Being Identified with Christ to let Him Live in us the Life of the Burnt Offering

As those who were created by God for the purpose of expressing and representing Him, we should be for nothing other than God; however, in ourselves, we can’t be absolutely for God, so we need to take Christ as our burnt offering, laying our hands on Him and being identified with Him so that He may live in us.

Only Christ is pleasing to God, for His living and work on earth pleased God to the uttermost.

Whatever the Lord Jesus was, whatever He did, and whatever He spoke was absolutely for God.

God delighted in Him as a person and in His work for God; His living was fully acceptable and pleasing to God.

And what God desires is to have this living be reproduced in us today; unless we have Christ living in us for God’s expression and representation, we cannot be pleasing to God.

The burnt offering is a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah (Lev. 1:9, 13, 17).

God is satisfied not with an outward display of His power through supernatural miracles and great works for Him; He is satisfied with the burnt offering.

The fragrance of the burnt offering satisfies God.

Christ satisfies God; He is the reality of the burnt offering.

The Father delights in the Son, and whenever Christ is reproduced in us and lives in us, God is satisfied in us and with us.

The satisfying fragrance of the burnt offering is a savour that brings satisfaction, peace, and rest; such a satisfying fragrance is an enjoyment to God.

Do we want to feed God and make Him happy? We need to offer Christ as our burnt offering.

Do we want God to be satisfied? We need to take Christ as our burnt offering and be one with Him so that our daily living would be Christ living in us for the satisfaction of God the Father.

Because Christ lived a life that was absolutely for God’s satisfaction, His living was a satisfying fragrance, a sweet savour ascending to God for His pleasure and satisfaction (Eph. 5:2).

We need to walk and live even as He did, not by imitating Him outwardly or trying to think what would Jesus do but by being one with Him in spirit.

If anyone in this universe should be satisfied, it should be God; when He is satisfied, we are also satisfied.

We are here on earth as men created in the image and likeness of God not for our own satisfaction but for God to be satisfied.

When we’re in union with Christ and live Christ, God is satisfied and we are also satisfied.

God should be satisfied above all, and only Christ satisfies Him.

May we lay our hands on Christ, be identified with Him in our daily living, and let Him live in us and through us the kind of life that satisfies God the Father.

Being Identified with Christ and Letting Him Live in us the Life of the Burnt Offering for God’s Satisfaction

The burnt offering satisfies God, and Christ is the fulfilment of this burnt offering.

According to Lev. 1:4-5, the offerer did not only bring the offering to the priest but also laid his hands on the offering to identify himself with the offering.

Laying on of hands always signifies identification, union; we need to not only offer Christ as our burnt offering but also be identified with Him, in the organic union with Him.

We are one with Christ, the One whom we offer to God, and we take the offering as being one with us.

We need to learn to lay our hands on Christ as our burnt offering and be joined to Him in spirit.

Such a union is in spirit, and when we exercise our spirit to be one spirit with the Lord, all that He is becomes ours and all that we are becomes His.

When we’re identified with Christ, all our weaknesses, defects, shortcomings, and faults become His, and all His virtues and excellent attributes become ours.

This is not an exchange but an organic union in which what we are becomes His and what He is becomes ours.

As believers in Christ, we are joined to the Lord in spirit; he who is joined to the Lord (which we all are) is one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).

In such a union, which is organic and spiritual, all that we are becomes His and all that He is becomes ours.

How can we be identified with Christ in such a way? It is by the exercise of our spirit.

We need to exercise our spirit through proper prayer so that we may become one with Him in an experiential way.

We need to turn our heart to the Lord and just exercise our spirit, standing on the fact that we are one spirit with the Lord. This is done through prayer.

In ourselves, we are not the burnt offering, and we are not qualified to be the burnt offering, for we are not absolute for God and our living is not absolutely for His satisfaction.

Our actual situation is that we’re altogether not qualified and hopeless, for even our best efforts are displeasing to God.

But when we lay our hands on Christ, our weak points become His, and His virtues become ours.

By such a union, He becomes one with us and we become one with Him.

In such an organic union, in our being identified with Christ, He lives in us and we live one with Him.

By laying our hands on Christ as the burnt offering, we are joined to Him, and He lives in us.

