Offerings - Personal for You #1
Your salvation is in them all
Offerings as a Whole by Andrew Jukes UNION with Christ is that which essentially constitutes a Christian. Nor is this union something changeful or visionary: it is a reality wrought by the Holy Spirit. The Church is "in Christ a Jesus;" (Rom.12:5; 2 Cor.5:17; Gal.1:22; Eph.1:3; 1 Thes.4:16; 1 John 5:20, etc.etc.) and, as a consequence, "as He is, so are we in the world;" (I John 4:17) identified with Him in His shame and in His joys; in His death, His burial, and His resurrection (Rom.6:4,8; Col.2:12; 3:1). And truly the figures which are used to describe this union are such as we should never have dared to appropriate, had they not been given to us in our Father's Word, and were they not sealed in our hearts by His Spirit. What is the fellowship of brethren? What the union of the bridegroom and bride? What is the union of members with the head, of the branches with the vine, yea, of Christ with God: such is the union of saints with Christ, such the bond which binds us to Him. Not only does Christ say of His people, - "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world;" (John 17:14,16) but if He is "the Head," they are "the members," and both but "one body." "As the many members are one body, so also is Christ" (1 Cor.12:12). The context and argument here plainly demand that the sense should be, "so also is the Church;" but the Church and Christ are not twain, but one:" (Eph.5:31,32) therefore the Apostle writes, "So also is Christ:" "For ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular." "And no man ever yet hated his own body; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church: for we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones" (Eph.5"29,30). This union has its consequences, and they are most important, having reference to our standing and to our walk in Christ. For the FIRST of these, our STANDING in Christ, faith apprehends it: and thus we have peace with God. We see a man, "the man Christ Jesus," as man in perfectness standing "for us:" by His perfect sacrifice of Himself meeting God's claim on man, and thus in His person reconciling man to God. The sight of this, or rather the faith of it, gives peace. We see man reconciled to God through the blood of Jesus. His place, therefore, is now by faith apprehended as ours. Through Him, and in Him, by the Spirit, we claim and realize it. But the union of Christ and His Church not only affects our standing; it must, if it be a reality, affect our WALK. It is true, indeed, that our walk, as being part of our experience, and our experience being but the measure of our apprehension, through our lack of spiritual power, is constantly short of that for which we are apprehended (Phil.3:12) ... "He that saith he abideth in Him, ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked" (1 John 2:6) ... If we are Christ's, it must necessarily take us further, leading us to know what should be the measure of our WALK, and teaching us to judge in it, as unbecoming our calling, all that in us is CONTRARY to the WALK of Christ. If it be true that we are indeed His members, by the living Spirit bound to Him, to be His for ever; if it be true that in Him we are dead and risen, and if through grace we can rejoice in this; we are only the more called on in the knowledge of this to SEEK to be CONFORMED to Him, that so the things which are true for us in Him, may be made true in our soul's experience by the Spirit. Now, there are not a few who seem to see one part of this truth, but who appear incapable of receiving both parts; ... As a consequence, they lower the standard of their WALK, seeking only just so much of the Spirit's fruits as will prove them Christians. Others again, having read of Christ's oneness with His Church, and as a consequence the believer's acceptance in Him, seem often by no means equally to understand the necessary connexion of this with their WALK as Christians. Such profess to see their union with Christ, that He died for them, that they died in Him, without seeing that this union, if indeed it be real, MUST INVOLVE their DAILY dying with Him. Indeed, the very reverse of this is practically asserted. They seem to think Christ died in the flesh, that they might live in it. With such the doctrine really is this, Christ died to sin that I might live to sin. I ask, is there anything like this to be found within the whole compass of Scripture? Such a doctrine exhibited as it is in the lives of hundreds, though practically denying our union with Christ, because so often stated by those who profess to know that union, has done