The Lord’s blood, through which He entered into the Holy of Holies (9:12), has opened a new and living way for us to enter “within the veil” to enjoy Him in the heavens as the glorified One (10:9-20); and His body, which was sacrificed for us on the cross, cut the narrow way of the cross for us to go outside the camp to follow Him on earth as the suffering One. Verse 13 says, “Let us therefore go forth unto Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach.” If we would be real Christians, we must experience Christ, not in the way of eating a religious meal, but in the way of going outside the camp to bear His reproach, following Him in the sanctifying pathway of the cross. We must experience Christ in this particular aspect. If we would experience Him in this aspect, we must enter “within the veil,” that is, enter into the Holy of Holies, to enjoy Him as our heavenly Sanctifier in His heavenly priesthood (10:19-20; 6:19-20).
As we have pointed out, chapter thirteen covers many virtues needed for the church life. If we do not have these virtues, we cannot have the church life. Suppose the Hebrew believers had gone back to the temple to eat the ceremonial food. By doing that they would have been forsaking the experience of Christ as the One who was rejected by religion. If they had forsaken Christ in this aspect, returning to eat the ceremonial food in Judaism, it would have been impossible for them to have the church life. The principle is the same today. Those who have forsaken the church meetings and have returned to the religious practices in Christianity have given up their birthright. Those who have done this do not care for Christ and the church; they only care for today’s religious attractions. Since they have sold their birthright, they can neither enjoy Christ nor exercise the priesthood and the kingship. Do you think that such believers will enjoy the birthright as the reward in the millennial kingdom? According to the clear revelation in the New Testament, if we do not exercise our spirit to remain in the church, enjoy Christ as our good land, and practice our priesthood and kingship today, we shall not deserve to enjoy our birthright as a reward in the millennial kingdom. If we would have the exercise of our birthright which will issue in receiving the reward in the kingdom, we must remain in the church.
In order to remain in the church, we must drop every religious practice. Some who have been pastors enjoy being called reverend, being unwilling to drop this title. Although only God is reverend (Psa. 111:9), they insist on keeping this title, enjoying it as their religious food. What profit is there in keeping such a title? If you keep it, you do so at the cost of your birthright. Our heart must be confirmed by grace, not by any religious food, that is, not by any religious attractions, positions, titles, and practices. We must forsake them all.
Grace is on the race, on the path. We should not be distracted from any path of this race, but continue on the race of grace. But many things are waiting for an opportunity to distract us from the paths of this race, that is, from the enjoyment of grace. As the arrangement of the furniture in the tabernacle reveals, every path of this race is an aspect of the enjoyment of Christ. We must keep on running this race in the enjoyment of Christ. Never be distracted by titles, positions, or religious attractions, all of which are merely religious “foods.” We must experience Christ as our grace for the church life. If we do not experience Him in such a way, we cannot have the church life.
If we would experience Christ in this aspect, we must take the way of the cross, suffering persecution, rejection, and opposition from religion. Christ suffered outside the gate, and we must follow Him outside the gate to bear His reproach. If we share His suffering today, in the future we shall share in His glorification. If we experience Christ in this way, bearing His reproach on the pathway of the cross, we shall be kept in the rich church life, and every meeting of the church will be uplifted and enriched. In such a church life we shall be able to exercise our birthright. This will issue in our receiving the reward in the coming kingdom.
Verse 12 speaks of being “outside the gate,” and verse 13 tells us to go “outside the camp.” The gate here is the gate of the city of Jerusalem. The city signifies the earthly realm, and the camp signifies the human organization. The two signify one thing, the Jewish religion with its two aspects, the earthly and the human. Judaism is both earthly and human. Verse 14 says, “For here we do not have a permanent city, but we seek the coming one.” This means that we do not have a permanent city, any organized realm, but we seek the coming one, God’s Holy City, the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2, 10). By using the pronoun “we” in these verses the writer was considering himself and his readers as real river-crossing Hebrews like the patriarchs (11:9-10, 13-16).
Verse 15 says, “Through Him then let us offer up a sacrifice of praise continually to God, that is, the fruit of lips confessing His name.” This verse is a continuation of verses 8 through 14. Since in the church life we enjoy the unchanging Christ as grace and follow Him outside religion, we should offer up through Him spiritual sacrifices to God. Firstly, we should offer up through Him a sacrifice of praise continually to God in the church. In the church, He sings hymns of praise unto God the Father in us (2:12). We also should praise God the Father in the church through Him. Eventually He and we, we and He, will praise the Father in the church in the mingled spirit. He as the life-giving Spirit praises the Father in our spirit, and we, by our spirit, also praise the Father in His Spirit. This is the best and highest sacrifice we can offer to God through Him. This is greatly needed in the church meetings.