Hebrews 13:12

Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate.

The first point which the sacred author brings out in this paragraph is that of keeping in remembrance the former teachers of the Gospel: Keep in remembrance them that had the rule over you, who spoke to you the Word of God, upon the close of whose life look closely, and copy their faith. The Christian's should remember their spiritual guides, or leaders, keep them in kind and honoring remembrance. This feeling should be intensified by the fact that it was they that proclaimed to them the glorious Gospel of their salvation, God's Word of Love, These leaders, these early guides of the Hebrew Christians, had now passed away, but they were still acting as examples through their conduct. These men had sealed their teaching with their lives; they had remained steadfast in their belief in the Gospel to the end, and had thus exhibited a faith worthy of imitation. The believers should carefully consider this; they should keep the same faith, and God would keep them.

This may be set forth all the more emphatically, since the object of faith has not changed or passed away: Jesus Christ, always the same, yesterday and today and forever. That is the inscription which the Christians may at all times place upon their banner. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world, is the basis of our faith. There was and is and will be only this one Redeemer; but in Him we have all that we need for this life and for the world to come, Acts 4:12; Acts 15:11; Revelation 13:5; 1 Corinthians 3:11. "Yesterday is the time before His incarnation, today is the time of His revelation in the flesh. Thus it is now and in eternity the same Christ, through whom, and through whom alone, all believers in the past, in the present, and in the future time are delivered from the Law, justified, and saved."

With this basis of faith, it follows: With various teachings, and strange, be not carried away; for it is a fine thing for the heart to be confirmed by grace, not by meats, which were of no avail to them that had recourse to them. This was the great danger which was menacing the Jewish Christians. There were many men that sought admission to the Christian congregations in those days who construed the Old Testament doctrine in such a way and insisted upon the former institutions and practices with such emphasis as to loosen the attachment of the believers to Christ as the only Mediator. Many a Christian who was not firmly grounded in the liberty of Christ was swept away by the flood of specious arguments brought forward by these Judaizing teachers. It was necessary, therefore, that the hearts of the Christians be strengthened and confirmed, a fact which only the grace of God in the Gospel could bring about. A fine and laudable thing it would certainly be if all Christians would stand firm in the knowledge of the efficacy of this grace, for it is all that we need for this life and the next. The writer, in this connection and for the sake of his readers, purposely rejects the idea that this aim might be reached by the se of certain foods of the sacrificial meals, of which some Jewish Christians still believed that they had the power to give spiritual strength. All the people that had ever placed their trust in these sacrificial meals, in the eating of the meat and other food that was connected with the offering of certain sacrifices, had had no benefit of their work, having thereby not become justified before God, Galatians 4:9; Galatians 5:1.

It is in contrast to this ceremonial eating of the Old Testament that the author says: We have an altar, from which to eat they have no authority that serve the tabernacle. The contrast is between those that cling to the Levitical sacrificial cult and those that place their trust in the mercy and grace of God alone. Those that still serve the tabernacle, whose heart is bound up with the form of worship of the Old Testament, who insist that the observance of the Ceremonial Law is necessary also in the New Testament, have no authority, no right and power to take part in the blessings which come to us from our altar, from the Cross of Christ, on which the Lamb of God was offered for the sins of the world. For to eat of this altar means to become a partaker of the benefits which the great Sacrifice brought to the world, it means to accept in faith the true righteousness before God and eternal salvation. See John 6:51.

This is emphasized by another comparison between the sacrifices of the Old Testament and the one great offering of the New: For of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, their bodies are burned outside the camp; therefore also Jesus, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside of the gate. According to the Ceremonial Law of the Jews, the carcasses of those animals whose blood, on the great Day of Atonement, was taken into the Most Holy Place and sprinkled against the mercy-seat, chap. 9:8-25; 10:19, had to be burned outside of the camp of the Jews, and later outside of the city of Jerusalem, Leviticus 16:27. Of the flesh of these sacrifices, therefore, no one was permitted to eat, as was the case with many other offerings. But now the sacrifice of the Day of Atonement is the principal type of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, chap. 9:7-12. It was for this reason, then, that Christ, in consecrating the sinners to Himself, in working salvation for all mankind through His own blood, suffered and died outside of the gates of the city of Jerusalem. Like a malefactor He was taken outside of the city and put to death, Leviticus 24:14; Numbers 15:35; Deuteronomy 17:5; Mark 15:20. The very fact that Christ was cast out and condemned and put to death won salvation for all men. Those, then, that still insist upon keeping all the precepts of the Ceremonial Law are obliged to look upon Christ as an unclean criminal; whereas we, who know ourselves to be free from the demands of the old church law of the Jews, rejoice that Christ was made to be sin and a curse, because we know that it was done for us, 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13.