Title: Christ our
Burnt Offering
Text: Ex 29: 15-18
Date: March 22, 2020
Place: SGBC, NJ
Our subject: Christ our Burnt Offering
Exodus 29: 1: And
this is the thing that thou shalt do unto them to hallow them, to minister unto
me in the priest’s office: Take one young bullock, and two rams without
blemish,…15: Thou shalt also take one ram; and Aaron and his sons shall put
their hands upon the head of the ram. 16: And thou shalt slay the ram, and thou
shalt take his blood, and sprinkle it round about upon the altar. 17: And
thou shalt cut the ram in pieces, and wash the inwards of him, and his legs,
and put them unto his pieces, and unto his head. 18: And thou shalt burn
the whole ram upon the altar: it is a burnt offering unto the LORD: it is
a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the LORD.
Last time we saw how the
bullock was used for the sin-offering.
It pictured Christ giving himself as a sin-bearing sacrifice to put away
the sins of people. This time we will see
how one ram without blemish was used for a burnt offering. This, too, pictures Christ.
Proposition: The
burnt offering typifies Christ offering himself unto God his Father in perfect holiness,
in the totality of his life being consecrated to God, which was an offering acceptable
to God in whom his people are accepted of God.
A DIFFERENT
TRANSFERENCE
Exodus 29: 15: Thou
shalt also take one ram; and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the
head of the ram.
With the sin-offering, putting their hands on the head of
the spotless bullock pictured the sins of God’s elect transferred to
Christ. It typified the Lord laying on him
the iniquity of all his elect. Christ became
the sole sin-bearer when he made him sin for us, who knew no sin. Christ became the only one the law said must
die out of all God’s elect.
With the burnt offering, the hands put on the head of the
ram, pictures a transference of God’s elect themselves. Christ became his people when he was made of
a woman like unto his brethren. He took
our place. What Christ did, his elect did
in him. The sin-offering was Christ
bearing our sin; the burnt-offering is Christ bearing his people. The sin offering was to make his people
justified; the burnt offering was to make his people accepted
God requires perfect, holy, consecration, obedience and love—in
order for God to accept us. But not one
of God’s elect can meet that requirement—not before, not after we are regenerated. How then can God accept any of his chosen
people? God only accepts his people in
the Beloved.
Ephesians 1: 3: Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places IN CHRIST 4 According as he hath chosen us IN HIM before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him IN LOVE:…6…wherein he hath made us accepted IN THE BELOVED.
The sin-offering typifies our sins put away by Christ; the
burnt offering typifies our rejection put away by Christ. The burnt-offering
pictures Christ offering himself completely to God—his life, his obedience, his
love, his consecration, all that he is.
And because Christ was perfect in his consecration and commitment to
God, his offering came up a sweet savor unto God wherein all God’s elect are accepted
in Christ the Beloved.
EVEN UNTO DEATH
Exodus 29: 16: And
thou shalt slay the ram, and thou shalt take his blood, and sprinkle it
round about upon the altar.
The dedication and
perfect commitment Christ gave to God his Father is manifest in that it was
even unto death.
In order to give God’s
elect acceptance with God, Christ had to make atonement. His blood must be shed. Christ had to die in our room and stead. Our sins must be put away. We must be justified before the law. In order for God to accept sinners like us
Christ had to shed his own blood for without the shedding of blood there is no
remission of sins.
But, brethren, Christ
putting away our sins was pictured in the sin-offering. Why must the burnt offering be slain and his
blood be poured out around the altar? It
is because if we would be accepted of God as perfectly hallowed and consecrated
to God—as having given God perfect, unwavering dedication—then Christ’s consecration
must be perfect. What could better
manifest this than that Christ willingly laid down his life, that Christ gave
up his own blood, for God and his brethren.
Christ was so obedient and consecrated to God that it was even to the shedding
of his own life’s blood unto death.
Christ told us nothing manifests love and dedication than this.
John 15: 13: Greater
love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
That is how perfectly consecrated our Savior is to his
Father and to us, his brethren. He
willingly gave his own life’s blood pictured by the blood of the burnt offering
poured out. Christ poured out his life
to God to accomplish God’s will to save his elect in a way that gives God all
the glory. That way is by declaring God
just and Justifier. Christ committed
himself to not only to justify us from our sins but to do it in way that declared
God a Just God and a Savior. By such dedication
to God to carry that will of his Father out, Christ was a sweetsmelling savor
unto God—and we in him. So two things
were accomplished on the cross—we were justified of all our sins and our
commitment to God came up a sweetsavor and we were accepted in Christ.
EVEN UNTO THE DEATH
OF THE CROSS
Exodus 29: 17: And thou shalt cut the ram in pieces, and
wash the inwards of him, and his legs, and put them unto his pieces, and
unto his head.
We see typified here
the perfection of Christ’s commitment to God the Father. As if it were not enough to manifest how
perfectly Christ was committed to his Father by showing that he poured out his
own life’s blood, here we are shown that the cruel suffering of the cross
manifests even more how perfect Christ’s commitment was to God. It is one thing to be do devoted that you are
willing to die; it is another thing to be willing to die in such a painful, shameful
way as our Savior on the cursed cross.
When Christ took the form of a servant, as a Man
representing his people, in order to be accepted of God as perfect—in order to
be a sweet smelling savor to God—Christ had to be perfect in obedience and
commitment to God entirely, in body, soul and spirit.
