All genuine believers in Christ know that the Lord Jesus came and died for us on the cross; He was our Substitute on the cross to bear God’s judgement on our behalf. Seeing such a crucified Christ causes us to respond to Him in love and open to Him to receive Him as our Savior.
However, Christ’s crucifixion, His death on the cross, is a mystery and a very wonderful matter. He was not only crucified in His body and died of natural causes on the cross, after which He was buried and three days later He resurrected; on the cross Christ experienced a great deal of suffering both in His body and in His inward parts.
As we are studying the altar of burnt offering, we come to the most important part of the altar: the grating. The altar is a box with no top or bottom: four walls made of acacia wood overlaid with bronze, and in the middle of it there’s a bronze grating (see Exo. 27:4).
Before getting into this matter more deeply I did not appreciate this grating so much, but now I am full of love for the Lord and appreciation for what He has done and has passed through for us on the cross. Oh, the mystery of Christ’s redemption!
There are many things related to the altar of burnt offering, such as the ledge, the utensils, the dimensions, etc, which we will not cover, but the grating is of major importance and needs a full explanation and application. This grating was made of bronze: a network of bronze bars, exactly in the middle of the hollow of the altar, having four rings coming out of the altar on the four corners.
The offerings were placed on this mesh of bronze and were burned there; the fragrance ascended to God, while the ashes fell to the ground, being forgotten. The content of the altar is the grating of bronze, and this grating signifies Christ the Redeemer in His redemptive work (see Eph. 1:7), even the inner content of Christ’s redemption.
The Bronze Grating within the Altar Signifies that God’s Judgement Reached the Inward Parts of Christ
What happened on the cross with the Lord Jesus was a mystery, something that we can never understand, comprehend, or experience; we can only dig through the word of God to grasp the mystery of Christ’s redemption and thus have an increased appreciation for His wonderful and mysterious redemption.
The grating of bronze with its rings and poles was the content of the altar of burnt offering, and it signifies the inner content of Christ’s redemption. The rings were an extension and a part of the grating, and they were for the move of the altar.
The significance and function of the altar depends on the grating; if you remove the grating, it remains as an empty box, but when the grating was there, the sacrifices could be offered and the altar could be moved.
We need to see the importance and significance of the cross, the inner content of Christ’s redemption. The bronze grating within the altar signifies that God’s judgement reached the inward parts of Christ.
Psa. 22 describes the sufferings and trauma that the Lord went through while on the cross,
v. 1 My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, From the words of my groaning?
v. 14 I am poured out like water, And all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; It is melted within me.
v. 15 My strength is dried up like a shard, And my tongue is stuck to my jaws; You have put me in the dust of death.
We need to come to appreciate Christ’s sufferings on that cross, so that we may have a deeper appreciation of how much the Lord suffered on the tree and we would have a deeper and sweeter remembrance of Him at the Lord’s Table, full of feeling for what He has passed through.
We are not here to see “the passions of Christ”, how He suffered every step to Calvary, how His blood was dripping and how He was beaten and scourged….we want to take a look at the openly crucified Jesus, see how He suffered, and have a grasp on how God’s judgement reached to His inward parts.
Yes, Jesus suffered outwardly: He was beaten on the head, He was lacerated on the back, He wore the crown of thorns that dug into His brows, He was nailed through His hands and feet, and He had a spear thrust into His side.
But the greatest agony and the most extreme suffering that Jesus passed through was the one not visible to the human eye: He suffered a psychological and mental misery, the spiritual agony of having the judgement of God reach His inward parts. Christ as our Substitute was burned by God’s judgement not only outwardly in His Body but also inwardly, in His inward parts.
Isa. 53 also describes this in a vivid way,
v. 4 Surely He has borne our sicknesses, And carried our sorrows; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God and afflicted.
v. 5 But He was wounded because of our transgressions; He was crushed because of our iniquities; The chastening for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we have been healed.
v. 7 He was oppressed, and it was He who was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter And like a sheep that is dumb before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.
v. 10 But Jehovah was pleased to crush Him, to afflict Him with grief…
We will never know how this feels like….wow, Christ was forsaken by God economically on the cross, and He was burned by the fire of God’s judgement as an offering for sin.
This Man was one with God, enjoyed the Father, and lived every minute and second of His life with the Father, and now He is experiencing economical separation from Him…..He was poured like water, all His bones were out of joints, and His heart melted within Him – there was such a high heat of the holy fire of God’s judgement burning in Him, melting His heart.
He was afflicted by God because of our iniquities, and He was smitten by God; He carried our sorrows, and yet He didn’t open His mouth to vindicate Himself, but endured like a lamb before his shearers.
God was pleased to crush Him, to afflict Him with grief, when He made Himself an offering for sin. Nobody made Him die: He offered Himself voluntarily.
