02.32. THE BURNT OFFERING
THE BURNT OFFERING IN the Burnt Offering everything was burned on the Altar. God got all, the Offerer got nothing.
“The priest shall burn all on the altar.” (Leviticus 1:9.) It is called a “sweet savour” offering. (Leviticus 1:9.) An offering in which God finds delight. The Burnt Offering is the portrayal of that side of the cross in which our Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of the Father gives Himself in death wholly unto Him that He may reveal His love as a Son for the Father.
It is the complete surrender of Himself in unreserved devotion to the Father.
There is that side of the cross in which the Father vails His face from the Son; beholds Him as the representative of sin, treats Him as sin; but in the Burnt Offering side of the cross He is filled with joy, with divine delight because He sees in this self-surrender and complete self-immolation of the Son a love so great, so fathomless, a love that would glorify Him in every element of His law, His government and being; a love, indeed, so great that had the first man never sinned, had he begotten a sinless race, it never could have so glorified and magnified the Father as this offering of the Son Himself unto Him. The Offering must be without blemish.
Sinless in His daily’ life, having justified every requirement of the law, having so lived that no man could convict Him of sin, on the cross, He offered Himself, “without spot” to God; as it is written:
“Through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God.” (Hebrews 9:14.) It must be a voluntary offering. (Leviticus 1:3.) That man might be saved it was necessary an atoning sacrifice should be made in his behalf.
It must be made by God Himself and necessarily in human form.
It must be made by God because only God can atone to God.
It must be made in human form because if God would atone God must die.
God could die for man and pay the penalty of death due to man only as He should have a human nature. To have a human nature God must needs become incarnate. To become incarnate He would become visible. Visibility belonged only to one person of the Godhead—to the Son of God and God the Son. From all eternity He had been visible in the “form of God.” The Son of God therefore alone could become visible as a man, and as a man die for man. The Son of God therefore alone could become incarnate. The Son of God therefore as God alone could make atonement to God for man, and make it by and through the humanity in which He should become incarnate. To do this He must lay aside the “form of God,” and take upon Himself the “form of man.” Would He be willing to do that? Would He be willing to do that for the glory of God His Father and for sake of the salvation of lost and dying men.
It all depended upon His own personal will.
It depended entirely upon His will because He was both coeval and coequal with the Father.
He was willing.
He was more than willing, it was His delight. Behold His attitude as set forth in Holy Scripture; as it is written:
“Being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.”
Literally this may be translated:
“Thought not to snatch at, to hold on to, equality.”
Great and indescribable as was this glory that was His-the form of God––He did not clutch it and hold it in His grasp as something He would not let go.
Nay! His love of the Father was so great, His love for lost and ruined men whom the Father wished to save, was so great, He was willing to put aside His glory and become incarnate. He was willing to lay aside His visibility as God and become visible as a man. He was willing to leave Heaven and its joys for earth and its sorrows; wherefore it is written:
He “made himself of no reputation.”
Literally, “He emptied himself.” Not of His deity’ That would be impossible.
He emptied Himself of His form and appearing. His outward glory as God. That was His attitude and that was His act.
Listen to His own statement when He comes into the world that He may become incarnate:
“When he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not (that is, He was no longer satisfied with the offerings of bulls and of goats), but a body hast thou prepared me: (that is a body in which a sacrifice might be offered that would be pleasing to Him).
Then said, I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, (the will of God the ’Father that He should offer Himself in sacrifice) O God.” (Psalms 40:8.)
Then in terms of magnificent clearness He proclaims that His death on the cross was not by the hand of man, but by His own will in surrender to the will of the Father:
He says:
“Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again, No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” A commandment!
Yes! because the desire of the Father’s heart was a command to the concept of the Son. He was the Son of the Father’s love, and the Father’s love to Him was law supreme. He said:
“My meat is to do the will of him that sent me.” Others might feed on the food of earth, His food was doing the will of the Father, that was His bread and meat, that was all sufficient nourishment for Him. The sacrifice must be laid in order on the wood. That is to say, it must be placed on the wood according to the details ordained of God. Every detail of our Lord’s death on the cross was foreseen and arranged in the counsels of eternity.
