Leviticus is the great book of sacrifice in the Old Testament; it may be studied along with the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is its counterpart in the New Testament. In the early part of that book we have five distinct offerings presented to us: the burnt-offering, the meat offering, the peace-offering, the sin-offering, and the trespass-offering. Viewed together, they present to us in type the one perfect offering of Christ; viewed separately they present five different aspects of that one offering, as meeting the various needs of the people of God, in their access to God, their communion, and their worship.
It was after the children of Israel had left the land of Egypt, and become a people separated unto God, that this book was given to them. They had been brought into the wilderness to be alone with God, that He might instruct them in things concerning His worship and His service. It was there, in the waste, howling desert, that the mystic tent was set up and filled with glory; it was there that the redeemed of the Lord began to learn practically their own imperfections and failures and the varied provisions of God’s grace, as seen in the sacrifices and the priesthood. Those of the people of God who choose to linger in an Egypt-world, and whose lives are spent in conformity to its ways, know little experimentally of true communion and worship. They will not therefore readily apprehend those aspects of the work of Christ which maintain the saint in nearness to God. Their spiritual sensibilities are so blunted by the effects of worldliness, that shortcomings and failures do not appear to be so hideous in their eyes as to drive them daily to seek the repose of their souls in the varied excellences of Christ’s sacrifice. But the child of God who seeks to walk along the desert in the company of His Father will appreciate their value, at least in measure, and, as he learns his own poverty and insufficiency, he will rejoice in the riches and perfections of these offerings. It is a blessed fact that, whether his intelligence in these things be small or great, every believer in Christ Jesus stands accepted in all the value that God has put upon the person and work of His beloved Son. The new-born babe and the father in Christ are alike in this: they stand upon the same immovable rock: their title to the presence of God is found in the same most precious blood; they are “accepted” in the same “Beloved”; but the peace and joy of the soul, the strength and growth of spiritual life, depend greatly on our apprehension and enjoyment of these things.
The offerings are divided into two classes, viz: ― sweet savor offerings and offerings for sin. The burnt-offering, the meat-offering, and the peace-offering are in the former class; the sin and trespass-offerings in the latter.
The order in which they are given to us in the Book of Leviticus is, first, the burnt-offering, and last, the sin and trespass-offerings. God begins by telling out to us in type, the portion that He has found in the sacrifice of Christ, and then that which meets our need. But the order in which they were offered was the opposite of this, as, for example, in the cleansing of the leper (Lev. 14:12, 1312And the priest shall take one he lamb, and offer him for a trespass offering, and the log of oil, and wave them for a wave offering before the Lord: 13And he shall slay the lamb in the place where he shall kill the sin offering and the burnt offering, in the holy place: for as the sin offering is the priest's, so is the trespass offering: it is most holy: (Leviticus 14:12‑13)), and the consecration of the priesthood (Lev. 8:54, 18). And this is the order in which our souls apprehend the varied riches of the One sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We know Him first as the One who “died for our sins,” then as the One who gave Himself wholly to God for the lack of devotedness in us. There can be no communion, no worship, until sin has been disposed of and the conscience set at rest. It is only as we know our own deep need that we do in any measure apprehend the riches and sufficiency of the Perfect Sacrifice.
I have said that the offerings were divided into two classes, viz.: sweet savor offerings and offerings for sin. The sin and trespass-offerings are of this latter class. The distinctive features of these offerings are, that they were offered either for sins committed knowingly, or in ignorance; that they were not burnt upon the altar in the Court, but carried forth without the camp and burnt up in the devouring fire as accursed of God. The victim was charged with the sin of the offerer, and its life was taken in his stead. Taken together, they point onward to Jesus as the bearer of sin and the curse; they present to us in type His death, as meeting all the requirements of Divine justice for the sinner. He it was who “was made sin for us” (2 Cor. 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)), and “who suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:1818For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: (1 Peter 3:18)). By His one perfect offering, the sins of all who believe are once and forever put away, to be remembered again no more. The voice that speaks to us from the throne of God, in virtue of the death of Christ as our sin and trespass-offering, says: “Thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged”; “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more”; “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.”
