offer themselves to Him, we need to lay our hands upon Christ as our sin offering. Whenever we enter into God's provision through our offering of ourselves, we feel condemned. In our conscience we feel that we are unrighteous in many things. We sense that in various ways we are lacking, wrong, and unclean. At such a time we need to put our hands on Christ and take Him as our sin offering. Whenever we do this, we know that we are redeemed, propitiated, and forgiven, and we have peace within. At this juncture we desire to live for God. However, we realize that we have failed in this and that in ourselves we cannot live for Him. But the One on whom we have laid our hands is also our burnt offering. Thus, in our experience, the sin offering becomes the burnt offering. Then we can pray, "O Lord Jesus! I am one with You in living for God and living to God absolutely." After enjoying Christ as our sin offering and burnt offering, we no longer have condemnation, rebuking, or conviction. Instead, we have peace. We now enjoy Christ as our abundant peace offering. This peace then becomes a fellowship between us and God in which we and God enjoy Christ in mutuality.