A Living Sacrifice

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

How glad we are that this text does not read "I beseech you by the wrath of God," but "by the mercies of God." Mercy is defined to mean "the disposition to treat an offender better than they deserve." Paul was originally a Jew, learned, and he perfectly understood what the sacrifices meant. Jesus never claimed to teach anything new but to reveal the spiritual meanings of the sacrifices and of the sanctuary and its service, all of which spiritual meanings the Jews had lost.

Since meeting Christ on the Damascus road, Paul had, under the tuition of the Holy Spirit, learned all these spiritual meanings. It is Paul who tells us, "Even to this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their hearts," but he adds, "When the heart shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away." In Paul's case the vail had been taken away for he tells us of those spiritual Hebrews as compared to the Christians of the apostolic age, "They did all eat the same spiritual meat, and drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that Spiritual Rock that went with them, and that Rock was Christ."

Paul knew that the spiritual meanings of the sacrifices was the transforming power of the Divine Life. He knew that Christ Jesus, while alive, realized in His life experience, the spiritual meanings of the sacrifices and so presented Himself a "living sacrifice", not simply a sacrifice to die on the cross. And knowing this He says it is our reasonable service to do the same. Paul knew if we would present ourselves unto God a living sacrifice, coming in the full knowledge of the significance of these offerings, unto God, we would not be conformed to this world but transformed in the renewing of our minds by the Divine indwelling Life. It is plain that we can only understand what Paul meant as the vail is lifted from our hearts and we come to know the spiritual meanings of the sacrifices.
 

These five offerings are "The Sin Offering", "The trespass offering," "the burnt offering," "the meat offering," and "the peace offering." These are given in the order, in which they could be presented acceptably to the Lord, for they represented successive and progressive stages of spiritual experience. Paul knew that we entered into these experiences while living, as Jesus did before us, and so he besought us to "present our bodies a living sacrifice."

Modern theologians, with the vail still over their hearts, when Moses is read, have simply taught that these five sacrifices prefigured death and met their fulfillment only when Jesus died on the cross, and not in any experience of ours, either in life or death. Here is a quotation from a religious tract sent out by thousands, that shows the error of the ordinary teaching of the day:

"The death of Christ from that day forward until He expired on the cross, was prefigured by the sacrifice of animals. According to the law which regulated the offering of sacrifices, when a man sinned he was to select a lamb, goat, or bullock without spot or blemish; and after having confessed his sin over his head, he was to slay it, and offer it as a burnt offering, thus confessing that the wages of sin is death."

If a man had done what this writer says he not only would not have been accepted, but he would have incurred something very like the guilt Cain incurred in offering his sacrifice. The offering that Cain brought was all right for the purpose meant to bring on the appropriate occasion, but it was not right for Cain to bring it then; he should have brought his sin-offering instead. The reason Cain was not accepted then is precisely the reason why thousands in the church today are not acceptable to the Lord.

There are people who joining the Church come in with an attitude that they are on "good terms" with the Lord, but who are not willing first to come as sinners, feeling their own unworthiness and seeking and obtaining pardon for their sins. This attitude of mind is precisely the significance of the offering brought by Cain in contrast to the sin-offering which he should have brought. Hence the author of the quotation evidently did not know the difference between the burnt-offering and the sin offering.

The vital experiences of the life of God in the human soul are the same today they were four thousand years ago, and they come in the same order. We do not offer these various offerings, but we should express these experiences by presenting our bodies a living sacrifice, even as those who really experienced the meaning of the sacrifices did long ago.

It is still true that the sinner, to be accepted of God, must bring his sin offering first. We read in the Bible, "Now we know that God heareth not sinners, but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth His will, him He heareth." If there were not an exception to this statement, we could never be anything but sinners. You will recall the picture of the Pharisee and the Publican who went to the Temple to pray. The Pharisee prayed with himself on this wise, "O, Lord, I thank Thee that I am not as other men"; but the Publican, could not so much as lift his eyes to heaven, but smote on his breast and said, "Lord, be merciful to me a sinner," And Jesus said the Publican went away justified.
God will hear the prayer of a sinner if he prays the right kind of a prayer; but it must be an humble, repentant prayer for personal pardon and acceptance. The sinner today cannot approach God acceptably in any other way than as a sinner, boasting no merit of his own, but praying for pardon, through the mercy of God. It was the same in the time of Cain six thousand years ago.

