Taking Christ as our Burnt Offering, for We are Not Absolutely for God but Christ is

The burnt offering typifies Christ not mainly in His redeeming man from sin but in His living a life that is absolutely for God and in His being the life that enables us as His people to have such a living.

The burnt offering is the first offering, and it was an offering that was to be offered daily in the altar, in the morning and in the evening. The burnt offering was not to be enjoyed by man but it was completely consumed by fire and its savor would rise to God for His satisfaction.

The burnt offering was absolutely for God, as food for God, and it signifies Christ as God’s pleasure and satisfaction, as the One whose living on earth was absolutely for God.

Christ came to the earth not only to accomplish redemption, but to live a life for God, a perfect life that we absolutely for God and His satisfaction. He fulfilled the type of the burnt offering, and He offered Himself to God for His satisfaction.

As the burnt offering, Christ was brought to the slaughter with no resistance, without Him opening His mouth to seek His right. He was slaughtered, and He was skinned, stripped of the outward appearance of His human virtues.

He was perfect and absolute for God, yet the others spoke evil of Him, persecuted Him, called Him insane and demon possessed, and they despised Him.

He was absolute for God yet He was cut into pieces by everyone around Him, from His mother to His disciples, the people around Him, the Pharisees, and the Jews. He was full of wisdom to answer those who tried to tempt Him, and He offered Himself to the Father to be a sweet-smelling savor to His satisfaction.

His inward parts were occupied with God’s house and His purpose, the zeal of God’s house consumed Him, and He chose the will of God above His own will. He denied His soul life, exercised His spirit, was one with the Father, and lived a life absolutely for God and His satisfaction.

There was nothing defiling in Him, and His mind and inward being was not defiled by the enemy or the world, for He was kept from defilement by the Holy Spirit.

We need to see who Christ is and how He fulfilled the type of the burnt offering, how He lived a life for the Father and His satisfaction, and how He wants to live the same kind of life in us today.

If we look at ourselves, we are not qualified to be the burnt offering, for we are not only sinful but also fully for ourselves, rebellious against God, and not for God. We need to experience Christ and take Him as our burnt offering, so that we may live the same kind of life today, a life for the satisfaction of God.

Our Main Problem is that we are Not Absolute for God but we are for Ourselves

The offerings are sacrifices that we present to God, and our common concept is that they relate mainly to our problems, our sins; because of our problems, we need to bring an offering to God to have peace with Him.

However, the first offering presented in Leviticus is not the trespass offering (which is offered for sins) but the burnt offering, typifying Christ not mainly in His redeeming man from sin but in His living a life that is absolutely for God.

We are concerned with our problems, and we think that when it comes to God, we first need to deal with our sins and the evil things we do; however, in Leviticus we are told that our main problem is not our sins but our not being for God but for ourselves (Lev. 1:3).

In the burnt offering we see a type of Christ in living an absolute and perfect life; He was offered without blemish to God, with no shortcomings or defects – this is from God’s point of view.

We need to offer Christ as the burnt offering, and we need to receive, enjoy, and experience Him as the One who enables us as God’s people to live the same kind of life. We need Christ first as our burnt offering because our first situation before God, our first problem related to God, is not a matter of sins, trespasses, or mistakes, but our not being for God.

We are sinners, and we are conscious of our trespasses, failures, and sins, but from God’s perspective, our first and main problem is that we are NOT absolute for God. Because we displaced ourselves from the proper position we had before God, we became wrong with God; this is the source leading to all other sins.

God created us to be His expression and His representation (Gen. 1:26); He created us in His image and according to His likeness so that we may be absolutely for God and His purpose.

God created us that we might be for Him; He didn’t create us for ourselves, but as fallen human beings, we live for ourselves, not for Him. This is our main problem.

It is very important to see what happened at the creation of man, because here we see God’s original creation in creating man.

God made in His own image, according to His likeness, so that man would express God and represent Him with His authority.

Man is not meant to live for himself but for God. God created not a God but a man, a human being in His image, so that this man after God’s kind and in God’s image would live for God to express Him and represent Him.

It is not right that we as human beings would live for something else besides God. But because of the fall of man, sin came in, we were distracted from God’s purpose, we were seduced by Satan, we took from the wrong tree, and we began to live for ourselves, no longer for God.

