Daily Taking Christ as our Burnt Offering to Live a Life for God’s Satisfaction

After seeing a governing and controlling vision: the vision of Christ, the vision of the church as the Body of Christ, the vision of the self, and the vision of the world, this week we come to the vision of consecration.

We may think we know what consecration is, but we need to be open to the Lord to see a new vista, a new revelation of what consecration is. Christ is the real and unique Consecrated One: He is the burnt offering for God’s satisfaction and He is the real Nazarite.

We need to see the vision of Christ as our consecration to God working Himself into us and living in us, through us, and out of us a life of absoluteness to God for God’s satisfaction in the carrying out of His economy to build up the church as the Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem.

Christ is our consecration to God: He is the absolute One for God, and He is absolutely for God’s satisfaction; now, He lives in our spirit to repeat in us the same kind of life He lived while on the earth.

We need to see how Christ is the reality of the burnt offering, and how we can lay our hands on Him to be identified with Him and be for a satisfying fragrance to God. As we lay our hands on Him, we are in an organic union with Him and our life becomes a repetition of His life of burnt offering, being for a satisfying fragrance for Jehovah.

Among all the offerings ordained by God in Lev. 1-5, the burnt offering is the offering completely burnt for God’s satisfaction, and the offering which needs to be continually burnt on the altar, the fire of which should never go out. This offering was for a sweet-smelling savor to God. Christ is the only One who lived a life for God’s satisfaction.

In our experience the altar of the burnt offering needs to be recovered so that we may be absolutely consecrated to God in Christ, the real Consecrated One. The life of the burnt offering is the God-man living, Jesus living again in us all as we are being identified with Him and allow His divine attributes to be expressed through our divinely enriched human virtues.

The Burnt Offering: Christ in His Living a Life that is Perfect and Absolutely for God and His Satisfaction

Lev. 1:9 The priest shall burn the whole on the altar, as a burnt offering, an offering by fire, a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah.

In Lev. 1:9 we see that the priest should burn the entire animal offered to God on the altar as a burnt offering, an offering by fire, a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah. The footnote on this verse really helps us understand what is the spiritual meaning of the burnt offering and how we can apply it to our life,

The burnt offering typifies Christ not mainly in His redeeming man from sin but in His living a life that is perfect and absolutely for God and for God’s satisfaction (Lev. 1:9; John 5:19, 30; 6:38; 7:18; 8:29; 14:24) and in His being the life that enables God’s people to have such a living (2 Cor. 5:15; Gal. 2:19-20). It is God’s food that God may enjoy it and be satisfied (Num. 28:2). This offering was to be offered daily, in the morning and in the evening (Exo. 29:38-42; Lev. 6:8 13; Num. 28:3-4). (Lev. 1:3, footnote 1, Holy Bible Recovery Version)

The burnt offering is a type of Christ in His living a life that is perfect and absolutely for God and His satisfaction, and in His being a life that can enable us as God’s people to have such a living. When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, He always did the things that were pleasing to the Father (John 8:29), seeking the Father’s glory, speaking the Father’s words, and doing the Father’s works.

This One is now in us, and we can identify ourselves with Him in His life of always pleasing the Father. We no longer live to ourselves but to Him who died and has been raised. We live to the Lord to satisfy the Lord’s aims and desires and to accomplish His goal.

In our daily life we need to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus (Eph. 4:21), having the actual condition of the life of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels. The life of the Lord Jesus has to be reproduced in our living today so that we would do everything in God, with God, through God, and for God, being one with God in all the aspects of our living.

What satisfies God is the sweet-smelling savor rising up from a burnt offering, that is, the sweet-smelling savour of a group of people who live out Christ for God’s satisfaction. Christ’s living on this earth was an enjoyment to God, and if we allow Christ to live in us, our life will be a reproduction of Christ’s life and it will be an enjoyment to God, making God happy.

When we live Christ and are identified with Him as the reality of the burnt offering, we enjoy Christ, take Him as life and person, and live a life that satisfies God, pleasing Him by expressing Christ in all the aspects of our living. We need to allow Christ to lead us in a triumphal procession, we being His captives, so that we may scatter the fragrance of Christ and become a fragrance of Christ to others.

People may not really understand what is happening, but when we live Christ, there’s a sweet-smelling savour of Christ being spread and God and man are happy. The only life that is pleasing to God is the life that is the repetition of Christ’s life on earth.

In Christ God finds all His delight; He is His Beloved, and when Christ lives in us, we become God’s beloved, being for His satisfaction. We need to experience Christ in his experiences as the burnt offering, the One that is a delight to God for His satisfaction.

Daily Taking Christ as our Burnt Offering for God’s Satisfaction

In our Christian life we need to daily take Christ as our burnt offering, in the morning and in the evening (see Exo. 29:38-42; Lev. 6:8-13; Num. 28:2-4). The life of the burnt offering is the God-man living, a delight to God, a life absolutely for God’s satisfaction in carrying out His eternal economy to build up the church as the Body of Christ.

In the morning we need to take Christ as our burnt offering, and throughout the day and in the evening we need to continue to take Christ as the burnt offering for our priestly service. Christ is the “strong ram”, the ram of consecration (Lev. 8:18, 22), that was offered to God as a burnt offering for God’s satisfaction. He is absolutely consecrated to God, but we are not; therefore, we need to take Christ daily as our burnt offering for our priestly service (see Lev. 6:12; Heb. 10:5-10).

In our hearing the word of God, taking the ways of God, and walking the ways of God we need to be consecrated to the Lord and covered by His blood.

How wonderful it is when our life is for a sweet fragrant steam ascending to God for His satisfaction! When God is satisfied with our offering Christ as the burnt offering, He will render His sweet acceptance to us.

How we praise God for the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who lived a perfect human life on earth for God’s satisfaction. We offer Christ to God, the Christ who was strong for God’s purpose, the One who denied Himself to live out the Father and do the Father’s will for the Father to be satisfied.

This Christ, though perfect in every way, was slaughtered, skinned, cut into pieces, washed, and completely burnt up on the cross for God’s satisfaction. The Father received the processed and burnt Christ, and He was satisfied.

Now we can enjoy such a Christ, lay our hands on Him to be identified with Him, offer such a Christ to God, and be for the Father’s satisfaction in Christ. This should be our daily experience as priests of God.

Lord Jesus, we take You as our burnt offering. You are the One who lived a life that is perfect and absolutely for God and for God’s satisfaction. How we praise You for Your perfect human life, Your absolute obedience to the Father, Your utmost submission to the Father’s will, and Your complete oneness with the Father in doing everything for the Father’s glory on the earth. Lord, we lay our hands on You, the perfect ram of consecration. We are not absolute for God but You are. We are not: YOU ARE! We offer You to God in faith for the Father’s satisfaction!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ed Marks’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Leviticus (msgs. 3-5), as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Heavenly Vision, week 6 / msg 6, The Vision of Consecration.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Lord, I take You as my sin offering for what I am, / But Lord, I take You as my burnt offering for what I’m not. / I’m not loving, submissive, patient, kind, or meek, / I’m not single in view, Lord, nor is it God I seek. / 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 Consecration)
  # 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)
  # Thou art the burnt-oblation, / Consumed by holy fire; / To God as a sweet savor, / Fulfilling His desire. / Thou walkedst in God’s presence, / And all His will pursued; / Thyself the spotless offering, / For us to God as food. (Hymns #195)