These sacrifices represented a living Christ; not merely the future Christ on Calvary or in the incarnation of Jesus; but the present Christ back there in the sinner, bringing him to God, for it is only by Christ in us that we are brought to Him. Acts 5:31. Each sacrifice stood for the person who brought it; he was offering himself unto God as a sinner or trespasser, seeking pardon, or as a renewed soul offered for service. Whatever the offering it stood for the offeror, brought to God by the divine, indwelling Christ life, he was presenting himself for acceptance on the plane of the experience represented by that sacrifice.

If he came to the altar leading a goat for a sin-offering, he said by that act, "I am a sinner, I deserve to die, and in myself I have no hope, but I am sorry for my sins and wish to be saved from them and so I come, making no claim of my own, but trusting only in the mercy of God and the transforming power of the Christ Life."

THE SIN-OFFERING.

If the sinner would approach unto God, coming even as far as the gate to the Court of the Sanctuary, he must come bringing his sin-offering. The sinner, himself, lay his hand upon the head of the offering and killed it. This was to show that it is SIN THAT KILLS. Sin has brought in all the sickness, misery and death that ever will curse the universe. "The wages of SIN is death." The wages SIN pays, "Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."

The sin-offering having been killed, the three parts of it, the flesh, the blood and the fat, were all dealt with differently. We need to study each of these to get the spiritual lesson.
 

THE FLESH.

Not only in the text but in many other places, the imagery of the New Testament is borrowed from these sacrifices and the understanding of them is essential. The FLESH represents that carnal, sinful nature which must freely be given up to crucifixion and destruction if we would serve the Lord.

Hear Paul say, "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." "For I know that in me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing." "With the mind I serve the law of God but with the flesh, the law of sin." "So then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God." So, the flesh of the sin-offering was burned without the camp, as an impure, unholy thing. So, corrupting and evil was this flesh considered that he who took it forth to burn it had to wash himself and change his clothes before he could have any part in the burnt-offering, or congregation-offering which followed it. Leviticus 16:27-28; 4:12 & 21.

Thus, the sinner who brought his sin-offering, yielded up the flesh of that offering, representing his own carnal nature, to be destroyed without the camp. The sinner did not expect to be accepted of God while holding to his carnality, but only as he yielded it up to crucify it. God's providence uses the evil and injustice of the world to crucify the carnal nature of his children. He means these crucifixions to come from without the camp, —without the Church, even as Christ also suffered without the gate. But when a professed Christian crucifies another Christian, by so doing he places himself without the gate, without the true church, even as the Pharisees and lawyers when they crucified Christ, by so doing, placed themselves outside of His Church.

THE BLOOD

"The blood is the life," "The blood is for the life," The blood thereof is all one with the life thereof." Genesis 9:4—Leviticus 17:10-14. The blood of the sin-offering represented by the life of the sinner who brought that offering, was put upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense, it was sprinkled seven times before the altar whereon was burning the perpetual sacrifice of sweet incense, and before the vail behind which was the wonderful manifestation of the Shekinah glory of God's presence; then it was taken outside and poured out at the foot of the altar of burnt-offering.

A horn, throughout the Bible, represents power; the horns of this altar represented the divine, transforming, renewing power of God in Christ. The perpetual living fire of fragrant sweet incense represented the merit and sweetness of the omnipresent given life of Christ. It also represents the constantly ascending prayer and longing and communion of all saints in intercession with God. And seven, throughout the Bible signifies completeness.

Thus the repentant sinner, by this offering, presented his life, in the very presence of God, completely surrendered to Him, to be renewed by the divine power, accepted, transformed and made fragrant by the divine presence and life and then taken outside into the world to be poured out in the divine service. Could anything be more beautiful than this?

And must not the sinner, to be accepted, present himself to God in exactly this way, today, surrendering his carnal nature to crucifixion, and presenting his life to be renewed and transformed by God, and then poured out in God's service, which is ever the service of a needy humanity? "Whosoever eateth the blood shall die." Over and over this is repeated. Nor was this simply a hygienic regulation; for the same scripture that tells us, "the blood is the life," says also, "I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls; therefore I said unto the children of Israel, 'No soul of you shall eat the blood.'"

To eat is a symbol of self-appropriation. Isaiah must eat the roll before he could preach it to others. What I eat, benefits only me. "The blood is the life." The blood of the sacrifice represented the life of the sacrificer. "Thou shalt not eat the blood," thou shalt not appropriate thy life unto thyself; whosoever does this shall die. It is the same truth which Jesus taught, "Whosoever saveth his life shall lose it."

