When we take Christ as our trespass offering by confessing our sins in the divine light, we drink Christ as the living water for us to become the New Jerusalem.
What is the trespass offering? It is an offering ordained by God for His people to bring when they sinned, when a sin was manifested to them, and when they became aware of a sin. The trespass offering signifies Christ as our offering resolving the problem of sin in our conduct.
Christ as the Lamb of God came to take away the sin of the world, and when we are under His light and see our sins, trespasses, wrongdoings, and defects, we can confess our sins by agreeing with the Lord’s light, and His blood will cleanse us and wash us.
Christ came to deal with the sin in our nature by condemning sin in the flesh, and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross (1 Pet. 2:24).
Through the cross Christ had the position, qualification, and power to take away sin from His redeemed ones and send sin away, even send it back to its source, Satan, who will bear it in the lake of fire forever. Hallelujah!
How we thank the Lord Jesus for coming to die for us, being wounded because of our transgressions, and bearing our sins upon His body on the cross.
We don’t have to die for our sins – we can simply come before the Lord in the light, agree with what He exposes in us as sin, and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from every sin, and He removes all our sins away.
We can and should enjoy Christ as our trespass offering by confessing our sins in the divine light every day. This is not just an initial experience we have when we were saved and believed into the Lord, but this should be our experience daily.
When we take Christ as our trespass offering with the confession of our sins, we keep ourselves in the fellowship of life for our growth in life unto the maturity in life.
The more we come to the Lord to enjoy Him, the more we enjoy the flow of His life and the shining of His light, and this light exposes our sins, trespassed, shortcomings, and weaknesses; all we can do is simply agree with the light by confessing our sins in the divine light.
When we confess our sins, we receive more life, more light, more fellowship of life, and we will have more enlightening to see more sins, which issues in a further confessing…. This is a divine cycle in our Christian life that leads to our growth in life unto maturity.
The more we are forgiven by the Lord, the more we love Him and fear Him. We don’t fear the Lord in the sense of being scared of Him, but in the sense of revering Him, honoring Him, being in awe of Him, and giving Him the first place.
Our daily life should be filled with times of confessing our sins to the Lord under His divine light so that we may advance in our Christian life and grow unto maturity.
As we experience the Lord’s forgiveness again and again, we love Him and appreciate Him so much, and our desire is not to sin anymore; but if we sin, we know that we can come to Him as we are, we can be under His light, and we can confess our sins to Him, and He is faithful in His word and righteous in His blood to cleanse us and wash us from our sins.
Confessing our Sins in the Divine Light to Drink Christ as the Living Water and Become the New Jerusalem
Christ is our trespass offering, and whenever we sin, we can come to Him and take Him as our trespass offering by confessing our sins in the divine light.
In John 4 in particular we see that taking Christ as our trespass offering is related to drinking Christ as the living water.
The Lord Jesus told the Samaritan woman that whoever drinks of this water – the physical water, and also what this water signifies – will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that He gives, shall not thirst anymore, but this water will become in him a fountain springing up into eternal life (see John 4:13-14).
This water that we all drink will always leave us thirsty; in the Samaritan woman’s case, “this water” referred to the husbands she had, who never satisfied her, and in our case, this water refers to anything we look to be satisfied other than Christ.
But when we drink of Christ as living water, God the Father as the fountain gets installed into our being, God the Son as the spring is the emergence and springing up of the living water, and the Spirit is the river, the flowing out of the spring, which flows into eternal life.
“Into” here in Greek means to become; the Triune God flows in us, from us, and with us to become the eternal life, the totality of which is the New Jerusalem. Hallelujah!
How can we get the living water? How can we make sure we have this flow of living water in our being, and how can we drink?
In John 4:14-18 we see that the way to drink the living water to become the New Jerusalem is by confessing our sins. The Samaritan woman didn’t confess her sins, but the Lord did it for her; He touched her conscience, and He gave her to drink the living water.
When we get into the Lord’s presence, in His light, He points out this mistake, that misconduct, those trespasses, and the other wrongdoings; when we confess, our sins, we receive the Lord’s forgiveness and cleansing, and there’s a flow of living water in our being.
The more we confess our sins in the divine light, the more we drink of Christ as the living water. We need to be those confessing our sins in the divine light every day so that we may drink Christ as the living water and let Him flow in us and out of us, flowing into others, so that we may become the New Jerusalem.
A good prayer to pray is the one in Psa. 139:23-24, asking the Lord to search us, know our heart, try us, know our anxious thoughts, and see if there is any wicked way in us, so that He may lead us on the way that leads to life.
The way to become the New Jerusalem is by taking Christ as our trespass offering by confessing our sins in the Lord’s light to drink Christ as the living water.
Lord Jesus, we take You as our trespass offering with the confession of our sins in the divine light so that we may drink Christ as the living water for us to become the New Jerusalem. Search us, Lord, and know our heart; try us and know our anxious thoughts. See if there is any wicked way, idolatry, or way of pain in us, and lead us to the way of life. Lead us to confessing our sins in the divine light every day, Lord, so that we may drink the living water and let this water flow in us and out of us, flowing us to become the New Jerusalem!
