With his own blood (8a rod idfov afwaros). In contrast with the blood of animal-sacrifices. Comp. ch. ix. 12, 28.
Suffered (éra0ev). Used of Christ in Hebrews, 1st Peter, and Acts, but not in Paul, who, however, has ra@jpara tod Xpiorod sufferings of Christ, 2 Cor. i. 5; Philip. iii. 10 (avrod).
570 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cn. XII.
Without the gate (é&@ ris wiAns). Gate is substituted for camp (ver. 11), as more appropriate to a city.
13. Bearing his reproach (tov dvedicpov adrod épovtes). The reproach of exclusion from the Jewish commonwealth.
14. For here have we no continuing city (ov yap éyo- pev @de méevovoav modw). Here, on earth. Continuing city. Let us go forth without the gate to Jesus; for the system which has its centre in Jerusalem, the Holy City, is no more ours. We are excluded from its religious fellowship by embracing the faith of him who suffered without the gate. The city itself is not abiding. As a holy city, it is the centre and representative of a system of shadows and figures (ch. villi. 5; ix. 9, 28, 24; x. 1), which is to be shaken and removed, even as is the city itself (xii. 27); vui. 13; ix. 10; x. 9,18. If the epistle had been written after the destruction of Jerusalem a reference to that event could hardly have been avoided here.
One to come (tiv wéAAovcav). Rend. “that which is to come.” The heavenly Jerusalem. -Comp. ch. xi. 10, 13-16.
The course of thought in vv. 9-14 is as follows: Be not carried away with divers and strange teachings, for example, those concerning meats and drinks and sacrificial feasts. It is good that the heart be established, rather than that the body should be ceremonially pure; and that the heart be estab- lished by the grace of God in Christ, which alone can give inward peace, a pure conscience, an established rest and secur- ity — rather than by the consciousness of having partaken of meats ceremonially clean: for those whose religious life was under the regimen of this ceremonial system derived no per- manent profit from it. Not only so, the two systems exclude each other. You cannot hold by the Levitical system and enjoy the blessings of Christian salvation. It is the sacrifice of Christ through which you become partakers of grace. It is impossible to obtain grace through meats; for meats rep-
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resent the economy which denies Christ; and, by seeking establishment through meats, you exclude yourselves from the economy which is the only vehicle of grace.
Accordingly, we have an altar and a sacrifice from which the votary of Leviticalism is excluded. By the Levitical law it was forbidden to eat the flesh of the victim offered on the Great Day of Atonement; so that, if the Levitical law still holds for you, you cannot partake of the Christian’s atoning victim. The law under which you are prohibits you. According to that law, there is nothing to eat of in an atoning sacrifice, since the body of the victim is burned. Neither priest nor people have anything more to do with it, and, therefore, it is carried outside of the camp or city, outside of the region of O. T. covenant-fellowship. Similarly, so long as you hold by Judaism, participation in Christ’s atoning sacrifice is impossible for you. It is outside your religious sphere, like the body of the victim outside the gate. You cannot eat of our altar.
The blood of the Levitical victim was carried into the holy of holies and remained there. If you seek the benefit of that blood, it must be within the camp, at the Levitical tabernacle or temple. And you cannot have the benefit of Christ’s blood, for that compels you to go outside the gate, where he suffered. According to the O. T. law, you could partake of the benefit of the blood, but you could not eat of the body. Christ’s sacrifice gives you both body and blood as spiritual food; but these you must seek outside of Juda- ism. Thus, by means of the O. T. ritual itself, it is shown that the Jewish and the Christian systems exclude each other. Christ must be sought outside of the Jewish pale.