THE TRESPASS-OFFERING was to make atonement for sins knowingly committed (Lev. 6:1, 71And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, (Leviticus 6:1)
7And the priest shall make an atonement for him before the Lord: and it shall be forgiven him for any thing of all that he hath done in trespassing therein. (Leviticus 6:7)). It was offered for certain evil acts done against God and man; it was not so much the guilty person as the evil deed that was prominent in this offering. This is generally the first thing that troubles the sinner when the Spirit of God begins to deal with him. He remembers the sins of his past life, he knows that the justice or God demands their punishment, and he trembles at the prospect of meeting the Holy Judge. How blessed to the troubled and awakened soul are the tidings that Jesus has been our trespass-offering, that “He was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities,” and that what we could not make restitution of, to God or man―for we had “nothing to pay”―our blessed Lord in His death has most fully done. How sweet was the moment when we first beheld the Lamb of God, and saw “ALL TRESPASSES” forgiven (Col. 2:1313And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; (Colossians 2:13)). It was then that we could take up the language of the saint, and sing―
“Here we find the dawn of Heaven,
While upon the Cross we gaze,
See our trespasses forgiven,
And our songs of triumph raise.”
And ever since we have been converted (for the application of these offerings is especially to the saints), how oft have our souls rejoiced in Jesus as our Trespass-offering? We have over and over again been wanderers from our Father’s side, and that deliberately and knowingly. Where should we have been but for the abiding efficacy of the great trespass-offering, which, blessed be God, shall never lose its power.
“Till every ransomed saint of God
Be saved to sin no more!”
As the young believer goes on walking in the ways of the Lord, and as the light of the truth of God shines in upon his inner being, he begins to find out that he has not only committed evil deeds, but that he has within him an evil and revolted heart, a corrupt and sinful nature, utterly opposed to God. He finds that he has been ignorantly, as well as knowingly, going on in rebellion against the Lord. Things which did not at first appear to him to be sinful have, by the light of truth, been shown to be so, and he now groans over the years of ignorant indulgence of them. The provision of God’s grace for this is the SIN-OFFERING. It was not sin as we were acquainted with it, nor sin as we were consciously and confessedly guilty of it, that was laid upon the Lamb of God, in the day that His soul was made an offering for sin, but SIN as it was gauged by the Holy Judge; SIN as it was known by Him against whom it has been committed. The words “I lay my sins on Jesus” are but the expression of an unscriptural thought concerning sin. Our consciousness of sin may be great or small, according to the measure of our light and the sensitiveness of our consciences, but, blessed be the God who loved us, that He charged all our sins upon the great Sin-Offering, and put them all away forever. Yea, more; He condemned sin, and set man aside, closing his account forever as a child of Adam at the Cross. How blessed for the soul to grasp this precious truth! That God has dealt with sin, and settled every question regarding it once and for all at the Cross, and that the abiding efficacy of the blood remains before God most precious forever. Is this a license for the believer to sin? God forbid! Does this imply that he is to take no notice of sins committed after conversion? Most assuredly not. As a child of God, confession and a Father’s forgiveness will be daily needed. If he goes on with sin unconfessed, his Father’s faithful hand will use the rod. But his account, as a man in the flesh, as a child of Adam, a sinner, was finally closed and “settled” at the Cross of Christ. As we grow in the knowledge of what we are and of what we have done (it may be ignorantly), we shall be driven to seek the daily rest of our souls in the perfectness of the great Sin-Offering.
