Because we’re Not Absolutely for God, we need to take Christ as our Burnt Offering

Because we are not absolutely for God, we need Christ as the burnt offering; only Christ lived a life absolutely for God, and this One is acceptable and pleasing to God, and as such a One He is in us to be our life enabling us to live the same kind of life today.

For us to have the proper church life, we need to lay all we have on the altar; the altar must be recovered at the beginning of our church life, otherwise, we cannot have a proper church life.

The altar is a type of the cross of Christ; the altar we must recover is the altar of burnt offering.

The burnt offering is God’s food; it was consumed fully by fire for God to be satisfied.

Our God is hungry for food, and we as His people can offer Him something to eat.

Just as we are hungry and need food, God is hungry for something specific that satisfies Him.

On one hand, we need to offer Him the sin offering for our sinful nature, the peace offering for our peace with God, and the trespass offering for our sins before Him.

On the other hand, what delights God and makes Him happy is the burnt offering, an offering that was fully consumed by fire for His satisfaction.

All the offerings are a type of Christ; Christ is the fulfilment of all the offerings in many aspects for our relationship with God and our worship of Him.

We cannot come to God by means of anything else except Christ as the reality of all the offerings.

Day by day we need to take Christ as our sin offering for our sinful nature, and we need to take Him as the trespass offering for all the sins we have committed.

When we apply Him as these offerings, our sins are removed and our sinful nature is dealt with.

Furthermore, Christ is our peace offering; He made peace with God and also made peace with others, and through Him as the peace offering we have peace.

But we need to go further. We need to advance in our Christian life and experience and take Christ as our burnt offering.

We need to offer Christ as the burnt offering to God for His satisfaction, for His food.

God needs food; though He is almighty, He cannot provide Himself something to eat but rather, He wants His people to offer Christ as the burnt offering as His food.

May we learn before the Lord in our daily life how to take Christ as our burnt offering so that we may offer Him to God for His satisfaction.

May we lay our hands on Christ, the only One absolute for God, and be identified with Him as the burnt offering so that in Christ and with Christ we would be pleasing to God and He would be satisfied with us.

And may we care for God’s food as much as or even more than for our food; may we seek to feed God with the food He desires, with the Christ we have enjoyed and experienced for His satisfaction.

Christ is the Unique Person who lived a Life Absolutely for God – He is the Reality of the Burnt Offering

The Hebrew word translated as “burnt offering” literally means “that which goes up”; this denotes that something ascends to God for His satisfaction and pleasure (Lev. 1:3, 10, 14).

What can ascend to God to please God and make Him happy? It is only Christ.

This ascending of the burnt offering to God to please Him and satisfy Him refers to Christ.

The only thing that can ascend to God from the earth is the life lived by Christ.

Christ is the unique person to live a life that is absolutely for God (John 6:38).

He did not speak His own word but what He heard from the Father. He did not do His own work but only the work that the Father gave Him to do.

He did not do His own will but the will of the Father.

He did not seek His own glory but sought the glory of the One who sent Him.

The only One who ever lived and will ever live a life that is absolutely for God is Christ.

Only He is qualified to be the reality of the burnt offering.

He was not only kind and good and caring for others, nor was He only wise and knowledgeable and helpful; He lived a life absolutely for God.

If you look at the Lord Jesus and His life, you may think as the disciples did, that He will be the King enthroned in Jerusalem, and He will bring the kingdom of God on earth.

Many expected Him to do a great work outwardly and then bring in the kingdom of God in power and authority.

But He was seemingly cut off at the tender age of thirty-three and a half years.

He did not come to do a great work outwardly for all men to see; He came to live a life absolutely for God to please God and to do God’s will.

And it was God’s will for Him to die on the cross, so He died on the cross at thirty-three and a half years.

If we look at His human living as revealed in the Gospels we cannot but be amazed and inspired.

How can a person live in such a way?

How can a human being not speak his own words, not do his own work, not carry out his own will, and not seek his own glory but live absolutely for God?

Only Christ can. He is the burnt offering; He offered Himself with everything He was and did to the Father for His satisfaction, and the Father was pleased with Him.

We cannot be such an offering, no matter what we do and how much we try.

Only Christ lived the kind of life that qualified Him to ascend to the Father and be pleasing to Him, satisfying God in every respect.

Christ as our burnt offering is completely for God, absolutely for God (4:34; 5:30; Heb. 10:8-10).

Whatever the Lord Jesus was, whatever He spoke, and whatever He did was absolutely for God (John 6:38; 5:17, 36, 43; 8:28; 10:25; 12:49-50).

His being, His speaking, and His doing were absolutely for God. Everything related to the Lord Jesus was for God’s satisfaction.

He is our burnt offering, and we can take Christ as the burnt offering so that we may live a life that is absolutely for God.

We need to realize that in ourselves we can’t live such a life, but we have Christ as the reality of the burnt offering in us, and by Him and in Him we can be pleasing to God, and He in us can live a life that is absolutely for God.

Lord Jesus, we love You and we appreciate You as the only One that lived a life absolutely for God and for His satisfaction. You are the only One qualified to ascend to God for His satisfaction. Thank You for coming as a Man to do the Father’s will, seek the Father’s glory, speak the Father’s word, and do the Father’s work. You are the only One qualified to be the burnt offering, for Your being, Your living, and Your work is absolutely for God and for His satisfaction. We take You as our burnt offering. We want to lay our hands on You and be identified with You in spirit. Amen, Lord, though in ourselves we are not for God and His satisfaction, yet we have Christ as the One who lived absolutely for God living in us!

