Parresia · Beholding Jesus in His Amazing Grace, Session 8, “Jesus, Our Peace Offering, Part 2”

Welcome to session 8 of Beholding Jesus in His Amazing Grace. This session is entitled, “Jesus, Our Peace Offering, Part 2.”

Last week I began a message on the Peace Offering, which was one of the five types of offerings in the Old Testament – each depicting some aspect of Jesus. The Peace offering is a depiction of Jesus as our Peace.

Last week I explained that this “peace” we are talking about is not a feeling. It’s our heavenly reality and our inheritance in Jesus. He said “My Peace” I give to you.” We covered Romans 5:1 – 

Romans 5:1 – Therefore, having been justified by faith, [made right with God by faith] we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, [Peace means our eternal reconciliation with God, our perfect unbreakable union with Him]

Reconciliation means that we have no outstanding debt of sin with God. “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

You know how it feels when you’ve been reconciled with someone. Reconciliation comes after everything is restored back to how it’s supposed to be, and there’s no offenses remaining. The big hugs have taken place. The burden is lifted, and You can just exhale. Well, we’re living in an eternal spiritual exhale because of the peace we have with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:19 – [2 Corinthians 5 speaks of the reconciliation we have with God ] God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them,…

Do you know what that means? God is not counting our sins against us. Why? Because all our sins were counted against Jesus at the cross.

What do I mean when I say that our sins were counted against Jesus? Well, the Old Testament sacrifices give us a picture. They were burned with fire on the Brazen Altar of the tabernacle, which represents the cross.

The fire would represent the judgment for our sin falling upon Jesus, our Lamb of God. He paid the wages of our sin with His own life. And by means of His sacrificial death, we have been reconciled and brought near to God. And today, we are not at odds with God in any way. 

Continuing in 2 Corinthians 5 – 

2 Corinthians 5:19-21 – and [God] has committed to us the word of reconciliation. [What is the “word” of reconciliation? God is NOT COUNTING our sins against us!] 20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. [So while God was pleased through Christ to reconcile all of us to Himself (as it says in Colossians 1:19-20), each of us must still receive the sacrifice of Jesus for our sins. We must receive God’s forgiveness and grace. We must “be reconciled to God.” How do we do that? What is the mechanism by which we do that? Faith! We simply believe that –  ] 21 For He [God] made Him [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin for us [YOU], that we [YOU] might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

We simply believe that Jesus who knew no sin, committed no sin, and had no sin in His nature became sin for us at the cross. And we receive the free gift of His righteousness, and the abundance of His grace.

And we become righteous – not because we the righteous things that we do, but because HIS righteousness became our righteousness. He took our sin. We took His righteousness. And it’s called the great exchange.

Believing this brings a peaceful rest to our conscience, to our soul — it’s called “the peace of God” in Philippians 4:7 –  a peace which is far more wonderful than the human mind can even comprehend.

Matthew 6:31-33 – [Jesus said] “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles [unbelievers] seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, [whose righteousness? His!] and all these things [blessings] shall be added to you.”

So today I want to continue looking at this picture of Jesus as our Peace Offering to see how we can apply it to our lives – how does believing that we are reconciled to God actually affect our lives?

The picture of the Peace Offering is one of the most practical messages because it tells us what we can do. It gives us the secret to living the grace-filled, abundant life and the secret to enjoying all the blessings that come from the finished work of Jesus Christ.

The Peace Offering in Leviticus 7

As I said last week, the Peace Offering is sometimes called the “finished work offering” because it’s not about making peace with God, but rather celebrating the peace we already have.

Last week I shared a passage from Leviticus 3 which gives some of the details of the Peace Offering. 

Today I want to look at the Law of the Peace Offering which is laid out in Leviticus 7. The manner in which this offering was to be given shows us a picture of practicing the love of Jesus for us and then receiving the power of His love for any circumstance.

Leviticus 7:28-30 – Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 29 “Speak to the children of Israel, saying: ‘He who offers the sacrifice of his peace offering to the Lord shall bring his offering to the Lord from the sacrifice of his peace offering. [again – the phrase “peace offering” is the PLURAL Hebrew šelem from the word shalom. It means “PEACES of every kind; peace in all its completeness. Prosperity in your soul, mind, emotions, and body. No dis-ease. No stress. Peace in relationships. Peace in every area. Nothing broken, nothing missing.] 30 His own hands shall bring the offerings made by fire to the Lord…

The offerer’s own hands brought the peace offering. This tells us it was personal. He could not deputize anyone else to do it for him. So he is expressing his own thanksgiving and celebration of God’s goodness and the reconciliation that he enjoys with God.

