The Threefold Identification With Christ

by T. Austin-Sparks

Chapter 1 - The Offerings and the Laying on of Hands

Reading: Lev. 8:14,18,22,24; Acts 20:32-35; 1 Tim. 2:1-2,8.

The common factor in these passages is hands. Hands have a very significant and important place in the spiritual life. Here in the eighth chapter of the book of Leviticus, we noted three connections in which hands were laid on the offering, and then the fourth was the taking of the blood and putting it upon the thumb of the right hand. We know very well that this act of laying on hands signifies identification, and there are these three aspects of identification with the sacrifice.

By the imposition of hands on the sacrifice, declaration was made that those who so placed their hands on it identified themselves with it, so that what it represented applied to them. The sacrifice and those who put their hands on it were identical, were one, and the meaning of each sacrifice was transferred by this act.

The Sin Offering

In the first, it was the sin offering, and that is the first aspect of our identification, it is the first phase of spiritual experience. The sin offering speaks of the death of Christ as made sin for us. The bullock was taken outside the camp and burnt there, in the place of judgment, completely consumed by fire.

Paul would say the whole body of sin had been put away. We are brought into the meaning of that by the definite declaration and act of identification. Before there can be anything else, we have to recognise that that is God's attitude towards us by nature. I think the Holy Spirit keeps that testimony alive all the way through. He makes us know that it is not just something formal, something in doctrine, but a great spiritual reality which is basic to everything else. So we are made aware of the fact that there has been, from God's side, a putting away in judgment, and what has been put away must not have any place inside the camp. It has been put right outside by God, completely cut off, and it must not come back again; with God it cannot. And that body of sin done away, destroyed, is where we begin our real life with God.

It may be the reason why many at the beginning of their spiritual life have a very bad time; that is, they are made to realise the utter hopelessness of their state. Many go through an experience which sometimes lasts days, or even weeks, where despair becomes utter, where they lose all hope of salvation. Something has come in, they never experienced anything like that before, but it has come by the operation of the Holy Spirit. It is a black, terrible experience.

Others, who do not have a beginning like that, have come into a certain Christian atmosphere and relationship. When it comes to a very real living relationship with the Lord unto all His will, they begin to realise something of this - the utter hopelessness that is deep-seated in themselves. Whichever way it is, there is the basic fact that the sin offering finds us identified with it, and in that identification, we learn that God has put outside the camp a certain whole body which has passed under judgment in His Son.

The Burnt Offering

The second was the burnt offering. This was not taken outside the camp; it was put right in the middle of the camp and burnt completely on the altar. It was a whole burnt offering, which said, "This is not from God, but unto God; not away from Him, but for Him". It is God's other side towards His Son, His appreciation of Christ where He is wholly acceptable to God and offered up a sweet savour unto God. It is God's delight in His Son, so that He is wholly acceptable.

The burnt offering speaks of the Lord Jesus as being the Beloved of the Father in His death, and wholly acceptable. The act of laying hands on the ram of burnt offering, must, of course, have been something very precious and joyous to these sons of Aaron. If they entered at all into the significance of it, it must have brought something very precious to their hearts, that their identification with the sacrifice, the burnt offering, carried with it the meaning that they were also wholly acceptable to God. To use Paul's words - "accepted (taken into favour) in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:6). It is the other side of things. "Accepted in the beloved". His acceptableness with God was transferred to them by this act of identification. Their hands signified that they and the offering were one.

The Ram of Consecration

The third was the ram of consecration. This speaks again of Christ's devotedness to the Father, His complete abandonment to the will of God: "I do always those things that please Him" (John 8:29). Here the whole matter of Life being brought into line with the Father's will and good pleasure, is represented by this ram of consecration. Therefore the third aspect of union with Christ is that my whole life, my whole being, is committed to God for His pleasure by the death of this ram. I died to my own pleasure, to my own will; I live henceforth only for the pleasure of God; everything is committed now to His pleasure. The act, then, of laying hands on the ram of consecration is a declaration that in exactly the same way as the Lord Jesus (Who is set forth in the type) was devoted utterly to His Father, by giving our hands to Him we show that we are devoted to the Father: to His pleasure, His will, and never to consult our own interests in anything.

The blood is put upon the thumb of the right hand, which simply says, These hands, represented by the right hand, these hands which signify my whole self. The giving of the hand is the giving of ourselves. It is a covenant. In the giving of the hand, our whole self is given over to God in an active way for His pleasure.