THE BURNT OFFERING.
BY ANDREW JUKES.
The offerings set
forth Christ. We see in them how man, in Christ, has made atonement. Our standing
as believers immediately flows from this: “For as He is, so are we in this
world.” We look at the Sin and Trespass offerings, and see that the sin of man
has been fully borne. We look at the Burnt and Meat Offerings and see all God’s
requirements are satisfied. And this is our confidence, that as Christ, “for
us,” has been without the camp, as “for us” He has been laid on the altar; so
truly do we, if quickened by His Spirit, stand in Him, even as He is: “For by
one offering He hath perfected forever them that ate sanctified.”-(Heb. x:14.)
But there is,
also, the other aspect of this truth. We are one with Christ, therefore we should
walk even as He walked. In this view His Offering, as our example, sets
before us the model and standard for our self-sacrifice. And just as Christ’s
sacrifice for us had varied aspects, as satisfying God, as satisfying man, as
bearing sin; so, though, of course, in a lower sense, will our self-sacrifice,
just as it is conformed to His, and because we are on with Him, have these same
aspects. It is this way, that in a secondary sense, the typical offerings have
an application to Christians. Thus we, also, are offers and our bodies
offerings; as it is written, “Present your bodies as a living sacrifice.”-(Rom.
xii:1.) Not, indeed, as though by our self-sacrifice we could make Christ’s
Offering for us more acceptable-“We are sanctified by the offering of His body
once for all,” “We are made accepted in the Beloved”-but as the consequence of
our acceptance in Him, as the fruit of our union with Him through the Spirit..
Therefore, we offer; and as already accepted in Christ, though in ourselves
poor, weak, and worthless, our sacrifices, whether our works our person, as the
fruit of Christ’s Spirit, are acceptable through Him. Of course, there is in
His pure offering that which will find no counterpart in us. Dissimilarities,
neither few nor small, arise from the fact that He was sinless, we are sinners.
Yet the saint, as in spirit alive with Christ, as entering into His willing
mind (1 Cor. 2:16), yea, as already one with Him, as in Him dead and risen,
will seek further “to be made comfortable to His death.”-(Phil. 3:10.) His
self-sacrifice may fail in many ways, but his rule is the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ.
The Burnt
Offering was man satisfying God; man in Christ giving himself to God as His
portion. We have seen how for us this was fulfilled in Christ. We
inquire how far in us it may be fulfilled by the Spirit. And in this
light, both in its measure and character, the Burnt Offering stands a witness
how we should “yield ourselves.”-(Rom. 6:13.) First, as to its measure.
It was “wholly burn.” No part was withheld from God. Can we mistake this
teaching? Does it not plainly say that conformity to Christ must cos us
something, yea, that it involves entire self-surrender, even though that
surrender lead us to the cross? “I will not,” said David, “offer unto the Lord
a Burnt Offering of that which cost me nothing.” –(2 Sam. xxiv:24.) The Burnt
Offering is still costly, benefiting Him who receives it at our hands. The
Burnt Offering was God’s claim; that claim was love; as He said, “Thou shalt
love the Lord with all thine heart.” The fulfillment of this required a life
from Christ. It will demand our lives just in measure as we walk with Him. “For
love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave; the coals thereof are
coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.” –(Cant. 8:6.)
And in these days
when pious worldliness is so successfully misusing the truth of God-when, in
the light of the advanced wisdom of this, our age, self-sacrifices exploded
folly-when the mere fact that a path involves loss in this world is considered
a good reason for our at once avoiding it-when the doctrine of the Cross, as it
bears upon our walk, is not only omitted, but openly condemned-when to give up
the world is injudiciousness, and to crucify the flesh a return to law-in such
days we do well to look at the Burnt Offering, as setting before us the example
we are called to follow. Alas! That it should be so, but it is not denied, by
some it is even gloried in, that Christianity now involves no loss; the times
are altered, the world is changed. The offense of the Cross has ceased. They
that live godly need not suffer. (See 2 Tim. 3:12.) A path has been found, a
happy path some think it, wherein the highest profession of Christ costs
nothing; nay, in which such a profession, so far from involving the loss of
this world, is the surest way to gain praise. According to this doctrine, Christ
suffered for us; apostles, prophets, martyrs, all suffered. They, in their
pilgrimage, lost this world for another; but we, in happier days, can possess
both world. It cannot be. If God’s Word be true, our path after Christ must be
still a sacrifice. We, as they of old, if followers of Christ, must with Him “present
our bodies a living sacrifice.”
And, indeed, if
we do but weight these words-“Present your bodies a living sacrifice”-we cannot
shut our eyes to what is involved in them, and that we are called to give up
ourselves. Can we do this without cos, or without feeling that sacrifice is
indeed sacrifice; and so surely shall we, if we offer with Him. Nor shall we
grudge this. Just as it was His joy to give Himself; as He said, “I delight to
do Thy will, O my God” so, in us, also, as quickened with Him, “the spirit is
willing, though the flesh is weak.” I do not wish to press every detail of the Burnt
Offerings in its application to our individual walk; yet the general character
of the Victim may be a guide to the character, as its entire surrender was
to the measure, of our offering. We saw, in the application of the type
to Christ,, how it varieties of bullock, lamb an turtle-dove, each brought out
some distinct particular in the character of our blessed Lord. In each of these
we have an example we can comprehend, however fare we may be from attaining to
it. Would to God that in active, yet patient, service, in silent, unmurmuring
submission, in gentleness and innocency of life, we might be conformed to Him
who went before us. These emblems of His offering, if they mean anything, sufficiently
show us, even as His example showed it, that self-sacrifice is not to make us
great in this world; service, submission, meekness, will gain now crown here.
We cannot be heroes in this world if we offer ourselves to God in character these
emblems typify; but, if conformed to them, we shall be more like Christ. May He
give us grace gladly to acquiesce in the likeness! He, as man in a proud and
violent world, yea, and for us, was all that these emblems typify. He bore the
cross such a character involved. He shrunk not form the reproach it brought Him.
He was despised and reject of men, as a lamb slain, and none to pity. In a
word, and this is, indeed, the sum of it, He was content to be nothing, that
God might be all. May the corresponding reality be more manifested in us,
through subjection to the power of His indwelling Spirit. – From “The Law of
the Offerings.”
