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A Sweet Smelling Savor Offering

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Hi L____,

Thanks again for taking time to share your thoughts with me.
No, you had not “… made a erroneous observation that the sweetsmelling savour
that was pleasing to God in Christ Jesus, was the smell of our flesh burning up”
That is exactly what made Christ a sweet smelling savour to God. Christ “died daily” to the pulls of His flesh just as we must do. But none of us was born of the holy spirit from our mother’s womb. So none of us can be a sweet smelling savour offering except through Christ, just as Christ cannot be a trespass offering except through us. Christ was “made sin” by entering into a body of flesh, that is a body of sin.

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption

That is what was so expressive in your words which I quoted in our earlier exchange:

If you look at the law of the offerings in Leviticus, it is very clear that the first three offerings, the burnt offering, the meat (meal) offering, and the peace offering, are all sweet smelling savor offerings. The burnt offering, is first mentioned as God sees Christ. Christ is our spotless, sinless Saviour, a slain lamb. The meal offering was not a blood offering because it was of the fruit of the ground. In other words it is the offering of the works done in our flesh in service to our fellow man. It is “out of the ground” and without the shedding of blood. The meal offering was never, under any but the very poorest of circumstances, ever to be offered alone. Wealth in scripture, is a reflection of spiritual understanding, whereas poverty is a reflection of a dearth of spiritual understanding. Only in the most poverty- stricken spiritual conditions could a meal offering be offered alone. Only from those with the most meager understanding of the sacrifice of Christ, would such an offering be offered or accepted. This was something that simply was not normally done. 

Lev 5:7  And if he be not able to bring a lamb, then he shall bring for his trespass, which he hath committed, two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, unto the LORD; one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering.
Lev 5:8  And he shall bring them unto the priest, who shall offer [ that] which [ is] for the sin offering first, and wring off his head from his neck, but shall not divide [ it] asunder:
Lev 5:9  And he shall sprinkle of the blood of the sin offering upon the side of the altar; and the rest of the blood shall be wrung out at the bottom of the altar: it [ is] a sin offering.
Lev 5:10  And he shall offer the second [ for] a burnt offering, according to the manner: and the priest shall make an atonement for him for his sin which he hath sinned, and it shall be forgiven him.
Lev 5:11  But if he be not able to bring two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, then he that sinned shall bring for his offering the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering; he shall put no oil upon it, neither shall he put [ any] frankincense thereon: for it [ is] a sin offering.

Any such person has certainly begun to walk in Christ, but they are still on spiritual milk, and they are still in spiritual diapers, and they are “yet carnal… babes in Christ.”

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able [ to bear it], neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas [ there is] among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I [ am] of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

That is the spiritual condition of those who are “not able to bring two turtle doves,” and can afford only “the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering.” That was Cain’s mistake. Cain, who really is all of us at our appointed time, failed to understand that our works are not our works. Our works are Christ working in us, and we can do nothing of ourselves.

Joh 15:5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

This is the lesson that Joseph’s brothers had to learn concerning their sins. This is the lesson Job had to learn concerning all of his righteousnesses, and this is the lesson that Nebuchadnezzar had to learn concerning all of his great accomplishments. Be it good or evil, God directs all things through Christ, who sends out evil spirits and good spirits to “work all things after the counsel of His own will.
The meal offering, which is specifically acknowledged as “the fruit of the ground,” consists of “finely ground flour.” The meal offering is the acknowledgment that we are ground to powder only upon the burnt offering of Christ in us as a sweet smelling savor. Except in “carnal babes in Christ” whose understanding is “yet carnal,” there is to be no meal offering without the shedding of blood. The meal offering is always ideally offered with the various blood offerings.

Lev 9:17  And he brought the meat offering, and took an handful thereof, and burnt it upon the altar, beside the burnt sacrifice of the morning.
Lev 14:20  And the priest shall offer the burnt offering and the meat offering upon the altar: and the priest shall make an atonement for him, and he shall be clean.

The “meat” or meal offering was never to be offered without the shedding of blood, as Cain attempted to do, contrary to what He had been instructed, thus sinning against God.

Gen 4:3  And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an [“meat” or meal] offering unto the LORD.
Gen 4:4  And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
Gen 4:5  But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.
Gen 4:6  And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
Gen 4:7  If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him [ sin].

Whether we do well or do not do well depends upon whether we obey the commandments of God. Obedience to God is the only way we can know that we love our brothers.

1Jn 5:2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1Jn 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

Moses even uses the phrases “with the bread,” and the phrase “with their meat offerings”   when speaking of the various blood sacrifices with which the meal offerings were always to be offered:

Lev 23:18  And ye shall offer with the bread seven lambs without blemish of the first year, and one young bullock, and two rams: they shall be for a burnt offering unto the LORD, with their meat offering, and their drink offerings, even an offering made by fire, of sweet savour unto the LORD.

“If you do not well sin lies at the door” demonstrates that Cain had sinned in that he had not followed God’s commandments concerning his offering. Cain saw no need for something as messy as a blood offering. Surely, he thought and we think, there is a better way than that to serve God. What a dirty mess! Why inflict such pain and death upon that poor animal? What natural man in his right natural mind wants to have any part of such a bloody mess? But God’s ways are not our ways, and He wants us all to realize that He will not accept our efforts to please or serve Him, or our fellow man, unless we first acknowledge that those efforts are really, in a very concrete way, the works of the lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world.

Rev 13:8  And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Luk 11:50  That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;
Luk 11:51  From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.