A wonderful illustration of the peace offering is in Luke 15 in the parable of the Prodigal Son, where the father kills the fatted calf to celebrate his son’s homecoming and their reconciliation. The Peace Offering is always a celebration of God’s grace, never a reminder of sin.

Instructions for the offerer

As we saw in Leviticus 3, the worshipper would lay his hand on the head of the sacrifice which was without blemish to identify with all its perfections, and then kill the sacrifice – a depiction of Jesus dying in our place to impute to us His righteousness and innocence and perfection.

And the priest would sprinkle the blood all around the altar – signifying that the blood of Jesus has met and satisfied all of the claims of God’s holiness and righteousness for each of us.

The sacrifice was then taken apart – the breast and right thigh (also called the right shoulder) were separated out. And the internal organs were separated out – you can find the list of internal organs in Leviticus 3.

These inward parts signify how God looks into Jesus’s heart and His inward being. God sees the inward beauty of His Son, the holiness of His thoughts and the perfect intentions of His heart. Jesus is beautiful to the Father, inside and out. 

The fat also was to be carefully separated from every other part, because as I said last week, this part was reserved for God alone. The fat represents the richness, preciousness, and value of Jesus, which only God can fully comprehend. When the fat was burned, a sweet aroma ascended to God.

Back to Leviticus 7:30 – 

Leviticus 7:30 – “the offerings [were] made by fire to the Lord”

The priest would salt all the parts and burn them on the brazen altar: the fat was burned first, because God’s part comes first, then the breast, then the right thigh, then the other internal parts.

Of the five offerings, the Peace Offering is the only one where everyone would have a portion of the roasted sacrifice to share – a picture of the fellowship we have with God! The fat was for God, but the rest of the offering was shared by the High Priest, the other priests, and even the offerer himself- in fact, the Peace Offering is the only sacrifice where the offerer had a portion. We’ll see in a minute who got what.

Leviticus 7:30-31 – [verse 30 cont -] The fat with the breast he shall bring, that the breast may be waved as a wave offering before the Lord. 31 And the priest shall burn the fat on the altar…

The offerer was to bring the “fat with the breast.” While the fat was burned first, the breast was specifically brought with it. The fat –  the richness, the preciousness of the sacrifice – was associated with the breast.

The breast of the lamb represents the love of our Heavenly Lamb for us. The love of Jesus for us is the richest, most valuable, and precious part of our Lamb of God.

The Wave Breast

Leviticus 7:30-31 – [again] The fat with the breast he shall bring, that the breast may be waved as a wave offering before the Lord. 31 And the priest shall burn the fat on the altar, but the breast shall be Aaron’s and his sons. [In other Peace Offering scriptures we see that Aaron’s daughters also share in this portion of the Offering. (Numbers 18:11 and Leviticus 10:14)]

So who is Aaron? He was Israel’s first High Priest. Who does the High Priest represent in the Old Testament pictures? Jesus. Who are Aaron’s descendants? The priests.  Who do they represent? Us. We are the priests.

Revelation 1:5-6 – To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, 6 and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father…

The breast shall be for Aaron and the priests. We, the priests, share the breast of the Lamb with Jesus, our High Priest. But think of it – Jesus is not only the our Heavenly Aaron, He’s also our spotless lamb. What does this mean? We feed on the love of our Lamb of God, and Jesus Himself is also feeds on His love for us.

His love for us is our common food. You might think that we feed on His love, and He feeds on our love like we do with one another. But that’s not the correct picture. It’s not our love that satisfies Him. We should never focus on our love for Him because our love ebbs and flows like the waves of sea. His love is never changes.

• Jesus gets His delight and satisfaction in loving us! He loves to love us!
• We receive our nourishment from feeding on His love!

The offering of the breast of the Peace Offering is called the “wave offering” because the priest would wave the breast horizontally towards the altar of God, back and forth several times. 

The horizontal waving signifies the celebration of the Giving and receiving of the love of our Lamb of God. We “wave” His love before the Father: “Father, behold the love of Jesus for us!”

