The distinguishing feature of the peace offering (Lev. 3) is that Jehovah, the priest, and the offerer all have a portion in it. In this it differs from the burnt-offering. There, it was Jehovah receiving His portion. The whole of it was consumed on the altar. Here, it is Jehovah satisfied, having received His portion, and now ministering to His people.
This is pre-eminently the communion or fellowship offering. Communion with God and with one another are typified here. To feed at the same table, to share the same portion, is the expressive type of communion. And wonderful as the privilege may seem, it is nevertheless true that we have been called to the fellowship of the Father and His Son Jesus Christ.
Less than this could not have satisfied the love of the Father’s heart. More than this He could not give. Like the prodigal of old, we have been welcomed to His heart and seated with Him at His table, and all this in perfect righteousness and therefore in perfect peace.
It is of the very utmost importance that our souls should clearly apprehend the basis of this peace and communion and what is necessary for their enjoyment. “Peace with God” is not an unstable, flickering experience, flowing from some spiritual attainment or inward sanctity. It is an unchangeable reality, fruit of the finished work of Christ.
Every charge that law and justice had against us He met, and every virtue that was lacking He supplied, when He offered Himself to God for us. We see this in the peace offering. It tells of the inward perfectness of the Lord Jesus, presented to God for us.
The fat was all burned on the altar. It was Jehovah’s portion. As all the “frankincense” of the meal-offering was for Him, so was all the “fat” of the peace-offering. There were hidden and inward excellencies in the Lord Jesus that none on earth could value or appreciate. They were exclusively Jehovah’s portion.
The fat is the energy, the motivating principle of the sacrifice. The depth of devotedness and the strength of the love that dwelt within His holy soul none could fathom except His Father, for “no man knoweth the Son, but the Father” (Mt. 11:27). How blessed to know that He has fully valued and appreciated His excellency, and we are accepted before God in the full value of it.
The kidneys were also offered. The word is sometimes translated “reins” (renes). They typify the seat of the inward condition. Being the organs of purifiation, the Jew thought of them as the seat of motive. None but the Lord Jesus could invite the searching eye of Him who saith: “I the Lord search the heart; I try the reins” to scan His inward parts. He only could say, “Examine Me, O Lord, and prove Me; try My reins and My heart” (Ps. 26:2). And when He was tried and proved by the deep suffering of the cross, He was found to be perfect inwardly as well as outwardly.
With us it is not so. Our inward being is not fit for the altar of God even after we have been born again and made partakers of the divine nature. Who is there among us who doesn’t know that the carnal mind is still there as well? And this would of itself mar and disturb our peace and communion with God, even were this evil principle never to bear its fruits in the form of active sin. The presence of evil there would be unbearable to a soul knowing the nature and character of God, were it not for the virtues of the great Peace Offering.
But, blessed be God, in the riches of His grace He has allowed us to know that our worthless, sinful selves are blotted out and buried out of His sight. The sin that dwells within us is covered by the efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ, thus we are enabled to commune with God in peace, in spite of all that we feel and see ourselves to be. We walk with God in the light, not because we never sinned, or have no sin in us, but because “the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.”
Our feet stand on redemption ground. Our peace is made eternally secure through the blood of His cross. The efficacy of that one oblation abides before God forever. God is satisfied in Christ. So are we. This is communion.
It is not our sanctity of heart or our spiritual attainments that are the ground of peace, nor is it the work of the Holy Spirit within us. These are all fluctuating and imperfect as regards their measure. The ground of peace is the finished and perfected work of Christ for us. That is what we find typified in the peace offering.
It was killed before the Lord. The blood was sprinkled on the altar, and the fat and inwards were burned for a sweet savor. The life and inward excellencies were the portion of Jehovah. He received His portion first, then the offerer and the priest each received their portion. God being satisfied, a table was spread for man, and furnished with part of the sacrifice already presented on the altar. It was God spreading the feast and being the Host.
The altar is the place of offering towards God. The table is the place of God’s ministering towards His people. “We have an altar, whereof (not whereat) they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle” (Heb. 13:10). Such is the relation of the Lord’s Supper to the Cross. Apart from the cross, there could have been no table. It is the memorial of what was accomplished at the cross, and the expression of the believer’s fellowship in it.
At the table we have fellowship with God in peace, over His beloved Son, and we have fellowship one with another. What a sight! Every eye is fixed on Christ; every heart is satisfied.
The Father alone can rightly esteem the inward preciousness and devotedness of His own Beloved, but we as priests can rejoice as we feed on the “wave breast” and “heave shoulder”–the symbols of His love and power (Lev. 7:31-34). How tender a pillow is His bosom for the weary head! How strong is His mighty shoulder for the weak and fainting soul!
When we stand before His glorious throne, the last trace of sin and fallen humanity gone and forgotten, then–but not till then–shall we fully know the preciousness and worth of the perfect sacrifice, the great Peace-Offering. But now we rest where God rests and enjoy His Son with Him.