We need to Experience Christ as the Reality of the Offerings to be Mingled with Him

We need to experience Christ as the reality of the offerings so that we may enter into God and be mingled with God in Christ, the reality of the tabernacle. In Leviticus 1-10 we see how God is training us to worship Him and partake of Him through the offerings and the priesthood.

God desires to gain true worshippers, those who worship Him in spirit and reality. For this, we need to know our spirit and exercise our spirit, and we also need to experience Christ as the reality of the offerings, allowing Him to be wrought into our being, so that we may worship God with the Christ we have experienced.

It is God’s delight and pleasure to work His Christ into our being by means of our enjoyment of Christ as the reality of the offerings, so that we may be qualified to be in God’s presence and be His people, the church, the tabernacle of God with man today.

Therefore, we need to partake of Christ, that is, have a portion of Christ daily for our enjoyment, share in His nature and attributes, so that we may be constituted with Christ and become part of His corporate expression.

All the offerings in Lev. 1-10 are actually pictures and types of Christ. Christ is so rich, wonderful, and all-inclusive, so we need not just words to express Him but also pictures and types, such as the offerings, for us to enjoy Him in a rich way.

1. The burnt offering is a type of Christ who lived a life on earth absolutely for God and His satisfaction.
2. The meal offering is a type of Christ in His perfect humanity as food for God and for God’s people.
3. The peace offering is a type of Christ as the Peacemaker, the One who Himself became the peace between us and God by dying for us and enabling us to enjoy God and fellowship with God.
4. The sin offering is a type of Christ who was made sin for us and who died on the cross to deal with the sinful nature in our being.
5. The trespass offering is a type of Christ as the One who bore our sins on the cross to deal with our sinful deeds, so that we may be forgiven in our sinful conduct.
6. The wave offering is a type of Christ who was resurrected in love.
7. The heave offering is a type of Christ as the powerful One who was ascended and enthroned, exalted far above all.
8. The drink offering is a type of Christ who poured Himself out as some to satisfy the Father, and He satisfies God and us; this Christ fills us and saturates us with Himself, and He makes us a drink offering for God’s satisfaction.

We need to experience Christ as the reality of the offerings today, so that He would be constituted into our being and be mingled with us, and we would become part of His corporate expression, the tabernacle as the house of God on earth.

We need to Experience Christ as the Reality of the Offerings to be Mingled with Him

We need to experience Christ as the reality of the offerings. The offerings provided by God for His people to bring solved all their problems and bridged the gap between them and God.

Christ as the reality of the offerings solves all our problems and bridges the gap between us and God (John 14:6).

The enemy did so much to damage us in every way, but God in His amazing wisdom came in as a man, nullified the works of the devil, and provided Christ as our burnt offering. Now we can lay our hands on Christ, be one with Him, and in this absolute One we are absolutely for God.

Our humanity is damaged by the enemy, but to God this is no problem – He has an opportunity to display the all-sufficiency of Christ, who as the meal offering is our food to reconstitute us and thus bridge the gap between us and God.

When we begin to experience Christ as the offerings, we can stand God and say, Hallelujah, all our problems are solved, and now there’s no gap between us and God because we have Christ as the offerings. How much we need to experience Christ as the reality of the offerings!

The Lord Jesus came as the tabernacle, the enterable God, and He became the offerings, by means of which we can enter into God. This is God’s provision. He wants to train us to experience Christ as the offerings so that we may get rid of all the problems and have no gap between us and God.

The offerings are good for us to enjoy God, to be mingled with God, and to have God assimilated into our being to become our constituent (see Gal. 4:19; Eph. 3:17; Col. 3:10-11).

As we enjoy Christ as the reality of the offerings, we enjoy Him as the meal offering, a portion of the peace offering, and some kinds of sin offerings – we eat Him, we masticate Him, we digest Him, and we assimilate Him, and this changes our constitution forever.

The offerings are the way for us to enter into God and become part of the divine-human incorporation (see John 14:6, 20). As we eat Christ, digest Christ, and assimilate Christ as the reality of the offerings, we are incorporated into the tabernacle.

The tabernacle is a sign of the divine-human incorporation, of which the Lord spoke in John 14; the Son is in the Father, we are in the Son, the Son is in us, and the Father is in the Son.

As we enjoy Christ as the reality of the offerings, we live in a mutual dwelling place, which is God united, mingled, and incorporated with man; here, if we have any problem or failure, Christ as the offerings is the solution!

When we apply Christ as the reality of the offerings, the enemy is put to shame, we are humbled and also fed, and God is happy; our fellowship with God is through Christ as the offerings.

