The Peace offering = Fellowship offering (NIV)
Ephesians 2:14:
1 Corinthians 10:18:
OFFERING precedes EATING (Leviticus 3:1; 7:15).
The offeror must have some degree of spiritual wealth - i.e., apprehension of Christ and affection Godward. This brings him near to the altar - i.e., is drawn nigh through the death of Christ on the cross (Ephesians 2:13).
EATING = fellowship or communion.
Fellowship/communion is not limited to the offeror or the priest. All that are clean shall eat (Leviticus 7:19). Available to all that are clean.
The offerers prosperity in Christ becomes the joy and gain of all = fellowship = participating.
Fellowship is not friendship. Fellowship = friendship + a divine value; in immediate relationship to God on His most holy altar.
Verse 1 if he offers it; He shall offer it; (he) shall kill it etc.
Leviticus 7:30: His own hands
There is a definite personal committal first of all at the altar i.e., with God.
Then in eating, the offeror is committed with the brethren to commune with the altar (= Christ crucified). This determines the character of our association/community. New Testament position 1 Corinthians 10:14-22. NIV also Verse 16, 17.
We are committed to one source of joy and repudiate the world. We have a divine joy known in nearness to God and shared with fellow-saints completely apart from the world.
2 Corinthians 6:14-18 my people = specialty; proprietorship; fellowship.
Shut in with Thee, far, far above
The restless world that wars below;
We seek to learn and prove thy love,
Thy wisdom and Thy grace to know.
(Alexander Stewart)
Verse 1 male or female In the Burnt offering it is only a male (Leviticus 1:3, 10)
Male | Female |
Objective | Subjective |
Active | Passive |
Outward | Inward |
Position | State |
{Note on objectivity/subjectivity:
Historical fact = objectivity can lead to passivity.
Subjectivity (subjective experience) can lead to subjectivism.
Romans 10:17 Faith comes by hearing the Word of God, not a subjective analysis. Christianity is based on something that did not happen in our experience. It happened long before we were born. Salvation occurred outside the experience of every man who lived. Christianity is based on an historical fact in Gods redemptive history. Believing this historical fact redeems a man. The fact is objective, not subjective.
Subjectivism is the common denominator of all false systems = unhealthy introspection, hopelessly subjective, emotional and experiential.
Here is the Gospel: 1 Corinthians 15:3 an historical fact. Once we put our faith in an outside fact God begins to move into our life and then some practical things take place and we begin to experience what God is doing.
Galatians 4:4, 6:
Objective | Subjective |
God sent His Son | God sent His Spirit |
Purpose to become His children | Purpose to live as children or to live as sons and daughters |
External manifestation | Inward apprehension |
John 14:27 peace spoken of objectively
John 16:33 Peace spoken of as a state
Ephesians 2:14-15 Peace as the work of Christ - i.e., objective
Romans 5:1 Peace - the state as the result of justification.
Galatians 5:22 The work of the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit because of the work of Christ.
Approach to the Father in the peace/fellowship offering can be taken up from what Christ has done for us on the cross that is objective truth (male) or it can be taken up as the fruit of the Spirit in us because of the finished work of Christ. That is subjective truth (female).
The full orbed Christian life is the objective-subjective truth (Leviticus 3).
Verse 2: lay his hand = full commitment to Christ; not only for acceptance but in his present position and joy with God and as the substance and ground of communion/fellowship with fellow-saints.
1 Corinthians 1:9 What God has done called to fellowship.
1 Corinthians 10:16 What we do commit ourselves definitely to Christ and all that is the fruit of His death. Fellowship is a step after ACCEPTANCE. It is a step into maturity.
Fellowship binds us together in separation from all that is of the world. Fellowship is essential to enjoyment just as in the world company is essential to enjoyment.
Numbers 10:10; Deuteronomy 27:7 Peace offering + joy joined together.
Christian fellowship is in reference to Christ.
What Christian fellowship is not:
What Christian fellowship is:
The purpose of the offering
That the offeror and others could eat together in communion with the altar.
The offeror KILLS the animal. Therefore, Christian fellowship is the fellowship of the death of Christ.
Death = the removal of the natural and material. Apart from the death of Christ there is no fellowship of a divine character, no peace no prosperity no communion.
Are we in communion with that?
The PRIEST (verse 8, 13) the sons of Aaron.
Priesthood implies spiritual intelligence (Malachi 2:7; 1 Corinthians 10:15-16; 2 Timothy 2:7)
The Blood presented on mans side Godward is for atonement.
WHOLLY FOR GOD verse 17; 17:11, 12 no soul of you shall eat blood. Verse 12
What the blood of Christ does
PRESENTATION AND BURNING OF THE FAT: verse 11, 16, 17
Fat is what God feeds upon none other can participate.
Communion together loses its true and holy character if we do not think first of Gods portion.
Matthew 6:10b
Psalm 40:8-10 (7 points constitute the glory of God). These 7 things we cannot appropriate we offer it giving up for Gods glory.
What we apprehend of Christ in the Burnt offering Chapter 1, and the Meal offering Chapter 2, is carried into our souls and underline the Peace offering.
These three offerings are the sweet savor of Christ on the altar and constitute our communion.