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HEB 13:10 We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.11 The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp.12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. === At the last session, Dr Tong spoke about the significance of the claim that 'we have an altar'. This was a clear declaration of triumph because this cannot be an earthly altar since the altar and the temple at Jerusalem were destroyed in AD 70. In Rome today, you would be able to see the fresco at the gate commemorating General Titus' victory over Jerusalem, with a depiction of how the golden lamp stand was looted away. The Jews took great pride in the temple of God. But the LORD moved Jeremiah to say Do not trust in deceptive words and say, "This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!" (Jeremiah 7:4); the three-fold temple of God pointing to the Triune God. Jeremiah prophesized that the people would be captured by Nebuchadnezzar for 70 years, and the temple was to be destroyed. This was the first temple built by the Israelites during the era of Solomon. The second temple was build by Zerubbabel. When this temple was being built, those who had witnessed the glory of the first temple wept bitterly, because it was much smaller (Ezra 3:12) than before. But the LORD was nonetheless pleased with the effort. The third temple however was a different matter altogether. This was built by King Herod for political reasons. It was so tall that people could see the gold-plated roof from 25 km away. The curtain in the most Holy Place needed some 300 men to put in place. The foundation of the temple was made with stones weighing some 5000 kg each. But King Herod was not even a Jew, and he built this huge temple to bribe the Israelites and to silence them. Dr Tong said that in Jakarta, one could find a huge mosque opposite the most important Roman Catholic church. This mosque could accommodate 50,000 people and is 15 storey high. It was built by Sukarno to give the impression that he was supporting the Muslims. Ironically, he built it when Indonesia was at her poorest. Although it took 64 years to build Herod's temple, the temple was in use for only a few decades before it was completely destroyed by General Titus. When the temple was burning, gold was found seeping out between the stones of the temple. General Titus then ordered every stone to be removed to mine the gold. This fulfilled what Christ said about the temple not having a single stone upon each other (Matthew 24:2). All priestly sacrifices ended with the destruction of the altar, just as all things in the Old Testament will pass away, with the progressive revelation of the New Testament, and with Jesus Christ exemplifying for us what the laws actually meant (Matt 5:17). Dr Tong then revisited v 11 from the last session, on how the body of the offering was to be burned outside of the camp, while the blood brought right into the Most Holy Place. This was done on the Day of Atonement, and verse 11 tells us that the Day of Atonement signified Jesus Christ, in that He was sentenced to death in Jerusalem, but His body hung on the cross outside of the city. The burning of this body symbolised the pain of hellfire that Christ had to endure for our sake. The Apostles' Creed included the phrase 'descended into Hell'. This phrase was absent from the earliest version, and started only at the 7th century with the Aquinas creed. The Roman Catholics explained this to mean that Christ went into hell to save some of the people there, especially saints from the Old Testament, basing their argument on Ephesians 4, and 1 Peter 3. The Lutheran explanation is similar. John Calvin however, explained this to mean that Christ took on the suffering of hell while He was on the cross. Dr Tong pointed out that Christ told the robber on His side that "Today, you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43), and the last word of Christ was "Father, unto your hands I commit my spirit" (Luke 23:46). Psalm 16:10 also states that "you will not abandon me to the grace, nor will you let your Holy One see decay." Therefore, the reformed understanding is that Christ took on the suffering of hell when He was on the cross as though He had descended into hell, without necessarily physically descending into hell. Jesus Christ was completely resolved to go to Jerusalem, although He knew that Jerusalem was a place where the prophets were killed. He told His disciples that He would be betrayed, suffer death and on the third day arise again (Luke 18:31). He was whipped and bled in Jerusalem, but His body was crucified on Golgotha, outside of the city. The author of Hebrews reminded the reader of this, and then wrote about the world not having an enduring city. As a Jew, he must have known about the significance of the sacrificial system ending at AD 70, but as a Christian, he knew that the true sacrifice was not in the temple, but upon Jesus Christ on the cross outside of the city. He then reminded the reader what he wrote in chapter 12, about how we have not come to a kingdom that cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12:28) and how we have come to the Jerusalem in heaven rather than Mt Zion on earth. When the author wrote about this new hope, a new heaven and earth as mentioned in 2 Peter, the author also wrote about an important concept, how we need to go out of the camp to suffer with Christ. Some people take this to mean that we must leave our church and join other non-church movement. This is not so. This verse means that we need to break free from the bondages of traditions and physical limitations, and enter into the eternal will of God and be freed in the eternal truth. The Israelites held on to their Old Testament practices, and expected God to protect them via their rituals and their temple. But the author of Hebrews taught that we need to break free from these constraints and enter into the infinite realm of freedom in the will of God. A mature Christian is able to have a much wider scope of vision, and knows how to break free from limited and temporal constraints made by man. Some may protest that we seemed to be bounded by reformed theology. But reformed theology is a liberating theology, returning back to the freedom found in the WORD of God. The spirit of reformed theology is not academic, but a theology that invites all to be faithful to the WORD of God, studying the entire Bible and applying a consistent overall principle to exposition. People like Martin Luther and John Calvin studied the scripture in a comprehensive and consistent manner, and reformed theology has stood the test of time for more than 500 years. Our faith needs to be built upon the freedom of the truth of God as found in His WORD, because that is what true freedom is all about. We need to see the world via God's WORD, instead of our own culture, language, traditions, rituals and understandings. There were two persons who exemplified this spirit of freedom in the WORD. One was the founder of the Methodist movement John Wesley, the other was George Whitfield. Wesley believed in free will in salvation, while Whitfield believed in election in salvation. Both men were once from the Anglican church and greatly gifted in preaching. But they were forbidden by the Anglican church to preach, especially when their ministry was flourishing. So instead of being constrained, both walked out of the camp and followed our LORD instead of following erroneous traditions. George Whitfield was particularly eager to preach the gospel wherever he may be. Since he was not allowed to preach in church, he started preaching in open-air rallies during weekdays. He would stand outside of a factory at 5 am, preaching to the factory workers about repentance and the love of God. In an era without microphone, Whitfield once preached to a crowd of 80,000. Wesley was slower in the uptake of Whitfield's method, since he felt that he was a properly trained pastor who needed to wear his pastor's stole in order to preach. In the end, Wesley was moved by the ministry of Whitfield, and did the same thing as Whitfield did, preaching non-stop all his life wherever he went. Wesley famously declared that even if there is not a single Anglican church available for him to preach, he would preach standing on the grave of his father, since that piece of land belong to his family. In the end, we need to know that we are not followers of the world.
We are citizen of that kingdom that cannot be shaken, that city
that endures forever. Hence, our calling is to follow our LORD,
out of the camp and suffer for Him, living only for Him. In so doing,
we may be called to break away from useless traditions and habit,
and be obedient only to the guiding of the Holy Spirit in His WORD. |