Many are disposed to think and speak lightly of sins committed in ignorance. If worthy of being reckoned sins at all, they are, according to such, of comparatively small account. But such thoughts are not the thoughts of God. “If a soul sin... though he wist it not, YET IS HE GUILTY” (ch. 5:17), is the irrevocable verdict of the Court of Heaven concerning sins of ignorance. Let us ponder this. Ignorance is not innocence. It is frequently the result of a protracted course of rebellion against the light, and of playing fast and loose with the truth of God. The conscience becomes so seared, and the heart so hardened, that the most heinous sins may be committed ignorantly. Could anything be more awful than this? How utterly gone from God must that man be who can sin against Him, and persecute His saints, and yet suppose he is doing God service! The priests and rulers of Jerusalem condemned and crucified the Son of God, and yet they knew not what they did (Luke 23:3434Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots. (Luke 23:34)). Peter told them: “I wot that through ignorance ye did it” (Acts 3:1717And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. (Acts 3:17)); but none will surely say they did no evil. Saul of Tarsus, while he persecuted the saints, believed he was serving God (1 Tim. 1:1313Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. (1 Timothy 1:13)), but he tells us he did it “ignorantly in unbelief”. There are many around us whose minds are so blinded that they are scattering deadly error, and believe it to be the truth; they are leading men to the lake of fire, yet sincerely suppose they will reach the City of God. But this is not confined to unregenerate sinners; there are many of the professed children of God judicially blinded. They have, trifled with the light that once shone upon them, until it has now become darkness. Truths once known but not obeyed have been wrested from their grasp. Precepts and commands, long unheeded, have ceased to exercise their consciences. We constantly hear it said: “We can do so-and-so with a good conscience”; but man’s conscience is not the standard: it is, “What saith the Lord!” A conscience not guided by Scripture is a terrible tool in Satan’s hands. We have the Book containing the complete revelation of the will of God: we are therefore responsible to know His will and to do it. When some fresh ray of light shines in upon our souls, when some long-held tradition is found out to be false, when some long-loved association is shown by the light of truth to be an “unequal yoke,” a fellowship of darkness, and when through grace we renounce and forsake it, with sorrow that we had continued so long in what was so contrary to the will of God, we ought to confess our sins of ignorance. We shall then prove the grace of God and appreciate the sufficiency of Christ, as the One who became the Sin-Offering for these very sins committed ignorantly.
The sin-offering was to be “without blemish.” Jesus was “the Lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:1919But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: (1 Peter 1:19)). In Him was no sin. He “knew no sin” (2 Cor. 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)). He “did no sin” (1 Peter 2:2222Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: (1 Peter 2:22)). The sin-offering was “most holy” (Lev. 6:2525Speak unto Aaron and to his sons, saying, This is the law of the sin offering: In the place where the burnt offering is killed shall the sin offering be killed before the Lord: it is most holy. (Leviticus 6:25)). It was presented before the Lord, and the offerer identified himself with it. He “leaned” (as the word signifies) his hand upon its head as if he had said, “I take this spotless victim to be my substitute; I lean my whole weight upon its merit.” The offerer’s sin was charged upon the victim, and it was killed before the Lord. Nothing short of death could satisfy the altar’s claims; but when the blood was poured at its base all its demands were met. The “wages of sin is death,” and “Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:33For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; (1 Corinthians 15:3)). This is the first note of the Gospel of God. Sinner, have you believed the message? To believe is to be forgiven; to receive the testimony of God is to be eternally saved. The sacrifice has been offered and when by faith I lay may guilty hand upon His spotless head and say, “He gave Himself for me,” I stand discharged before the Court of Heaven-justified by His blood.
The fat was burned upon the altar. This was Jehovah’s portion. The excellency of Jesus was fully appreciated by His God when He stood as our substitute bearing sin. Personally, He was ever well-pleasing to Him. For at no time was Christ more entirely well-pleasing to His God than when He offered Himself as a sacrifice for a “sweet-smelling savor” (Eph. 5:22And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savor. (Ephesians 5:2)).
The victim was carried without the camp and burnt. Jesus was cast out and forsaken of His God when our sins were laid upon Him. It was then that the awful cry came from his lips― “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” It was there that the devouring flame consumed the sin-offering. For the believer it is quenched forever. The judgment of the believer is past; there is now no condemnation. Take your stand, ye doubting saints, beside the altar of the Lord. See “the blood” and the “fat,” the life and the excellency of Jesus, given to God for you. It is enough. Justice asks no more. The righteous claims of God are satisfied. Then look at that heap of ashes being scattered by the winds of heaven outside the camp: they are the memorials of wrath appeased and of sin put away. Your sins are gone―gone to return no more. “It is God that jusrifieth; who is he that condemneth?”