The grating which we see in the altar of burnt offering, the bronze grating as the place where the holy fire of God’s judgement burned – was in the Lord Jesus, in His inward parts, and in His innards judgement was made.
Christ bore God’s judgement with His heart and not only on His body, and He did all this for us willingly to offer Himself as a sacrifice for sin and redeem us back to God.
Dear Savior and Redeemer Lord Jesus, we love You! Increase our appreciation for what You have gone through on the cross. Thank You for enduring the fire God’s judgement in Your inward parts as You offered Yourself willingly as a sacrifice for sin. Lord, we may never understand what You went through on the cross, but touch us deeply and bring us into the mystery of Your redemption! Thank You, Lord, for what You went through in Your redemptive work. Fill us with a deep appreciation and a genuine deeper feeling for Your mysterious and wonderful redemption!
Christ Himself is our Redemption: Redemption is not a Matter but a Person, Christ!
Remembering the Lord’s sufferings on the cross, in particular how God’s judgement reached His inward parts and burned Him, is not to advocate any emotionalism or stir up any feelings, but for us to realize and somehow grasp what the Lord has gone through for us.
Many times when we are at the Lord’s table meeting we may not have much feeling for what the Lord went through for us, and we may take the bread and the wine in a somewhat ritualistic way. We need to have a fresh appreciation of what the Lord did on the cross for us.
He was judged by God, burned by the fire of God’s judgement, and He suffered more inwardly than He did outwardly, since the holy fire of God’s judgement burned in His inward parts.
Hymns #93 expresses this matter in a very good way,
Through all this He obtained an eternal redemption (Heb. 9:12). Redemption is not a matter: it is a person, Christ Himself, and Christ and His redemption cannot be separated. The grating in the middle of the altar of burnt offering signifies more than the redemption of Christ; it signifies the Redeeming Christ Himself as the One who suffered God’s judgement on our behalf and is qualified to redeem us back to God.
In the Old Testament the sacrifices were offered as a covering for sins, but Christ shed His blood and obtained an eternal redemption: we now not merely have our sins covered but they are removed through believing in Christ! How wonderful is Christ’s redemption, and how much we love the Lord
Lord Jesus, we treasure You with affection as we see the sorrow, sufferings, and pain You went through on the cross to obtain an eternal redemption for us. Lord Jesus, Your sufferings were deep and unfathomed. Cause us to realize and appreciate Your redemption so that we may be full of sweet and deep feeling as we partake of Your table. Lord Jesus, thank You for accomplishing an eternal redemption for us; now You are our redemption, and in You we can come forward boldly to contact God and enjoy God!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, brother Minoru Chen’s sharing in the message for this week, and Life-study of Exodus, msg. 105 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (3), week 6 (week 30), The Altar of Burnt Offering.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
# Our God forbid that we should boast, / Save in the death of Christ, our Lord; / All the vain things that charm us most, / We’d sacrifice them to His blood. / There from His head, His hands, His feet, / Sorrow and love flowed mingled down; / Did e’er such love and sorrow meet, / Or thorns compose so rich a crown? (Hymns #101)
# Thine only Son Thou briefly didst abandon / Just to gain us who were lost in transgression; / Allow’dst Him to die in anguish, forsaken, / To open our way to draw nigh to Thee. (Song on Christ’s sufferings)
# How wonderful redemption is, / My gracious Lord, in Thee! / Not seen, nor heard, nor e’er conceived / What Thou hast done for me! / Thou art divine, mysterious, / Beyond my grandest phrase! / Redemption is so marvellous, / Beyond all pow’r to praise! (Hymns #116)
The bronze grating within the altar signifies that God’s judgment reached the inward parts of Christ. God’s judgment upon Christ as our Substitute was not merely outward. The holy fire of God’s judgment was not just outside of Christ, but also burned within Him. This is indicated in Psalm 22, a psalm concerning the sufferings of Christ on the cross. Verse 14 says, “I am poured out like water, / And all my bones are out of joint. / My heart is like wax; / It is melted within me.” This indicates that when Christ bore God’s judgment, that judgment reached His heart, His inward parts. His bones were out of joint, but His heart melted in His inward parts. This means that God’s judgment upon Christ was experienced more inwardly than it was outwardly.
In fact, He suffered more inwardly than He did outwardly. The grating was not outside of Him; it was in Him. Therefore, the place where the holy fire of God’s judgment burned was in the inward parts of the Lord Jesus. (Witness Lee, Life-study of Exodus, pp. 1218-1219)
Praise you Lord for what you are to us and for what you have accomplished for us. Your faithfulness endures forever. Thank you Lord for not giving up on is. Oh Lord make us persons who would run after you, to behold your glory to be infused by you, to enjoy your presence and linger in your presence all day long. You are our dearest Lord!