The sinner seeks to save his life for himself. The Christian knows that the sinner does not know real happiness in this world and cannot know it in the next. In saving his life to himself he eats the blood and dies. The old Monks sought to save their lives to themselves to have a good time in the next world. They left the cities and haunts of human need and human sin for fear of contamination and to get off into the woods alone with God, so they could be saved. They succeeded so poorly that the historian Draper says, "The degree of degradation from the dignity of a man became the measure of the merit of the Monk." They too, ate the blood, appropriated their lives to themselves,—and died.

The Christian gives his life for others, - lets it flow out as did the life of the Master, in helpful, self-forgetful service to all around them, and "without the shedding of the blood," - without giving the life, - there "is no remission." "Whosoever saveth his life shall lose it."

THE FAT

The fat of the sin-offering was burned upon the altar of incense "for a sweet savour unto the Lord." "Every male among the priests shall eat thereof; it shall be eaten in the holy place; it is most holy." Leviticus 4:31 - 7:1-7

Why was this fat of the sin-offering so different from the flesh of the same sin-offering? The flesh, which was burned as unholy, without the camp. What does the fat or oil represent throughout the scriptures? Oil was used in anointing as a sign of the bestowal of the Spirit; hence the fat was the grace of the Spirit. When the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus, He was said to be "anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows." He, Himself, said, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He hath anointed me." Oil or fat is the grace of the Spirit.

Thank God, there is a little of the fat left in the poorest, leanest sinner that can ever come to God. "Christ is the light that lighteneth every man that cometh into the world." This Christ light, and Christ life is the fat that is in us all. "If this light that is in us become darkness, how great is that darkness." In the begetting of the Spirit, as in the begetting of the flesh, life without must touch life within, of the same kind, else there can be no new birth. If the fat is all gone, - if the Christ life within has been entirely rejected, denied, and outlawed, that man can never be forgiven, because he can never be "renewed again unto repentance."

So, there is always some of Christ in the sinner that turns to God and what of Christ that is in him can come up for a sweet odour unto God, it is most holy. In cases where the sin was a sin of ignorance due to the fact that the priest had failed to give the man the proper instruction, even the flesh of the sin-offering was holy, and the priest ate it in the holy place that "he might bear the iniquity." The guilt of the sin went without the gate in the flesh of the sin offering of the erring, negligent priest, but the sinner, himself, was accounted guiltless.

How clearly all this shows that God dealt with men then exactly as he deals with them today, the sinner then, even as now, to be accepted, must come repentant, yielding up his carnal nature to crucifixion, presenting his life to God to be renewed and transformed by the divine power, and then poured out in God's service; and only the Christ that was in him could come up as a sweet odour unto God.

THE TRESPASS-OFFERING

The scriptures tell us, "as the sin-offering so is the trespass-offering; there is one law for them." Leviticus 7:7 revised version. The trespass-offering as to the flesh, and the blood and the fat was offered in every way exactly as was the sin-offering, but the trespass-offering had a different significance from the sin-offering.

The sin-offering represented the sinner coming to God, not for what he had done but for what he was a sinner. Even a little child today, one who has done nothing wrong to be accepted of God must come repentant as a sinner; because the child has a sinful nature, born in sin and with the living, active germs of evil within her, or him.

The trespass-offering was for one who had already come as a sinner and been forgiven but who had since then, been overtaken in a fault, or a trespass. If God had not given us the trespass-offering when overtaken in a fault we would have to feel that we were only sinners and begin over again bringing our sin-offering. But now, at once, when we recognize our fault and are sorry for it, we bring our trespass-offering, saying thereby unto the Lord, "I caught a little of that old flesh alive yet and acting up and I am sorry. I yield it up to you anew to be destroyed and crucified as unholy and I present my life to Thee again that so coming into Thy sacred Presence again it may be more completely renewed, transformed, and glorified by the indwelling of Thy all-powerful, and all-glorious life. Let us constantly seek to yield up our carnal natures more completely and pray 'forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.'"

THE BURNT-OFFERING

The burnt offering was the consecration offering. After the sinner, or trespasser, had come repentantly bringing the sin-offering, or trespass-offering and been received and forgiven, he might then, but never before, bring his burnt-offering. This was brought of "his own voluntary will," "to the door of the tabernacle," and was "accepted for him, to make an atonement for him," - that is, to make him one with God. Leviticus 1:3-4.

