Outside The Camp

“We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” CH 13:10-15.

Those who serve the tabernacle are those who serve before the people in order to keep all the outward things in order. “Yet they shall be ... ministers of the house; they shall slay the burnt offering and sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister to them.” Ezek. 44:11. The blood of these sacrifices is not carried into the sanctuary (see Lev. 6:30). “‘But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, who kept charge of My sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me, they shall come near Me to minister to Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer to Me the fat and the blood,’ says the Lord God. ‘They shall enter My sanctuary, and they shall come near My table to minister to Me, and they shall keep My charge.’” Ezek. 44:15-16.

“Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.” Verse 12. We know, however, that when the, high priest went into the Holiest with the blood to make atonement for the sins of the people, the people themselves did not go in with him; they only received the forgiveness of sins, and those sacrifices could not “make those who approach perfect.” CH 10:1-4. But Jesus, “who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot” (see CH 9:14), entered the sanctuary with His own blood and brought an eternal redemption. Through Him the forgiveness of sins is preached.

But those who are sanctified with the blood of Jesus do not enter into the sanctuary, either. The religious world is living under a great deception on this point. They comfort themselves with the Scripture: “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus....” CH 10:19. They reckon that they have entered by receiving the forgiveness of sins. But that is not true. Those who receive the forgiveness of sins are sanctified “with” His blood. We read further that Jesus has consecrated a new and living way for us to enter the Holiest, and that way goes through His flesh. Yes, that is a tremendous mystery, which Paul says was revealed to him. You have probably read this many times without ever thinking about or noticing exactly what was written. If we are to enter into the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, then we must walk on the way Jesus has consecrated for us.

We read: “Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.” CH 13:13. When religious assemblies split up, those who leave say, “Yes, we must go forth to Him, outside the camp, and bear His reproach.” Then after a time they split up again, and they again believe that they are going forth to Him outside the camp. They have overlooked the fact that it says “to Him.” Where was He when He died outside the gate? He was crucified on a cross. So what does it mean to go forth “to Him”? It means what Paul writes as his personal testimony in Gal. 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Among those who have “gone forth to Him” there are no splits or divisions. We read in Eph. 2:16-18 that on the cross He made one new man of the two and broke down the middle wall of separation, which was in His flesh. Paul writes further in Gal. 5:24: “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

If we have been baptized in one Spirit to be one body, and have crucified the flesh with its lusts and desires, we are members of the body of Christ. Then we have the power of His resurrection, and we come to know Him and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. (See Phil. 3:10.) On this way we have boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus. Those who live for themselves do not have that boldness.

It is very easy to hear the difference between these two groups when they speak. Those who are sanctified with the blood of Jesus speak about how He has done everything and we are to do nothing. He has fulfilled the law in our place; He suffered for us and was crucified for us, and God sees us as perfect through the blood of Jesus.

The other group speaks about what Jesus has done for us and of the possibilities that we have because of the work the Father carried out in His Son. They speak about giving up everything in order to be His disciple and of following in the steps of Him who did no sin. They speak about partaking of the sufferings of Christ, of being crucified with Him and bearing about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus, so that the life of Jesus can be manifested in our bodies, and that the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. These two groups speak completely different things. “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” We read in Revelation that the Spirit always says, “he who overcomes...”

“Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” CH 13:15.

“It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” That was Paul’s testimony. Did he have anything to complain about, then? Anything to be dissatisfied with? No! He sat in prison awaiting judgment, not knowing whether he would be sentenced to death or not, and in that situation he wrote to the church, “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” Phil. 4:4. How often were they to rejoice? Always! That is how it is with those who have gone outside the camp to Him! They no longer live themselves, but Christ lives in them. The fruit of Christ’s living in them is that they continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God. There is nothing else on their lips.

“These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.” Jude 16. One would think that those mentioned here are people who would have nothing at all to do with God. But that is not the case. “These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots.” Jude 12.

