Outside the camp
Hebrews 13:1-14
Let mutual love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. 3 Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured. 4 Let marriage be held in honor by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled; for God will judge fornicators and adulterers. 5 Keep your lives free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” 6 So we can say with confidence,
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not be afraid.
What can anyone do to me?”
7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. 8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. 9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings; for it is well for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by regulations about food, which have not benefited those who observe them. 10 We have an altar from which those who officiate in the tent have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp.
12 Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood. 13 Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
I have set before you an open door therefore have the boldness to enter therein.
That involves a surrender to Christ, a separation from the spirit of the world thru an acceptance of God's will to command one's life. For some the conviction comes in things once thought harmless, but now see as the will of the flesh endorsed by man. Others may see surrender as a call to part with some single doubtful thing or a sin hopelessly struggled against. Surrender is only possible when the soul sees how entirely and truly Jesus has undertaken, as the Mediator of the New Covenent, and how He has invested His heart in giving us a new heart. A new heart that gives the will and strength and courage to live in the Law of the Spirit. Faith that gives the courage to place oneself before Christ and to say " Lord, here I am, ready to be led by thee in the new and living way of death to my will and life to God's will alone"
A personal appropriation of faith comes with this application of faith. We can't lift or force our way into the Holy of Holies. Trust in our High Priest as taking us inside the veil having charge of us there and enabling us to walk up and down before the face of the living God and serve Him. Let us draw nigh in fullness of faith. I believe He takes us in and glues us there. But faith must count on the Holy Spirit to make it our experience. "Cast not away therefore your boldness. For ye have need of patience, that, having done the will of God ye may recieve the promise" Hebrews 10:35
LET US GO FORTH, OUTSIDE THE CAMP
Among the Hebrew Christians many still clung to the temple and its ritual. And there were among them teachers who inculcated obedience to the laws in regard to food etc. But the writer of Hebrews warns against these strange teachings FOR IT IS GOOD FOR THE HEART TO BE ESTABLISHED BY GRACE, NOT BY MEATS. No outward observances can sustain the inner life; it's by grace alone, grace that comes from the throne of grace, that the heart must be established.
Hebrews 12:28-29
28Therefore, since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us be filled with gratitude, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. 29For our God is a consuming fire.…
Our altar is the cross. The Levitical priesthood is entirely different from the new worship. The old priesthood has no part in the sacrifices of the cross and the new worship has no part in the old sacrifices. THE SIN OFFERING, OF WHICH THE BLOOD WAS BROUGHT INTO THE HOLY PLACE BY THE HIGH PRIEST, WAS __not eaten __ BURNT OUTSIDE THE CAMP. The sin-offering leads to seperation and rejection. He was cast out of the city as one made sin for us. Hebrews 11:10, Hebrews 13:14 THEREFORE WE BEAR HIS REPROACH.
Outside the camp is in fellowship with Jesus, crucified to the world and in death to sin. He not only provided a sin-offering for us but the new and living Way
Hebrews 10:19-25
19 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus,
20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,
21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God,
22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; 24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,
25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.
There's two distinguishable features of the sin-offering on the day of atonement.
The blood was brought into the Holy Place and the body was burnt outside the camp. Christ's blood was brought into heaven, and is the power of our entrance and our abode there: the sign that that is our place. The call is; let us draw near, let us enter.
But Christ's body was brought without the camp; the sign that that is our place too. Heaven has recieved Him and us in Him; we belong there!
The world has cast Him outside the camp, and us with Him; we belong there. In heaven we share His honour, on earth His reproach. Let us therefore go forth unto Him, without the camp, bearing His reproach.
The camp isn't that of Rome but Jerusalem with it's religion and it's revelation from God. Jesus was crucified for condemning their self-righteousness and formality. It's not the irreligious but the religious world from which we must go out ___ everything that's not in harmony with His cross and it's spirit of self-sacrifice.
GO FORTH UNTO HIM. To closer fellowship and more conformity to Him.
Not in casting our reproach on those we leave behind but in bearing His reproach.
LET US DRAW NIGH. Entering in __ within the veil to worship and without the gate for our witness by rendering Him our offering of the fruit of our lips which make confession of His Name
These are the sacrifices that God is well pleased with. Deeds of love and kindness or Christian help. To do and communicate ... forget not.
