Those who are God’s children have an altar that is special. The Old Testament altar was the place where the sacrifice for sin was made. Part of the meat that was offered on the brazen altar was to be taken for the priest to eat. That was their portion. The brazen altar was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In John 6 Jesus taught the importance of partaking of His flesh. He was not teaching the literal eating of His flesh. He makes that clear in verse 63 of that chapter. The priest was dependent upon that meat for sustenance. The true child of God is dependent upon the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life.
When we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we are being reminded of His death. We need to be reminded of the way of life. It is through the death of Jesus Christ. He needed to go to the cross and die in our place to provide for our salvation. His death included His shed blood.
Those who want to hold onto the old system of the law, do not have a right to this special altar. They have rejected the gift of salvation afforded by the Lord Jesus Christ and thus they set themselves apart from the blessings of God.
As we have noted before, God was addressing the false teaching of the Judaizers in the book of Hebrews. They wanted to keep the Levitical law and force that upon the people. However, Jesus was better than that law. It had its place and it was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Thus there was no further need for that system.
In verse 11 we are reminded of the temporary nature of that Levitical system. The body of the animal that was brought for a sin offering, needed to be taken outside the camp and burned. It was not consumed by the priest. It was burned as a picture of the removal of sin that would come through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. The blood of that animal was brought inside the Tabernacle by the priest. That blood needed to be sprinkled according to God’s law. That was very important.
Verse 12 tells us how Jesus Christ fulfilled that type. He was taken outside the gate of Jerusalem and crucified at Golgotha. He shed His blood outside the camp, and as we have already noted, that blood was presented to His Father, and His body was nailed to the cross and He died on that cross outside the camp. His body was not burned because He is the eternal Son of God Who by His resurrection proved the power to forgive sin. He did not need to be destroyed. He is better than the animal sacrifices. He provides forgiveness of sin for all those who will turn to God in repentance and be saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
We see there as well that Jesus gave His life to sanctify the people with His own blood. The Greek word translated as “sanctify” means “to make holy”. We cannot do anything to make ourselves holy. The blood of bulls and goats cannot make us holy. However, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, when applied to the heart of the repentant sinner, does make him or her holy. Those who are saved are set apart to glorify God. That is true from the Bible. It is not taught in many religious groups. It is important again to take God’s Word as the truth, not man’s distortions of God’s Word. We noted yesterday the importance of sound doctrine. God’s doctrine is absolute and it is liberating. Don’t settle for “story time” when you can have eternal life.
Everything that God does is perfect. His plan is right. We do not always understand it all. A person might think there is a better way, but once a person is saved, they will understand that there is no better way than the way God designed. His way works. Man’s ways do not work.
Pastor Bartel