The Degree of our Enjoyment of Christ as our Peace Offering depends on our Condition

Christ as our peace offering is strong and rich for our enjoyment, but in our experience our enjoyment of Christ as our peace offering depends on our condition and situation before God.

The peace offering could be of different animals from the herd or from the flock (different size) and it could be male or female (strong or weak) depending on the offerer’s possibility and capacity.

Hallelujah, our Christ is rich, strong, vast, and immense, and we can enjoy Him whether we are in a weak condition or a strong condition – wherever we are, whatever our condition is, He is our peace offering to be our rich enjoyment.

We need to enjoy and participate in Christ daily; our Christian life should be a life of enjoying the Christ of God as the reality of all the offerings, and we will have something of Christ we have enjoyed and experienced to bring to the meeting, especially to the bread breaking meeting, for God to be satisfied with our worship of Him.

Our Christian life needs to be filled with the enjoyment of Christ, and our daily Christian living has to be full of the experiences of Christ as the rich and strong peace offering.

As we enjoy Christ day by day, we will be constituted with Him, and we will have something of Christ to offer to God for His satisfaction, especially at the Lord’s Table meeting.

But if we don’t enjoy Christ day by day, if we are defeated in our Christian life, we may come to the Lord’s Table meeting, sing song after song, recite a stanza or two, and go through a certain routine, but without the enjoyment of Christ as our peace offering.

We need to have an upgrading and uplifting of our enjoyment of Christ day by day so that our Lord’s Table meeting, which is very important to the Lord and to God, would be enriched and elevated to the highest standard, so that God would gain the worship that He is after.

Christ is our peace with God that we may enjoy Him with God and with man in fellowship and joy. How happy we are when we come together at the Lord’s Table and we enjoy Christ, partake of Christ, share Christ, and exhibit Christ as the peace offering, as the One whom we have been enjoying and experiencing during the week!

At the Lord’s Table we as believers in Christ enjoy Him as our peace offering for our fellowship with God and with one another; we enjoy Christ before God the Father, and we offer Christ to God for His satisfaction and enjoyment.

Without the worship of the Father in the Lord’s Table meeting, the presentation of the peace offering to God cannot be completely fulfilled. As we enjoy Christ and offer Him to God for His satisfaction at the Lord’s Table, we may also consecrate ourselves and give ourselves to Him for His purpose.

We may even make a vow to the Lord, voluntarily giving ourselves to Him to be for His purpose, no matter what happens to us or how we feel. May this be our experience in the church life, and may our spiritual condition be uplifted so that we may enjoy Christ in a stronger way and in a richer way for God’s satisfaction and proper worship.

The Degree of our Enjoyment of Christ as our Peace Offering depends on our Condition

In Leviticus 3 we see that there are different kinds of peace offerings, some being from the herd while others being from the sheep. Just as the burnt offering is of different sizes, so the peace offering is of different kinds.

This doesn’t mean that Christ is different, but that in our experience we may enjoy Christ and experience Him according to our spiritual condition and situation, and sometimes He is a big Christ while at other times He is rather small.

Sometimes we may enjoy a large Christ, and He is so rich and strong in our experience; in such times, our spiritual condition and situation is good and strong, and we can also offer a strong Christ, a rich Christ, to God for His satisfaction.

At other times, however, we may have some disturbance in our family life or some troubles with our health, and our enjoyment or Christ may be limited. Satan seeks to limit our enjoyment of Christ and to narrow the condition in which we are enjoying Christ.

Our Christ is the same, so rich and so large, so full and so strong, so ready to be enjoyed by us and experienced by us in our daily living. But in our experience we are limited in our enjoyment and experience of Christ due to our spiritual condition and situation.

We need to see this clearly and be one with the Lord to overcome all kinds of situations, entering into our private room to spend intimate time with the Lord (Matt. 6:6) and grow in life.

By spending time with the Lord daily to allow Him to grow in us, our capacity to enjoy and experience Christ is being increased, we will learn how to overcome interruptions and disturbances, and we will be in a better and higher position to enjoy Christ.

It is not Christ who differs in being either strong or weak; it is we who are either strong or weak, and based on our condition and situation, our experience of Christ differs. If we are strong, we enjoy a stronger Christ, but if we are weak, we enjoy a weaker Christ.

When we are weak, it is not that Christ is weak in Himself but He is weaker in our experience due to our weakness. When we are weak or disappointed, we may have a weaker enjoyment of the strong Christ. Because we are weak, He is weak in our experience.

Actually, all the animals from the flock and from the herd were strong and without blemish, but the size differed. May we advance in our spiritual life day by day, and may our experience of Christ increase, so that we would enjoy a larger Christ in our experience.