Therefore, man became fallen. God created man after His own kind, but through the fall, man became mankind. We need to see this and come to the Lord to tell Him,

Lord, we admit that our main problem is not our sins but not being absolute for God but being for ourselves. Oh Lord, we lay our hands on You as the burnt offering, and we want to experience You as the One who is absolute for God. You are what we are not: You are absolute for God, You lived a life absolutely for God, and You are the reality of the burnt offering. Lord, we admit that we are not one hundred percent for You, but we are so much for ourselves. We need You as our burnt offering!

Realizing that we are Not Absolutely for God, we take Christ as our Burnt Offering

Can we say that we care absolutely for God, and that in whatever we do and whatever we say, we are one hundred percent for God? No, none of us can say such a thing. We were created for God, but we are so much for ourselves.

We must take Christ as our burnt offering, for He was absolutely for God. When we enjoy Christ as our burnt offering, we will realize how sinful we are, how much we are for ourselves, and how much we need Him as our burnt offering.

We can know how sinful we are when we enjoy Christ as our burnt offering, for Christ is the only One who is absolute for God. If we realize how sinful we are, we will know that our love as well as our hate may be sinful, for both come from our being for ourselves and not from being for God.

We love others for ourselves, we hate them for ourselves, for we are so much for ourselves. We are not and we cannot be absolute for God, but praise the Lord for God’s provision – the burnt offering, Christ as the One who is absolute for God!

Christ as our burnt offering is completely for God, absolutely for God (see John 4:34; 5:30; Heb. 10:8-10). Whatever the Lord Jesus was, whatever He spoke, and whatever He did was absolutely for God and His satisfaction (see John 6:38; 5:17, 36, 43; 8:28; 10:25; 12:49-50).

In this universe there is such a One who lived a life absolutely for God. He came not only to die for our sins so that we may not be judged by God but be redeemed; He came to live a life that is absolutely and perfectly for God. While everyone else lived for themselves, here is One who lived absolutely for God.

Christ came to do the will of the Father; He came in the Father’s name and not in His own name. He did nothing from Himself, and He spoke not His own words but as His Father taught Him. He did nothing from Himself or for Himself.

He was God incarnate; He lived absolutely for God, and He offered Himself to God as the burnt offering, without blemish or spot. While everyone else is for himself, God made the provision to have Christ as the spotless Lamb as our burnt offering that we may lay our hands on Him and be identified with Him.

We need to realize that we are not for God but for ourselves, and we need to take Christ as our burnt offering, for He is the One who lived absolutely for God and for His satisfaction.

When we live independently of the Lord, we do everything in and for ourselves; we study, clean the house, go shopping, walk, hike, play sports, take care of chores, work, and do everything for ourselves.

But when we lay our hands on Christ as the burnt offering, we enjoy Him and experience Him as the One who is absolute for God. May we realize that even if we don’t do anything evil, we still are for ourselves and not for God, so we need Christ as our burnt offering.

Lord Jesus, we realize that we are not for You but so much for ourselves, so we need to take You as our burnt offering. Lord Jesus, You lived a life absolutely for God, and everything You spoke and did was for God and for His satisfaction. Thank You Lord for living such a life, a perfect human life that was absolutely for God. We take You as our burnt offering, we lay our hands on You, and we want to be identified with You to be able to live such a life for God. While everyone else is for himself, we take You as our God-given provision, the burnt offering, so that we may be enabled to be for God!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by James Lee for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Leviticus, msg. 23 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (1), week 3, The Continual Burnt Offering – a Living Sacrifice.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Lord, I take You as my sin offering for what I am, / But Lord, I take You as my burnt offering for what I’m not. / I’m not loving, submissive, patient, kind, or meek, / I’m not single in view, Lord, nor is it God I seek. / But dearest Lord, You’re all these things, all virtue’s in You, / So Lord I lay my hands on You in all I do. (Song on, Our burnt offering)
  # Thou art the burnt-oblation, / Consumed by holy fire; / To God as a sweet savor, / Fulfilling His desire. / Thou walkedst in God’s presence, / And all His will pursued; / Thyself the spotless offering, / For us to God as food. (Hymns #195)
  # My heart longs for absolute surrender / That I’d wholly consecrated be, / Not in word alone but all my being / Would be fully given unto Thee. / 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. (Song on, My heart longs for absolute surrender)