Because we’re Not Absolutely for God, we need to take Christ as our Burnt Offering

We all have to admit that, even after being saved, we still do not live a life that is absolutely for God.

In our daily living we still do things in and for ourselves, and we seek our own glory and speak our own words.

Our life is not pure, and our heart is not single for the Lord.

We cannot be the burnt offering, for we do not live a life that is absolutely for God. We live in a dirty world and even we ourselves are dirty and defiled.

Every part of our substance, our essence, our fibre, and our element is dirty; we could never be a burnt offering to God.

Only Christ is absolutely for God, and we need to take Christ as our burnt offering.

Our main problem before God is not our sins or mistakes; it is our not being absolutely for God.

Sins and mistakes can be dealt with, but what about our daily living? Even after being regenerated, what about our living, are we absolutely for God?

Our first problem is that we’re not absolutely for God. Whether we commit sins or trespasses, we are not for God.

We may not commit sins nor may we trespass, but our being, our words, our actions, and our living is still not for God.

Before we were saved, we were not for God; now that we are saved, in a sense we are for God, but in another sense, we’re still not absolutely for God.

If we check with ourselves and our daily living, do we live a life that is for God and not for ourselves?

We may not be a bank robber or a thief but rather, we may be quite a good person, not offending others and being kind, forgiving, and joyful.

Still, as long as we live in our natural man, we are not absolutely for God.

Whether we do the right thing or the wrong thing, the pitiful thing is that we are not really for God.

We may be quite good and we may do a lot of things that are nice and caring, but in our very being, we are not absolutely for God.

We may not be involved in the things of the world and we may not gamble or be addicted to things such as alcohol, watching TV, sports, etc but still, we are not absolutely for God.

In our natural man we are not for God; whether we are a regular brother or sister in the church or the leader of a Christian congregation, unless we take Christ as our burnt offering, we are not absolutely for God.

Can you say that everything you do, everything you say, and everything you are is one hundred per cent for God? None of us can honestly say this.

As 1 John 1 says, we may think we walk in the light and are absolute for God, but we are not; and if we believe we are, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

When we read the Gospels and see the kind of living that Jesus had, how He was absolutely for God and His satisfaction, we will be very much exposed of our own living.

Here was a man who, though He was God and was one with God, put aside the outer expression of divinity and clothed Himself with humility, living as a man a life that was absolute for God.

Such a One is our burnt offering. Since we are not absolutely for God, we need to take Christ as our burnt offering by laying our hands on Him to be joined to Him.

We are joined to the Lord as one spirit; in spirit, we’re joined to Him, and we are even one with Him.

We need to turn to Him, enjoy Him, and be one with Him, and He will live the same kind of life that was absolute for God in us today.

We need to exercise our spirit through prayer to live one spirit with the Lord, the One who is the burnt offering, and we will be pleasing to God in our living, our speaking, and our working.

Only in and by the Christ who lives in us can we be absolute for God, and we need to take Christ as our burnt offering every day and even all throughout the day.

Lord Jesus, we acknowledge that we are not one hundred per cent for You. We agree that our daily living, speaking, and work are not absolutely for God. We take You, Lord Jesus, as our burnt offering. We take You as the One who is absolute for God and for His satisfaction. We lay our hands on You as the burnt offering to be joined to You. We want to live in the organic union with the Lord today. We don’t want to live anymore in ourselves, for ourselves, and by ourselves. We give You all our shortcomings, defects, weaknesses and faults, and we take You as our burnt offering. Live in us today, Lord, a life that is fully pleasing to God. Live in us a life that is absolutely for God and His satisfaction.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1971, vol. 2, “Christ as the Reality,” chs. 2-3, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther (2022 winter training), week 3, entitled, The Rebuilding of the Altar of God – the Altar of Burnt Offering.
• Further reading on this topic:
  – Our first situation before God – the need for the burnt offering, a portion from, Christ as the Reality, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee.
  – The burnt offering Christ for God’s satisfaction, a portion from, Life-Study of Leviticus, Chapter 3.
  – Offering Christ to God as our burnt offering according to our experiences of Him, a portion from, Life-Study of Leviticus, Chapter 9, by Witness Lee.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Lord, in me is all self-love, envy, anxiety / Lord, in me is only pride and no humility. / I’m not pure, Lord, or trusting, neither absolute / For Your purpose, I waver — I’m not resolute! / But dearest Lord, You’re all these things, all virtue’s in You, / So Lord I lay my hands on You in all I do. (Song on, Our Burnt Offering, stanza 2)
  – We the altar must obtain, / Have our all upon it lain. / The burnt-offering must be slain, / O glory be to God! / This we never should dispute, / For the church be absolute, / All that’s otherwise uproot / In the local churches now. (Hymns #1251 stanza 4)
  – Lord, we praise Thee for the picture: / Consecration’s ram we see, / Burnt for God’s full satisfaction, / Eaten and enjoyed to be. / Thou art now our ram, Lord Jesus, / Offered for the will of God; / By Thy consecration, faultless, / We may walk where Thou hast trod. (Hymns #1138 stanza 2)