Taking Christ as our Trespass Offering issues in Loving God and being Filled in Spirit

We need to take Christ as our trespass offering for God’s purpose, for Christ as our offering resolves the problem of sins in our conduct.

The Lord Jesus Christ died for us on the cross, and He bore our sins in His body on the tree in order that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness, and by His bruise we are healed (1 Pet. 2:24).

We have not only sin in our nature, the indwelling sin that we inherited from Adam – our forefather; we also have sins, many sins, trespasses, mistakes, and wrongdoings, and for all these we need to take Christ as our trespass offering daily. If we confess our sins under God’s light, He forgives us of our sins and cleanses us from our unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).

To forgive is to cause something to leave, to send it away; when the Lord died on the cross, He caused all our sins to leave, and He sent them away. Christ as the Lamb of God came to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29); sin here refers both to the indwelling sin in our nature and to our sins in our conduct, for Christ is both our sin offering and our trespass offering.

On one hand, Christ as the sin offering for God’s people deals with our sin before God, and, on the other hand, He sends sin – through the efficacy of the cross – back to Satan, from whom sin came into man.

Through the cross, the Lord Jesus has the position and qualification with the power, strength, and authority to take sin away from the redeemed ones (see John 1:29; Heb. 9:26) and send it back to its source, Satan, who will bear it in the lake of fire forever (see Rev. 20:10; also, footnote 1 on Lev. 16:8 in the Recovery Version).

Christ was wounded because of our transgressions and He was crushed because of our iniquities (Isa. 53:5-6); the chastening for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

When Christ died on the cross, God caused all the iniquities of all the people in the world to fall upon Him. This is why there was a sign above Him on the cross that said in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews (see John 19:20).

Christ was crucified not just by the Jews or the Romans, but by us all: Jesus as the Lamb of God was killed by all mankind and for all mankind, including the Hebrew religion, the Roman politics, and the Greek culture.

Hallelujah, Christ made Himself an offering for sin – Christ is our sin offering, and Christ is our trespass offering (Isa. 53:10-11).

Taking Christ as our Trespass Offering to Receive Forgiveness of Sins issues in Fearing God and Loving God

The trespass offering signifies Christ as our offering resolving the problem of sins in our conduct. There’s a great difference between sin and sins; sin is Satan indwelling us and causing us to sin, while sins are outward sinful deeds.

We need to take Christ as our sin offering to deal with the sin in our nature, and we need to take Christ as our trespass offering to deal with our sins, transgressions, and trespasses, including lies, mistakes, and all kinds of wrongdoing.

Christ is our trespass offering; He died not only to condemn sin in the flesh, but also to bear our sins and remove them.

By believing into the Lord we receive forgiveness of sins. But merely believing initially in the Lord doesn’t mean that all our sins are forgiven and that we don’t need to confess our sins; rather, because we have sin in our nature, we sin daily, so we need to let the Lord shine in us with His light, expose our sins, and confess our sins in His light.

The more we enjoy the Lord as life, the more He shines on us as light; under His shining, we enjoy the fellowship of life, and we realize how sinful we are – therefore we confess our sins, and we enjoy more life, more light, more fellowship and more cleansing of our sins.

Taking Christ as our trespass offering with the confession of our sins is the way to keep ourselves in the fellowship of life for our growth in life unto the maturity in life (see 1 John 1:2-3, 5-9; Acts 24:16).

Taking Christ as our trespass offering to receive forgiveness of sins issues in our fearing God and loving God. The more we touch the Lord, spend time with Him, and enjoy Him, the more we come under His light and our sins are made manifest; therefore, we confess our sins, we take Christ as our sin offering, and we apply His precious blood.

Receiving the forgiveness of sins doesn’t make us audacious or presumptuous; rather, we fear God and love God. If God would mark our iniquities, none of us would be able to stand, but there’s forgiveness with Him, that He may be feared (Psa. 130:3-4).

The more the Lord forgives us as result of taking Christ as our trespass offering, the more we honor Him, we are in awe of Him, we revere Him, we respect Him, we regard Him, and we give Him the first place in all things.

The more we are forgiven, the more we honor Him, we respect Him, we regard Him, and we give Him the preeminence in all things.

Furthermore, the more we are forgiven by the Lord, the more we love Him (see Luke 7:47-50); just as the sinful woman who washed the Lord’s feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair, which woman was forgiven much and loved much – so we, when we are forgiven much by the Lord, we will love much.

