The cross of Christ brought in a complete contrast with these two most marked circumstances in the position of Israel. On the one hand the Christian is invited and emboldened, as sprinkled by blood from an evil conscience and washed with pure water, to draw near into the holiest of all; on the other, the Christian is equally exhorted to go forth unto Christ without the camp, bearing His reproach. The two extremes now meet in the believer—I do not mean as Christians walk, or as they say; but as Christians ought to believe. The meeting is solemn. If you are a Christian in deed and in truth, you are washed or loosed from your sins in the blood of Christ. You will not be one whit cleaner in the eyes of God when you reach heaven than now; for Christ is dead, risen, and glorified. This is a matter of unsophisticated faith; there is nothing which can possibly add to what Christ has done and God has accepted on your behalf. If you look at this or that brother, you may see your own faults, exaggerated perhaps in your eyes. This ought not to be so; we ought rather to count them better than ourselves. But alas! the same flesh, which makes us indulgent to our own faults, makes us sharp on the faults of our dear brethren: so little do we walk in the power of grace by faith. Falsehood we are bound to abhor.
If God's word governs our thoughts, we find ourselves, in this Epistle, among the holy brethren partakers of a heavenly calling. We are of the true house of God, the family of the High Priest, and later on are invited to draw near into the holiest of all. On what ground could any soul possibly enter within, if his sins were not completely gone? If they are not so now, what is to blot them out another day? Christ would not take His seat on high till all was settled for everyone who should believe (1:3). From this the apostle reasons and appeals. If repetition were needed, Christ must often have suffered: whereas the whole force of the doctrine is His work and death once for all. Indeed the same emphasis appears in the First Epistle of Peter. He “suffered once for sins” (chap. 3:18). Nor is it only that He once for all suffered, but that we are cleansed once for all. We are purified in conscience according to the power of that one sacrifice, by which He dedicated a new and living way through the veil. The unity of the sacrifice is true only for us in Christ. I speak of such alone now, of those who draw not back to perdition but believe to the saving of the soul.
But along with the drawing near into the holiest goes the call to go forth to Christ without the camp. Let us seek no place of honor on this earth, no means of reputation, no seat of ease, no outward distinction. The Jews might fairly once have looked for all these; through unfaithfulness they have lost all. But Christians, instead of being promoted in their stead, are called to join Him Who suffered without the gate. They were not called to take the place of “the camp” when the Jews forfeited their standing. Before the Jews lost their place and nation openly, those of them who by grace became Christians were exhorted to draw near within, even if they had been Jews; and now, being sanctified by Christ's blood which makes them free of the sanctuary, they are also called to go without the camp. His reproach is glorious.
The Christian is a man who is not of the world; he is of Christ for heaven, now called to draw near where He is. The two truths flow together; and what God has thus joined, let no man sunder. What right is there given to any one of access into the holiest of all, unless along with it there be God's call to follow Jesus Who suffered without the gate? If you value your title to draw near within the sanctuary, shrink not from going forth to Him without the camp. Is it not in both respects your place, and your only right place, with Him? Let us be in our faith with Christ, both inside the veil and outside the camp.
Christendom has reversed all this. In theological eyes it is rank presumption to draw near into the holiest while we are here on earth. Is not this really the unbelief of Christendom? But Christ gives us entrance into the sanctuary as the common privilege of His own. It is open to every Christian whether Calvinist, Arminian, or Episcopalian, if orthodox. Yet it is well to avoid all such parties, for they lead their votaries into shortsighted views of God; and there is precious truth which in these disputes is apt to be overlooked. The word of God looks far beyond man's disputations. We may well be suspicious of ecclesiastical cliques, no matter what or where they are; and my experience is that those who know much are no better in their spirit and objects, if not worse, than those who know less. Surely, brethren, we ought to be above quarrels, if we have got the truth of God. And have we not Christ so known as to put shame on such manners? He that hath an ear, let him hear. Let Christ's honor and will be our “one thing.”
