May the Lord grant us mercy and shine on us in a fresh way that we may see the meaning and significance of the altar of burnt offering, which typifies the cross of Christ. Many Christians “wear the cross” visibly and they may even be proud of it, but what is the real significance of the cross?
Our Christian journey and life starts at the cross; here we open to the Lord, we see Him as the crucified One, His precious blood is applied to our being, and we are regenerated with His divine life. The cross is the basis of all spiritual experience: all spiritual experience begins from the cross, and God’s only way to deal with everything is the cross.
In His economy God has only one person – Christ, and He has only one way – the cross. God doesn’t “negotiate” or make compromises to be “political” and “gain the people’s acceptance”; He gives us Christ and the cross, and if we want to know God we need to come to Christ through the cross.
The cross is the center of God’s government; God governs everything by the cross and deals everything by the cross. To God, Christ is the focal point of the universe, and the cross is the center of His government.
The cross is not “a thing” but a person; the cross in itself cannot save us or do anything to us – it is the Person crucified on the cross is the One who can fulfill God’s purpose! The saving element is not in the cross as a thing but in the person of Christ who was crucified for us, and who now live in us; we are crucified with Him, and we no longer live but Christ lives in us a life for the fulfillment of God’s purpose (Gal. 2:20).
This Christ – the embodiment of God to be a perfect man with an uplifted humanity, a perfect morality, and the highest standard of ethics – was judged by God on the cross on our behalf; He was our substitute on the cross, dying a vicarious death so that we may live and be brought back to God as our portion. How wonderful and how mysterious Christ’s redemption is!
The Effectiveness of the Cross is in the Humanity of Christ who was Crucified for us
The altar of burnt offering was made of acacia wood overlaid with bronze (see Exo. 27:1-2). The basic substance of the burnt offering was acacia wood, which typifies the humanity of the Lord Jesus. Only Christ as the perfect man is qualified to be our substitute; only an unblemished and flawless human being can die on the cross our behalf, and this One is Jesus Christ (1 Tim. 2:5)!
The cross is not merely a “thing” – the cross with its effectiveness and saving element is related to a person, who is the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect One who died for us. The altar of burnt offering is not an empty altar but there’s someone on it: the person on the cross is what makes it meaningful, special, and unique.
Many criminals have died on the cross under the Roman system of death penalty, but only Christ died a special death, and what makes this cross special is this Person, the One who saves. When we say that the cross saves us we mean that the Person on the cross, Jesus Christ, is the One who saves us.
The cross can never – and should never – be divorced from Christ, the Savior Himself; the cross is not merely an “emblem” of Christ’s redemption but it is one with Christ. The saving element is not in the cross as a thing but in a person, the One who was crucified for us (Gal. 2:20). The effectiveness of the cross is not in the cross itself but in the humanity of the Lord Jesus, which is related to the cross and which was crucified on it.
How grateful we are to the Lord that He as God became a man, lived a human life, had a wonderful and perfect humanity, and was qualified to die on the cross under God’s judgement (signified by the bronze on the altar of burnt offering) so that we may be redeemed and brought back to God!
We don’t believe in “wearing a cross” – we care for the reality of the cross, which is in the spirit. The cross is with a Person, and where Christ is, the cross is also; Christ is in our spirit (Col. 1:27), and so the cross is in our spirit to operate and work in us.
When we come to the Lord’s table, we don’t partake of the table itself but we eat the food on the table, that is, we eat Jesus in His humanity as our food.
The altar of burnt offering is a type of the cross of Christ, and this cross can save us and be effective in us because of the Person crucified on it, the perfect man Jesus Christ who has an uplifted humanity high in standard and strong in character (typified by the acacia wood, the base of the altar of burnt offering).
Acacia wood is the essence and substance of both the Ark and the altar of burnt offering; only that humanity which is up to the standard of the Ark can be our substitute on the cross to save us, and this humanity is found only in the Lord Jesus.
Praise the Lord for His humanity which qualified Him to be our Substitute on the cross and be judged by God on our behalf so that we today may come forward to God, enjoy God, be His people, and even enter into God!
