Crystallization-Study of Leviticus (1)
Message Eight
Taking Christ as Our Trespass Offering for God’s Purpose
Scripture Reading: Lev. 5:1-4, 6-8, 11, 15-16; 1 John 1:7-9; Acts 24:16; Psa. 51:2
I. The trespass offering signifies Christ as our offering resolving the problem of sins in our conduct—1 Pet. 2:24; Isa. 53:5-6, 10-11; cf. Matt. 27:38; Luke 23:42-43:
A. Taking Christ as our trespass offering with the confession of our sins in the divine light is the way to drink Christ as the living water for us to become the New Jerusalem—John 4:14-18.
B. 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—1 John 1:2-3, 5-9; Acts 24:16.
C. Taking Christ as our trespass offering to receive the forgiveness of sins issues in our fearing God and loving God—Psa. 130:4; Luke 7:47-50.
D. Ministering Christ as the sin-dealing life to the saints kills the germs, destroys the problems, and maintains the oneness of the Spirit—John 8:1-11; 1 John 5:16; Rom. 2:4b; Lev. 10:17; Gal. 6:1.
II. 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:
A. Since God knows the record of our sinful doings, it is best for us to ask Him to rid us of that record by confessing—1 John 1:7, 9.
B. After such a thorough and fine confession, we will be filled with the Spirit essentially and economically to make us buoyant and bold in our God to speak the gospel of God—cf. Num. 21:16-18; 1 Thes. 2:2, 4.
III. The trespass offering eventually becomes the sin offering, signifying that Christ’s redemption for our sin resolves the problem of sin in its two aspects: sin in our inward nature and sins in our outward conduct—Lev. 5:6-8, 11-12; John 1:29.
IV. Two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering, form a trespass offering, signifying that the source of every trespass is the sin that is in our flesh, and the reason for every trespass is our not living absolutely for God—Lev. 5:7.
V. Leviticus 5 speaks of four particular items that need the trespass offering so that God’s people can live a holy, clean, and rejoicing life for them to be incorporated with the Triune God for His glory—vv. 1-4:
A. To fail to testify to the truth concerning what we know is to be dishonest and unfaithful, unlike our God, who is faithful and honest; this actually deals with lying, which involves Satan, the father of lies—v. 1; John 8:44.
B. To touch the uncleanness of spiritual death is the most serious thing in the eyes of God—Lev. 5:2:
1. If we are to live a holy life separated from death, we need to exercise care concerning our contact with people—ch. 11; Acts 10:9b-15, 27-29:
a. Animals that divide the hoof and chew the cud signify persons who have discernment in their activities and who receive the word of God with much reconsideration—Lev. 11:2-3.
b. Aquatic animals that have fins and scales signify persons who can move and act freely in the world, simultaneously resisting its influence—v. 9.
c. Birds that have wings for flying and that eat seeds of life as their food supply signify persons who can live and move in a life that is away from and above the world and who take the things of life as their supply of life—cf. vv. 13-19.
d. Insects that have wings and jointed legs above their feet for leaping on the ground signify persons who can live and move in a life that is above the world and who can keep themselves from the world—vv. 21-22.
2. The carcasses of the animals in Leviticus 5:2 refer to three different kinds of spiritual death that may spread among God’s people in the church life: beasts signify wild death, cattle signify mild death, and creeping things signify subtle death—Rom. 14:15, 20; 16:17:
a. Regardless of its kind, death is unclean, filthy, and defiling; death is the most hateful thing in the eyes of God—cf. 1 Cor. 15:26.
b. According to the typology in the Old Testament, death is more defiling than sin (see footnote 2 on Lev. 11:31).
3. We need to be Nazarites who are separated from death and filled with life, “anti-death”—Num. 6:6-8; Rom. 8:6.
C. The uncleanness of man signifies that everything that is discharged from the natural man and the natural life, whether good or bad, is unclean—Lev. 5:3; cf. Matt. 15:17-20; 16:21-25.
D. To speak rashly before God, expressing our opinion in a hasty, careless, and reckless way, indicates that we do not live for God and do not fear God—Lev. 5:4; cf. Matt. 17:24-27; John 7:3-8.
VI. In Leviticus 5:11 fine flour, signifying the humanity of Jesus, is used for a sin offering, signifying that we commit sins because we are short of the humanity of Jesus:
A. This indicates that we commit sins not only because we have sin in our nature and not only because we are not absolute for God but also because we do not have the humanity of Jesus; in His humanity Jesus has no sin in Him and is absolute for God.
B. The tenth part of an ephah of fine flour offered for a sin offering signifies that only a small portion of the humanity of Jesus is needed to kill the negative things within us and to supply our need.
VII. Making restitution and adding to it one-fifth more signifies that the one who offers the trespass offering should be righteous in material things according to the divine scale, standard, and measurement—vv. 15-16; cf. Luke 19:8.
VIII. “David begot Solomon of her who had been the wife of Uriah”—Matt. 1:6:
A. Psalm 51 was composed after David’s great sin in murdering Uriah and robbing him of his wife and then being rebuked by Nathan:
1. “Against You and You alone have I sinned, / And I have done what is evil in Your sight”—v. 4.
2. “Hide Your face from my sins, / And blot out all my iniquities”—v. 9.
3. “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; / A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise”—v. 17.
4. “Do good in Your good pleasure unto Zion; / Build the walls of Jerusalem”—v. 18.
B. The issue of the “marriage” of David’s transgression and repentance with God’s forgiveness was Solomon (“peaceful”), the one who built the temple of God—2 Sam. 7:12-14a; 2 Chron. 3:1:
1. The church is always built up by this kind of person—a Solomon—one who is the issue of man’s transgression and repentance plus God’s forgiveness.
2. When we experience the marriage of our transgression and repentance with God’s forgiveness, we become very useful in the building up of the church.