more than ought else to hide it. The humble soul, shrinking from the thought of making Christ's love to us an indulgence or apology for sin, recoils instinctively from that which, while it speaks of union with Christ, in WORKS utterly denies it. To connect this with THE OFFERINGS. The Offerings set forth Christ. We see in them how man in Christ has made atonement. Our standing as believers immediately flows from this: for "as He is, so are we in this world." We look at the Sin and Trespass-offerings, and see that the sin of man has been fully borne. We look at the Burnt and Meat-offerings, and see all God's requirements satisfied. And this is our confidence, that as Christ "for us " has been without the camp, as "for us" He has been laid on the altar; so truly do we, if quickened by His Spirit, stand in Him, even as He is "for by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified" (Heb.10:14). But there is also the other aspect of this truth. We are one with Christ: therefore we should WALK even AS He walked. In this view His Offering, as our example, sets before us the model and standard for our self-sacrifice. And just as Christ's sacrifice for us had varied aspects, as satisfying God, as satisfying man, as bearing sin; so, though of course in a lower sense, will our self-sacrifice, just as it is conformed to His, and because we are one with Him, have these same aspects. It is in this way that, in a secondary sense, the Typical offerings have an application to Christians. Thus we also are offerers and our bodies offerings; as it is written, "Present your bodies a living sacrifice" (Rom.12:1). Not as though by our self-sacrifice we could make Christ's Offering for us more acceptable: - "We are sanctified by the offering of His body once for all;" (Heb.10:10) - "we are made accepted in the Beloved:" (Eph.1:6) ... Of course there is in His pure Offering that which will find no counterpart in us. Dissimilarities neither few nor small arise from the fact that He was sinless, we sinners. Yet the saint, as in spirit alive with Christ, as entering into His willing mind, (1 Cor.2:16) yea, as already one with Him, as in Him dead and risen, will seek further "to be made conformable to His death" (Phil.3:10)... I proceed therefore to trace, in conclusion, how far the various aspects of the offering of the body of Christ, may be applicable to those who, being members of His mystical body, are CALLED to WALK even as HE walked. 1. And first THE BURNT-OFFING. This was man satisfying God: man in Christ giving himself to God as His portion. We have seen how for us this was fulfilled in Christ. We inquire how far in us it may be fulfilled by the Spirit. And in this light, both in its measure and character, the Burnt-offering stands a witness how we should "yield ourselves" (Rom.6:13). First, as to its measure. It was "wholly burnt." No part was withheld from God. Can we mistake this teaching? Does it not plainly say that conformity to Christ must cost us something, yea, that it involves entire self-surrender, even though that surrender lead us to the cross? "I will not," said David, "offer unto the Lord a Burnt-offering of that which doth cost me nothing" (2 Sam.24:24). The Burnt-offering is still costly, befitting Him who receives it at our hands. The Burnt-offering was God's claim; that claim was love; as He said, "Thou shalt love the Lord with all thine heart." The fulfilment of this required a life from Christ. It will demand our lives just in measure as we walk with Him. "For love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave; the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame" (Canticles 8:6). And in these days when pious worldliness is so successfully misusing the truth of God; - when, in the light of the advanced wisdom of this our age, self-sacrifice is exploded folly; - when the mere fact that a path involves loss in this world, is considered a good reason for our at once avoiding it; - when the doctrine of the cross, as it bears upon OUR WALK, is not only omitted, but openly condemned; - when to give up the world is injudiciousness, and to crucify the flesh a return to law; - in such days we do well to look at the Burnt-offering, as setting before us the example we are called to follow. (And at the beginning of the 21st century, we find even more so, that "grace" is turned into a licence (Jude 3,4) to reject the commandments of God. In my youthful days still in my late teens, in the year 1961, I heard broadcasted loud and clear on Radio, and saw in the written print of various fundamental groups (in North America) the teaching and preaching of the "no