“Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.” NASB
The writer of this great letter to the HEBREWS, with this first verse of the thirteenth chapter, begins his final exhortations and salutations. Based upon all that has been taught so far, these are the behaviors that should characterize the person who has the Spirit of this Christ, our Great High Priest living in and through them.
He speaks of relationships to one another as believers, how we should present ourselves to strangers and those outside the fellowship of the faith, he touches on the importance of a holy and Godly marriage. Then the writer speaks of personal priorities that would distinguish the Christ-follower in his thinking from those whose thinking is of this world and this passing life.
Don’t love money. In other words, don’t put your trust in the temporary and shaky supports this world offers. We are living in a time, are we not, when many people are discovering how very shaky their foundations are?
But it is the place of the born again Christian to put his or her trust fully on the strength of the One who promised that He would never leave or forsake us, and to confidently, not arrogantly but confidently, say ‘The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid’.
I don’t want to just do a running commentary of this chapter, though there is very much to teach and to learn in it, but we have to sharpen our focus today, so I’ll ask you to skip down with me to verse 10 and let’s glean what we can in so short a time from this comparison the author makes, and the types he presents, and the exhortation he applies to our lives in this section from verse 10 through 15.
THE TYPE
The references he makes here would have resonated very clearly in the minds of his Jewish readers and hearers, but for our own understanding we need to go first to the book of Numbers, chapter 19, and read about this ordinance concerning the red heifer. I’ll read verses 1 through 10 and you may just listen or turn there and follow along.
“Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 2 “This is the statute of the law which the LORD has commanded, saying, ‘Speak to the sons of Israel that they bring you an unblemished red heifer in which is no defect and on which a yoke has never been placed. 3 ‘You shall give it to Eleazar the priest, and it shall be brought outside the camp and be slaughtered in his presence. 4 ‘Next Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times. 5 ‘Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight; its hide and its flesh and its blood, with its refuse, shall be burned. 6 ‘The priest shall take cedar wood and hyssop and scarlet material and cast it into the midst of the burning heifer. 7 ‘The priest shall then wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward come into the camp, but the priest shall be unclean until evening. 8 ‘The one who burns it shall also wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water, and shall be unclean until evening. 9 ‘Now a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, and the congregation of the sons of Israel shall keep it as water to remove impurity; it is purification from sin. 10 ‘The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening; and it shall be a perpetual statute to the sons of Israel and to the alien who sojourns among them.”
This would be the instruction for what came to be known as the Day of Atonement, the second of the Fall holy days, coming between the Feast of Trumpets and the Feast of Tabernacles.
There is another reference to this instruction in Leviticus 16:27 if anyone cares to look it up later.
Now what we have before us in this is a type of God’s dealing with sin. The sacrifice, a young cow with no blemish, is taken outside the borders of the camp and killed there. If you have ever studied the account of the deliverance of the Children of Israel from Egypt and the ordinances for the meal they were to eat on the night the firstborn of Egypt were killed, you will remember that God’s instruction through Moses to the people was that they were to take a year old unblemished male lamb and sacrifice it. We know this as a type or a foreshadowing of Jesus, who was a young Man at the age men are considered to be in their prime, unblemished in that He had no sin, and that He was the Sacrifice of God for the sin of the world.
Well the same typology applies here in Numbers in this instruction. The red heifer was to be unblemished because once more this was a foreshadowing of Christ and His atoning work.
This sacrifice was different than the others in that the animal was not sacrificed on the altar, but outside the camp entirely. The blood was sprinkled toward the Temple but the body was burned to ashes outside the camp where it remained.
Here is some application for us. This was an offering for sin. The animal, in being taken outside of the camp and killed there, became a representation of sin which cannot come into the holy presence of God. The blood that was shed is taken in because, as we know, without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sin. However the one on whom God’s wrath for sin abides cannot approach and must suffer the fire of the wrath of God who is holy.
Therefore the heifer, as though under the fire of God’s wrath, is burned without the camp.
Now the instruction surrounding this offering is for the ashes to be for the cleansing of anyone who has had contact with a dead body. So while the pile of ashes lay outside the gate, anyone who had contact with a dead body and was unclean for the purposes of Temple worship could come to this pile of ashes where a priest would mix some ashes with water and sprinkle on the person, and after sundown they would then be ceremonially clean.
That’s as much as I know about this particular sacrifice and the reasons for it. Just keep in mind, the blood is an acceptable offering at the Temple, but the body is both killed and burned outside the camp. It is not even killed on the altar in the outer court of the Temple, where worship normally took place.
