becoming the reproduction of Christ as the meal offering church life today

In Leviticus 2:1-13 we see the meal-offering, which was ordained by God for the people of Israel – for God’s satisfaction. The meal offering was composed of fine flour mingled with oil, and frankincense on top of it.

Also, salt needs to be added – salt shouldn’t be missing from the offering. This type was fulfilled in the person of the Lord Jesus, who had the highest humanity (the fine flour) mingled with divinity (the oil, the Spirit of God), living by the resurrection life and manifesting the aroma of resurrection (frankincense), and always living under the cross (the salt).

Today we want to see MORE about each of these elements and how we can experience them, enjoy them, and become the reproduction of Christ as the meal-offering church life.

The fine flour – the perfect humanity of Christ

If you read the Gospels you will be impressed with the high standard of humanity the Lord Jesus had. He had the highest and the best humanity, living a life according to the highest standard of morality.

Story after story and case after case, we can see that His humanity was so high, and “it was oiled” with divinity, anointed by the Spirit of God. The Lord Jesus didn’t live only by and in His humanity – He lived by the divine life which saturated and mingled His human nature, having a life of a God-man – something that the world has never seen before!

The Lord Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit (see Matt. 1:20 and Luke 1:35), having the Spirit as His essence. Also, when He went out to minister, He was anointed with the Holy Spirit outwardly for His work (Matt. 3:16; John 1:32).

Inwardly and outwardly Christ was oiled with the Holy Spirit, living a mingled life – a life of the divine life mingled with the human life. He expressed the bountiful God in His rich attributes through His aromatic virtues, not by living His human life in the flesh but by living His divine life in resurrection.

Frankincense – the fragrance of Christ in resurrection

There was an aroma about Christ when He was on the earth – people were inexplicably drawn to Him, absorbing the words coming out of His mouth, wanting to be with Him and around Him to the point that they forgot about their eating, and even desiring to touch the fringe of His garment to be healed…

This is frankincense – the fragrance of Christ in resurrection. The Lord Jesus is resurrection and life (John 11:25), and He lived a life in resurrection, constantly denying His natural human life and living in the resurrection life.

Even though the Lord Jesus suffered a lot – He was rejected by His hometown people, His family, the priests, the religious leaders, He was mocked, persecuted, tested, and He did not have a place where to rest His head, etc – what came out of Him as a fragrance was NOT the sufferings but a fragrance of resurrection. The aroma of resurrection exuded out of Him, and people saw a man mingled with God living in resurrection on the earth. Nothing is as sweet, as fragrant, as attractive, and as pleasant as this aroma – it is satisfying to God and pleasing to man.

Salt – the cross of Christ

Salt is an element that kills germs, seasons, and preserves. It is a type of the death of Christ, the cross of Christ. God specifically ordained that salt would be added to the meal-offering – what was pleasing to God and what satisfied Him was to see Christ living a life under the cross by the power of resurrection.

The salt in Lev. 1:13 is the salt of the covenant of God – which is incorruptible and unchangeable. Christ was seasoned with salt – from the manger to the cross He lived a crucified life, denying Himself, listening to the Father, and living by the divine life in resurrection (see John 6:57).

In the church life, we need to have adequate salt – so that any ambition and natural affection would be crossed out. Anything that is natural is being killed by the germ-killing cross of Christ, and as long as the cross is here, salt is here and there are no germs!

By living a crucified life – one with Christ in His crucifixion – our ambition to be someone, our natural affection to the ones we like, our selective love, and anything of the natural man is being crossed out, salted, and killed. What remains is a sweet fragrance of living in Christ’s resurrection – a satisfying and pleasant aroma…

The meal-offering church life

When you consider the life of the Lord Jesus and His living you will appreciate Him and love Him – truly, this One is the Father’s Beloved, so perfect, such a high humanity, living a life under the constant killing of the cross, a life in resurrection, a human life mingled with the divine life. This One is our food – we can eat Him, take Him in, be constituted with Him, and even become Him. By eating Jesus as the meal-offering we become the corporate church life meal-offering – so pleasing to God for His satisfaction! How we need to eat Him, allow the cross to operate, and live by another life – the divine life!

We are slowly and surely becoming the reproduction of Jesus Christ as the corporate meal-offering church life! The genuine church today is nothing else but the corporate living of the believers in Christ who are the reproduction and duplication of Christ – it is Jesus living again in His believers.

We are imitating Christ in His life by eating Christ and becoming Christ’s reproduction organically. We all are learning to deny ourselves, remaining in Christ’s death, living under the cross, by the power of Christ’s resurrection. When an unbeliever comes in and sees this, he senses that God is among us! Wow, the corporate God-man living, the reproduction of Christ as the meal-offering church life!

Lord, have a way to reproduce the kind of life You lived among us today in all Your saints! Make us in reality the corporate meal offering church life – a genuine church, emanating the fragrance of Christ’s resurrection! Lord, keep us eating You in Your Word – we want to eat Your humanity and be more mingled with Your divinity. Oil us with the Spirit all the time. We want to know You and the power of Your resurrection, being conformed to Your death!

References and Further Reading

• Sharing inspired from, the Life-study of Leviticus (msgs. 12-13), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Focus of the Lord’s Recovery, week 6;
• Hymn on this topic:
  # Christ is the pattern for our human living. / His perfect life is filling us. / Christ is the pattern for our human living, / The fine and balanced humanity of Jesus!
  # Let us eat Jesus every day, / Eating His flesh in such a way / That in the trials great or small / He as a Man will be our all.
• Picture source: Green grass and Blue sky, wallpaper.