John 10:11, 17 – [Jesus said] The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep… 17 “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life…” [The Father loves to be reminded of the love of His Son for us]

SO we thank God for the love of His Son, and then we feast on His love, the roasted breast, together with our heavenly Aaron Himself.

That’s why the peace offering is also called the “fellowship offering” – in fact, that’s what the NIV calls it. One of the best ways to have fellowship is to sit at the same table with friends and eat the same food. 

Recently we had dinner with Martha Ellen and her boyfriend. Zach is a chef at Automatic Seafood downtown so he invited us to join them there. He ordered practically everything on the menu for us, and was determined that it would be “family style” and that we would eat every part together. 

Zach has studied the cultural practices of dining all over the world. He said, “Only in America do we each order our own food and not share it.” Fellowship is much sweeter and more intimate when we share the same food.

This is how we have fellowship with Jesus. We feed on His love together. And again, this isn’t about our love for Him. We don’t feed on our love for Jesus. Romans 8:37 doesn’t say that we are more than conquerors through our love for Him. 

Romans 8:37 – We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

When we feed on His love, we are empowered, and we become more than conquerors.

The Heave Thigh

This leads me to the other portion of the sacrifice that was given to the priest: the right thigh of the substitute. 

Leviticus 7:32 – Also the right thigh you shall give to the priest as a heave offering from the sacrifices of your peace offerings.

The thigh is the largest and strongest bone of the body.  This speaks of power and strength. 

The right thigh (or shoulder) of the offering would be roasted and then “heaved”, or lifted up. 

This speaks of the power that raised Jesus from the dead! Resurrection power from earth to heaven. From death to life!! This is the power of the resurrection that we have through the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.

So we – 

• Wave the roasted breast: the unconditional sacrificial love of Jesus.
• and we Heave the roasted thigh: power of the resurrection

What do you see? The cross.  The wave of the breast and the heave of the thigh of the Peace Offering make a cross – God’s great demonstration of love.

1 Corinthians 1:18 – For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved [in every way!] it is the power of God. [So the Gospel message is the power of God!]

What is the message of the cross? It’s the story of God’s love for us. 

1 John 4:9-10, NLT – God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.

1 John 3:16, NIV – This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

His love for us comes first, then we have the power to love others.

1 John 4:19, NASB – We love because He first loved us.

So we wave the breast and then heave the thigh. First feed on His love, and then you feed on His power. Power always follows love. 

When you see a child fall down, love is stirred in your heart, and then the power comes and you rush to the child to pick him up. 

Bystander affect

A couple of days ago, as I was pondering this truth – “we love because He first loved us,” something very disturbing happened in the world that reminded me once again of how desperately our world needs the love of Jesus.

Have you ever heard of the bystander affect? It’s when someone in a public setting is hurt or in danger, but no one does anything to help. They just walk by or take out their iPhone and start filming it.

A couple of days ago, a tormented man in New York City doused himself with an alcohol-based cleaning substance in preparation to light himself on fire and burn himself alive. I read that a crowd of onlookers watched, but no one did anything to stop him. They had no power because they had no love for this man. By the time the police and paramedics got there, it was too late to ultimately save him. 

But – as for us – Romans 5:5 says that the love of Jesus has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. That love fuels us with power to reach out and help someone in need – even if it’s just to call 911.

When we behold Jesus and feed on His love, we will be transformed into His image, and we will love others with His love. Even strangers. Even enemies.

The power of His love within us is a self-sacrificial love that compels us to sacrifice our own comfort and time and possessions and position and prayers for others. 

We have nothing to lose by helping others – not only our loved ones, but whomever God brings across our paths – because the love of Jesus for us produces in us an endless supply of  power and strength and grace to meet the demand for any circumstance and every need.

So the Peace Offering is our declaration to the Lord: “Lord, I thank You that You love me (wave the breast), and because You love me, Your power (heave the thigh) will more than supply all my needs and the needs of my family from the riches of Your grace.”

Even in the midst of my enemies, I feed on the love of Jesus. In the midst of trouble, God prepares a table for me in the presence of the enemies of fear, worry, anxiety, lack or disease in my body or dis-ease my soul – and I feast on the love of Jesus together with Him – right there in front of all my enemies. 

