Search
Scripture Reading: Heb. 12:1-3; 13:10-13; Exo. 33:7
The book of Hebrews may be divided into two main sections. Chapters 1 through 10 may be considered the first major section, dealing with certain truths. Chapters 11 through 13 are the second main section, dealing with the way of faith. In the first section there are four subsections. The first tells us that Christ is superior to the angels, the second that Christ is superior to Moses, the third that Christ is superior to Aaron, and the fourth that Christ’s new covenant is superior to the old. Christ is superior to everything in Judaism.
The second section of Hebrews deals with the way to follow the Lord. Chapter 11 speaks concerning the witnesses of faith. Then, as we have seen, each section of Hebrews contains an exhortation and a warning, which in the last section of this book is the whole of chapter 12.
After dealing with the matters of the truth in a full way, the writer goes on to tell us that we have to follow Jesus on the pathway of faith. The pathway of faith is a narrow way, the way of the cross. It is the narrow way of suffering and the way of loss. Therefore, we must walk this way by faith. All the patriarchs and prophets in the ancient time are witnesses of this way. They are a cloud of witnesses surrounding us and testifying to us of the pathway of faith.
Hebrews 12:1-3 says, “Let us also, having so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, put away every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and run with endurance the race which is set before us, looking away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down on the right hand of the throne of God. For compare Him who has endured such contradiction by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary, fainting in your souls.” Christ is the unique Author and Perfecter of our faith. Therefore, for this faith by which we walk the narrow way, we need to look away unto Jesus. This living faith is not something originating from us, but it is from Him. We must look away from ourselves, from all our circumstances, surroundings, environment, and all things, unto Him and take Him as the Author and Perfecter of our faith. In ourselves we do not have the faith by which we can walk the narrow way of the cross, but we can look away from all things other than Christ unto Him. Then He will be the Author and Perfecter of this faith. If we look away unto Him, we will have His living faith for us to walk the narrow way of the cross. This is the main content of chapters 11 and 12.
Hebrews 13:10 says, “We have an altar from which they who are serving the tabernacle have no right to eat.” This verse tells us that there is a unique altar in the universe. On this altar we have an offering to eat and enjoy. The priests of Judaism have no right to eat from this altar, but we the believers do. This altar is the very cross of Christ, and on this altar the offering that we enjoy is Christ Himself.
Verse 11 says, “For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the Holy of Holies for sin by the high priest are burned up outside the camp.” The blood of the offering was brought into the sanctuary, but the bodies of the offerings were burned outside the camp. This signifies that we enjoy Christ as our offering in two aspects, an aspect in the heavens and an aspect on the earth. First, the blood of Christ was brought into the heavenly sanctuary to be effective for us there. This is a matter of the priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek. By and through Christ’s redeeming blood, which was shed on the cross and brought into the heavenly sanctuary, the heavens were opened to us, and we were brought into the heavenlies, that is, into our spirit, to contact and enjoy the heavenly things. This is the enjoyment of the heavenly Christ in the heavenly Holy of Holies.
Verses 12 and 13 speak concerning our portion of Christ as our offering on the earth. These verses say, “Therefore also Jesus, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Let us therefore go forth unto Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach.” Christ suffered in His body on the earth outside the gate, which is the gate of the old Jerusalem, the center of Judaism, the organized Jewish religion. On the one hand, Christ opened the heavens for us to enjoy Him in the heavens, and on the other hand, He is our portion to enjoy that we may follow Him to suffer on this earth by walking the way of faith. Today we Christians have to learn how to enter the veil by a new and living way that was opened for us by the blood of Christ to enjoy the heavenly Christ within the veil, in our spirit, and in the heavens. However, we must also go outside the camp to follow His footsteps to suffer as Jesus suffered on the earth.
