Hebrews 13:12-14 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Wherefore Jesus also Who was typified by these sin- offerings; that he might sanctify Might make atonement for, and consecrate to God; the people His church, the spiritual Israel of God; with his own blood Carried into the heavenly sanctuary, and presented before the throne of God as a sin-offering; suffered without the gate Of Jerusalem, as the bodies of the sin-offerings were burned without the camp of Israel in the wilderness, signifying hereby that those carnal Jews, who still adhered to the Mosaical way of worship, had no interest in, nor communion with Christ, nor partook of the benefits of his atonement. The Israelites having cities to live in at the time our Lord suffered, the expression, without the gate, was of the same import as without the camp in the wilderness. Wherefore criminals, being regarded as unclean, were always put to death without the gates of their cities. Let us, &c. As if he had said, And this consideration, as it shows it to be our duty to leave the Jewish sacrifices, so it should undoubtedly engage us willingly to suffer all extremities in his cause; Let us therefore break through all attachments, and go forth unto him without the camp The terrestrial Jerusalem; the Jewish Church, with its ceremonious services; let us cleave to him and his doctrine, and openly profess ourselves his disciples; bearing his reproach Patiently enduring all manner of shame, obloquy, and contempt, and whatever other suffering may await us, for his sake. And we have the more reason to do this; for here we have no continuing city No settled condition, no lasting place of abode; all things here are but for a moment; and the interests of this mortal life, as they are very uncertain, and of short duration, so they are very trivial, when compared with those that relate to eternity. It is thought by some, that in this the apostle had the destruction of Jerusalem in his eyes which happened about seven or eight years after this epistle was written; but we seek one to come Namely, the city of the living God; a city prepared for us, and promised to us, as the place of our everlasting abode.