And I say to the Lord,  “Lord, I see how You touched the leper when no one else would, and defended the woman caught in adultery, how you raised Lazarus because You loved him, how you fed the 5000 and calmed the storm because of the cries of Your beloved. I don’t know what tomorrow holds, but because You love me, Your power will be there for me! I don’t know what tomorrow holds, but I know Who holds the future. And because You love me, I know You will turn everything around for good.”

That’s why I say feeding on the love of Jesus is the most practical thing we can do.

Romans 5: why we can expect God’s blessing

The word “blessings” kept coming up in my mind as I was preparing this message. One aspect of the Peace Offering was thanksgiving, not only for the Peace the offerer had with God, but also the blessings that he enjoyed because of that peace – blessings of the past and promises of blessings yet to come.

Over the last few years I have done a deep dive into the blessings of God for our families – all of the promises of God that are YES in Jesus. I am forever convinced that God desires for us to have blessed lives. 

Galatians 3:13-14 – Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”), [so not only did Jesus become sin for us so that we might become righteous; He became a curse for us that we might be blessed – ] 14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit [through whom every blessing comes] through faith.

Study Abraham and you will see a man who was blessed by God from generation to generation. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob weren’t perfectly behaved, but they were super-abundantly blessed and fruitful. Abraham even had a son when he was 100 years old! And why was he so blessed? The covenant of grace based on the righteousness of faith. It’s a forerunner to the New Covenant of grace we have in Jesus.

I want to go back to Romans 5 for a minute and talk about why we can expect God’s blessing on our lives and good in our future because of the peace – the reconciliation – we have with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Last week I shared vs 1-5, so I will pick up in verse 5 again through vs 11 – 

Romans 5:5-8 – Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. [Paul said in Ephesians 3:19 that this love “surpasses knowledge.” What does this “love of God” look like? Verses 6-8 describe it] 6 For when we were still without strength, [TLB – “When we were utterly helpless, with no way of escape” AMPC –  we were “powerless to help ourselves”; TPT – “we were powerless to save ourselves.”] in due time [kairos – the opportune time] Christ died for the ungodly. [The love of God that has been poured out into our hearts is the kind of love that loves others BEFORE they love us or love God. It’s the kind of love that loves people who hate God. The UNGODLY. Jesus gave His life for people who hated Him.] 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

For us to even begin to fully grasp what Jesus has done for us as our Lamb of God, or to even begin to receive all of the benefits of the cross, we need to know something about the extravagance of His love. 

What does “ungodly” mean? The Greek word is “asebēs” [as-eb-ace’], and it means “destitute of reverential awe towards God, treating God with contempt or scorn, despising God, impious; irreverent, wicked; a vehement condemnation of God as low, vile, feeble, or ignominious; pouring scorn on God; to value God at little or nothing.”

In a word, the ungodly are the enemies of God. And God demonstrated His own love towards His enemies – which at one time included us – by sending His own Son to die for us while we were yet sinners. 

Back to Romans 5 – 

Romans 5:9-11 – Much more then, having now been justified [made righteous] by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. [Because of the blood of Jesus, we have boldness in the day of judgment because “as Jesus is so are we in this world.” This is our IDENTIFICATION with the spotless Lamb. When God looks at us, He sees the PERFECTION of His Son. He see the RIGHTEOUSNESS of His son. He smells the PLEASING AROMA of His Son. He loves us with the SAME LOVE with which He loves His Son. There is no fear in THIS love because fear involves punishment. But we do not fear punishment or the wrath of God because the wrath of God was fully satisfied in the sacrifice of Jesus.] 10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved [sozo’d – rescued, healed, delivered, prospered] by His life. [What does “saved by His life” mean? TLB – “what blessings he must have for us now that we are his friends and he is living within us.”] 11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. [The everlasting peace – the everlasting shalom! Peaces of every kind – peace in our soul, in our bodies, in our emotions, in our spirit, peace with our children, peace in our finances; peace – nothing broken, nothing missing in every part of our lives.]

Feeding on His love, beholding Him, enjoying His presence are practices that transform us from anxious to restful, from fearful to faithful, from hopeless to hopeful, from needy to blessed, from cranky to thankful, and from self-absorbed to self-sacrificial. 