As we take Christ as our trespass offering by confessing our sins and applying His precious blood, we are forgiven by Him, and we love Him very much.

Lord Jesus, we take You as our trespass offering for all our sins, mistakes, transgressions, and wrongdoings. We come to You in Your light to be shined on by You, enjoy Your life, and be in the flow of the divine life, and we want to deal with anything that Your light exposes in us. Lord, we love You and we give You the first place, because You have forgiven us so much. Lord, we revere You, we are in awe of You, and we adore You, for You keep forgiving us as we confess our sins. Lord Jesus, we take You as our trespass offering for the fulfillment of God’s purpose!

Making a Thorough Confession of our Sins to have a Conscience Void of Offense and be Filled with the Spirit

If we mean business with the Lord, we need to repent and make a thorough confession of our sins under the Lord’s light in our time with Him.

Those around us may not know what we have been doing, but God surely knows, and according to Matt. 12:36-37, we all will render an account in the day of judgment of every idle word that we speak man.

We may put on a nice and gentle face before men, but we cannot deceive God. We need to set aside time, at least one or two hours, for us to personally be before the Lord and make a thorough confession of our sins, so that we may take Christ as our sin offering in a solid way. We need to have a private time to confess everything to us.

We shouldn’t be afraid to confess our sins, since He knows them all already; He already has a record of all our sinful doings, so it’s best to ask Him to rid us of that record by confessing our sins.

We shouldn’t be superficial in our confession, neither should be rough; rather, we need to have a fine and detailed confession before the Lord, confessing the small things and the big things.

In taking Christ as our trespass offering, we need to make a thorough confession of all our shortcomings, weaknesses, wrongdoings, and sinfulness in order to have a conscience without offense toward God and men (Acts 24:16; Psa. 51:2).

It is not enough for us to make such a confession at the time we are saved, or once at the end or beginning of the year; we need to have a regular time to spend with the Lord to confess our sins, weaknesses, and wrongdoings.

When we confess our sins to the Lord under His shining light (not as a result of our introspection!), the blood of Jesus God’s Son cleanses us from every sin – even from the sins that we think that can’t be forgiven.

Christ is faithful in His word and righteous according to His shed blood on the cross to cleanse us from our sins and remove any unrighteousness from us, if we only confess our sins (1 John 1:9).

To confess is simply to agree with the Lord’s light and say, Yes, Lord, I agree, I committed that sin, I had this defect, and I did this wrongdoing…After such a thorough and fine confession, we will be filled with the Spirit essentially and economically – within and without – to make us buoyant and bold in our God to speak the gospel of God (see Num. 21:16-18; 1 Thes. 2:2, 4).

The result of having a thorough confession of our sins is that we are spontaneously filled with the Holy Spirit. We don’t need to “beg to receive the Holy Spirit”; we simply need to repent, confess our sins, and we will be automatically filled with the consummated Spirit both within and without.

Taking Christ as our trespass offering by having a thorough confession of our sins results in being filled with the Spirit, and we will rise up and buoyant and bold in our God to speak the gospel of God!

When we confess our sins and know that the Lord has forgiven us, we will spontaneously speak of Him and His salvation to people! Hallelujah!

Lord Jesus, we want to be those who have a fine and thorough confession of our sins so that we may have a conscience void of offense and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Lord, we take You as our trespass offering by confessing our shortcomings, weaknesses, wrongdoings, and sinfulness. We agree with all that Your light exposes in us as sin. Amen, Lord, we confess our sins, and we apply Your precious blood shed on the cross to be cleansed and forgiven. Hallelujah for the Spirit that fills us within and covers us without to be buoyant and bold in our God to speak the gospel of God!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1985, vol. 5, “The Way to Practice the Lord’s Present Move,” ch. 2, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (1), week 8, Taking Christ as Our Trespass Offering for God’s Purpose.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # 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)
  # He’ll enlighten your darkened heart with light, / Forgive your sins and rescue you with might; / He will cleanse you from all stains with His blood, / And give to you the life of God, / So you need Jesus! (Hymns #1024)
  # For me Thy body Thou didst give, / That I may ever share in Thee; / For me Thy precious blood was shed, / That from my sins I might be free. (Hymns #233)