a genuine church is a meal offering church life with the fine humanity of Christ

I have to admit, if it were not for the ministry of the age, I would have never even thought of associating the church life (fully in the New Testament) with the meal-offering (from the Old Testament, Lev. 2:1-16).

But – praise the Lord! – now we can see that the meal offering in Leviticus (fine flour mingled with oil, with frankincense and salt added to it, with no leaven or honey) is a type of the pure, satisfying, edible, fine, church life in the focus of the Lord’s recovery!

I don’t fully see it, but I am praying that we all would be more mingled with the Holy Spirit, with the cross, and be in resurrection, to be satisfying to God and to man!

The meal-offering typifying the Lord Jesus

The meal offering in Leviticus typifies the Lord Jesus Himself – when He was on the earth, He was fine flour (having a high, fine, perfect humanity), He was oiled with the Holy Spirit (He was essentially filled with the Spirit and economically / outwardly anointed with the Spirit), He was always being salted (He lived a life under the cross, doing the Father’s will), and He lived in resurrection (people sensed frankincense, the aroma of resurrection).

Also, with Him there was no honey (no natural affection) and no leaven (no sin, no sinfulness, nothing sinful). What a God-man meal-offering He was!

Romans 8 – we are the meal-offering today

It should be with us today – we are Christ’s duplication, His reproduction, His continuation, “a xerox copy” of Christ and His life. In Romans 8 we see this in a clear way – here we have Christ’s humanity (Rom. 8:3), the Spirit of life (v. 2), the cross (v. 13), and resurrection (v. 11).

This should be our normal day-by-day living today – the same kind of life that Christ lived. We are human – but we need to have the uplifted, the finer, the more balanced humanity of Jesus Christ by eating Him in His Word and allowing Him to live in us.

We have been “oiled with the Holy Spirit” to a certain extent, but we need to be more mingled with the indwelling Spirit by turning to our spirit and setting our mind on the spirit (Rom. 8:6)!

Also, we need to continually receive the salt – we need to allow the cross to operate in us as we mind our spirit, so that we may put to death the practices of the body (Rom. 8:13).

If we do this, we will live a life in resurrection, having the frankincense for God’s satisfaction and man’s pleasure and delight. The church life is a corporate God-man living of the meal-offering for God’s satisfaction!

The fine and balanced humanity of Christ

Today we were specifically appreciating the wonderful, fine, gentle, balanced humanity of Jesus. The fine flour is the base of the meal-offering, and it typifies the fine and balanced humanity of Christ.

Our humanity is rough – though outwardly we may seem to be “a nice lady” or “a proper gentleman”, and though we may behave nicely toward the ones around us, our humanity is rough.

Only Christ is gentle, fine, balanced, and right in every way. While He was on earth everyone tested Him – His brothers, His fellow countrymen, the Pharisees, the priests, and even the Roman officials – but there was no fault or blemish found in Him!

How we love This Fine, Balanced, Gentle, Tender, Even, and Excellent One! The beauty and excellence of Christ’s human living and walk are the fulfillment of the type of the fine flour mingled with oil in the meal-offering, and this humanity is for us to eat, partake of, and live!

In the genuine church in the focus of the Lord’s recovery, we need to eat the humanity of Jesus by eating His Word, and our humanity will be uplifted, resurrected, and balanced. This is why we emphasize Eating Jesus in the church life! As we eat Jesus, we become the corporate Jesus, the corporate meal offering, with a corporate God-man living, for God’s satisfaction!

Lord Jesus, how we love You! Thank You for opening Your Word to us that we may see the intrinsic significance of the meal offering. Lord, how we love Your perfect, balanced, and fine humanity. Thank You for making us the same as You are by eating You in Your Word. Oh, Lord, gain a genuine church in the focus of the Lord’s recovery as the corporate meal offering! Lord, gain the corporate God-man living as a reproduction of the living of Christ today on earth in all the churches!

References and Further Reading

• Sharing inspired from portions in, Life-study of Leviticus (msgs. 15, 11, by brother Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Focus of the Lord’s Recovery, week 6;
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Christ is a genuine man, / The perfect and finest man, / Obedient, serving, no appearance of evil, / The finest personality, / Divinity expressed through humanity.
  # In the Spirit of this Jesus / Is His human life so fine. / Human virtues have been added / To the Spirit all divine. / What abundance in this Spirit, / Rich supply for all mankind!
• Picture source: the fine flour, a type of the humanity of Jesus.