The burnt-offering, the meat-offering, and the peace-offering are all “sweet savor” offerings. They were not carried forth without the camp and burnt up in the devouring fire, but either wholly burnt upon the altar, or shared by the offerer and the priest.
THE BURNT-OFFERING is sometimes called the “ascending offering,” because the word translated “burnt-offering” is “holah,” and means “that which ascends.” It was Jehovah’s portion; it was wholly burnt upon the altar; it all ascended up to Jehovah in sweet fragrance, affording Him satisfaction and delight.
The distinctive feature in the burnt-offering is, that it was wholly for Jehovah. The offerer presented something to Him that gratified His heart, and in which he found delight. When the offerer brought his sin-offering the language of his heart was, “I have sinned against the Lord”; “I have done that which He commanded me not to do.” He came to God as the Judge of sin, bringing an offering to appease His wrath. When he brought his burnt-offering to the altar he came bringing an offering for “His acceptance” (as Leviticus 1:33If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord. (Leviticus 1:3) ought to read). It was something of value, giving pleasure and delight to Jehovah’s heart, which he personally could not give. The burnt-offering presents to us in type the unreserved devotedness of the Lord Jesus; His perfect surrender to God in life and in death. “He offered Himself without spot to God” (Heb. 9:44Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; (Hebrews 9:4)). “He gave Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God of a sweet-smelling savor” (Eph. 5:22And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savor. (Ephesians 5:2)). All that He was, He was unto God, and “for us.”
The burnt-offering was all for Jehovah, yet it was offered for the offerer’s acceptance with Him.
The offerer stood with his hand upon the victim’s head as if he had said, “I have no devotedness, no preciousness, but I present this perfect offering for my acceptance before the Lord.” Thus he stood identified with, and accepted in, his offering. The whole of its value became his own, the moment his hand was laid upon its head. It ceased that moment to be a question of what he was, and became a question of what his offering was. Will IT give satisfaction? Will IT be accepted by Jehovah?
How blessed it is for the soul to get a grasp of all this! To the believer in Christ it is no longer “Just as I am,” but “Just as Thou art.” His own identity as a sinner is lost; he ceases to be reckoned as a child of Adam before God; his own worthless self is blotted out; and he stands identified with Christ henceforth and forever. The value, the preciousness, the beauty of the Son of God, are reckoned to be his own. He stands before God “in Christ,” accepted in his Representative. May the Holy Ghost make this plain to you, beloved friends. I know that I cannot do it, but if He, the Spirit of Truth, do but bring it home to your souls in power, it will make you leap for very joy. It will dispel the fear and dark forebodings that hover around the soul, as mists and storm-clouds flee before the rising sun. Some of you, I know, have times of despondency and fear. You lose your peace and joy, and get away back to “Doubting Castle,” to be under the power of “Giant Despair.” Then your souls go groping in the dark, and sighing―
“Do I love the Lord or no
Am I His or am I not?”
Your own unworthiness becomes the doleful dirge of your soul, and the memory of your lack of devotedness and faithfulness to God almost brings you to despair. Now I would not have you suppose that we ought to look upon these things lightly. I am sure that to learn one’s own unworthiness is a wholesome and necessary lesson. To know by painful experience that we have not loved the Lord with heart and soul and strength and mind, as He commands, is painful knowledge to a truly quickened soul; but alongside this, I desire that we may see what God has done for us, where He has put us, and what He there esteems us to be.
This is the lesson of the burnt-offering. The offerer came, conscious of his own unworthiness, to offer a victim in his stead. It was killed before the Lord. Its life was taken instead of his. Then it was flayed and divided. Its various parts were exposed to the light; it was shown to be both inwardly and outwardly perfect. Then it was all raised upon the altar, and from the copper grating upon which it lay the whole went up―a sweet savor (or, “a savor of rest”) ―unto Jehovah, and the offerer was accepted according to the value of the offering. How sweetly does all this speak to us of Jesus. God has fulfilled the word uttered on Mount Moriah long ago, and “provided Himself a Lamb for a burnt-offering” (Gen. 22). He found Him in His own bosom, the beloved of His heart. How dear, how precious to His Father no human heart can conceive, no tongue can tell. But we do know this, and it is our deepest joy, that the Father has fully estimated His worth and appreciated His excellency, and we are accepted according to the measure of the Father’s delight in Him.