Unlike the sin-offering or the trespass-offering, in both of which there was the thought of guilt and evil that must be put away and destroyed without the camp, the burnt-offering was all of it holy unto the Lord, and the whole animal was burned on the altar of burnt-offering for a sweet odour unto God. If the offering was a small one, it must not be divided but must go whole onto the altar. If it was a large one like a bullock, it might be cut up so as to place it all on the altar, but in either case it must be a "whole burnt offering."

The fire with which the sacrifice was consumed was "sacred fire" taken from the altar of incense where it had been kept constantly burning since having been ignited by God. On special occasions, as that of Elijah on Mount Carmel and that recorded in Leviticus 9:24, the fire came directly from the Lord and consumed the offering. Nadab and Abihu, offering "strange fire" were themselves consumed by the displeasure of the Lord. The burnt offering, when truly sacrificed, is always said to be for "a sweet savour unto the Lord." Every one of these specifications is mentioned because everyone means something in practical Christian experience.

Now what does this burnt sacrifice mean? After the repentant sinner has been forgiven, and accepted in Christ, and the flesh been given over to crucifixion, what ought he to do next but to present, in love and gratitude, his whole renewed life as a sacrifice "of a sweet odour unto the Lord," to be consumed upon His altar, in His service by the sacred love fire which God Himself has kindled in the soul. Consumed, as was the life of Jesus, in the service of the poor and needy and suffering, our lives if need be, going out as did His, crushed by ingratitude and jealous hate, misunderstood, misrepresented, betrayed, crucified and yet complaining not, because the fire of divine love still burns within and the life has been given beyond any desire of ours to recall. This is the burnt offering, for "a sweet savour unto the Lord." Woe to him who brings to such a service a divided heart, it must be a "whole burnt offering."

THE SACRED FIRE

The sacred fire may be taken from the fragrant incense of prayer and praise, burning on the altar of some other heart, kindled long ago by God, Himself, in the soul of prophet, priest or king, inspired singers of the olden days, or writers of the prophetic word, caught by us from their burning utterances and living deeds, or from the written words and recorded acts of Him who spake as never man spake; or it may come directly from God to the individual soul, a flash from above on the altar of the heart, as it came to Paul on the Damascus road.

It must be the fire of divine love, kindled by God, the source of all pure love. Woe to him who brings to this sacrifice the "profane fire" of worldly ambition or of a selfish desire for popularity, precedence, or praise, here or hereafter. He will surely corrupt the sacrifice and be destroyed.

The burnt offering when truly made by the voluntary will of the offerer was "accepted for him to make an atonement for him," that is, accepted as the outward expression of the inner sacrifice and consecration, which, if complete in Christ, made him one with God. It was only when the man was "crucified with Christ," and his life renewed by Christ living in him, that he could truly make this sacrifice. It was not he, but "Christ in him" that sacrificed, and made the atonement. It is not Christ on Calvary, merely, or Christ in the heavenly temple, but Christ in us sacrificing and giving himself here for others that makes us one with God. Can we be one with Him and keep our lives to ourselves? Did God keep His life to Himself? If he had then had we not lived.

God in creation poured forth His life freely into all that lives for He "is the fountain of life," and "in Him we live and move and have our being." All this He did for our joy, which is one with "His pleasure" for which He made us. Revelation 4:11. In redemption God poured forth His life freely in Christ to be despised, rejected and crucified. It is the very secret of God's infinite life, to give freely and find larger life in the giving.

We can all see that Christ's life was a given life, but Christ said, "He that seeth me, seeth the Father also." Jesus wanted us to share in this secret of the grandeur of the Life of God and so He said to us, "whosoever saveth his life shall lose it." Can we hope to be one with Him and not give our lives freely as He gave His life? Can we know the "power of Christ's resurrection," without knowing also first the "fellowship of His sufferings?" All this is in the burnt offering.

The regular morning and evening sacrifice of the Jews was a burnt offering. The tabernacle was in the centre of the camp; three tribes were camped to the northward, three to the southward, three to the eastward, and three to the westward. In the morning at sunrise and again at evening when the last red rays were kissing the tops of the distant mountains, the people all came to their tent doors and bowed in prayer. Incense was put anew on the altar of incense. The sacrifice was burned on the altar of burnt offering. The smoke from the two altars, ascending, combined and went up with the prayers of the people, to the God that was over all.