law" - "law abolished" - "law done away with." I came to see very quickly the main reason as to why such ideas were being promulgated. It was because of the FOURTH commandment, which is clear and plain in its wording, and some-how, in some way, many wanted to get around the duty to observe the fourth commandment of the great TEN. They themselves knew that to observe it would mean a WALK that was so contrary to popular Christianity, they would loose their followers, and many of their friends, and/or relatives, hence their pay-check if full-time minster, and their popularity with the majority. The FULLY BURNT sacrifice of their lives was not fully burnt at all. They had never come to see the life sacrifice they were called to WALK, and what being IN Christ really was all about - Keith Hunt). Alas! that it should be so, but it is not denied, by some it is even gloried in, that Christianity now involves no loss; the times are altered: the world is changed. The offence of the cross has ceased, they that live godly need not suffer (see 2 Tim.3:12). A path has been found, a happy path some think it, wherein the highest profession of Christ costs nothing; nay, in which such a profession, so far from involving the loss of this world, is the surest way to gain its praise. According to this doctrine, Christ suffered for us; apostles, prophets, martyrs, all suffered. They, in their pilgrimage, lost this world for another; but we, in happier days, can possess both worlds. It CANNOT be. If God's Word be true, our path after Christ must be still a sacrifice. We, as they of old, if followers of Christ, must with Him "present our bodies a living sacrifice" (Rom.12:1). And indeed it we do but weigh these words, - "Present your bodies a living sacrifice," - we cannot shut our eyes to what is involved in them, and that we are called to give up ourselves. Can we do this without cost, or without feeling that sacrifice is in deed sacrifice, though it be willing sacrifice? Impossible. Christ felt His sacrifice: and so surely shall we, if we offer with Him. Nor shall we grudge this. Just as it was His joy to give Himself; as He said, "I delight to do Thy will, O God;" (Ps.11:8) so in us also, as quickened with Him, "the spirit is willing, though the flesh is weak" (Mat.26:41). I do not wish to press every detail of the Burnt offering in its application to our individual walk, yet the general character of the victim may be a guide to the character, as its entire surrender was to the measure, of our offering. We saw, in the application of the type to Christ, how its varieties of bullock, lamb, and turtledove, each brought out some distinct particular in the character of our blessed Lord. In each of these we have an example we can comprehend, however far we may be from attaining to it. Would to God that in active yet patient service, in silent unmurmuring submission, in gentleness and innocency of life, we might be conformed to Him who went before us. These emblems of His offering, if they mean anything, sufficiently shew us, - even as His example shewed it, - that self-sacrifice is not to make us great in this world: service, submission, meekness, will gain no crown here. We cannot be heroes in this world, if we offer ourselves to God in the character these emblems typify. But if conformed to them, we shall be more like Christ. May He give us grace gladly to acquiesce in the likeness! He, as man in a proud and violent world, yea, and for us, was all that these emblems typify. He bore the cross such a character involved; He shrunk not from the reproach it brought Him. He was despised and rejected of men, as a lamb slain, and none to pity. In a word, and this is indeed the sum of it, He was content to be nothing, that God might be all. May the corresponding reality be more manifested in us, through subjection to the power of His indwelling Spirit. ................... TO BE CONTINUED THE BURNT OFFERING WAS CONSUMED; ALL GIVEN TO GOD. THE NEW TESTAMENT TEACHES OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN, WE MUST GIVE OUR ALL TO THE FATHER THROUGH CHRIST JESUS. THERE MUST BE NOTHING THAT WE CANNOT GIVE UP, PUT ASIDE, TO FOLLOW OUR SIN BEARER. A MEMBER OF THE GODHEAD CAME AS TEACHER AND LEADER AND AS SIN BEARER; HE TOOK THE SINS OF EVERYONE UPON HIMSELF SO WE COULD HAVE EVERLASTING LIFE. BUT IT MEANS WE MUST BE A LIVING BURNT OFFERING FOR GOD. ALL OF US MUST BE GIVEN TO HIM FULLY AND COMPLETELY. JESUS TAUGHT TO GIVE YOUR LIFE FOR HIM AND THE GOSPEL, YOU WOULD SAVE YOUR LIFE INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD. Keith Hunt |
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