Taking Christ and Ministering Him as the Sin-Dealing Life to the Saints in the Church Life
Especially when we come to the Lord’s Table meeting, we need to judge ourselves and come into the Lord’s light so that we may confess any sin, trespass, wrongdoing, and mistake; then, we are approved to partake of the table (see 1 Cor. 11).
We should not judge others or test others to see if they are approved by the Lord, but we should be before the Lord confessing our sins in the divine light daily, and especially when we come to the Lord’s Table meeting.
However, if we see others committing some sins, we need to pray for them and learn to minister Christ as the sin-dealing life, so that he may deal with his sins.
The life of Christ in us which we enjoy and partake of is a sin-dealing life; we need to first be dealt with by enjoying Christ’s sin-dealing life, and then learn to minister Him to others as such a one.
Ministering Christ as the sin-dealing life to the saints kills the germs, destroys the problems, and maintains the oneness of the Spirit (John 8:1-11; 1 John 5:16; Rom. 2:4b; Lev. 10:17; Gal. 6:1).
When we minister Christ as life to the saints, that life is a sin-dealing life, which causes people to deal with their sins.
In Lev. 10:17 we are told that the priests were to eat the sin offering in the holy place so that they may bear away the iniquity of the congregation and make propitiation for them before Jehovah.
As we enjoy Christ as the sin-dealing life, we must learn to minister Christ to those living in sin. This doesn’t mean we need to go to someone and point out the problems in him – this will only cause damage.
First, we need to enjoy Christ as the sin-dealing life and be confessing our sins in the divine light, and then go to soften the hardened heart of the sinning one.
We need to have grace with the Lord to soften and warm up the heart of the sinning brother, and then Christ as life will be actually ministered to him; this life – which is the Spirit – will work in him. We don’t even need to mention the problem or the sin – the divine life we minister to others will take care of it.
This is a good way to get rid of some of the sins among God’s people. We shouldn’t be those who see the saints sinning, speak of it, and thus bring about trouble, but see, ask, and give life (see 1 John 5:16).
We need to pray for one another, mentioning the saints’ names before God; we shouldn’t be criticizers but askers, so that we may become channels of life to the saints.
Above all, we need to love one another, for love builds up, but knowledge kills (1 Cor. 8:1; 2 Cor. 3:6). We should always live a life in love; whether we go to help someone is secondary – the first thing is loving all the saints with the same love.
As long as we love one another, we will care for them, and we will minister Christ as the sin-dealing life into them; this will kill the germs in the church life, destroy the problems, and build up a permanent and lasting oneness of the Spirit.
Lord Jesus, we want to take You in as the sin-dealing life so that our sins may be dealt with and removed. We want to be those confessing our sins in the divine light and taking You as the sin-dealing life all the time. Amen! We want to learn to love others, warm up their hardened heart, and minister Christ as the sin-dealing life into them. Oh Lord, may we be those who minister Christ as the sin-dealing life to the saints so that any germs would be killed, any problems would be destroyed, and the oneness of the Spirit may be kept!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1988, vol. 3, “A Timely Word,” ch. 1, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (1), week 8, Taking Christ as Our Trespass Offering for God’s Purpose.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Lord, may Thy blood now cleanse me, / Wash all my sins away, / That with Thy Holy Spirit / Thou may anoint, I pray. / My service, I confess, Lord, / Is failure-full and weak; / The filling of Thy Spirit / To live for Thee I seek. (Hymns #280)
# God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all! / Oh, how we love within His presence to dwell! / In this light we enjoy a constant cleansing within— / From every sin! (Hymns #1197)
# To the lost world minister Christ, / Who is your life and your all, / Imparting Christ to all you meet, / All fallen ones, great or small. (Hymns #922)
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[Amen.]
Hallelujah for the all-inclusive Christ we have!
Dear Lord Jesus, thank You for being our sin offering, to deal with sin in it’s two aspects…our sinful nature and our sins that we commit. Thank You Lord for being our trespass offering. May we be those who confess our sins in a thorough and fine way to rid our record of sin before You. So that we may be filled experiencely both inwardly (essentially) and outwardly (economically) with the Spirit. To make us buoyant and bold to speak the gospel of God for the fulfilment of Your purpose. For this we ask and pray that You would have mercy on us.
We love You Lord Jesus!
Amen lord Jesus!
Amen brother. Lord thank You for Your life, the fellowship, the light and Your precious blood. By enjoying You in this cycle until we are mature in the divine life we will become the New Jerusalem. Keep us confessing our sins and drinking the living water so that the flow of life never stops in us but flows us into the New Jerusalem!
Amen, Let us all be diligent to keep the oneness and endeavor to live a life of love in the church life.
Let us all be diligent to keep the oneness and endeavor to live a life of love in the church life. Love builds up, but knowledge kills (1 Cor. 8:1; 2 Cor. 3:6). Always live a life in love. Whether or not you go to help a certain one is secondary. The primary thing is to love all the saints, whether they are good or bad, with the same love. We have a tendency to love the stronger saints but not the weaker ones. We must love all the saints with the same love. As long as someone is a saint, he is a member in the church, and we should love him with the same love that we love the other saints. This will kill the germs, destroy the problems, and build up a permanent, lasting oneness of the Spirit. (Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1988, vol. 3, “A Timely Word,” pp. 54-56)