As Christ lives in us, He repeats in us the life that He lived on earth, a life of the burnt offering (Gal. 2:20).

Paul had such an experience; he realized that he was not absolute for God but rather, that he was crucified with Christ, and it is no longer him who lived but Christ who lived in him and through him.

And the life that he lived on earth in the flesh was in faith, in the organic union with Christ, as he was identified with Christ, so that Christ may live in him.

We need to practice this.

We need to exercise our spirit through the proper prayer to be experientially one with the Lord.

As we are identified with Christ, He repeats in us the life He lived on the earth, and we live in Christ and with Christ a life of the burnt offering.

Such a life, such a living, is a satisfying fragrance to the Lord, and He delights in us even as He delighted in the Son when He was on the earth.

God wants the living of Christ to be repeated in us.

He wants us to live the same kind of life as Christ by being identified with Christ and allowing Him to live in us.

In this way, we become the reproduction of Christ, a duplication of Him on earth, and we live the life of the burnt offering.

May we learn to enter into such an experience by exercising our spirit to pray and be identified with Christ in our daily living.

May we lay our hands on Christ as the burnt offering, be propitiated before Him, and be identified with Christ so that we live and He lives, He lives in our living, and we live Christ.

When we’re identified with Christ, He sprinkles His blood to cover our sins, we are accepted by God, we have peace with God, and we live Christ as He lives in us to repeat in us the same kind of life that He lived when on earth.

May we realize that, though we are not absolute for God, we can take Christ as our burnt offering.

May we have the experience and enjoyment of Christ as the burnt offering by praying,

Dear Lord Jesus, You are a wonderful person. You are the Spirit that gives life with us all the time, and You are with us to be our burnt offering. Oh Lord, we cannot satisfy God, but You can. We cannot be absolute for God, but You have been and still are absolute for God. We take You, Lord, as our burnt offering. We lay our hands on You and we are identified with You. We give You all our defects, weaknesses, and faults. We receive and enjoy all Your virtues. Hallelujah, we have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer we who live but it is Christ who lives in us! Amen, Lord, live in us today. Make us Your duplication. Repeat in us the life that You lived on earth, the life of the burnt offering. We want to live a life for the satisfaction of God by being identified with Christ and by having Christ living in us!

We’re Created by God to Express and Represent God, Living Absolutely for God by having Christ Live in us the Life of the Burnt Offering

It is interesting that, out of all the offerings, the first one mentioned in Leviticus is the burnt offering, not the trespass offering or the sin offering.

Lev. 1:3 speaks of the burnt offering first because our situation before God, our very first problem related to God, is not a matter of our trespasses or sin but our not being for God.

Yes, sin is a big problem, and our sins are a separation between God and us, but the first problem we have with God is that we’re not absolutely for God.

God created us in His image and according to His likeness, and He wants us to express and represent Him (Gen. 1:26).

He created us so that we might be for Him; He didn’t create us to be for ourselves.

However, as fallen human beings, we live not for God but for ourselves and by ourselves.

This is why we need Christ as the burnt offering.

We need to take Christ as our burnt offering. We need to lay our hands upon Christ and be identified with Christ not only initially when we repent and believe into the Lord, but in a daily way.

This needs to be a resilient experience, a growing experience, and even a deeper experience of Christ as the burnt offering.

Christ was absolute for God, and there was no moment in His life in which He was not for God; He never fell short of the glory of God.

In His living, there was no sin or trespass.

He is fully qualified to be our burnt offering, for He had no blemish, sin, or impurity.

He lived in a personal, intimate, and loving union with the Father, and there was no possibility for trespasses in Him.

His living was a sweet-smelling savour to the Father, for He walked in love for the Father.

Now He lives in us to repeat and live a life that makes us the righteousness of God and makes us righteous in our living.

The burnt offering means that, as those who were created by God for the purpose of expressing and representing God, we should be for nothing other than God (Gen. 1:27-28; Psa. 73:25; Mark 12:30).

We need to realize that we’re not absolutely for God and, in ourselves and of ourselves, we cannot be absolute.

Rather, we live for ourselves and in ourselves. Therefore, we need to take Christ as our burnt offering.

