We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. 11
For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12
So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13
Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14
For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. 15
Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16
Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
Jesus was taken outside of the city, he was THE sacrifice outside of the camp and he was judged there, by God for sin not his own. Who shall tell of the secrets of
that hour…when this part of the type was fulfilled in Jesus? What were his thoughts… heavens thoughts…as he was led forth outside the camp to suffer the wrath of God due to sinners?
No doubt there was the pain and lingering suffering, but his words, My God, My God why hast thou forsaken me? These words seem to speak far more regarding His
pain of the Father’s face now hidden from him.
But Hebrews goes further in its explanation of the fullness of Christ’s sacrifice and the implications for us are profound. “Therefore, let us go forth to Him outside
the camp bearing his reproach…”
There is to be identification with the sacrifice. When considering Xp being taken outside of the camp, what is the response of the people of God? What is your response
to be? The text says therefore because of what He did outside the camp in purchasing your redemption, now you are to go out to him, outside the camp, to bear his reproach.
He bore our sin our reproach and now we are called in light of that to bear his reproach. You see, if you are tempted to think that Christ bore your sin, outside the
camp and now I coast, and now I sit back, for all is done…If you take it for granted, then you have missed the point entirely, for it never speaks to sinning that grace may abound, but rather, being free from sin, that we might be participants in Jesus as
we identify with Him, with His kingdom, leaving behind this world, that we might be partakes in His world.
Someone might wonder what it looks like to identify with Jesus? Specifically, what does that mean? And of course, there is no one answer to that question. But it may
be an illustration. Do you remember when Jesus was taken to be crucified and Peter followed behind him at a distance. Three times someone asks Peter about being a disciple…a follower of Jesus and three times he denies any and all association with Jesus. He
even says I don’t know the man and calls down curses upon himself. Peter wanted those listening to know that he has no identification with Jesus whatsoever. He doesn’t know him and to prove it he begins to curse.
Later Peter will be arrested and history tells us that when it came time for him to be crucified he’s so identified with the Lord that he said he was not worthy of
crucifixion because that was the way Jesus was killed and so they crucified him upside down. At the lowest point in Peter’s life, he refused to identify with Christ. But in the consummation of his life, he identified completely with the one who lived and died
for him.
Every day you have the opportunity to make it clear not in some boisterous and conceited manner but in humility and confidence that you are the Lord’s and that you
will without compromise seek to do his bidding. You will seek with everything you are to be true to him, to be loyal to him, to set forth what he loves and to reject what he hates. Do not miss those opportunities!
Now, we go to Him. Moses esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. Moses is said to be looking not on what is before him in this
world but that he lives in faithful joy to that one that he yet anticipates. And Hebrews says the same thing, “For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come.” Since Christ has fulfilled the sin offering, in being that perfect without
blemish sacrifice offered outside the city, we are those who do not know, nor could we conceive of life that does not have Jesus at the center of it.
Jerusalem itself, the camp of Israel before that, with the tabernacle, was not to be the point, and was not to be the focus of the faithful’s end. Even the promised
land of Israel was to serve to point them to the true promised land that is not of this world. And when they became too taken with these things of sight, God would remove it, he removed the tabernacle, the temple and eventually the land as well, so that they
would not mistake the type for the reality.
That is why the author of Hebrews says this: We have no continuing city here. Our city is in heaven but being prepared to come down…in glory…a new heavens and a new
earth…However, we have the life of our city to live here and now…and that happens in our identification, our going outside the camp to embrace him…we go out willingly to bear the reproach of the Savior. Think about this, Jesus bears our reproach before God
that we might live forever with Him, and we bear His reproach among men as a token of our love for Him.
Brothers and sisters, in our own land, our Savior and his church is mocked, ridiculed, and scorned and it is getting worse. I read recently of a senator who wants
all vestiges of Christianity thrown out of the public square, not religion, he is specifically calling for all and any aspects of Christianity being removed. He had a list, everything from “under God” being removed, to Christian schools being told what they
can and can’t teach. And sadly, the professing church herself in many ways is siding not with righteousness but with the world who is attacking the church! Mark my words, the church’s greatest persecutions the key to our bearing Christ’s reproach will come
not from the world but from the church itself.
What Hebrews is saying to us as it sums up the purpose of the offering being brought outside the camp, is that because that offering is Jesus we now go out to him,
where he went, outside the city of man, that we might live as he lived and, that we might have the same hope he had, who for the joy set before him…endured. We will need great endurance…and the only way to know that endurance is to go to Jesus…constantly.
The OT worshiper would see the picture of his sin poured out upon this unblemished creature, outside the gate…and it would be destroyed. And then the worshiper would
again see his life belonging to God, he would see himself as having been forgiven in God’s appointed sacrifice, now for service and a seeking of God’s kingdom as one whose sin has been atoned for.
My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin, not in part but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more, praise the Lord, Praise the Lord
O my soul!
Prayer: Father, following Jesus is not simply my calling, it is my life. Give me grace to do so well, to stay close by His side that I would not wander into foolishness
and fear. Use me for whatever purpose, wherever that might take me, whatever that might mean, so that Christ would be formed in me and that I would be a vessel for His glory and honor. Do this my God, for I want for nothing else! Through Jesus Christ my Lord,
Amen.
Hymn: It is Well