Outside

Hebrews 13:11 The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. 12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.

I’ve done a number of posts from Hebrews since 2015 but noticed I’d never made it to Chapter 13.  I decided to try something completely different and begin reading the book backwards and look for what’s “new” starting with that last chapter’s conclusions.  

My brain “blip” happened at verse 11 when I read that the sacrifices for the old covenant were prepared “outside” and noticed the comparison of that to Jesus’s sacrifice being made “outside the city gate.”  Outside is the keyword for me.  The blood of animal sacrifice for temporary sin offerings was prepared outside.  Outside was the same place God prepared the sacrifice of His Son to be the once-for-all atonement of sin.   His promise was to make a new place for all of us who know what being an outsider feels like.  Here is the undeniably best Good News you’ll ever hear…

Outside is where Christ receives your brokenness and disgrace and makes them his own.  The plan of God is that we who are outsiders have access to where newness inside begins – the Cross.   Newness begins outside the temples we build and outside our manmade rituals and rules.   Inside is where we are made “holy through his [Jesus’s] own blood.  Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore”