(10) We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. (11) For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. (12) Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. (13) Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. (14) For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. (15) By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. (16) But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
There is but one Altar which the Church of Christ knoweth, and that is a precious Altar indeed; namely, Christ himself. It was on this Altar, even his divine nature, the Lord Jesus offered himself to God, through the Eternal Spirit, Hebrews 9:14. Christ is our New Testament Altar, and our Sacrifice, and our High Priest, and, the Sacrificer. Now they can have no right, neither benefit, in this Altar, or Sacrifice, and Sacrificer, who are looking to any sacrifice beside. And not only are they prohibited from any right to this our Altar, who serve the Jewish Tabernacle; but any Christian Tabernacle, falsely so called, that is, they who sacrifice to their own net, and burn incense to their own drag: Hebrews 1:14, and, according to the Prophet, are building themselves up in their own fancied righteousness, and making Christ only a part Savior with themselves.
This is a beautiful illustration of the Old Testament service, and which at once proves, that the whole of the ministry, on the great day of atonement, related but to Christ. Let the Reader first read the account of the appointment, as minutely related, Leviticus 16:1, and he will be struck with the type, in its close resemblance to Christ. Jesus did all this in substance, as the High Priest then did in the shadow, in the day when he suffered without the gate, that is, without Jerusalem, on the Mount Calvary. And, as the bodies of those beasts, whose blood was brought into the Sanctuary by the High Priest, for sin, were burnt without the Camp: Leviticus 16:27, so Christ, in his own Person, endured the fiery indignation of sin, as the Church's representative; and then went by his own blood into heaven itself, there to appear in the presence of God for us, Hebrews 9:11-12. And what a most affectionate exhortation the Holy Ghost adds to this beautiful illustration, when he invites the Church, to go forth, from the observance of all self-offerings whatever; from the camp of the world, and from all vain things, of any fancy attainments of our own; seeking acceptance wholly in the Person and finished salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ? This will indeed bring reproach; but it is Christ's reproach, being for his sake, and on his account. This would be doing good in the only way in which the child of God, regenerated by grace, can do good; namely, communicating to others, by our word, and by our example, that Christ is our all, and in whom we depend for all. With such sacrifices God is well pleased. Yes! For the child of God, who dares in such a day as the present, amidst a Christ-despising generation, openly to avow, that he is looking wholly to Christ, and that he makes Christ his all, for life and salvation; must sacrifice both name and reputation, and sometimes many earthly comforts besides, in the connections, and relationships of natural life. And from no class whatever will he find greater bitterness manifested, than from modern Pharisees, who profess to honor Christ as well as he, in giving him the glory of the procuring cause of salvation; but contend, that what Christ hath done, and suffered, is not a finished salvation, but that our sincere repentance, and obedience, and faith, may on Christ's account be accepted of God. Alas! did those men but seriously consider, how wretched at the best, are all the performances of creatures such as we are, they would discover what a flimsy thing the sincerity, and obedience, and repentance, yea, faith itself, considered as an act of ours, must be to trust in when going in before God. Wretched indeed would be my guilty soul, if an atom of mine became necessary for acceptance in that solemn hour!