The offerings are not only sacrifices to solve our problems, but also “presents” to God for His enjoyment (see Num. 28:2).

Humanly speaking, it is a delight to select a present for someone according to your knowledge of that person, and then surprise him with that present. The offerings are presents to God, and He wants us to worship Him with these presents. God wants us to worship Him with Christ as the reality of all the offerings, and this makes Him happy.

It makes God happy when we tell Him,

Father, we worship You in the humanity of Your beloved Son, with the constitution of the resurrected humanity of Jesus. We offering You not only Christ Himself but the Christ wrought into us and experienced by us. Father, we offer You the Christ we have experienced and enjoyed, the Christ who is the reality of all the offerings to us in our experience. We offer You Christ as a present of love. Thank You for sending Your Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin and concerning sin; now we as Your many sons, we present Your Son to You, as the One experienced by us and wrought into us, for Your satisfaction!

Christ as the Tabernacle Brings God to Man, and Christ as the Offerings brings Man to God

According to the record of the Holy Word, the reality of the universe is Christ as the tabernacle and the offerings, for as the tabernacle Christ brings God to man, and as the offerings Christ brings man to God (see John 1:14, 29; 14:6).

The universe in and of itself is just a shell, just as our human body without a spirit or soul is empty. The meaning and content of the universe is Christ as the tabernacle and Christ as the offerings.

The tabernacle is Christ Himself, who became a man and tabernacled among us (John 1:14); He is the Father’s house in John 14, and He has been enlarged to include us into this mutual dwelling place which will ultimately become the New Jerusalem.

We enter into God to be united, mingled, and incorporated with God when we experience Christ as the reality of the offerings; in this way Christ is wrought into us and we are constituted with Him to become part of the enlarged tabernacle of God with man.

This is the meaning of the universe and the content of the universe, and for such a reality to be contained there has to be a new heaven and new earth!

Christ as the reality of all the offerings is the meaning of the universe; when He established the Lord’s table, He promised He will not drink of it until the kingdom – showing us that, in some form, the Lord’s table will continue in the kingdom.

When we enter into Christ as the reality of the tabernacle through Christ as the reality of the offerings, we touch the meaning of the universe; apart from this, everything is vain – even our entire human life is vain.

As the God-man, Christ is the tabernacle to be the dwelling place for God and man, and He is also the offerings for man to enter into God (see John 1:14; 14:20, 23; 1:29).

As the tabernacle, Christ brought God to us; He came to us full of grace and reality, and in Him the entire fulness of the Godhead was expressed, explained, and lived out. As the offerings, Christ is now bringing us all to God.

Christ became the tabernacle when He was incarnated; He became the offerings when He was crucified and resurrected. Through His incarnation Christ brought God into man, and through His death and resurrection he brings man into God; through this two-way traffic, Christ made God one with man and man one with God.

The Triune God passed through a process to become the tabernacle, a mutual abode for God and man; now we may dwell in Him an He may dwell in us through Himself as the offerings. We need to experience Christ as the reality of the offerings to be mingled with God and be incorporated with God.

Thank You Lord for coming as the God-man, the tabernacle of God with man, to be the dwelling place for God and man. Thank You for going through death and resurrection to become the reality of all the offerings so that man may enter into God. Hallelujah, through Christ as the offerings we can enter into God and dwell in God, thus touching the meaning of the universe! Lord, we want to experience You and enjoy You as the reality of all the offerings so that we may be united, mingled, and incorporated with God and be God’s dwelling place with man!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ron Kangas for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Leviticus, msg. 2 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (1), week 1, God Training His People to Worship and Partake of Him and to Live a Holy, Clean, and Rejoicing Life.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # The goal of God’s complete salvation / Is to make His redeemed people / His dwelling place on earth / That they may fellowship with God, serve God / And be God’s holy people living a holy life / Through the tabernacle with the offerings, and by the priests— / All types of the all-inclusive Christ— / To issue in the gaining of Christ as their mutual rest / And enjoyment typified by the feasts. (Song on, Christ in Leviticus)
  # Through Christ’s vicarious death / Our trespass is appeased, / For I am reconciled / And God is really pleased; / The trespass offering made for me / Has met all God’s demands; / All praise to Jesus, Lamb of God! (Song on, Our Trespass Offering)
  # God and man will have one living, / Always in the mingled spirit; / We two are incorporated / One organic entity! / This the vision of the ages / Will control our daily living / That the Lord may have His Body / Shining as the holy city. (Song on, God has called us for His purpose)