OUTSIDE THE GATE

HEBREWS 13:11–17

And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through His own blood

(Hebrews 13:12).

When Jesus suffered outside the gate, part of what that meant was that He had been rejected by the people. He had been cast out. Bearing our sins, He was driven out of the kingdom God had established in Israel.

Yet, wherever Jesus is, that is where the new kingdom is. If we want to be part of the New Jerusalem, we will have to join Him outside the gate of the Old Jerusalem. In the eyes of the world, Jesus bore disgrace in being rejected by His own nation. We must join with Him, bearing the disgrace that He bore (v. 13). But gathered around Jesus outside the temporal city, the new, final, and eternal kingdom of God is forming.

And after all, why not leave the old city? The city of this world will not endure. This was especially true regarding the Old Jerusalem that the first readers of this letter could see. It was soon to be destroyed by the Romans. They might as well fix their eyes on the new city (v. 14).

Jesus’ propitiatory sacrifice to take away sin is finished. But there is a second kind of sacrifice, one that does not take away sin but expresses a life of giving. That kind of sacrifice is established on the foundation of the sacrifice for sin. We are to offer this second kind of sacrifice.

The author of Hebrews speaks of two kinds of sacrifice we offer. The first is the sacrifice of praise to God (v. 15). “Through Jesus,” that is, in union with Christ, we offer praise to the Father. Jesus is offering praise to Him, and we join in. Praise is not a matter of saying whatever comes to our minds, but of joining with Jesus in His praise. How do we know what Jesus is saying? The book of Psalms is the key to knowing how Jesus praises the Father, and thus how we should do so in union with Him.

The second kind of sacrifice is “to do good and to share with others” (v. 16). Just as God did good to us and shared Jesus with us, so we are to do good to others and share what we have with them. These are good works, which, done under the eye of God, are offered to Him. God is pleased with such good works when they are done in faith by people united to His Son.

CORAM DEO

Psalms 135–137

We often think of a sacrifice as something involving pain or loss. However, a biblical sacrifice is often simply an offering to God. It may be enjoyable, as praise should be. It may be simply doing good and sharing with others. Or it may involve forsaking comfort to follow Jesus. Can you see these areas of sacrifice in your life?

For further study: Mark 8:34–38 • John 15:18–27 • Heb. 11:24–26

thursday

september