Excerpt from Fellowship in the Offering of Christ

Offering demonstrates the will of God done in one body.
Offering is for fellowship; this particularly links with the burnt offering.
Offering is for the process of reconciliation and redemption – linking with the sin and trespass offerings.
Offering is the activator of multiplication – linking with the grain offering and drink offering (the communion), and with the peace (heave and wave) offering as an economy of increase for every house.

Introduction – the terminology of offering

As we read the Scriptures, we find that the language of offering fills the landscape. In the Old Testament, the regular cycle of daily, monthly and festal offerings, based around the tabernacle as the centrepiece, is a constant emphasis. In the New Testament, writers such as Paul and Peter, being Jews, address church growth from a Hebrew perspective, using all the prophetic frameworks associated with the temple, priesthood and offering.

In our western culture, we have grown up with a Greek, rather than a Hebrew, way of thinking. So our dilemma in understanding the Scriptures is that our world-view and history are completely different from that of the writers. However, our minds can be renewed, and we can be illuminated by the Holy Spirit. ‘I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice … be transformed by the renewing of your mind.’ Romans 12:1,2.

These verses tell us that when we begin to offer ourselves as living sacrifices, our minds are renewed. We join the very fellowship of offering, in Christ, and begin to reason according to the mindset of offering. So it’s not enough to commence our study by examining the typology of the offerings, hoping to interpret them according to law. In fellowship, our eyes are opened to see Christ for who He is. He is the Lamb of God, the embodiment of offering, the expression of the very life of Yahweh Father, Son and Spirit. Offering is the whole of the will of God being accomplished, in eternity and time.

Let us now briefly orient ourselves to the language of offering and to the way in which we need to interpret from the true temple back to the Old Testament shadow.

By one offering, once for all

‘Behold! The Lamb of God.’ John 1:29. We’ll recall the way in which John the Baptist introduced Christ. To many listeners, this may have seemed a little unusual. Why did John compare Christ to a lamb? Obviously, to those who spoke against a background of Old Testament offering – where a lamb was offered every morning and evening – the designation ‘Lamb of God’ would have been full of meaning. Jesus was the Father’s offering, the Father’s Lamb.

The Father summed up the whole of His purpose in just ‘one offering’, and that offering was ‘once for all’. Hebrews 10:14,10. Whilst the subject of offering opens out to a vast extent, illustrated by a variety of types and shadows, the central point is very simple. Jesus Christ, as the Lamb slain, is the fulfilment of all offering. His offering was completely effective in fulfilling the will of God. He gathered all of us in all ages, into His offering, and established a process for all of us by which sin could be destroyed in the flesh – provided we join Him in the fellowship of His offering. This is the heart of our subject.

We know that God is love and love is expressed as offering, as giving. We can only understand God if we understand offering, for the Father, Son and Spirit do not behave in any way other than offering. The theme of offering is the essence of the Scriptures. So then, offering within the Godhead is the model for all offering. Christ is the substance and evidence of offering, and so we are told that we should walk as He walked and love as He loved. To be a Christian is to participate in Christ’s offering. Then as we share in this fellowship, we are called to offer according to the portion of His offering that is committed to us.

Lifting up offering

A most arresting promise is contained in the Scripture, ‘And I, if I am lifted up … will draw all peoples to Myself’. John 12:32. The ‘lifting up’ of Christ is the point where all the purposes of God are achieved. As Jesus Himself said, ‘When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I AM He [the word ‘He’ is not in the original Greek text]’. John 8:28. The other side of this amazing theme is that He is also lifted up as ‘the serpent’ – ie ‘made ... to be sin’ for our sake. John 3:14; 2 Corinthians 5:21. So, on the positive side, it’s in the lifting up (a theme that connects with heave and wave offering) that He draws us all to Himself, while on the negative side He abolishes law, casts down Satan and destroys sin and death.

The first point is that we are drawn to Him, and included in Him, when we perceive His being lifted up as the full provision of offering. This is the extent of the ‘knowledge of the Holy One’. Proverbs 9:10. We are bidden to gain knowledge of the fellowship of offering, as it exists with the Holy One – Yahweh Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Next, we cannot even begin to ‘behold I AM’ and understand the mystery of the lifting up of the Son of Man until we present ourselves as a living sacrifice and until we begin to ‘lift up’ offering. This is why the themes of wave and heave offering become so essential (these offerings were literally ‘lifted up’) in bridging to a proper participation in Christ.

Christ was the Father’s offering – the only acceptable offering. How then do we become an acceptable offering? How do we become the fragrance of Christ that ascends to the Father, like the morning and evening sacrifices? We must comprehend Christ as the whole burnt offering, and learn how to offer into the fellowship of His one offering. We are to present ourselves to take up our appointed place in the fellowship of His sufferings. As we come to this understanding, we find that the pathway of offering established by Christ is also a pathway of suffering as it comes into the realm of time and space, where sin abounds. And so as we present ourselves to take up our appointed place in the fellowship of His offering we are, at the same time and in the same manner, presenting ourselves to join the fellowship of His sufferings.

For us, this is truly the ‘way of understanding’. Proverbs 9:6. This is the pathway of life. As we behold ‘I AM’ and see that we are drawn to be ‘found in Him’, in the fellowship of His offering, we can flee ‘for refuge’, Hebrews 6:18, within the veil, 6:19 KJV – indeed, to the mercy seat itself. There at the mercy seat, we discover the absolute efficacy of His blood. His blood is completely effective and establishes access to the throne of grace. Romans 3:25; Hebrews 4:16. Here, as we draw near in full confidence, we can participate in the fellowship of His offering. Hebrews 10:22.

The blood of His sacrifice is held out to us as the ‘cup of blessing’, signifying the entire process by which we are made ‘complete … to do His will’, and signifying the power of eternal increase. Hebrews 13:21. This is the meaning of Paul’s statement, ‘I commend you to God and to the word of His grace which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified’. Acts 20:32.