for of those beasts whose blood is carried [as sacrifices for sin] into the [holy of] holies by the high priest, of these the bodies are burned outside the camp.
The writer has just said that believers have an altar that those who serve the tabernacle may not eat from. Verse 11 is his proof: under the law, the blood of one sacrifice went into God's presence, while the body of that same victim was burned far outside the camp.
Verse 11 gives a picture from the law. The next two verses show who fills that picture and what it asks of us.
It helps to notice that verse 11 presents the type, verse 12 Christ the antitype, and verse 13 the practical application to the Christian. About the type, two facts are stated... After the bull had been killed, the priest was to dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle it before the Lord in the sanctuary. Then the body was to be carried outside the camp to a clean place, where the ashes were poured out. There it was burnt on the wood with the fire.
Israel had many sacrifices. The writer picks out only one kind — the one whose blood went inside.
Only one kind of sacrifice had blood that could go into the sanctuary and be presented to God. "We have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus." Where, then, is that blood? It is in the sanctuary, on the mercy seat, right before God. There were a great many sacrifices... Of them all, only one offering had blood that could be put on the mercy seat and truly open the way to God. Which one? The one whose body was burned outside the camp.
Why does the sin offering, and not the burnt offering, bring people near?
A holy God must judge sin. When that judgment is carried out in full on a substitute who suffers the penalty, it sanctifies those for whom it is borne — that is, it sets them apart for God according to holiness. So approach to God is by the sin offering rather than the burnt offering.
The place of the burning carried its own message.
Seen as judgment, it is the place of being forsaken — a place without God... The body of the sin offering burnt "outside the camp" is a fitting picture of God's holy judgment on sin. Into this place Jesus went... In order that we might have the place of blessing within the veil, He must take our place of judgment outside the camp.
Yet the ashes left behind said something too.
The body burnt outside the camp showed the holiness of God, who must banish sin from His presence, even when Christ bore it. How severe His judgment was, since it consumed the holy victim who bore the sin!... But the ashes of the burnt heifer proclaimed at the same time that sin was not charged to the sinner, and that this great question had been settled for good between Christ and God.
This is the link back to verse 10. Priests ate from ordinary sin offerings; from this one they were shut out.
The priest who offered it for sin was to eat it in a holy place — in the court of the tabernacle — and all the males of the priesthood could eat it with him. But the sin offering whose blood was brought into the sanctuary for sin could not be eaten. It had to be burnt in the fire, and that outside the camp.
The two halves of the picture give the believer two places at once.
Two things are clear in this passage. The priest carried the blood of the sin offering into the sanctuary, and the bodies of the sacrificed animals were burnt outside the camp... So we have the double place of the believer. His place before God is in the sanctuary, where the blood was carried. His place on earth is outside the camp, where Christ suffered.
No two places are further apart than inside the veil and outside the camp, yet here they are brought together. Inside the veil was where the glory of God dwelt. Outside the camp was where the sin offering was burned, and no place gives such a sense of distance from God. It is a joy to know that the Holy Spirit shows me Jesus filling up all that lies between these two points.
- Blood — of all Israel's sacrifices, only this blood reached inside. No other opened the way to God.
- Body — the same victim was burned outside, where God's holy judgment fell on sin. The ashes proved the question was settled.
- Christ — He took the place of forsaking outside so that we might have the place of blessing within.
- Table — those still serving the tabernacle could not eat what was burned outside. The old system had no share in this offering.
- Us — so the believer stands in two places at once. His place before God is the sanctuary; his place on earth is outside the camp.
Wherefore also Jesus, that he might sanctify the people by his own blood, suffered without the gate
Hebrews 13 closes a long argument by pointing to one detail of geography: the place where Jesus died. The writer has just pointed to the sin offering whose body was burned outside Israel's camp, and says the cross matched it. So why should the place of a death matter, and what does it mean that His blood "sanctifies" a people?
The verse opens with "So". That word reaches back to the offerings of the law. One commentator sets out the pattern:
The apostle takes advantage of a beautiful type in the law. When a victim came to the bronze altar, the blood did not go into the holiest at all; the animal died outside. But when the blood went into the holiest, the body was taken outside the camp and burned. This, he says, is what we find in Christ. He suffered outside the gate and has now gone into the presence of God, to place us inside the holiest and outside the world.
The two extremes belong to one sacrifice. The blood went to the nearest place; the body went to the furthest.
Would His blood not be just as precious anywhere? One writer takes up that objection:
If as mere outward things they are nothing, then we must look for something deeper in them. The apostle prepares us for this by linking the "outside the gate" with "outside the camp" in what we know had a typical, spiritual meaning. With hanging on the tree he associates also the "curse of the law." And now the meaning becomes apparent. The curse is wrath, separation from God, and all that He owns as His. See now the darkness that settles upon the cross! Is not God light? The light is withdrawn! Listen to the anguished cry of the Sufferer: does He not declare that God has forsaken Him?
The outside place, then, is not scenery. It pictures separation from God — the separation He Himself bore.
"Sanctify" can suggest slow moral improvement. Here it means something given at once, not gained over time:
The sanctification they speak of is neither practical nor progressive — that kind is the work of the Holy Spirit through the Word. It means that God sets believers apart to Himself as His people on the earth. So everyone who comes by faith under the shelter of the blood of Christ is separated from all the world by that very fact, and set apart to God.
Rescue from judgment is real, but it is not the reason this verse gives for the cross:
He suffered, not to save His own from hell (although that is true), but that He might sanctify them. He wanted a people who should be absolutely His own, and standing apart from the whole order of things from which He is excluded. This involves reproach, but shall we refuse it? Is He not worthy of the intense devotion of these poor hearts of ours?
Being set apart runs in two directions at once:
Indeed, His blood speaks inside the holiest of all, in such a way as to eternally satisfy and glorify God, and this is sanctification to God. Yet sanctification to God must also involve sanctification from the world — a setting apart in a very real and holy manner. He Himself was forced out of everything that people on earth counted dignified and honourable. His people must expect to share the same rejection with Him, if they would follow Him.
The camp He suffered outside of was a religious system God Himself had once given:
The camp represents a worldly system of religion, adapted to the natural man. God Himself set it up at the start, and it suited man in the flesh — the state God found him in at that time. Worship in this worldly religious system did not need a new nature or spiritual power. It consisted of hearing, seeing, and doing what the natural senses could take in.
The place He took asks something of us:
He took the outside place, and His voice falls on the ear from there. Do we listen to it? Do we understand it? Should we not consider more seriously the place where Jesus died? Are we to rest satisfied with reaping the benefits of Christ's death, without seeking fellowship with Him in His rejection? God forbid! … Shall we see Him die outside, while we reap the benefits of His death and remain within?
- Type — Under the law, the blood of the sin offering went into the sanctuary and its body burned outside the camp. The cross matched both halves.
- Place — That outside place pictures the curse: wrath, darkness, and the cry of the forsaken One.
- Blood — Sanctification here is not gradual improvement. His blood sets a person apart to God the moment that person shelters under it.
- People — He suffered not just to spare us, but to gain a people wholly His own, standing apart from the order of things that shuts Him out.
- Reproach — A religious system that suited the natural man put Him outside. Those who share His blood must share His place.