Laying our Hands on Christ as our Burnt Offering to be Identified with Him and Live Him

In looking into the matter of consecration we need to see that, no matter how much we love the Lord and pursue Him, we are NOT absolute for God and we are NOT fully consecrated to Him.

There is only ONE Person that ever lived a life of being absolute for God and His purpose, and there is only ONE man that was fully consecrated to God; this One is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the One typified by the burnt offering in Lev. 1, the One who was perfect before God, fully expressing God in all His living, doing the Father’s will, speaking the Father’s words, doing the Father’s works, and seeking the Father’s glory.

This One as the perfect ram of consecration was taken to the altar on the cross; He was skinned (His outward beauty was stripped, His clothes were taken away), He was cut into pieces (He was broken without any reservation), and He was completely burnt up slowly before God for God’s satisfaction.

If Christ didn’t do this, we would have to suffer being slaughtered, skinned, and cut into pieces. But Christ did it, and now we as the priests of God can lay our hands on Him and be identified with Him. We can pray,

Lord, I lay my hands on You, causing myself to be identified with You and You to be identified with me. I take You as my burnt offering!

When we pray in a proper way to take Christ as our burnt offering, we identify ourselves with Him, and the life-giving Spirit moves in us to live in us the same kind of life that Christ lived when on the earth.

We will then bear the brands of Jesus in our body as Paul did (Gal. 6:17); we may not bear the physical scars as Paul did, but we will bear the mark of the life of Jesus, living the same kind of life as Jesus lived for the satisfaction of the Father.

We need to daily take Christ as our burnt offering so that we may experience Him in His experiences as the burnt offering. This is NOT “Imitatio Christi” (imitating Christ) neither is this copying Christ, following His pattern, or anything outward. Experiencing Christ as the burnt offering by being identified with Him is actually living Christ and Christ living in us (Phil. 1:20; Gal. 2:20).

Laying our Hands on Christ as our Burnt Offering to be Identified with Him

When we lay our hands on Christ through prayer, the life-giving Spirit, who is the very Christ on whom we lay our hands, will immediately move and work within us to live in us a life that is a repetition of the life that Christ lived on earth, the life of the burnt offering. (quote from, Witness Lee, Life-Study of Leviticus)

The one who offered the burnt offering had to lay his hand on the ram that was being slaughtered and burnt, signifying that he was identified with the burnt offering. The laying on of hands on the head of the burnt offering signifies our identification with Christ, our union with Christ (Lev. 1:4a).

When we lay our hands on Christ as our offering, we are joined to Him, and He and we become on (1 Cor. 6:17). In our natural man and even in our most earnest pursuit for God we are NOT absolute for God; Christ is the One absolute for God, and Him and we are being identified, one organically, by laying our hands on Him. In such a union all of our weaknesses, all our defects, and all our faults are taken on by Him, and all His virtues and attributes become ours.

How can we be united with Christ in such a way? How can we experience the union with Christ as the burnt offering? It is only through prayer, and even a particular kind of prayer. When we exercise our spirit through the proper prayer, telling the Lord,

Lord, I take You as my burnt offering and I consecrate myself to You in You as my burnt offering for God’s satisfaction! Lord, I lay my hands on You, causing me to be identified with You and causing You to be identified with me!

this brings us into an organic union with the Lord and causes Him to be identified with us. How we need to consecrate ourselves to the Lord in Christ as the burnt offering so that He may repeat in us His life as a burnt offering, and He may live in us a God-man life for God’s satisfaction.

What happens when we lay our hands on Christ through prayer is that the life-giving Spirit, who is the very Christ on whom we lay our hands, will immediately move and work within us to live in us a life that is a repetition of the life that Christ lived on the earth!

Paul experienced such a Christ, and on his voyage to Rome on the ship, even though he was a prisoner he was Jesus living again and he encouraged all those around him through the shipwreck (see Acts 28). Paul bore the brands of Jesus, which meant physically that he bore the scars of his wounds in his faithful service to the Lord, and spiritually he continually lived a crucified life so that Christ would be magnified in his body.

When we lay our hands on Christ and are identified with Him as the burnt offering, we will live a crucified life, do the will of God, seek the glory of God, and we will be submissive and obedient to God in everything, as Christ lives in us.

Offering Christ Daily as our Burnt Offering for God’s Satisfaction and our Beautification

Phil. 1:21 For to me, to live is Christ.

Being identified with Christ by laying our hands on Him through the exercise of our spirit and the proper prayer is NOT imitating Christ outwardly, neither is it “following Christ’s pattern”. Experiencing Christ in His experience of being the burnt offering is a matter of living Christ, and we need to offer Christ daily as our burnt offering for God’s satisfaction.

When we are identified with Christ and experience Him in His experience of being the burnt offering, we can testify with Paul, I am crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live but it is Christ who lives in me (Gal. 2:20). Also, we will say one with him, To me, to live is Christ (Phil. 1:21).

This is not something once and for all; this is not something once in a while; this is and should be our daily living. Daily, we need to take Christ and offer Him as our burnt offering (see Num. 28:3-4; Lev. 1:2-4; 6:12-13; cf. 2 Tim. 1:6) so that we may experience Christ in His experiences as the burnt offering, not imitating Christ outwardly but living Him in our daily life (see 2 Cor. 5:14-15; Phil. 1:19-21; Acts 27:22-25; 28:3-9; 1 Cor. 1:9).

When we live Christ for His magnification and for the Father’s satisfaction in such a way, the outward expression of His beauty is ascribed to us for His magnification. The one who offers the burnt offering receives the skin of the animal killed (Lev. 7:8); spiritually speaking, as we continually take Christ as our burnt offering, His outward expression of beauty is ascribed to us, and we enjoy Him as our enveloping power to cover us, protect us, and preserve us (see Phil. 4:13; 2 Cor. 12:9).

We don’t seek to beautify ourselves or improve our image; we simply seek to take Christ as our burnt offering, and His beauty becomes our beauty for His magnification, and He covers, protects, and preserves us.

Lord Jesus, we lay our hands on You to be identified with You and have You identified with us. We want to experience You in Your experience of being the burnt offering for God’s satisfaction. Lord, save us from trying to outwardly imitate You or to copy Your pattern. We want to be identified with You in spirit and experience You in Your experience as the burnt offering so that we would live the same kind of life You lived on earth for the Father’s satisfaction. Lord, live in us again today. Be magnified in us. Be expressed in us and through us.

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, the Life-study of Leviticus (msgs. 7-10), 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:
  # 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 Consecration)
  # 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. (Hymns #1138)
  # To You, dear Lord, / I give myself afresh again / Unsparingly for Your desire, / Your economy. / O, fire from above, / Come and consume me thoroughly / That You may be my all, / My life, my everything. (Song on Consecration)