“There came a fire out from before the Lord and consumed upon the altar the burnt-offering and; the fat” (Lev. 9:2424And there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces. (Leviticus 9:24)). This was the witness of its acceptance (see Psa. 20:33Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice; Selah. (Psalm 20:3)). The burning of the offering here and the burning of the sin-offering outside the camp are very different. Here it is the holy altar-fire feeding on a victim well-pleasing to Jehovah; there it is the judgment-fire devouring a victim accursed because of sin. Indeed, a different Hebrew word is used. The word “burn,” used in connection with the burnt-offering, means “to burn as incense” (see Lev. 1:9, 13, 15, 179But his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water: and the priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord. (Leviticus 1:9)
13But he shall wash the inwards and the legs with water: and the priest shall bring it all, and burn it upon the altar: it is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord. (Leviticus 1:13)
15And the priest shall bring it unto the altar, and wring off his head, and burn it on the altar; and the blood thereof shall be wrung out at the side of the altar: (Leviticus 1:15)
17And he shall cleave it with the wings thereof, but shall not divide it asunder: and the priest shall burn it upon the altar, upon the wood that is upon the fire: it is a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savor unto the Lord. (Leviticus 1:17)); but the word used in connection with the sin-offering, means “to burn up or consume in a devouring fire”; (for its use see Leviticus 4:12; 6:3012Even the whole bullock shall he carry forth without the camp unto a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn him on the wood with fire: where the ashes are poured out shall he be burnt. (Leviticus 4:12)
30And no sin offering, whereof any of the blood is brought into the tabernacle of the congregation to reconcile withal in the holy place, shall be eaten: it shall be burnt in the fire. (Leviticus 6:30); Joshua 7:1515And it shall be, that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath: because he hath transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and because he hath wrought folly in Israel. (Joshua 7:15)). The Lord Jesus in His death had to do with both. Personally, He was the Holy One offered up “without spot to God,” and the fragrance of His offering went up as an incense. Representatively, “He was made sin” and a “curse” for us (2 Cor. 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21); Gal. 3:1313Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: (Galatians 3:13)). The whole of the offering was consumed. The head and the fat, the inwards and the legs, were all reduced to ashes. Jehovah got all; nothing remained. How true was this of Jesus. His thoughts, His hidden energies, His affections, and His ways were wholly devoted to God. Of Him, and Him only, can it be said that “He loved the Lord His God with all His heart, and all His soul, and all His strength, and all His mind,” and this He did continuously and perfectly. If He thought, it was for God; if He preached or healed, it was not only for men’s blessing, but for God’s glory. His time and His strength were all spent for God alone. His own ease and comfort, His own loss or gain, never had a thought. Whether on the mountain all night in prayer, or asleep on a pillow in a boat, all was for His God. He “set the Lord always” before Him, and He “always did those things that pleased” His Father. O that men who lightly, speak or sing of being “wholly consecrated to God” and “having their all upon the altar” would here see what it means. Jesus is the standard and the measure of “complete surrender unto God.” Every other standard is a counterfeit and a fallacy.
To His worth the Father bore witness both in His life and death. When He stood in the Jordan at His baptism and on the holy mount at His transfiguration, the Father’s voice was heard saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” All that He was and all that He is, is for us. He stands the Representative of all His people. They are all viewed as in Him, adorned with His beauty. The voice from Heaven to us is, that we are “ACCEPTED in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:66To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. (Ephesians 1:6)), and that “the Lord TAKETH PLEASURE in His people” (Psa. 149:44For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation. (Psalm 149:4)). Think of this, ye doubting, downcast saints: “Accepted” ―not in your love or your faithfulness―but in “THE BELOVED”: In Him who is the Father’s delight. Accepted―according to the measure of the Father’s delight―in His own beloved Son. This is the inalienable standing of the saints of God. The weakest babe in Christ is adorned in His beauty, is a possessor of His life, and is loved as He is loved. We may all take up the language of the hymn―
“The love wherewith He loves the
Son Such is His love to me.”