Verse 13 says, “Let us therefore go forth unto Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach.” Although we may know what the Holy of Holies within the veil is, we may not know what the significance of the camp is. Before the record of Exodus 33:7, Moses’ tent had been inside the camp of Israel. The tabernacle as the dwelling place of God was not raised up until Exodus 40. At the time of Exodus 33, the tent of Moses represented the place of the Lord’s presence. The people of Israel had committed the serious sin of worshipping the golden calf (32:1-6), so the camp was polluted and corrupted by idol worship. This provoked the Lord greatly. When Moses came down from the mountain, he called for the overcomers to stand with him to slay the idol worshippers. This indicates that by that time the entire camp of the children of Israel was polluted, corrupted, and given up by the Lord. From that time on, Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp. Before that time, Moses had always pitched his tent within the camp, but after the worship of the golden calf, Moses gave up the camp and went outside the camp.
The camp, therefore, represents the Jewish religion as an organization. In name this organization is something of the Lord’s people, but in fact within this religious organization there is corruption and idol worship, and the Lord’s presence is not there. At the time the Lord Jesus was on earth, Judaism had become a fully established religious organization, a real camp. In its outward appearance it was an organization of God’s people, but within this camp there was corruption and idol worship. This camp even cast the Lord Jesus outside the gate of Jerusalem, which was the center of the Jewish religion. He was cast out, and He suffered outside the gate.
In the heavenly Holy of Holies we enjoy the heavenly, resurrected, and ascended Christ, and outside the camp we follow the suffering Jesus and bear His reproach. This book was written to the Hebrew believers. To them, Judaism was a religious organization, the very camp that cast out Christ. On the one hand, those Hebrew believers were enjoying the heavenly Christ, but on the other hand, they tried to remain in the camp. This became a problem to them. They enjoyed the resurrected and ascended Christ in their spirit, in the heavens, but they would not give up Judaism. They tried to reconcile these two, so the writer of this book told them that this was impossible. Those who intended to enjoy the ascended Christ in the spirit in the heavens needed to follow His steps to go outside the camp of Judaism, the Jewish religion, and bear His reproach.
We who enjoy the heavenly Christ in the Holy of Holies within the veil need to follow Him in our walk on this earth. Where is Jesus today? He is not in the camp; He has been rejected by the camp and cast out of it. Remember well that the camp is the religious organization of the present day. At the time of Moses, the camp was the people of Israel. Then at the time of the Lord Jesus, the camp was the organized Jewish religion. At the time of Martin Luther, the Roman Catholic Church had become the camp. From Luther’s biography we can realize that he entered within the veil to enjoy the heavenly Christ to be empowered so that he would have the strength and power to suffer the persecution of that camp, and he went out of that camp to follow Jesus, bearing the reproach and suffering the persecution. Years later John Bunyan, the author of The Pilgrim’s Progress, went outside the camp of the state church of England. Today this camp is the organization of Christianity. In the eyes of God organized Christianity is simply a camp. In name it is the Lord’s people, but in actuality it is full of corruption and even idol worship. There is almost no place, no ground, for the Lord, and the presence of the Lord has been cast out. If we mean business to enjoy the presence of the Lord in the heavens within the veil, we must go outside the camp of organized Christianity to follow Jesus.
Today many Christians are like the Hebrew believers. On the one hand, they try to enjoy the heavenly Christ in their spirit, but on the other hand, they compromise with organized Christianity and try to remain there. They do not want to go outside the camp to bear His reproach. According to this clear picture, we can see where we should be. Our spirit must be in the heavens with Christ, and our steps must be with Jesus outside the camp of organized Christianity. However, many dear Christians cannot say boldly that their steps are outside the camp of organized religion to follow Jesus.
I truly appreciate these two phrases in the book of Hebrews: within the veil and outside the camp (6:19; 13:13). Christ is our offering, our portion offered to God for us on the altar of the cross. The way to enjoy Him as our portion is twofold. On the one hand, we enjoy the ascended Christ in the heavens in our spirit, and on the other hand, we need to follow His steps outside the camp and bear His reproach. In these two ways we fully enjoy Him as our portion. The way to enjoy Him is by entering the veil and going outside the camp. To enter the veil is to enjoy the heavenly Christ in our spirit, and to go outside the camp is to give up the organized religion to follow Jesus. There is no other way to fully enjoy Him. The more we enjoy Him as the heavenly Melchizedek in our spirit, the more we will step outside the camp and give up organized Christianity.