Thus anew, morning and evening was the life consecrated to God and offered up in the transforming power of the Christ life, - that life whose indwelling had made them capable of offering this sacrifice. Was not this true worship when truly offered? Was not the living, saving gospel there as well as here? It was without doubt to this very "daily sacrifice" that Jesus alluded when He said "except ye take up your cross and deny yourself daily, and come after me, ye cannot be my disciple." True Christianity is ever, as of old, a "daily sacrifice."

After Israel ceased to be a nomadic race and became a permanently settled nation, the tabernacle and its worship was merged into the Temple and the temple-service at Jerusalem. Morning and evening the silver trumpet of the priests called the devout Jews to worship on the flat housetop. While the upturned faces and uplifted hearts poured forth praise and petition, the smoke of the incense and of the sacrifice on Mount Moriah combined and ascended. Daniel, later, even in distant captivity, prayed with his face toward Jerusalem.

No wonder the inspired poet sang so sweetly, "Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the City of our God, in the mountain of His holiness; beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the North, the City of the great King. God is known in her palaces for a refuge.

Walk about Zion and go around about her; tell the towers thereof; mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following. For this God is our God for ever and ever; He will be our guide even unto death."

What a pity that this spiritual worship was corrupted and its meaning lost and perverted until even the temple itself became a "den of thieves," and Jerusalem, that might have stood forever, was destroyed. What wonder that Jesus wept, saying, "O, Jerusalem, Jerusalem - how often would I have gathered thy children together - - and ye would not." "If thou hadst known, even thou, the things that belong to thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes." Let us with the devout of old "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem for they shall prosper that love thee."

THE MEAT-OFFERING

The meat-offering was always offered on the burnt-offering and so could not be offered until the others which preceded it had been brought. It consisted of fine flour "bruised small." Oil of the bruised olive was poured upon it. Salt was always mingled with it and frankincense put upon it. Leaven and honey were always excluded. Leviticus 2:11-15. This offering, like all the others, means first, Christ, after Him the Christian. Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilled it; others do so more or less imperfectly. It means not only Christ on the Cross or walking about in Judea and Galilee, but also the Christ omnipresent in the hearts of His followers. In the meat-offering a "handful of the flour thereof and of the oil thereof, with all the frankincense thereof" were burned on the altar with the burnt sacrifice, for "a sweet savour unto the Lord." The remainder of the meat-offering the priests ate in the "court of the tabernacle of the congregation — it is most holy unto the Lord. Leviticus 2:16, and 6:15-17.

We are all priests here, if Christians, so we can all eat of the meat-offering. We know what it means to feed on Christ and find God. Jesus came that He might so reveal the Father. He said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father also." He said also, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day." John 6:53-54.

When Jesus uttered these words many of the Jews said, "It is a hard saying, who can hear it?" And they went back and walked no more with Him. Yet Jesus had said nothing that they should not have understood. If they had not lost the spiritual meaning of the meat-offering it would all have been plain.

In this too busy world, the sinner cannot be induced to look up to find God. They are not interested in that direction unless they have a telescope hunting for the stars. They will not even look back two thousand years to find God; they are facing the other way striving to locate a dollar.

But one place they all will and do look, without our asking them to do so, look often, it must be admitted with bitterest disappointment, — and that is to the lives of those who profess to worship God and to do His will. Nor are they forbidden to look there. We read, "if we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater." The reason given is that the witness of God is within. "He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself."

Thus, we are not forbidden to receive the witness of men, but only told it is not the best and cautioned not to stop with that. Most people who come to know God, do so first through seeing Christ in others, — through feeding upon their lives. The sad thing is, too many stop there without the witness within, — without ever knowing God for themselves.

The meat-offering means when the sinner is repentant, and forgiven, and the flesh is given over to crucifixion as an unholy thing; when the life is presented to God to be renewed and transformed by the indwelling Christ life; when the whole regenerate being is freely given to God to be consumed on the altar of sacrifice and service by the divine love-fire kindled in the soul; then that life comes up as a sweet odour unto God. Men, too, can feed on that life and find Christ, and finding Him find the Father also. This will be still plainer as we consider the materials that enter into this offering and those that are excluded.