Do you really believe it, beloved? Have you in your heart said “amen” to it, and do you enjoy its bliss from day to day? There is no “higher life” than this. This is the highest and best, and it is the normal position of all the saints: the birthright and portion of all the family of God. We must believe it to enjoy it. Put down your foot firmly, then, on the word― “Accepted in the Beloved.” Make it your own. Like the negro, of whom some of you have read, say, “I am poor, and black, and vile, but in Christ Jesus I am holy, and pure, and fair, just BECAUSE I’M IN HIM.”
THE MEAT OR MEAL-OFFERING, presents to us the perfectness of the Human life of the Lord Jesus, ending in death: the perfectness of His character as Man, manifested in His life down here. It was a sweet savor unto God; it was the food of the priest.
It was made of “fine flour.” Flour that had no need of bruising or sifting; no roughness or unevenness in it. This is an emblem of the human nature of the Lord. As a man He was perfect; there was no fiber of the fallen nature of man in Him; nothing that required to be subdued or kept under. Chastening and bruising are often needed to make us bow to the will of God. Not so our blessed Lord. His delight was to do His Father’s will; meekness and submissiveness were naturally His. And what He was, He always was. We are one day submissive, the next day fretful; sometimes bold, then timid; full of fervor and cold alternately. Our Lord was ever the same. His submission to the Father’s will was as manifest in the garden as on the hill of glory. His gentleness was not more apparent when the little child lay in His arms than when His foes surrounded Him in the judgment hall.
Frankincense was put upon it. This is the type of purity and fragrance. The more it comes in contact with the fire, its fragrance is increased. We know it was so with Jesus. His sorrows and privations, and especially His sufferings on the cross, brought out the fragrance of His character and manifested His moral glory.
“Ye shall burn no leaven.” Leaven is a corrupting thing, and always used in Scripture as the emblem of evil. There was none of this evil principle in Jesus, His flesh saw no corruption.
“Neither any honey.” If leaven be the emblem of the sourness and corruption of man’s nature, honey is the emblem of its sweetness. It is one of the sweetest things of earth, but it very soon corrupts and becomes sour. It will not stand the fire. There was none of this in Jesus. His love was not mere natural affection which is easily cooled. It stood the test because it was the Love Divine, love that could stoop to wash the feet of one who was to deny Him, and of others who were to forsake Him.
How much of that which passes current among the saints as love, turns out in the hour of trial to be fermenting honey. It is mere natural sweetness, and when crossed or slighted, it turns to sourness. Friendships and fellowships based upon this effervescent kind of love, fade and fail. Love that details no faithful wounds is not the love of Jesus. But love that cleaves to its object, through good and evil report, rebuking and correcting it, studying not its own pleasure but the loved one’s profit, is after the manner of the love of Christ to us.
Salt was the next ingredient. It is preservative in its nature. “Let your speech be always with grace seasoned with salt” (Col. 4:66Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. (Colossians 4:6)) This element was ever manifested in the Lord. “The salt of the covenant of His God” was never lacking in His dealings with man. In faithful love He rebuked Martha and Peter among His own, and He denounced the hollow religion of the Pharisees to their very face. He was “full of grace,” but it never degenerated into softness, nor His rebukes into harshness.
THE PEACE-OFFERING. ―The distinguishing feature of this offering is, that Jehovah, the priest, and the offerer have all a portion in it. In this it differs from the burnt-offering. There, it was Jehovah receiving His portion; the whole of it was consumed upon the altar. Here, it is Jehovah satisfied, having received His portion, and now ministering to His people. It is pre-eminently the communion offering. Communion with God, and with one another, are typified here. To feed at the same table, to share the same portion, is the expressive type of communion. And wondrous as the privilege may seen, yet it is nevertheless true, that we have been called to the fellowship of the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. Less than this could not have satisfied the love of the Father’s heart, more than this He could not give. Like the prodigal of old, we have been welcomed to His heart, and seated with Him at His table, and all this in perfect righteousness, and therefore in perfect peace. It is of the very utmost importance that our souls should clearly apprehend the basis of this peace and communion and what is necessary for their enjoyment. “Peace with God” is not an unstable, flickering experience, flowing from some spiritual attainment or inward sanctity. It is an unchangeable reality, fruit of the finished work of Christ. Every charge that law and justice had against us He met, and every lacking virtue He supplied, when He offered Himself to God for us. We see this in the peace-offering. It tells us of the inward perfectness of the Lord Jesus, presented to God for us.