The meat, or meal offering, was to be offered with and upon the shed blood of the burnt offering or with and upon the peace offering, or with and upon the sin offering. Only those with no understanding of the function of grace and the fact that we “fill up in our bodies what is behind of the afflictions of the Christ, slain from the foundation of the world,” offer only a meal offering:

Lev 5:7  And if he be not able to bring a lamb, then he shall bring for his trespass, which he hath committed, two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, unto the LORD; one for a sin offering, and the other for a burnt offering.
Lev 5:8  And he shall bring them unto the priest, who shall offer [ that] which [ is] for the sin offering first, and wring off his head from his neck, but shall not divide [ it] asunder:
Lev 5:9  And he shall sprinkle of the blood of the sin offering upon the side of the altar; and the rest of the blood shall be wrung out at the bottom of the altar: it [ is] a sin offering.
Lev 5:10  And he shall offer the second [ for] a burnt offering, according to the manner: and the priest shall make an atonement for him for his sin which he hath sinned, and it shall be forgiven him.
Lev 5:11  But if he be not able to bring two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, then he that sinned shall bring for his offering the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering; he shall put no oil upon it, neither shall he put any frankincense thereon: for it is a sin offering.

“Neither shall he put any frankincense thereon: for it is a sin offering” [ not a sweet smelling savor offering.]
So the burning of flesh, which is what the burnt offering is, is indeed a sweet smelling savor offering. But a sweet smelling savor offering was never to be offered outside of the temple. It was within the temple and upon the golden altar, all types of Christ and those who are in Him. The sin offering, on the other hand was Christ’s corruptible flesh and blood, which could not enter into the kingdom of God, and which had to be left without the camp and burned upon the ground, and that which is rejected of God.

Mat 27:32  And as they came out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name: him they compelled to bear his cross.
Mat 27:33  And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, a place of a skull,
Heb 13:11  For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp.

Christ is all of the offerings. He was “made sin” the moment he was placed into the death realm which we know as flesh and blood. That is “the valley of the shadow of death” through which Christ and all of us must walk. But Christ is no longer in that valley, and “in Him” we too, in downpayment form, are taken beyond that valley of shadow of death. We are still in it in these bodies of flesh, but while yet in these vile vessels of clay, we are transported into the heavens in Christ.

Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly [ places] in Christ Jesus:
Eph 2:7  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

And so we are now told, in the same chapter where we are told that Christ was “made sin:”

2Co 5:16  Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

Yes, we are “the temple of God,” but only in and through Christ. Christ is that temple and the sweet smelling savor offerings are to be distinguished from the offering which are not sweet smelling savors by virtue of having no frankincense offered with them. Frankincence was only offered upon the golden altar within the temple, which temple is the risen Christ. The sin and trespass offerings were to be burned without the camp, upon the ground, “without frankincense. It is a sin offering.” It was sacrifice upon the altar, but it was burnt upon the ground as not fit for the altar. It was sin, and only its blood was sprinkled within the temple, as the symbol of the relinquishing of the flesh.

Lev 5:11  But if he be not able to bring two turtledoves, or two young pigeons, then he that sinned shall bring for his offering the tenth part of an ephah of fine flour for a sin offering; he shall put no oil upon it, neither shall he put any frankincense thereon: for it is a sin offering.
Lev 4:5  And the priest that is anointed shall take of the bullock’s blood, and bring it to the tabernacle of the congregation:
Lev 4:6  And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times before the LORD, before the vail of the sanctuary.
Lev 4:7  And the priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the LORD, which is in the tabernacle of the congregation; and shall pour all the blood of the bullock at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Lev 4:8  And he shall take off from it all the fat of the bullock for the sin offering; the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that [ is] upon the inwards,
Lev 4:9  And the two kidneys, and the fat that [ is] upon them, which [ is] by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away,
Lev 4:10  As it was taken off from the bullock of the sacrifice of peace offerings: and the priest shall burn them upon the altar of the burnt offering.

The blood of the sin offering, is sprinkled on the golden altar “which is in the tabernacle,” and then the rest of the blood is poured out “at the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle.” Then the fat and the two kidneys are actually burned upon the altar. These represent that which is within, which is what the Lord wants. He wants us, but He rejects our sinful flesh. It is take “without the camp,” and is “burned upon wood.”

Lev 4:11  And the skin of the bullock, and all his flesh, with his head, and with his legs, and his inwards, and his dung,
Lev 4:12  Even the whole bullock shall he carry forth without the camp unto a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn him on the wood with fire: where the ashes are poured out shall he be burnt.

“On the wood, with fire, where the ashes are poured out, shall he be burnt”

It is the understanding of these finer details of the things of the spirit which separates an offer of a handful of meal from the most valuable of all the offerings, the ox. Abraham’s wealth is not physical wealth, except to Kenneth Copeland and Creflo Dollar, et al. “Abraham was very rich in silver and in gold” which symbolize the understanding of the things of the spirit which make us “the friend of God.”
I hope this is all of some help. You are right, “burning flesh smells sweet to God.” But God wants us to understand what is the difference between flesh that is burned without the city, as rejected of God, and the fat and kidneys which are burned on the altar, and the blood of that flesh, which is sprinkled on the altar, within the temple and accepted of God.
In Christ we are “the Christ,” and become “the temple of God’s spirit,” and partake of all of which our Head partakes. It is the understanding of all of these spiritual concepts which separates the Aaronic priesthood, which still wants a physical temple, from “another priesthood after the order of Melchisedec.”

Your brother in Christ.
Mike

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