"Fine flour bruised small." O, brothers, not only the straw, the chaff, and the dirt must be separated from us; but the roughness and the coarseness and harshness must all be taken out of our lives before men can feed on us and find God. It takes much bruising of trial and crucifixion before we become pure and smooth and sweet like the fine flour of the sacrifice.

"Oil of the bruised olive." Oil is a symbol of the Spirit and of the graces that come into the life by the Spirit's presence. Here, too, the bruising, pressing, and purifying that are necessary to get the oil pure and sweet ready for the sacrifice are symbolical of the experiences of trials and afflictions that purge us and make us sweet and tender and sympathetic and thus able to reveal Christ and the Father to weary, hungry souls.

There must be NO leaven. It is a positive prohibition. It is easy to see why. Leaven represents the corrupting power of evil. "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Purge out therefore the old leaven." "Let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth." There must be none of this corrupting evil, — malice, hypocrisy, in a life on which men are to feed to find God; in a life which is to come up for a sweet fragrance unto the Father.

"Every oblation of thy meat-offering shalt thou season with salt." Salt is the preserving power, leaven the corrupting power. "Salt is good," and "Ye are the salt of the earth." Honey is prohibited. "Ye shall burn no honey in any offering of the Lord made by fire." Honey is sweet but it will not stand the fire. It becomes a stench. Everything on the fire must keep sweet. Frankincense, which is a compound of sweet spices so made as to yield up its utmost fragrance in the flame. Such must be the life that comes up as a sweet savour unto God because it reveals His love.

Only a handful, a memorial of this sacrifice was burned on the altar on the burnt sacrifice and the remainder the priests ate in the court of the tabernacle, but all the frankincense was offered up to God alone, the sweetest part of all the sacrifice.

On that last evening before the trial and crucifixion Jesus said, "I have yet many things to say unto you but ye cannot bear them now." The sweetest, holiest thoughts of all Jesus never expressed to any earthly friend. He had to live that innermost life so far as human fellowship was concerned, entirely alone. These thoughts and experiences were the fruit of suffering. See Hebrews 2:10 & 5:8-9. They yielded up their sweetest fragrance in the fiery trial.

As Jesus talked over with His Father the things that were nearer to Him than all else so we, in our thoughts and feelings born of trial and suffering, speak to our Father as we cannot speak to another, for they have not experienced the fiery furnace that gave them birth.

Jesus says of each one who overcomes "I will give him a white stone, and, in the stone, a new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." This means that each one who goes through with such personal, individual experiences with Christ, will understand and He will understand but no other man will know them. That will be the frankincense of the sacrifice. Paul besought us to so relate ourselves to God that we might apply his text to us "I beseech you — present your bodies a living sacrifice." Also, Paul makes a clear and direct reference to the burnt offering and meat-offering: "For we are the fragrance of Christ ascending to God." II Corinthians 2:15 & 16, 20th Century Version.

Notice this fragrance of a consecrated life is the fragrance of CHRIST. No result of human effort of self-righteousness but a truly fragrant life the result of the indwelling given life of God in Christ. Both those who are in the path of ruin or salvation, when in trouble will seek the aid of such a fragrant life. The one who is in the path of ruin wants the comfort of this consecrated life when he is in imminent need, he does not want it reproduced in himself, but the one who is in the path of salvation knows that every crucifixion God has placed the resurrection life and it is an odour that tells of life and is reproduced in him. How shall he attain this desired end? By presenting himself to God a "living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God."

In conclusion I would place the emphasis on the first portion of the text: "I beseech of you, by the mercies of God, come to Him today. There may be some sinner who has never brought his sin-offering; don't hold to the flesh any longer; bring your sin-offering, yield up the flesh to crucifixion and your life to God, to be renewed, transformed and made beautiful in and by Him.

Or there may be some trespasser, someone who, "overtaken in a fault", has let that hold him away from God, won't you come now, bringing your trespass-offering? God is waiting to forgive and be gracious. Do not hold yourself longer from Him.

Or it may be there are here some forgiven and accepted souls who are rejoicing in the love and knowledge of God and yet who have never known what it was to make a complete consecration of their whole renewed life to Him. If so, won't you today bring your burnt offering? Bring the meat-offering too that your whole life may come up as the "Fragrance of Christ ascending unto God," that others, seeing your good works and the beauty of your life, may glorify your Father which is in Heaven. O friends, will you not wholly consecrate your life to the Lord now?

George E. Fifield