Let us seek earnestly and humbly and as before God to profit by all this, and guard against every snare by cleaving to Christ and the truth in a spirit of grace. If any prefer controversy and self, let them. One may be grieved thereby; but, as all know, there is nothing so powerful as a good example. As I have often said to some that found us narrow, faulty, or what not, Why do not you by your fidelity show us a more excellent way in carrying out God's truth? Nobody will say that it is acceptable to Him for any merely to criticize, while going on with what is known to be wrong. If we have walked so very poorly, why not do better yourselves? Why not help instead of carping? Be thou faithful.
Certainly these are great realities—access into the holiest, and companionship with Christ outside the camp, while we are still on earth. If we own these both to be God's call to us, are we to join in language or conduct which denies them? Are we to be dragged down by custom into Levitical worship which leaves the worshipper outside? Are we free before God to forget and forego the truth of Christ every time we worship? Do you ask who do so? Forgive my saying that I should like to see the Christians who do not “serve the tabernacle,” as this Epistle calls it, instead of making good in faith their own proper privileges.
The fault does not only belong to this or that particular denomination; does it not attach to all? I do not wish to be personal; but is it not really the kindest service possible to urge weighing what we say in worship with what God teaches? If you receive His word about it (and it is as plain as it is deep and comforting), cleave to the truth with all your heart. Is this too much to ask of a believer? Why should you, my beloved friends, be playing at see-saw between truth and error, between what you know to be acceptable to God and what people in Christendom have slipped into? Every one naturally likes the camp. To the natural man “the holiest” is one extreme, and “without the camp” is another. To be in the camp, with a priest for the sanctuary, is the via media so pleasant to the eye and to the mind. They are thus in the acceptable place of the world, the religious world, not of course the merely profane. Such was just the position the Jews occupied of old. It was out of this middle place that the apostle called the Christians, not only to draw within the rent veil, but to go forth without the camp; and both apply now as ever since the call was made.
Again, let me ask you, was the cross of Christ a respectable thing? Was it really so regarded when He suffered without the gate? One might rather ask, if ever there were greater scorn put upon anyone. The two robbers that were hanged had far greater consideration than the Lord of all. Ah! beloved of God, your place on earth is this place of scorn. If you truly enjoy the nearness of the sanctuary, it is the obligation of faith to go forth to Christ without the camp. When the blood was brought into the holiest, the bodies were burned without the camp. This is a distinct connection of divine truth. The deduction is that we should have communion with our Savior in both ways. Have Him now for your joy in heaven; where you are to be with Him in eternal joy. Therefore the little while that we are on this earth, be not ashamed of His rejection. Shrink not from the call to be with Christ outside. There is the doctrine, and the practice follows. I do not dwell at greater length on it now, because there are other moral principles of great value to lay before you from this fruitful chapter; and time fails for all.
The next thing that the Spirit of God brings before us is, “And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you (34).” We do not hear this about any subordinate matter. The Day of Atonement stands thus distinctly to itself and separate in dignity from all others; “In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or the stranger that sojourneth among you (29).” The first point insisted on, and most evidently, is the affliction of the soul. Atonement was not to be a matter of mere joy lest it should degenerate into lightness. Where is an act of God so searching.
As we are considering this, let me show you how readily man slips into these errors. In Acts 2:4141Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. (Acts 2:41), we have all read, as the effect of the truth which the apostle was preaching, “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized.” It may be new to some though to many of you more familiar, that the word “gladly” has no sufficient authority to stand there. Reflect for a moment what it means for one newly converted “gladly” to receive the message. Such a word has not the appropriate link with an occasion so solemn as souls brought to God out of darkness. Do not conceive for a moment that there is any wish to cloud the joy of the believer; but our Lord instructs us that it is a bad sign when the first effect of the truth entering the soul is gladness. Deep self-search and humiliation are incomparably better proofs of a true work of God there. Compare Luke 8:1313They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. (Luke 8:13).