And now, ere turning from this fundamental point which has been occupying us, I would desire to make an earnest and a most solemn appeal to my reader's heart and conscience. Let me ask you, dear friend, have you been led to repose on this holy and happy foundation? Do you know that the question of your sin has been forever disposed of? Have you laid your hand, by faith, on the head of the Sin-offering? Have you seen the atoning blood of Jesus rolling away all your guilt, and carrying it into the mighty waters of God's forgetfulness? Has Divine Justice any thing against you? Are you free from the unutterable horrors of a guilty conscience? Do not, I pray you, rest satisfied until you can give a joyous answer to these inquiries. Be assured of it, it is the happy privilege of the feeblest babe in Christ to rejoice in a full and everlasting remission of sins, on the ground of a finished atonement; and hence, for any to teach otherwise, is to lower the sacrifice of Christ to the level of "goats and calves." If we cannot know that our sins are forgiven, then where are the glad tidings of the gospel? Is a Christian in no wise better off, in the matter of a sin-offering, than a Jew? The latter was privileged to know that his matters were set straight for a year, by the blood of an annual sacrifice. Can the former not have any certainty at all? Unquestionably. Well, then, if there is any certainty, it must be eternal, inasmuch as it rests on an eternal sacrifice.
This, and this alone, is the basis of worship. The full assurance of sin put away ministers, not to a spirit of self-confidence, but to a spirit of praise, thankfulness, and worship. It produces, not a spirit of self-complacency, but of Christ-complacency, which, blessed be God, is the spirit which shall characterize the redeemed throughout eternity. It does not lead one to think little of sin, but to think much of the grace which has perfectly pardoned it, and of the blood which has perfectly canceled it. It is impossible that any one can gaze on the cross--can see the place which Christ took--can meditate upon the sufferings which He endured--can ponder on those three terrible hours of darkness, and at the same time think lightly of sin. When all these things are entered into, in the power of the Holy Ghost, there are two results which must follow, namely, an abhorrence of sin in all its forms, and a genuine love to Christ, His people, and His cause.
Let us now consider what was done with the "flesh," or "body," of the sacrifice, in which, as has been stated, we have the true ground of discipleship. "The whole bullock shall he carry forth, _without the camp_, unto a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn him on the wood with fire." (Chap. iv. 12.) This act is to be viewed in a double way; first, as expressing the place which the Lord Jesus took for us as bearing sin; secondly, as expressing the place into which He was cast by a world which had rejected Him. It is to this latter point that I would here call my reader's attention.
The use which the apostle, in Heb. xiii, makes of Christ's having "suffered without the gate," is deeply practical.--"Let us go forth therefore _unto Him_ without the camp, _bearing His reproach_." If the sufferings of Christ have secured us an entrance into heaven, the place where He suffered expresses our rejection from earth. His death has procured us a city on high; the place where He died divests us of a city below.[16] "He suffered without the gate," and, in so doing, He set aside Jerusalem as the present centre of divine operation. There is no such thing now as a consecrated spot on the earth. Christ has taken His place, as a suffering One, outside the range of this world's religion, its politics, and all that pertains to it. The world hated Him and cast Him out. Wherefore, the word is, "_Go forth_." This is the motto as regards every thing that men would set up here in the form of a "camp," no matter what that camp may be. If men set up "a holy city," you must look for a rejected Christ "without the gate." If men set up a religious camp, call it by what name you please, you must "go forth" out of it, in order to find a rejected Christ. It is not that blind superstition will not grope amid the ruins of Jerusalem in search of relics of Christ. It assuredly will do so, and has done so. It will affect to find out and do honor to the site of His cross and to His sepulchre. Nature's covetousness, too, taking advantage of nature's superstition, has carried on for ages a lucrative traffic, under the crafty plea of doing honor to the so-called sacred localities of antiquity. But a single ray of light from Revelation's heavenly lamp is sufficient to enable us to say that you must "go forth" of all these things, in order to find and enjoy communion with a rejected Christ.