I learned in my reading the Life-Study of Leviticus that the five basic offerings in Leviticus form a kind of cycle. And here’s how. Whenever I come to God in the morning, I realize a lot that I'm not for God. Because of that I need to lay my hands on Christ symbolically as my burnt offering because He's the only One who is absolute for God. Then as I begin to read God's word and pray, I realize I'm receiving Christ into me as the reality of the meal offering.
My receiving of Christ as my spiritual food brings me into a fellowship with God, and this fills my hearts with peace. In Ephesians 2:15 I learned that through Christ's death He reconciled sinners to God and became the peace offering. At this juncture in my fellowship with God, He is able to shine on my hearts and point out to me my sins and shortcomings. Then like 1 John 1:9 says I can just confess what I see to God and ask for His forgiveness. In this way I can have the experience Christ as my sin offering.
But why do we sin anyway? In order to get this, you have to go all the way back to Genesis 3. Here we see a talking serpent pressuring Eve to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Instead of checking with her husband or going to God like she should have, she took matters into her own hands. Satan knew his evil nature was inside of that fruit, and if they ate it, it would get inside of them. God's enemy thought for sure if that happened, he would destroy God’s purpose for them.
God is never outdone by His enemy. All of this was part of God's well-thought out plan. This never ceases to amaze me! The first time the word sin was ever used is in reference to God's judgment on Satan who is typified by the prince of Tyre in Ezekiel 28:16. This judgment took place long before Adam and Eve were ever created.
The sin offering deals with our sinful nature, with sin as the nature of our fallen being. The nature of our fallen being is sin, and this sinful nature is the essence, the substance, the element of Satan. Our sinful nature--the sin in our being--is satanic. We may even say it is Satan himself. Sin, which is rebellion, is Satan. This sin has been injected into us, causing us to be constituted sinners (Rom. 5:19), that is, sinners in constitution. Human beings, therefore, are a constitution of sin. We need to see that our being is fully constituted with sin, with the enemy of God. The sin offering deals with our nature of sin....Christ was crucified as sin. When He was crucified, sin also was crucified, and we were crucified as well (Lee. Witness. Life-Study of Leviticus. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1989, Print).
Like this chapter points out Satan became the embodiment of sin, and Romans 5:12 tells us this sinful nature has been passed down: Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
But what happens when we’re regenerated? I met a believer once who did not believe she could sin any more. But according to the truth in 1 John 1:8 and 10, believers can sin because they still have Satan's evil nature within them. This makes our Christian life quite a battle at times. And that's why we need to start every day before God's face. We know from the Bible (Romans 8:23) that there will be a day when our body will be freed from sin. I'm looking forward to that day!! But until then I know I need to keep myself in this cycle of enjoying Christ daily as my burnt offering, meal offering, peace offering, and sin offering!
You can listen to excerpts of Witness Lee's speaking the Life-Study of Leviticus on Life Study of the Bible with Witness Lee. You can also read the online Life-Studies of Leviticus and check out other resources available to enhance your study of the Bible on Living Stream Ministry's website.
Other Posts on Leviticus:
What is the Purpose of the Offerings in Leviticus 1:2?
Why Does Leviticus Start with the Burnt Offering in Leviticus 1:4?
What is the spiritual Meaning of the Meal Offering in Leviticus 2:1?
Taking a Closer Look at the Peace Offering in Leviticus 3:1
What Do You Know About Christ as the Sin Offering?
What is the Meaning of the Trespass Offering in Leviticus 5?
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