By enjoying and experiencing Christ in our spirit, we spontaneously step out of organized Christianity. We may say that we do not have the strength to bear His reproach and suffer. However, the strength is not of us; the strength is of Him. The more we go to Him to enjoy Him in the heavens by contacting Him in our spirit, the more we have the strength to step out of organized Christianity, following Jesus on this earth and bearing His reproach. It is not by our strength but by Christ as our strength.
It is not sufficient merely to encourage you to step out of organized Christianity, but if you contact the heavenly Christ in your spirit and enjoy Him, you will spontaneously walk out of that great “tree” (Matt. 13:32). Spontaneously and unconsciously you will be outside the gate. Even if you do not want to walk out, the people there may cast you out. I left organized religion in 1927. Some people were ready to cast me out, saying, “Mr. Lee, you had better go somewhere else. You are too much trouble to us!”
The more we contact the heavenly Christ, the more we may be considered a “pest” by the people in organized religion (Acts 24:5). When we are cast out, we suffer and bear the reproach. Today I can say that I am one of many who are within the veil enjoying the heavenly Christ and outside the camp bearing the reproach of Jesus. This is the only way for us to follow Him and enjoy Him as our portion. This is the way of faith, the way of the cross, which is the narrow pathway for us to enjoy Christ in a practical way. May the Lord be gracious to us that we may practice this.
The camp is organized religion, which claims to be the people of God yet gives no room to Christ. Instead, it has only rituals, rules, orders, and other such matters. Originally, Judaism was established by God, but later the ground given to God was lost, and no ground was given to Christ. Rather, the people turned it into a religion with rituals and regulations, producing a camp.
On the day of Pentecost the church was established. Originally, it was something living, but gradually even within the church the ground for God and Christ was lost. In The Waning Authority of Christ in the Churches, A. W. Tozer wrote that according to his realization, Jesus Christ is “little more than a beloved symbol” among the churches of today and that no real ground is given to Christ. As a pastor in a large denomination in America, he observed that there is no room for Jesus Christ in the denominational churches. That was his full recognition that Christianity today is a camp, a religious organization.
The church originally was a living Body to contain Christ, and Christ had the full ground within the church, but gradually this ground was lost, and the church drifted first into Catholicism. During the time of Martin Luther, the Roman Catholic Church was one hundred percent a camp. When the Reformation began, many pure, seeking Christians left Catholicism; they went out of that camp. However, after not too long, even the reformed churches themselves gradually became many camps. On the one hand, we have to give up the camp, but on the other hand, we must be careful not to become another camp. If a group of people claim to belong to God but do not give any ground to Christ, they will form rituals, charters, creeds, rules, and regulations and give no ground to the Holy Spirit. Then they will become a camp. We must reject and forsake such a camp, and we must come out of it. We must not only reject organized Christianity; we have to reject any camp that we ourselves may form. We should not try to form anything. Whatever we form, no matter how much it seems to be according to the pattern of the New Testament, is still a camp. If we are truly following the Lord, we must drop all these things. Then what we should do is minister Christ and give birth to Christ in so many persons.
Chapter 13 of Hebrews contains some final charges, after which verses 20 through 25 are a conclusion. Verses 20 and 21 say, “Now the God of peace, He who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, in the blood of an eternal covenant, perfect you in every good work for the doing of His will, doing in us that which is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” In verse 21 Jesus Christ is the subjective Christ. Even this book, which deals with the truth, tells us that God must work within us subjectively through Jesus Christ. This conclusion impresses us that all the teachings within it are for the subjective work of God within us.