Our daily life with our daily experience of Christ as the peace offering is for the meeting life, and our whole week is for the Lord’s table meeting.

We should start on Monday to worship God, enjoy God, and experience Christ as our peace offering, and every day we should accumulate Christ in our experience; we should accumulate Christ as the reality of all the offerings until we reach the destination – the Lord’s Table, where we can bring our Christ.

Then, when we meet at the Lord’s Table, we will have a stronger and richer Christ to offer for God’s satisfaction and the saints’ enjoyment.

Lord Jesus, deepen our daily enjoyment of Christ as our peace offering. May our enjoyment and experience of Christ be deepened, heightened, broadened, and lengthened, so that we may enjoy a richer, stronger, and larger Christ. Uplift our spiritual condition and situation. Increase our enjoyment of Christ, so that we may be constituted with Christ and filled with Christ to bring Christ to the Lord’s Table and offer Christ to God for His satisfaction and enjoyment! Amen, Lord, keep us enjoying You and experiencing You all throughout the week!

Enjoying Christ in His Perfection and Beauty, and in Him being our Sin Offering

It is crucial to realize that Christ in Himself is so rich, so vast, so immense, and so all-inclusive, but in our experience and enjoyment of Him we may be limited and experience Him in a weaker way, depending on our spiritual condition.

In Lev. 3:6-7 we see that the peace offering can be from the flock, male or female, a lamb that can be presented to Jehovah. A lamb signifies our enjoyment of Christ in His perfection and beauty; we all have had the experience of enjoying Christ in His perfection and beauty as a lamb.

Lev. 3:12 also mentions a goat, offering a goat as a peace offering; a goat signifies that the offerer enjoys Christ not much in His perfection and beauty but in His being made sin on our behalf (2 Cor. 5:21).

If we read Matt. 25 we will see that sheep are good but the goats are not good; throughout the Bible the goat is a sign of sin or something negative.

How can we experience Christ sometimes as a sheep and at other times as a goat? If our condition is pitiful, we may not enjoy Christ in His perfection and beauty but as the One who died for our sins, who was made sin on our behalf.

Then, we are brought further in our enjoyment of Christ to enjoy Him as the perfect and beautiful One, the most lovely One who not only died for us but is also our food and supply.

For example, if a husband quarrels with his wife or has an argument with a workmate at the office, and then he wants to enjoy Christ, his enjoyment of Christ may be poor; he may enjoy Christ not as a lamb but as a goat.

In our feeling and experience our enjoyment of Christ differs according to our spiritual condition. When our condition is low, we may enjoy Christ as our sin offering, the One who was made sin for us; if our experience is higher and our condition is better, we may enjoy Him as the One who is the most lovely One, the perfect and beautiful One.

Our experience of Christ needs to be strengthened, heightened, deepened, broadened, and enlarged, so that in our experience we may enjoy Christ more and more and experience Him to the uttermost.

However, we should not be discouraged or disappointed with our experience of Christ, for Christ is always available for us to enjoy Him; even when we’re in a low condition and situation, He is there for us to enjoy Him.

When we are in a good spiritual condition, Christ is our enjoyment in a rich and large way, and we enjoy Him in His perfection and beauty. When we are in a poor spiritual condition, Christ is there for us to enjoy in our weakness also.

He as the peace offering can meet our every need and can be our enjoyment in any situation and condition we may be in.

Thank You Lord for being our peace offering always ready and available for us to enjoy, no matter what our spiritual condition is. Thank You for being the One who was made sin for us, and we can enjoy You when we are low or weak. Thank You for being the perfect and beautiful One as the Lamb of God, the One we can enjoy all the time. Lord, uplift and increase our experience of Christ as the peace offering, so that we may be constituted with Christ and have a portion of Christ to offer to God for His satisfaction!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Leviticus, msg. 17 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (1), week 12, Enjoying Christ as the Reality of the Peace Offering at the Lord’s Table to Present the Total Picture of God’s Economy.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # From strength to strength, / We’re on the highways to enter into our God; / Though Satan opposes, / We are strengthened to lay hold of more of God. / It is our destiny, / To live a normal life in the divine dispensing, / It is a blessing, / To be satisfied with ordinary days / in the divine dispensing. (Song on, Ordinary Days)
  # He knows your deepest thought, / Your every situation. / He understands your heart, / He knows your history. / There’s nothing in His way, / He’s just waiting for you to say / “Lord Jesus, my wandering heart / I give to Thee.” (Song on, The gift of righteousness)
  # Based on the burnt oblation / And the meal offering too, / We now may offer Jesus / As our peace offering true. / The more we eat and drink Him / In His humanity, / The more we may enjoy Him / While feasting corporately. (Hymns #1104)