The Burnt Offering

We see in the Old Covenant several different types of sacrifices and offerings to the Lord. There is the sin offering. There is the peace offering. There is the burnt offering. And there are many other various offerings including wave offerings, freewill offerings, incense, etc.

We have been taught extensively about how Jesus represents our sin offering and our atonement, and that He is also our peace offering before the Lord.

I was reading Numbers chapter 7 (through the Bible in 1 year plan again), and I noticed one thing for the first time. The "peace offering" was over 4 times more than the "burnt offering" and the "sin offering" put together. This tells me that having peace with God is more important and more "difficult" than simply having our sins forgiven. Having peace with God is what gives us confidence to approach Him. Having peace with God is what gives us trust in His love and acceptance of us and draws us toward Him and calms our heart before Him so that we have the grace to simply wait before Him without distractions and to allow Him to shine upon us, warm us, melt us in His presence, and impart His nature into us.

So how awesome is it that Jesus is not only our atonement for sin but also our peace offering?

Isaiah 53:5
But He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed.

But what about the burnt offering?

Leviticus 1:3 If the animal you present as a burnt offering is from the herd, it must be a male with no defects. Bring it to the entrance of the Tabernacle so you may be accepted by the Lord. 4 Lay your hand on the animal’s head, and the Lord will accept its death in your place to purify you, making you right with him. 5 Then slaughter the young bull in the Lord’s presence, and Aaron’s sons, the priests, will present the animal’s blood by splattering it against all sides of the altar that stands at the entrance to the Tabernacle. 6 Then skin the animal and cut it into pieces. 7 The sons of Aaron the priest will build a wood fire on the altar. 8 They will arrange the pieces of the offering, including the head and fat, on the wood burning on the altar. 9 But the internal organs and the legs must first be washed with water. Then the priest will burn the entire sacrifice on the altar as a burnt offering. It is a special gift, a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

The burnt offering is not eaten by the priests. The burnt offering is not eaten by the people. The burnt offering is essentially converted into smoke, which only the Lord is said to enjoy. It offers no benefit to any living human whatsoever. It ceases to exist.

What does the burnt offering represent, and how does it correspond to the New Covenant?

It is my belief that the burnt offering illustrated in the Old Testament represents the SELF. The self is also referred to in Pauline scriptures as "the flesh", "the natural man", and "the carnal man." Notice how the role of the flesh in the New Testament is described: it is to die. It is incapable of serving God; indeed it is incapable of even understanding God.

Romans 8:8
So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

1 Corinthians 2:14
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

1 Corinthians 15:50
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.

Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

So the burnt offering represents the total obliteration of the flesh, the natural man, the limited understanding of the human mind powered by the ego.

This is why there is a paradox in the New Testament concerning faith verses works. We are saved by grace through faith.

Ephesians 2:8
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God

But we are also commanded by Jesus to take up our cross and follow Him.

Matthew 16:24
Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me..."

Mark 8:34
When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, "Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me..."

Luke 9:23
Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me..."

Luke 9:62
But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

So, on the one hand, Jesus is offering eternal life to all who believe...

John 5:24
"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life."

John 11:25-26
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?"

...But on the other hand Jesus is mandating that we take up our cross and follow Him. Is this a contradiction? No. What we are witnessing is first of all Jesus offering His grace, which draws us to God, regenerates our spirit, and infuses us with life and imputes His perfect righteousness to us. And then, our spirit, in response to God's kindness and love and mercy, offers ITSELF to God as a living sacrifice, a burnt offering. The role of the self in this new relationship to God is to cease to exist. The self only functions as a separation between us and God. The self cannot be reformed. The self cannot please God. The self is not meant to follow after Jesus. The self is meant to be dead.

Romans 12:1-2
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

The self cannot be made good. The self will never be holy and acceptable unto God. The self cannot be reformed. The self cannot "learn" how to be holy. The self cannot be transformed into the image of Christ. The self cannot be trained unto holiness. Only our new nature, which God Himself created in us, is made in the image of Christ. It is already perfect and in no need of training or reformation whatsoever. The self, on the other hand, is the enemy of God, since it is the rival of Christ for our allegiance and our love.

The self leads us to the world and serves the world and loves the world.

1 John 2:15
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Romans 6:3-5
Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection

Romans 6:10-11
For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

It is impossible for the self to kill the self. It is ONLY through the grace of the Lord Jesus that we are enabled and empowered to present ourselves as a burnt offering. It is through Jesus's death that we died. It is not only our identification with Christ Who died that we die, but it is the Holy Spirit given to us through the death and resurrection of Christ Who gives us the supernatural grace of God and reveals to us God as such an all-encompassing treasure that we exchange everything we have and everything we are so that we can obtain Him.

Ephesians 1:18-20
the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places

Matthew 6:19-21
"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal;
but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Matthew 13:44
"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field."

How do we stay in God's presence and absorb His grace and allow our Him to consume our entire selves? One way is to wait on the Lord, to spend actual time before Him and allow Him to have His perfect way and to complete the process of our burnt offering.

Isaiah 40:31
But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 41:1
Keep silence before Me, O coastlands, And let the people renew their strength! Let them come near, then let them speak; Let us come near together for judgment.

The burnt sacrifice does not argue or object or negotiate terms. It is burned; it is utterly consumed by fire. It becomes a pleasing aroma to the Lord. It no longer exists, just as our old nature has died with Jesus. So it no longer has any place at the table; it no longer gets an opinion or a vote as to our thinking and our behavior. The table of the Lord is spread out for His sons and daughters, who are new creations made in His image. We share in the same blessings as His Son, since we are seated with Him and have received adoption through Him.

Ephesians 1:5
having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will

Ephesians 2:4-6
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus

Isaiah 65:17
For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; And the former shall not be remembered or come to mind.

2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Romans 8:29
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

1 Corinthians 15:49
And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.

Colossians 3:10
and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him