Those who should crucify Him should part His raiment among them and cast lots for His seamless robe.
They should mock Him. The crowd should pass before His cross and wag their heads in imitation of the involuntary movement of his suffering head. Vinegar and gall should be given Him in answer to His cry of thirst. He should offer the most fearful words that could come from human lips, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? “
While the bones of those crucified with Him should be broken to hasten their death, not a bone of Him should be broken, He should die not by any act of man but by His own will. When they should come with their hammers they should find Him already dead. His heart should be physically broken.
Although the burial of His body should be appointed with that of the malefactors, nevertheless, it should be ’laid in the rich man’s tomb.
Listen to the Scriptures as they give these details centuries before He was born:
“They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture” (His robe). (Psalms 22:18.) “All they that see me, laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.” (Psalms 22:8.) “They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” (Psalms 69:21.) “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? “(Psalms 22:1.) “He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.” (Psalms 34:20.)
“Reproach hath broken my heart.” (Psalms 69:20.) “He made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death.” (Isaiah 53:9.) Literally it may be translated:
“His grave was appointed with the wicked, but with the rich man was his tomb.” And now mark how this forecast and the record of it by Holy Scripture have been fulfilled to the very letter, to the most minute detail.
“And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.” (Matthew 27:35.) “And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest in three days, save thyself... If thou be the Son of God” come down from the cross.
Likewise also the thief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said,
He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him.
He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.”
(Matthew 27:39-43.) , And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? “(Matthew 27:46.)
“And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink.” (Matthew 27:48.) “Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, (thief) and of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs.
These things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.” (John 19:32-33; John 19:36.)
“But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.” (John 19:34.) This is proof His heart was broken.
“When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple:
He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus.
Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock.” (Matthew 27:57-60.) The sacrifice was, indeed, laid in order on the wood.
Every detail of the cross foretold fulfilled. The Offering must be flayed and cut in pieces.
Flaying is taking off the outside kin and exposing the inner flesh, the very tissue. The Devil sought to flay Him, to expose His inner life. • That is the meaning of the temptation the Devil gave Him.
He would find out the very inmost of Him. But the more He was tempted, tested and tried, the more the inner glory of His perfection was revealed.
Concerning the Devil who tempted Him and the fruitlessness of his effort, He said:
“The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.” (John 14:30.) No man ever said that before, no man has dared to say it since.
Think of it I the man in whom the Devil had no real estate, had no place wherein he could enter, find a foothold and abide. The Devil had no more place in Him than he had on that throne of God at which he snatched and because of which he fell.
Concerning what men could find in Him though they sought to discover the inmost of Him, He said: “Which of you convicteth me of sin? “
Down through the long ages to this hour the challenge has been confronted by an unbroken silence; not a whisper of response has ever been heard. There is none today. The inwards and the legs of the offering were washed with water. The inwards set forth the motives, the impulses and the inspirations of life. The legs, the walk, the manner of life.
Scripture speaks definitely of inward things.
“Thou desirest truth in the inward parts.” (Psalms 51:6.) “I shall put my law in their inward parts.” (Jeremiah 31:33.) Take the light of all suns and systems, focus them into one ray and let it penetrate to the inmost being of Christ. In that all penetrating light you will find He had but one motive, one impulse, one inspiration. He Himself declares it:
“The Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.” (John 8:29.) His walk was wholly governed by the written Word.
Speaking anticipatively by the Spirit through the mouth of the Psalmist, He says:
“Thy word have I hid in my heart.” (Psalms 119:11.)
“Thy law is within my heart.” (Psalms 40:8.) Thus was He fit to offer Himself as a love pledge to God and because He was fit He became the whole Burnt Offering on a Roman Cross.