Christ is the Reality of all the Offerings for us to Worship God in Spirit and Truthfulness

Christ is the reality of the offerings so that we may worship God in spirit and truthfulness (John 4:23-24); as we live daily by enjoying Christ as the reality of all the offerings, we are brought into the building of God with man, the mutual dwelling place of God and man, the church.

Praise the Lord for this wonderful, all-inclusive, glorious Christ who has come not only to redeem us from the curse of the law, save us from our sins, and impart the divine life into us, but also to enable us to enjoy Him as our everything!

First He took away the old covenant with all the offerings by fulfilling them and replacing them, and then He Himself became a new covenant for us to enjoy and partake of!

The Old Testament prophesies concerning Christ in Isa. 53, saying that He will come to be the sacrifice for sin in order to replace and terminate the Levitical sacrifices.

Then, in Heb. 10:5 we see that God prepared a body for Christ so that He could offer Himself to God to replace all the offerings.

Christ “took away the first” and established Himself as “the second” – He became the unique replacement of all the Old Testament sacrifices, and His sacrifice on the cross became the unique sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God!

In order for us to contact God, be at peace with God, fellowship with God, and partake of what God is and has, we need to come to Him with the offerings, the sacrifices, for in ourselves we are not qualified.

Christ became the replacement of all the offerings – He is the reality of all the sacrifices!

Now He became everything to us in our worship of God and in our daily living.

This is the will of God; the great will of God is for Christ to become the unique sacrifice replacing all the Old Testament sacrifices through the offering of His body once for all so that we may enjoy and partake of Him as our everything.

How privileged we are today – we can simply believe into the Lord and take Him as the reality of all the offerings, and Christ becomes the reality in which we worship God in spirit! He is everything to us.

As seen in Hebrews, Christ is God, man, the God-man, our Apostle, our Moses, our Joshua, our High Priest, our heavenly Minister, our heavenly Intercessor, our real Aaron, our Forerunner, and the Executor of the new covenant. Praise the Lord! What a Christ we have!

Christ is the Reality of the Offerings so that we may Worship God in Spirit and Truthfulness

What do the Old Testament sacrifices and offerings have to do with us today in the New Testament?

As seen in John 4:23-24, today we worship God not with animal sacrifices but in spirit and truthfulness. This word “truthfulness” denotes the divine reality becoming man’s genuineness and sincerity for the true worship of God.

The divine reality is Christ (who is the reality – John 14:6) as the reality of all the offerings of the Old Testament for the worship of God (John 1:29; 3:14).

Christ offered Himself to God in His body on the cross once for all, and He became the reality of all the sacrifices and offerings in the Old Testament; now in Him and with Him as such a reality we can worship God by exercising our spirit.

This divine reality, which is Christ as the reality of all the offerings, eventually becomes our genuineness and sincerity in which we worship God with the worship that He seeks.

God today is seeking those who are true worshippers in spirit; true worship in spirit is our coming to our spirit at every time to enjoy Christ as the reality of all the offerings and as everything!

As we enjoy Christ at every time and as everything, we are worshipping Him in spirit. Let us see how is Christ the reality of all the offerings to be applied to our experience for us to worship God in spirit and truthfulness.

Christ is the reality of the burnt offering; the burnt offering, which was wholly for God’s satisfaction, typifies Christ as God’s pleasure and satisfaction, the One whose living on earth was absolutely for God (Lev. 1:3; Num. 28:2-3; John 7:16-18).

Christ is the One who satisfied God through His living and work on earth; He made God happy and satisfied Him because He always did God’s will (John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38) and sought His glory. His living and life on earth had a certain scent, aroma, and fragrance, and He made God happy.

We need to take Christ as the reality of the burnt offering for our worship of God in spirit and truthfulness by laying our hands on Him and being identified with Him.

Christ is the reality of the meal offering; the meal offering typifies Christ in His perfect humanity as food for God and for those who have fellowship with God and serve Him (Lev. 2:1, 4; John 7:46; 18:38; 19:4, 6).

Christ in His humanity is God’s food and our food; He is our food and constant satisfaction. His humanity is like fine flour mingled with oil, fine and uplifted humanity with its balance, evenness and fineness, mingled with the Holy Spirit.

Frankincense was added to this fine flour mingled with oil, signifying the fragrance of resurrection life.

Christ is the mingling of humanity and divinity with the fragrant manifestation of resurrection life to be our daily nourishment and supply!

Christ is the reality of the peace offering; the peace offering typifies Christ as the Peacemaker, the One who became the peace and the fellowship between us and God by dying for us, enabling us to enjoy Christ with God and to have fellowship with God in Christ for our mutual satisfaction with God (Lev. 3:1; Eph. 2:14-15; John 12:1-3; 20:21).

There’s no peace in the universe without Christ; He is our peace offering, for He has made peace through the blood of His cross (Col. 1:20).

Christ is our peace with God and with one another, and through Him and in Him we have peace with God and with man. We with God may enjoy Christ as the sweet, satisfying peace offering.

Christ is the reality of the sin offering; the sin offering typifies Christ as the One who was made sin for us and who died on the cross to deal with the sinful nature of our fallen being (Lev. 4:3; 2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 8:3; John 1:29; 3:14).

We are sinful – and we are even sin itself, so we need Christ to be our sin offering; He did not know sin, yet He was made sin on our behalf by God (2 Cor. 5:21).

In Christ on the cross our sinful nature was judged, and now we can take Him as the reality of the sin offering.

Christ is the reality of the trespass offering; the trespass offering typifies Christ as the One who bore our sins in His own body and was judged by God on the cross to deal with our sinful deeds that we might be forgiven in our sinful conduct (Lev. 5:6; 1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18; Isa. 53:5-6, 10-11; John 4:15-18).