The fat was all burned upon the altar. It was Jehovah’s portion. As all the “frankincense” of the meat-offering was for Him, so was all the “fat” of the peace-offering. There were hidden and inward excellences in the Lord Jesus that none on earth could value or appreciate. They were exclusively Jehovah’s portion. The depth of the devotedness and the strength of the love that dwelt within His holy soul none could fathom save His Father, for “no man knoweth the Son, but the Father.” Blessed to know that He has fully valued and appreciated His excellency, and we are accepted before God in the full value thereof.
The kidneys were also offered. They typify the seat of the inward condition. The word is sometimes translated “reins.” None but the Lord Jesus could invite the searching eye of Him who saith: “I the Lord search the heart; I try the reins” to scan His inward parts. He only could say, “Examine Me, O Lord, and prove Me; try My reins and My heart” (Psa. 26:22Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart. (Psalm 26:2)); and when He was tried and proved by the deep suffering of the cross, He was found to be perfect inwardly as well as outwardly. With us it is not so. Our inward being is not fit for the altar of God even after we have been “born again” and made partakers of the “Divine nature.” Who is there among us but knows that the carnal mind-the old man-is still there as well? And this would of itself mar and disturb our peace and communion with God, even were this evil principle never to bear its fruits in the form of active sin. The presence of evil there would be unbearable to a soul knowing the nature and character of God but for the virtues of the great peace-offering. But, blessed be God that in the riches of His grace He has given us to know that our worthless, sinful selves are blotted out and buried out of His sight, and that the sin that dwells within us is covered by the efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ, thus enabling us to commune with God in peace, in spite of all that we feel and see ourselves to be. We walk with God in the light, not because we never sinned, or have no sin in us, but because “the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” Our feet stand upon redemption ground; our peace is made eternally secure through the blood of His cross. The efficacy of that one oblation abides before God forever, and for us. God is satisfied in Christ. So are we. This is communion.
It is not our sanctity of heart or our spiritual attainments that are the ground of peace; nor is it the work of the Holy Spirit within us. These are all fluctuating and imperfect as regards their measure. The ground of peace is the FINISHED and PERFECTED work of Christ for us. That is what we find typified in the peace-offering.
It was killed before the Lord. The blood was sprinkled upon the altar, and the fat and inwards were burned for a sweet savor. The life and inward excellencies were the portion of Jehovah; He received His portion first, then the offerer and the priest each received their portion. God being satisfied, a table was spread for man, and furnished with part of the sacrifice already presented on the altar. The altar is the place of offering towards God. The table, the place of God’s ministering towards His people. Such is the relation of the Lord’s Supper to the Cross. Apart from the cross, there could have been no table. It is the memorial of what was accomplished at the cross, and the expression of the believer’s fellowship in it. How daring an insult to God and to His Christ it is, to erect an altar in the church, with man-made priests offering sacrifice for the living and the dead around it. It is a subversion of the very foundations of the faith, and a flat denial of the finished work of Christ. At the table we have fellowship with God in peace, over His beloved Son, and we have fellowship one with another. What a sight! Every eye is fixed on Christ; every heart is satisfied. The Father alone can rightly esteem the inward preciousness and devotedness of His own Beloved, but we as priests can rejoice as we feed on the “wave breast” and “heave shoulder”―the symbols of His love and power. How tender a pillow is His bosom for the weary head How strong is His mighty shoulder, for the weak and fainting soul!
We have now briefly sketched the varied offerings and sought to glean a few of their simplest teachings, but “the half hath not been told.” When we stand before His glorious throne, perfectly conformed to His image, the last trace of sin and fallen humanity gone and forgotten, then―but not till then―shall we fully know the preciousness and worth of the PERFECT SACRIFICE―THE GREAT PEACE-OFFERING.