One might well ask, “How could such people be in their love feasts?” Because the spirit of Antichrist had been so active that the grace of God had been turned into licentiousness. They were not able to see or hear clearly, and they were incapable of discerning properly. That is how it goes with religious people who preach: “He has done everything, we are to do nothing. The grace of God covers everything. God sees us through the blood of Jesus as perfect. Take care that you don’t come under the law and try to save yourself. Watch out! Don’t do anything in your own strength!” etc., etc. It is all a terrible deception!

“Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” Jude 3.

Yes, it was really necessary for him to do that, considering the situation. None of them could preach the word, which is sharper than any two-edged sword, in such a way as to separate the godly from the ungodly. (See CH 4:12 and 2 Pet. 1:9.) The usual thing today is that if someone lets the light shine so that ungodliness is brought into the light, the so-called worshipers start crying out, “Don’t judge, preach Christ!” And so no one dares to speak out. (See 1 John 2:18-19 and 4:1-6.)

It is easy to understand that all these worshipers have not gone forth to Him outside the camp. You can clearly hear that such people are not crucified with Christ, because those who love God and no longer live themselves, understand that all things work together for their good. The one thing they are thinking about in all situations is sanctification. “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” Rom. 8:29. It is no wonder that one hears only a sacrifice of praise from such people, and that they rejoice in the Lord always.

We read in 1 Cor. 13 about all the glorious gifts we can have and all the good works we can do. Without love, however, I am nothing, and these things profit me nothing. Then we read a description of what love is, and what it is not. From this we understand that we do not have love if we live for ourselves. If I am to abide in love, which “thinks no evil” but “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things,” I must have an altar in my body that enables me not to live for myself. Then I am walking on the new and living way, which goes through the flesh and into the Holiest. With such an altar I enter in by the blood of Jesus, which speaks better things than that of Abel. (See CH 12:24.)

One might ask, “What are we to do in the Holiest?” That is where the throne of grace is. There we can pray for grace in our own lives so that we do not sin in temptations. But not only that; Jesus is in the sanctuary before the face of His Father, where He intercedes for us. That is just what the high priest did in the old covenant. It is easy to understand that we cannot be a true intercessor for a person whom we cannot bear, or whom we have something against. All that must be put to death, because the blood of Christ does not accuse; it speaks of grace and salvation.

We do not have boldness before the Father unless we abide in love. In this condition we continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God. If I am in the blood of Jesus, then I have a work to do—the same work that Jesus had and which Paul exhorts us to in Eph. 6:18-20.

“We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.” CH 13:10. Where is that altar? It is in the body. “Always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.” 2 Cor. 4:10. Here we see that the sacrifice takes place in the body.

“Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.’” John 4:34. “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent me.” John 6:38. Jesus offered Himself without spot to God. (See CH 9:14.) In these verses we read about the sacrifices of His will—of Himself—in order to do God’s will. He had an altar in His body. It was from there that He received the food to eat which the disciples knew nothing of, namely to do God’s will and to finish the work of God that He was sent to do.

By going to Him outside the camp and by being crucified with Him, His death also becomes active in us. Through this altar the Word of God becomes living for us. We understand to do God’s will, and we have a work to do. It is no wonder that we continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God.

“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes....” 1 Pet. 1:6-7. “Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.” 1 Pet. 4:1-2. “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy.” 1 Pet. 4:12-13.

The altar in the body is clearly spoken about in these verses. That which has to be sacrificed is our self-life, that “I” which spoils everything and enables Satan to gain power. We must first suffer on the altar, and then we come to the life of Christ which is our food, and we find the work He gives us to do as a member of His body. We partake of the “oil of gladness,” with which Jesus was anointed more than his companions (or brethren). (See CH 1:9.) But all His brethren are also anointed with the same oil.

The fact that we must suffer first, means that it is a life of faith; and Jesus is “the author and finisher of our faith.” (See CH 10:38-39 and CH 12:2.) This was quite clear from what we read in Peter’s epistle. Faith enables us to rejoice in the sufferings, just as Moses did, “...choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for He looked to the reward.” CH 11:25-26. You will never find this life in those who live for themselves and are not crucified with Christ.