03.13. Chapter 13. Christian Sacrifices

Chapter 13. Christian Sacrifices

During four thousand years sacrifices were offered up, and accepted by God, which told of man’s condition as a sinner; for eighteen hundred years God has desired from His people no sacrifices but those suited for saints. Taught of God, men brought the former; instructed by the Holy Ghost, God’s children should present the latter. An altar, of which they have no right to eat who serve the tabernacle, is ours now who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. This marks a difference between Christianity and Judaism. But, as the priests of the house of Aaron fed on the sacrifices, being partakers of the altar, in spirit in the most holy place (Num. xviii. 10), but in person in the holy place in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation (Lev. vi. 16, 26; vii. 6), so we, as priests, have something to feed on, in the heavenly sanctuary to which we now have access; and, as feeding on what God has provided, should bring the offerings He has appointed, and, strengthened in our souls for service, present those sacrifices with which He is well pleased. When the truth of man’s condition by nature as a sinner is apprehended, that he is dead in trespasses and sins, a lifeless soul before God, the folly of his doing anything to earn a title to divine favour, or to commend himself to Him against whom he has been living in rebellion, is manifested and admitted. Life, it is seen, must precede activity. The sinner must be born of God before he can please God. The quickening power of God in grace is as much needed to act on his soul, as the Creator’s power was requisite to bring him forth from the womb. This is the lesson which man is slow to learn, and, till he has learned it, if his conscience has been at all aroused, he is the subject of a grievous delusion, attempting as an unsaved soul what none but a saint can effect. The sinner must receive from God; the saint should render to God. For the sinner God has provided and accepted the sacrifice; from a saint He is willing to receive one. The sacrifice of Christ meets all the sinner needs, and because of it, when trusted to, believers have something which they can offer. Of old, in the sanctuary was the appointed place for the worshipper to draw near; now, outside the camp, bearing the reproach of Christ, believers must be found. To one familiar with the history of Israel in the wilderness, these words "without the camp" present no vague idea: for, when the people at Sinai had departed openly from God in making the golden calf, all, who were true-hearted in the midst of the general defection, went outside the camp to the tent which Moses had there pitched. (Ex. xxxiii. 7.) So again, when the Hebrews in the Apostle’s day, obedient to Moses, gave heed to the prophet for whom he had directed them to wait (Deut. xviii. 18), they found that their place, like that of the faithful before them, was outside the camp. Profession without life would not do, and obedience to God’s word forced them into this trying position. A new place befitted them, as a new calling characterised them. A heavenly calling was theirs, with a place on earth outside the camp. The temple ritual, with the instruments of music David made, they had given up to go outside the camp, but not as silent sufferers from the malice and hostility of their brethren. They bore a reproach, it is true, a reproach which for flesh and blood is hard to bear, they bore His reproach who had suffered without the gate. Jerusalem, Canaan, with all the promises of earthly glory in connection with Messiah on Mount Zion, they gave up; the land, in which they had lived as theirs by divine favour, they came to regard as no longer their home; pilgrims and strangers, they journeyed forth afresh, like the patriarchs with a home in prospect; like the people in the wilderness, with a country in promise, but of which, though tasting the fruits, they had not the full enjoyment. They had on earth no continuing city, but they sought one to come. What a change this was for them! Peter tells us something of it, as he directs the eye of the faithful among the dispersion from earth and earthly hopes to heaven and the appearing of Christ. As strangers, then, and pilgrims, they went forth outside the camp as to their place; but able to offer a sacrifice of praise to God continually, the fruit of their lips, confessing Christ’s name. Often had the temple courts resounded with the service of song; still the same Psalms might be chanted which David composed, and the sons of Korah, generation after generation, had taken up; but the sacrifice of praise which God could now accept, the Apostle lets those believers know, would be continually offered up elsewhere. No time would henceforth be unseasonable, no place unsuited, where a heart, conscious of God’s grace, was occupied with His goodness and mercy towards sinners. In the inner prison at Philippi, and at the unusual hour of midnight, that sacrifice was offered and accepted. From the apostle at Rome, as from his brethren in the faith in Jerusalem, it could ascend at all hours to the throne of God. The strangers of the dispersion in Asia Minor could render it, and from the rugged island of Patmos, John, the apostle and evangelist, offered it. (Acts xvi.; Eph. i.; Col. i.; 1 Peter i.; Rev. i.) Without restriction as to time or place, or the frequency with which it might be brought, one condition regarding it was, and is indispensable, "By him," that is, Christ, "let us offer," etc. On the ground of His death, and by Him alone, can any draw nigh with it. Where that is unknown, or He Himself is rejected, no such sacrifice can God receive. It is connected with the Lord Jesus, and with His finished work on the cross. That must be first known, and He must become the object of the soul’s faith, before it can offer this sacrifice which God delights to receive. What Paul states, Peter also affirms (1 Peter ii. 5), that spiritual sacrifices are acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. He first struck the right note by Whom alone they can be presented. "In the midst of the assembly will I praise Thee" were the words of prophecy, of which we know the fulfilment. He who hung on that cross, bearing God’s judgment against sin, was heard and delivered; so, He has sounded the key-note, for those who share in the deliverance and redemption effected by His blood. But varied are the sacrifices the redeemed can offer. Romans xii. 1 tells us of one kind; Hebrews xiii. 16, of others. The mercies of God are the grounds for the one, the word and example of Christ (may we not say it?) furnish them for the others. To do good, to act as He acted, are sacrifices well pleasing to God; to share with God’s people what belongs to us, is a service saints can render. On earth the Lord Jesus went about doing good (Acts x. 38), in this we may imitate Him. As on high we shall learn to the full what it is to share with Him, called by God into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ, our Lord (1 Cor. i. 9), so on earth we may thus follow Him. To give to God, to communicate to His people, to do good to all, these are christian sacrifices, but all closely connected with the death of the Lord Jesus on the cross. That alone furnishes the basis on which they can be brought. Because recipients of grace, and conscious of it; because partakers of a new — the divine nature, godlike activity should characterise His saints, and praise proceed from their hearts. The word provides for this, and supposes it. (Eph. v. 19, 20; Col. iii. 16, 17.) But sacrifices attempted to be offered on other grounds, or apart from Him in whom we have access by one Spirit unto the Father, must, like the first-fruits brought by Cain, be rejected by Him to whom professedly they may be presented. For to bring a sacrifice which shall supplement the one offering of Christ on the cross, to ensure the sinner’s acceptance, or to attempt to approach the throne of God apart from the atoning work of His well-beloved Son, is either a denial of the value of that work, or of the truth of God’s holy word. But offering by Him the sacrifice of praise to God, the sufficiency of His finished work is acknowledged, and the soul’s state by nature is thereby confessed. These things really owned, full scope is afforded for the relief of the heart by thanksgiving, and for the activity of the new nature by service. But it must ever be remembered that, what God can receive from His children He will reject when offered by an unsaved soul. Like Israel, His people can bring the first-fruits, which from Cain He would not accept. All, however, whether for sinners or saints is ordered. The former must accept the sacrifice of Christ; the latter, as standing on it for acceptance, are privileged to render the service of praise.

"Jesus, Captain of Salvation, Conqueror both of death and hell!

Thou who didst, as sin’s oblation, Feel what Thou alone couldst feel:

Through Thy sufferings, death, and merit, We eternal bliss inherit, Thousand thousand thanks to Thee, Jesus, Lord, for ever be!"