Before we were saved, we were not absolute for God; after being saved and entering into a love relationship with the Lord, we aspire to be absolute for God, but we realize we can’t do it.

The more we try to live a life absolutely for God, the more we end up living in ourselves, even in a self that is being perfected and trying harder.

By trying to be absolute for God in ourselves, we negate and disqualify ourselves.

There is no possibility that we can be absolute for God; we should not even attempt to be, but we should lay our hands on Christ as the burnt offering and be identified with Christ.

We all have the desire to live for God and be absolute for Him, but the way to do this is not to try harder but to take Christ as our burnt offering.

The Lord is now the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17), and we are joined to Him as one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17).

The burnt offering is in the spirit, in our mingled spirit.

When we turn our heart to the Lord and touch Him, laying our hands upon Him and sustaining our contact with Him, our entire being is the burnt offering, for we’re in oneness with Christ.

In oneness with the Lord, we become the burnt offering.

In the organic union with the Lord, we love God to the uttermost.

As we are identified with Christ, all that He is becomes ours, and our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength, even our physical body, is focused on Him and one with Him.

The result is that we live a life of the burnt offering, expressing God and representing Him as Christ lives in us the life of the burnt offering.

May we bring these matters to the Lord in prayer again and again, asking Him and beseeching Him to give us the experiences we need to remain in the organic union with Him and live Christ for God’s satisfaction.

Thank You, Lord, for creating us in Your image and according to Your likeness so that we may express and represent God in our daily living. Amen, Lord, we want to be for nothing else but You. We acknowledge that, in ourselves, we only live for ourselves and for our desire. We come to You, Lord Jesus, and we take You as our burnt offering. We love You, we open to You, and we lay our hands on You. We just want to be one with You as the burnt offering. We set our entire being upon You. We give up our striving and struggle to be absolute for God in ourselves. We just open, Lord! Keep us in the organic union with You today. Live in us today. Live in us the life of the burnt offering. Repeat and enlarge the living of Christ in us and in all the saints so that God would be satisfied and pleased with the sweet-smelling savour of Christ living in us!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Leviticus, msgs. 3 and 14 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther (2022 winter training), week 3, entitled, The Rebuilding of the Altar of God – the Altar of Burnt Offering.
• Further reading on this topic:
  – Experiencing Christ in His experiences and offering the Christ we have experienced, and offering Him to God as our burnt offering according to our experiences of Him, a portion from, Life-Study of Leviticus, Chapter 8.
  – Touchstones of God’s economy – Leviticus (1), article by Jim Batten in, Affirmation and Critique.
  – Rebuilding the altar of burnt offering – via, the church in Los Angeles.
  – Identified with Christ, a portion of, Christ as the Reality, Chapter 3, by Witness Lee.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – As we eat Thyself, Lord Jesus, / Consecrated we become; / By Thy wondrous life within us, / Thy obedience is our own. / No more need we strive and struggle, / Consecrated try to be; / Consecration dwells within us— / Now our part to eat of Thee. / Lord, we praise Thee, consecration / Is nought else but Thee as food: / As we eat Thee and enjoy Thee, / We are all made one with God; / One in will and one in purpose / We become by eating Thee: / As we take and eat Thyself, Lord, / Consecrated we will be. (Hymns #1138 stazas 3-4)
  – Such a laying on of hands is not for substitution; / When we lay our hands on Christ, it brings in a union. / By our laying our hands on Christ, we are joined to Him. / We become one — no longer two — we become Him! / In such a union all our weaknesses, wounds, and scars / Are taken on by Him and His virtues become ours. / Such a union requires exercise through proper prayer / We open our failures, defects for our Lord to bear. / As we pray in this way, Christ — the One with no such sin / As the life-giving Spirit moves and works within / To live in us a life, a repetition of Christ our King, / The One who lived on earth the life of the burnt offering. (Song on, Our burnt offering, stanzas 3-4)
  – There is little willingness within me / To place all I am before Thy feet, / So I lay my hands on Thy dear head, Lord / As the burnt off’ring, perfect, complete. / Lord, You are the only One who offered / Yourself without reluctance unto God; / Full obedience to the Father given, / Absolute, You sacrificed Your all. (Song on, My heart longs for absolute surrender, stanzas 2-3)