Lord Jesus, thank You for becoming a perfect man with an uplifted and strong humanity to die on the cross for us as our Substitute under God’s holy judgement. Lord, thank You for being judged on our behalf so that we today may be brought back to God, enjoy God, and be one with God in the Holy of Holies. It is only Your humanity that was qualified to die for us since it was high in standard and strong in character. Lord, thank You! Thank You for being in our spirit today to apply the reality of the cross to our being day by day.
Christ Became a Man to Die on the Cross to Bear the Judgement of God for Us
The altar of burnt offering was made of acacia wood overlaid with bronze; the acacia wood typifies the uplifted humanity of Jesus, and the bronze signifies God’s righteous judgment on Christ as our Substitute (see Exo. 27:2; Num. 16:37-39; Rom. 8:3). Bronze, copper, and brass in the Bible refers to God’s judgment.
This perfect Man, Jesus Christ as the reality of the acacia wood, was overlaid and covered with God’s judgement, as typified by the bronze. What we see at the altar is not the wood but the bronze; when we look at the crucified Christ, what we see is not His perfect humanity but God’s judgement upon this perfect Man.
The bronze used for the overlaying of the altar was made from the censers of the 250 rebellious leaders who were ambitious and rebelled against Moses and Aaron (and thus against God); they were consumed by a fire coming out from Jehovah, but their censers remained on earth, and these censers were beaten into the bronze that covered the altar (see Num. 15:37-39).
What we see on the cross is Jesus being judged for us. Underneath there’s a perfect Man, but upon Him there’s nothing but the fire of God’s judgement.
When Christ was on the cross, He was a man, signified by the acacia wood. But He was overlaid with bronze, with God’s judgment. Unlike the Ark, which was overlaid with gold signifying God’s nature, the altar was overlaid with bronze, signifying God’s righteous judgment. Thus, as the man who died on the cross, Christ was fully judged by God as our Substitute. He bore for us the judgment which we should have borne. He was fully covered, overlaid, by God’s judgment. On the cross He was the man judged by God. (Witness Lee, Life-study of Exodus, p. 1213)
In God’s eyes we all have sinned and have come short of God’s glory, and therefore we all must be judged; all those who sin must die, and the only way for us not to die is to have forgiveness of sins, which forgiveness is impossible without redemption, and which redemption can only be accomplished by someone who would die vicariously, as our Substitute.
Jesus Christ, the One who did not know sin, died for the sinful. Jesus took upon Himself the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin condemned sin in the flesh; He died for you and me. Wow, what a judgement!
The altar of burnt offering of acacia wood overlaid with bronze signifies that Christ became a man to die on the cross to bear the judgement of God for us (2 Pet. 3:18).
Thank You Lord for becoming a man to die as our Substitute, bearing the judgement of God on our behalf on the cross. Thank You for becoming a perfect Man who was qualified to bear the judgement that we should have borne. Lord Jesus, we should have been judged and we should die because of our sin, but You vicariously died for us to accomplish redemption and give us forgiveness of sins. Thank You, Lord. You who knew no sin God made sin on our behalf, and the Righteous died on behalf of the unrighteous so that we may be brought back to God. Thank You, Lord!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, brother Minoru Chen’s sharing in the message for this week, and Life-study of Exodus, msg. 106 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (3), week 6 (week 30), The Altar of Burnt Offering.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
# Down at the cross where my Savior died, / God’s righteous nature was satisfied; / There to my sin was the blood applied, / Glory to His name! (Hymns #1125)
# God has not overlooked our sin, / But judged it once for all; / His righteous fury, not on us, / But on His Lamb did fall. / A new and living way is made— / We stand on legal ground; / Our Surety and our Substitute / Has pardon for us found. (Hymns #1126)
# Father God, Thou hast accepted / Jesus as our Substitute; / Judged the Just One for the unjust, / Couldst Thou change Thy attitude? (Hymns #20)
About aGodMan
Suppose there was an altar, but there were no sacrifices on it. Could the altar itself save anyone? Certainly not. In like manner, suppose that there was the cross, but no one dying on the cross for us. Could the cross in itself save us? Again, the answer is no. The saving element is not in the cross as a thing; it is in the person who was crucified on the cross for us. In the same principle, when we come to the Lord’s table, we do not partake of the table itself, but we eat the food on the table. We eat what is offered on the altar, the table. Thus, when we speak of the altar, we do not mainly refer to the altar itself; we mainly are speaking of what is offered on the altar. (Witness Lee, Life-Study of Exodus)