He bore our sins and trespasses on the cross, and He became the reality of the trespass offering.

Christ is the reality of the wave offering; the wave offering typifies Christ as the resurrected One in love (Lev. 7:30; 10:15). He is the resurrected One, living before God in love.

Christ is the reality of the heave offering; the heave offering typifies the powerful Christ in ascension and exaltation (7:32; Exo. 29:27; Eph. 1:21).

Christ is the reality of the drink offering; the drink offering typifies Christ as the One poured out as wine before God for His satisfaction and also as the One who saturates us with Himself as heavenly wine to be poured out for God’s enjoyment and satisfaction (Lev. 23:13; Exo. 29:40; Num. 28:7-10; Isa. 53:12; Phil. 2:17; 2 Tim. 4:6; Judg. 9:13).

Christ poured Himself out as wine for God’s satisfaction and also for man’s satisfaction and cheer; as such a One, He saturates us with Himself and causes us to become a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of others for God’s cheer and satisfaction, and for man’s joy.

As we enjoy Christ as the reality of all the offerings, we are brought into resurrection to live a life in resurrection life, and we’re brought into ascension; then, He makes us a drink offering for God’s satisfaction and man’s joy for us to be poured out on our sacrifice and the sacrifice of others for God’s satisfaction.

What a Christ we have! He can be experienced by us as the reality of all the offerings and sacrifices, and He enables us to worship God in spirit and truthfulness!

We need to take Christ as the reality of all the offerings and worship God in spirit and truthfulness, offering God the worship that He desires.

Lord Jesus, we take You as the reality of all the offerings so that we may worship God in spirit and truthfulness, giving Him the true worship that He desires. Amen, Lord, we exercise our spirit and we take Christ as the reality of the offerings for the true worship of God. You are our burnt offering, the One who lived a life for God’s pleasure and satisfaction, the One whose living on earth was absolutely for God. You are our meal offering, for in Your perfect humanity You are food for God and for man. You are our peace offering, the Peacemaker, the One who made peace and became our peace, enabling us to enjoy Christ with God and have fellowship with God. Lord, You are our sin offering, for You were made sin for us and died on the cross to deal with the sinful nature in our fallen being. We take You as our trespass offering, for You bore our sins in Your body on the cross and were judged by God to deal with our sinful deeds for us to be forgiven. Lord, You are our wave offering, the resurrected One in love. You are our heave offering, the powerful Christ in ascension and exaltation. You are our drink offering, the One poured out as wine before God for His satisfaction, and You saturate us with Yourself as heavenly wine to be poured out for God’s enjoyment and satisfaction. Amen, Lord, we take You as the reality of all the offerings through the exercise of our spirit to offer God the true worship that He desires!

Daily Enjoying Christ as the Reality of all the Offerings to become the Mutual Dwelling Place of God and Man

As we see that Christ is the reality of all the offerings, we need to exercise our spirit to take Him in spirit, apply Him, and enjoy Him as such a One.

We need to live a life according to God’s heart and will by daily enjoying Christ as the reality of all the offerings for the divine goal of the Triune God! Amen!

This goal is to bring us all into Himself so that we may take Him as our dwelling place and allow Him to take us as His dwelling place for His universal, enlarged, divine-human incorporation (John 14:23; Rev. 21:3, 22).

As we take Christ as the reality of all the offerings, we are brought into and we’re maintained in a living experience of the Body of Christ; as we do this, we dwell in Him, He dwells in us, and there’s a kind of mutual abode and incorporation, which will consummated in the New Jerusalem.

In Exodus 29 we see the tabernacle, and in Leviticus we see the offerings; the tabernacle typifies Christ bringing God into man, and the offerings typify Christ bringing man into God.

As we enjoy Christ as our unique offering, the reality of all the offerings, God is brought into us and we are brought into God, we dwell in God and God dwells in us.

In John 1 we also see something concerning this; in v. 14 we are told that Christ became flesh and tabernacled among us – this is Christ bringing God into man.

Then in John 1:29 we are told that Christ is the Lamb of God, the reality of all the offerings; He is the unique offering that God accepts.

Christ brought God into man through His incarnation, and as the offerings He brings man into God for God to dwell in man and for man to dwell in God.

We need to daily live a life of enjoying Christ as the reality of all the offerings for the mutual dwelling place of God and man; as we enjoy Him as the reality, we are incorporated into God, God dwells in us and we dwell in Him, and the church comes into being in reality.

Lord Jesus, we want to live a life according to God’s heart and will by daily enjoying Christ as the reality of all the offerings for the mutual dwelling place of God and man! Amen, Lord, may we daily take You as the unique offering, applying You, enjoying You, and experiencing You, so that we may be brought into Yourself and take You as our dwelling place, allowing You to take us as Your dwelling place for Your universal, enlarged, divine-human incorporation!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Rick Scatterday for this week, and portions from, The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 459-462 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Will of God (2020 spring ITERO), week 4, Living a Life according to God’s Heart and Will.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – God is Spirit, and those / Who worship Him / Must worship in spirit / And truthfulness. (Scripture song)
  – Thou art the wave-oblation, / The resurrected One; / O’er hades, death and darkness, / The vict’ry Thou hast won. / Thou art the heave-oblation, / Thou didst ascend to God; / As such in heav’nly places / Thou art our holy food. (Hymns #195)
  – Lord, Thou art our peace offering; / We lay our hands on Thee. / We’re one with Thee, Lord Jesus, / In fact and practically. / Here in the tent of meeting / We offer Thee to God / And with the Father feasting / Enjoy Thee as our food. (Hymns #1104)