By cutting the ram in pieces it pictures the excruciating
torments Christ endured inwardly as well as outwardly, in spirit as well as in
flesh, when the sword of his own Father was awakened upon him. Indeed, his body was racked with pain but
his soul agony was far worse! He
saw heaven closed to him and hell opened to swallow him up. No one in heaven or earth was there to help
as our Substitute trod the winepress of the fury of God’s wrath alone. He was the burnt offering cut in pieces when
he said,
Psalm 22: 14: I am poured
out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is
melted in the midst of my bowels. 15: My strength is dried up like a potsherd;
and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of
death.
Read that last phrase
again. As painful as his bodily pain was,
it paled in comparison to knowing that it was his Father that had brought him
into the dust of the death. While
hanging upon the tree with the sin of his people in his own body, God the
Father turned his back on Christ. Christ
cried out but got no response from the Father he loved only justice.
By washing the inward
parts and the legs of the ram it pictures the perfection of Christ’s obedience
to God, even as he bore the intense burning of the cross. He was full of unwavering faithfulness and consecration,
even when suffering that incomparable travail, crying, ‘My God, my God why
hast thou forsaken me?”
ACCEPTANCE OF DELIGHT
Exodus 29: 18: And thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the
altar: it is a burnt offering unto the LORD: it is a sweet savour, an offering
made by fire unto the LORD.
In verse 13 the
clean, inward parts of the sin-offering were burned on the altar. But in verse 14, God said, “But the flesh of the
bullock, and his skin, and his dung, shalt thou burn with fire without the
camp: it is a sin-offering.” God
required the dirtier parts of the bullock to be burned without the camp. The word “burn” means “consume.” It typified
that by bearing our sin and suffering the death of the cross without the gate,
Christ consumed the sin and curse of his people.
But in v18, God says “thou
shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar.” Here it’s a different word.
Here “burn” is not to consume but to “burn as incense.” Why the difference? “It is a burnt offering
unto the LORD: it is a sweet savour, [restful, pleasing, delightsome]; an
offering made by fire unto the LORD.”
Christ’s perfect obedience
to God, his perfect love to God and his brethren, all of which was manifest by
Christ laying down his life on the cruel cross was a burnt offering. It was meant to come up to God for
acceptance. And it did! It came up to God a sweet savor of rest, a savor
pleasing to God, a savor in which God takes infinite delight! And because God accepts Christ and delights
in Christ as the perfectly consecrated, dedicated servant of God, also God accepts
his people in the Beloved as the same sweet savor!
GOD’S APPLICATION
At times we become
critical of our brethren and lose patience with them. They offend us or they do not treat us as we
think they ought. Slowly, we begin to find
fault. Perhaps, they are not being as
obedient to God as they ought. It can be
very true that they are not. But if we
are not careful, what we really mean in our hearts (though we would never say
it) is that they are not being as obedient as we have been. The next thing you know we find ourselves
becoming bitter, unkind, unforgiving, unloving.
For the child of God,
when that happens, without fail God the Spirit comes in grace to his child and
makes us ask ourselves some questions. He makes me ask myself, “Is my unforgiving spirit
being obedient to God? Is my bitter spirit
the obedience God works in the hearts of his child? Here I am criticizing my brother for outward
sins but am I being obedient to God from the heart as I ought? Have I, in and of myself, ever been consecrated
to God in perfection, in every part, inwardly and outwardly entirely?” The Spirit of God reminds us that perfect
obedience and consecration is what God requires and none of us, of ourselves,
has ever given it.
Then the Spirit of God grants his child repentance. Then I find myself sorrowful over the way I’ve
treated my brother, my sister. But in
the midst of my sorrow, the Spirit brings to remembrance what God says about me
and about all my brethren. God says that
by Christ our Sin-offering we are perfectly righteous before the all-knowing Judge. By Christ our Burnt Offering, our lives—past,
present and future—have been so entirely consecrated, devoted, and obedient in love
to God and our brethren that we are a sweet-smelling savor unto God. I am a sweet-smelling savor. But even more needful, the Spirit of God reminds
me that that brother I have been so critical of is also a sweet-smelling savor
unto God.
Then the Spirit of God makes me hear God speak these
words to me. He makes me cease having
that defiled spirit where I say that I hope my brother hears this word. He purges our conscience and makes me hear
this word for myself. After beholding
Christ give himself a sacrifice for our sins as our sin-offering and after
beholding Christ give himself an offering to God as our burnt-offering, this is
what God says to me personally and this is what God says to you personally:
Ephesians 4: 31: Let
all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put
away from you, with all malice: 32: And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, FORGIVING ONE ANOTHER, EVEN AS GOD FOR CHRIST’S SAKE HATH
FORGIVEN YOU. 5: 1: Be ye therefore
followers of God, as dear children; 2: And WALK IN LOVE, AS CHRIST ALSO HATH
LOVED US, AND HATH GIVEN HIMSELF FOR US AN OFFERING AND A SACRIFICE TO GOD FOR
A SWEETSMELLING SAVOUR.
Believer try to enter into this! We are not trying to make any sacrifice to
justify ourselves—Christ has put away our sins; God has forgiven us for his
sake. We are not trying to offer
anything to God to gain God’s acceptance. In Christ, by his perfection we have already given
to God a perfect life of perfect obedience and perfect love and are accepted in
the Beloved! Let us remember that about
ourselves. But most of all, when we
would be critical of a brother or sister in Christ, let us remember that about
our brethren!
Amen!