THE APPLICATION OF IT
Now when we come to verse 12 of our text and it says, “Therefore Jesus also…suffered outside the gate”, it is not telling us that Jesus did this to mimic the red heifer sacrifice. It is telling us that although ordained thousands of years before the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the sacrifice mimicked Him. It foreshadowed the willing sacrifice of the Messiah outside the city of Jerusalem.
Why did He do this? The question is answered for us there in verse 12. “…that He might sanctify the people through His own blood…”
Now what does this mean, and how does this action that He took – and we must always remember that although He was arrested and tied and beaten and stripped and led through the streets at the point of a spear, carrying the wood for His crucifixion as He went, even so, it was His plan and the Father’s plan and the Spirit’s orchestrating – this action He took was to sanctify His people; and we ask ‘how?’
Well first we have to understand that this word translated ‘sanctify’ in every instance that it is used in the letter to the HEBREWS means ‘to dedicate’, ‘to set apart’.
This action Jesus took in accomplishing His atoning work outside the gate was to set apart His people; to dedicate them to the Father. And who are these who are called ‘the people’ in verse 12? Why, it’s you, if you are a Christ-follower, born from above and filled with the Holy Spirit. It is you!
2 Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him”
Jesus suffered outside the camp so that through the shedding of His blood He might sanctify you – set you apart for God.
Do you think about that sometimes? Have you ever realized before that some 2000 years ago this Man had you on His mind when He left the old Jerusalem for the last time to be crucified outside the gate on a hill that was covered with bones and soaked with the blood of crucified victims so that the dirt itself was putrid and stinking, and that it was a place of shame and humiliation because even the Bible says that anyone who is hanged on a tree is cursed?
We should all think about that often, Christians. Because being a Christian is about that, it’s not what the church and the culture have made it to be today. We are mocked and ridiculed by many today and in more and more places people are becoming increasingly bold to advocate even legislature against us, but I’m afraid that far too often it is for the wrong reasons.
Far too often, I am afraid, they ridicule because we’re ridiculous. Far too often, I am afraid, they are against us because we offend them, not with our Christ-likeness but with our arrogance and self-righteousness.
Jesus suffered outside the camp. So why are we so often found conducting all our affairs, including our so-called worship, well within the boundaries of the camp of this world and the world’s religion? Something to ponder.
But what does this mean, that He shed His blood there to sanctify us? If it means, ‘dedicate’ and ‘set apart’, what does the place where He suffered have to do with that?
Well, we might get an idea if we remember some words from Jesus that He said about Himself.
John 12:32 “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” Jesus spoke those words to the multitudes near the closing of His earthly ministry. But I’d like for us all to go to that portion of John’s Gospel and read more today, because what happened there has bearing on our focus of study today.
John 12, and let’s pick it up at verse 30 where Jesus is explaining the voice that some of them have just heard from Heaven, which we know to be the Father’s voice confirming the Son.
“Jesus answered and said, “This voice has not come for My sake, but for your sakes. 31 “Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. 32 “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” 33 But He was saying this to indicate the kind of death by which He was to die. 34 The crowd then answered Him, “We have heard out of the Law that the Christ is to remain forever; and how can You say, ‘The Son of Man must be lifted up’? Who is this Son of Man?” 35 So Jesus said to them, “For a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light, so that darkness will not overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. 36 “While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.” These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them. 37 But though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him. 38 This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke: “LORD, WHO HAS BELIEVED OUR REPORT? AND TO WHOM HAS THE ARM OF THE LORD BEEN REVEALED?” 39 For this reason they could not believe, for Isaiah said again, 40 “HE HAS BLINDED THEIR EYES AND HE HARDENED THEIR HEART, SO THAT THEY WOULD NOT SEE WITH THEIR EYES AND PERCEIVE WITH THEIR HEART, AND BE CONVERTED AND I HEAL THEM.” 41 These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him. 42 Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.’
What a terrible thing; to believe that Jesus is Christ yet continue to fear mere men more than God!
Fellow Christ-followers, we live in dangerous times. The world is nearing its end and the church is nearing her call upward. You can see this and you know it.
And right here at the end of this ancient letter, which is so very pertinent this very day in which you live and walk, the Holy Spirit calls all true believers to be drawn to Jesus outside the camp. Outside the camp of the world system and outside the camp of the world’s religion.
The pious Jews had their dead forms of worship that were unable to save – unable to make men right with God. In those sacrifices there was only a reminder of sins year after year, for the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin (10:3-4).