This is the love that surpasses knowledge: Christ died for the ungodly. We love the ungodly, regardless of the contempt they have shown for what is true and good and lovely. And then they will know the unconditional love of God expressed through us. How would anyone truly know unconditional love unless it had been tested?

Romans 5:20 – Where sin abounds, grace abounds much more.

I am a friend of God

Back to the beginning – 

Romans 5:1 – Therefore, having been justified [made righteous] by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Chris

We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. 

James 2:23 – “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. 

And you know what?! I am a friend of God through the cross of Jesus!

Here’s a list that came to me when that truth exploded in my heart this week: 

• What does it mean to be a friend of God?
• What does it mean to be a friend of the Creator of the Universe?
• What does it mean to be a friend of the One who holds the world in His hands?
• What does it mean to be a friend of the One who knows everything, even the future?
• What does it mean to be a friend of the One who has all the power in the universe to do whatever He desires?
• What does it mean to be a friend of the One who owns the cattle on a thousand hills?
• What does it mean to be a friend of the One who turns the hearts of kings?
• What does it mean to be a friend of the One who can turn the course of rivers and put stars in the sky?
• What does it mean to be a friend of the One who can heal a paralytic or cancer or raise the dead?
• What does it mean to be a friend of the One for whom nothing is impossible?
• What does it mean to be a friend of the only One in the universe who will never leave me nor forsake me and will love me no matter what?

It means I can release all my cares to Him because I know He will care for me. In that context, I want to read one more verse out of Leviticus 7, the passage which gives us the Law of the Peace Offering:

Leviticus 7:15 – The flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offering for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day it is offered. He shall not leave any of it until morning.

In researching the Peace Offering, I found a commentary from Ray Stedman  – a theologian that my mother really liked. I inherited a bunch of his books from her. On Leviticus 7:15, and the part that says “it shall be eaten the same day it is offered. He shall not leave any of it until morning,” he wrote:

“Now, what is God saying here? Well, it is a very practical truth. He is saying that there must be no separation between the peace that you feel and the source of that peace, [which is] the sacrifice which provided it. You must not separate the two. In other words, you must not depend upon the feelings of peace that are given to you. Don’t try to live on those. Once peace is given as a result of trusting the work of Jesus Christ on your behalf, don’t just say, “Ah, now I feel much better! I think I can go on now, and tomorrow I’ll just expect this peace [this feeling of peace] still to be here and I’ll reckon on that.” Don’t shift your dependence from the One who gives peace, to the feeling that is produced.

What a practical warning that is! — because we all tend to do this, don’t we? As soon as the load is lifted we think, “Well, everything’s fine now. I’ll shift back now and go on, on my own.” But if you try that, within two days you are right back into the same mess again, with a troubled heart. No, there is only one source from which peace can come. It comes by reckoning upon the wisdom and the love and the affection and the power of a risen Lord who, at work in you, is able to handle your situation and work it out in ways that you can’t anticipate or even dream, if you will put it into his hands. That doesn’t mean simply to forget it — you may be part of the solution. God’s way of working it out may be to use you. But you don’t know when he may want to use you. Just stand ready and he will let you know. But the responsibility of working it out is no longer yours. It is God’s. That is the secret of peace.”

Every day begins the same. We thank God the assurance that nothing can separate us from His love. We celebrate Jesus, whose death has reconciled us to God, and whose resurrection has blessed us with abundant life. We feed on His love, we feed on His power, and we experience rest in our soul knowing that all is well, and all will be well. 

Tomorrow we don’t rely on yesterday’s peaceful feelings. All our dependence is in the Source of our Peace. We celebrate Jesus again. We feed on His love again. We feed on His power again. 

Whatever we face, all of the responsibility is His, and He will do immeasurably more than all we think or imagine. How do I know that?

Romans 8:32  – He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

The portion of the offerer

One more thing – I neglected to mention the portion of the Peace Offering reserved for the offerer: the inward parts of the sacrifice. All the internal organs.

Who do the offerers represent? Us. Not only are we the priests who feed on Jesus’ love and power, we are also the offerers. We feed on His inward parts: the perfect intents of His heart and the preciousness of His thoughts towards us.

We are nourished and strengthened because we know all His thoughts towards us are good.

Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

Copyright info: All scriptures in the New King James Version unless otherwise noted.

• (NKJV) New King James Version. Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.
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• (NASB) Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)
• (TLB) The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.