The meal-offering was of fine flour mingled with oil, anointed with oil, and frankincense thereon, to be brought to Aaron's sons the priests, who had their portion of it. But the priest was to burn the memorial of it on the altar, to be an offering made by fire for a sweet savor unto Jehovah. It is a thing most holy of the offerings of Jehovah made by fire. (See vers. 1-3.) Here then is another offering made by fire. As in the burnt-offering, it stands the full proving of God, and all that comes out of it is a sweet savor unto Him. Now the fruits of righteousness are acceptable unto God, but we are not represented here; where we are spoken of, leaven is put in the offering. If we enter into judgment with God, no man living can stand. Our services are indeed accepted as the fruit of His Spirit in us through Christ.
We have in this, not an offering of the nature of Abel's (not atonement, that is) but of Cain's. Though surely very different in character from his, yet it is man in the life of nature offered to God, every natural faculty of man in Christ, and that fully tried by the fire of God. The church never could be thus offered as in itself a sweet savor, because in human nature it is not holy.
We shall see by-and-by that, when the church is represented, leaven is commanded to be put into the offering. In this there is none; it is perfect human nature without sin, mingled with oil (that is, born in its origin of the Spirit). Oil was poured upon it (that is, Christ as man was anointed with the Holy Ghost), and frankincense put thereon. The fragrance of grace ascends up to God. The remnant was for Aaron's sons. First, Jesus, as a man, is offered to God in His perfectness; and then we feed upon Him. The fragrance of His perfectness ascends while we feed. But this is only for priests, the true saints of God.
The ostensible anointing of Jesus was when the Holy Ghost descended upon Him in the shape of a dove; but we find in the first ten verses of this chapter various other characteristics of the meal-offering to show the complete perfectness of Christ. “Thou shalt part it in pieces, and pour oil thereon.” In Jesus every part of His walk and acts, however minute, was of the Holy Ghost and in its power.
There was perfect human nature without sin, born of the Holy Ghost, and anointed with the Holy Ghost. Indeed every detail of Christ's path was in the power of the Spirit. It was offered to God; and as to all the frankincense, the sweet savor of grace in Christ, and His every motive, were for God alone; but saints as priests feed on all He was. The sweet savor of the frankincense might be enjoyed by the priests, but it was offered to God.
The wafers and the cakes were to be unleavened. In this, as in the sheaf of first-fruits waved before Jehovah (Lev. 23:10-1110Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest: 11And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it. (Leviticus 23:10‑11)), we have the definite character of Christ without sin; for in the ears of corn there could be no leaven. But when the church is offered, leaven is to be used (Lev. 23:1717Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the Lord. (Leviticus 23:17)). But the oblation of the first fruits(see ver. 12 of this chapter) was to be offered indeed, but not to be burnt, showing the difference in character from the previous offerings, which were all burned, and were to have neither honey nor leaven in them.
No effect of the oil could counteract the leaven; it was commanded to be absolutely without leaven. No power of the Holy Ghost in us counteracts the presence of evil, so as to set it aside and remove it, and thus make the subject fit to be an offering made by fire of a sweet savor. If there was leaven in its nature, it could not be an offering to Jehovah. Honey is also excluded from what is offered by fire to Jehovah. The feelings of nature may be sweet and rightly enjoyable, as honey on the top of Jonathan's rod; but it cannot be offered in sacrifice to God.
There are many things sweet and pleasant in themselves that can never be presented to God as an offering in a world of sin. Nothing can be offered to Him that is the mere satisfaction of nature. Simple natural affection, though right in itself (nay, it is a sin to be without it), is no offering to God. Our Lord's love to His mother was perfect: we see this in His remembrance of her on the cross; but when first He begins, and all through His ministry, He says, “Woman, what have I to do with thee? “
In Lev. 23:1717Ye shall bring out of your habitations two wave loaves of two tenth deals: they shall be of fine flour; they shall be baken with leaven; they are the firstfruits unto the Lord. (Leviticus 23:17) we have that which was typical of the day of Pentecost, on which day the Holy Ghost formed the church. When Christ ascended and presented perfect righteousness to the Father, as man in heaven, then He by the Spirit could work to bring out the result in the church as the first-fruits. Accordingly we find in this chapter 23. that which, as constituted and consecrated by the Holy Ghost, could be offered to God, but not burnt, because the old nature is still there. In Jesus however there is nothing of this; and in the meal-offering, therefore, there is to be no leaven, but oil mingled with fine flour, and oil poured on it; as none also was in the sheaf waved before Jehovah. So it was that Jesus arose, and was waved before Jehovah. But then, fifty days afterward, parallel with Pentecost, the two wave-loaves, oaken with leaven, were brought as the first-fruits to God. Remark, that there is a burnt-offering and a meal-offering offered with the wave-sheaf, but no sin-offering; whilst in verse 19 you will find a sin-offering accompanying the wave-loaves to meet the leaven in them. For the sin-offering is that which countervails the evil of the church, or it could not be accepted.
We have thus most satisfactory evidence that Jesus was offered without spot to God; and the knowledge of the blessed truth, that there was the absolute absence of sin in Him, both in nature and practice. On this account alone He could be an offering made by fire. There could be no offering presented to God for a sweet savor in which the holiness of God, searching by fire, could discover, by any possibility, anything that was not positively good—it would have hindered its being such an offering to G ed. All the fullness of the Holy Ghost could not effect this, for we see how it was on the day of Pentecost: there was the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, but nevertheless sin was there.
The Holy Ghost, to give us peace, must come with a message of peace, even that there has been that presented in the offering of Christ by which God's grace can act toward us in righteousness. It is not that the act of Jesus turned God's mind toward us; but by virtue of it God can act according to His mind righteously and consistently. If God had done an act of grace without the suffering of Jesus, it would have been grace without righteousness.
It is, then, first proved that there is no righteousness in man, who has alike sinned, and broken the law, and rejected Jesus; but in presenting Jesus to God, in the world, the intrinsically righteous One, also fully tried and tested, and at the same time a sacrifice for man's acceptance by the cross, we find Him through Whom God can act in grace toward man. In Him we find the ground of our acceptance, and the sure foundation of God's dealings with us. There is amazing blessing in looking at Jesus as the occasion of grace! The soul of the poor sinner can rest in the knowledge that grace reigns through righteousness. Thus I find myself a continual debtor to grace, because when I am daily offered to God, the value of the sin-offering is always available, without which I could not be presented; and God is thereby glorified and not man, inasmuch as it is only through Jesus that I approach.