But Jesus said “I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself”, and brothers and sisters, He draws you to Him outside the gate. He draws you away from dead religion, to cleanse you from dead works to serve the living God (9:14).
THE EXHORTATION IN VIEW OF IT
Therefore in verse 13 the writer says, ‘Hence’. In regard to his suffering outside the gate, ‘Hence, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach.’
See, this is what these people talked about in John 12 were in fear of doing. They wanted to cling to their dead rituals and their Temple worship, because that’s what made them comfortable. And friends, that kind of religion is no threat to the world. The world is accepting of dead religion because it doesn’t challenge or threaten them; it doesn’t confront them with a living God.
But this you can be assured of today. The greatest opposition the follower of Christ will see come against them will come when they set forth Christ before people as the only hope of escape from hell; the only hope of seeing God and Heaven.
Because that ultimately means He has claims on them as their Creator God, as their Redeemer who shed His blood for them, as their appointed Judge. Christ-follower, you set forth the claims of Christ before people clearly and boldly and you will find all the wrath of this sin-ruined, Satan-ruled world to be manifest against you just as it was when they mocked and spat upon the Son of God and nailed Him to a cross!
Christians, that all takes place outside the camp of this world and worldly religion.
You know, there seems to be an increase of talk these days about the second coming of our Lord and the Rapture and how close we think the time is; and I think we’re right.
But let’s not kid ourselves. This world is not going to get better before He comes – it’s only going to get worse, and the world’s evil will only pick up speed and intensity as it continues to thrive. You and I, fellow believers, have to face the very real possibility that before we leave this world we may have to suffer in it.
We all need to be very open and honest with ourselves and with God, who is not mocked and cannot be deceived, and ask ourselves if we are truly prepared to consider the reproach of Christ greater than the world’s riches or the world’s comforts or the world’s approval (11:26). Some of us may have to lose our heads, literally, in order to pass that test.
It’s happening today around our world and we are fools if we think it can never come here. Are you ready for that?
Are you prepared spiritually to stand in the evil day, when the evil is not in the form of deprivation or illness or natural disaster, but in the form of men with guns and machetes who think that by killing you they serve God?
This letter was written to the church just a few years before the Temple was destroyed, Jerusalem sacked and burned, many of the people slaughtered and the rest taken away into captivity and dispersion.
I don’t know how aware this author was at the time of what was coming. Was he reading the signs of the times also? Was he remembering the words that Jesus uttered in His lament, that because of Israel’s rejection of Her Messiah her house would be left desolate?
We can’t know. But knowing what we do, and seeing and living in our own times, how much more important is it for us to hear and heed his siren’s cry? “Let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach.”
Beloved ones, it’s the only safe place! With Jesus, without the camp, within the veil!
OUR EXPECTATION
Read verse 14 once more.
“For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.”
Do you hear that? In saying this, the author has joined us forever with none less than Abraham, our father in faith, who ‘was looking for the city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God’ (11:10).
And Moses, who by faith ‘left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing Him who is unseen’ (11:27).
And with all the heroes of the faith who, ‘…having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better for us, so that apart from us they should be made perfect’ (11:39-40).
And Christ-followers, let’s think about that parenthesis in chapter 11 of this great letter, that says, (men of whom the world was not worthy), and remember that the author has linked us with them by saying here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.
Why? Because, and I say this with reverence and I get my confidence only from what Jesus Himself has declared, - the world is not worthy of … us.
“They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Thy word is truth.” That’s John 17:16-17, and just listen to what Jesus prayed further on in verse 24 of that chapter:
“Father, I desire that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am, in order that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me; for Thou didst love Me before the foundation of the world.”
Do you hear that brothers and sisters? Do you really hear that? Out of His own mouth in the presence of His Apostles, Jesus said that He wants us to be where He is. And if the Creator God wants this thing, how can it be thwarted? I tell you, it cannot!
By the will and the working of our Savior, who called and drew us to Himself outside the camp so that He might make us fit to meet with Him within the veil, there is now a place where we will be with Him.
No matter how we die, no matter how long we live or when we leave, our destination is as sure as the Life of our Resurrected Lord, and it is with Him in the city that Abraham sought, whose architect and builder is God.
No wonder the author’s heart was lifted up to extend this joyful admonition and invitation:
“Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.”
Outside the camp – where Christ and His followers are as pertains to this world and its religion.
Within the veil – Where we are now positioned in and with Christ who opened the way with His blood; where nothing unholy can enter in, where we who are His live to the glory of God, there to enjoy Him forever!
Soli Deo Gloria!
