WE HAVE AN ALTAR!

The people of God are blessed with a degree of participation never known before the glorification of Christ Jesus. In salvation, we become capable of imbibing the Divine Nature--a requisite to eternal life.

"Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come." (Heb 13:9-14).

Devotion 12 of 12

CONCLUSION

The Spirit has affirmed that "we have an altar" – a place where an effective and satisfactory sacrifice has been made. The sacrifice is also consumed by those for whom the altar is provided. This is a way of saying the people of God are sustained by the sacrifice offered to God. What has pleased God is now offered to them for their satisfaction. The sacrifice is the Lord Jesus, and those availing themselves of that sacrifice "are made partakers of Christ," if they "hold the beginning" of their "confidence steadfast unto the end" (Heb 3:14).

All of this is affirming that salvation cannot be realized at a distance from God, or in a state of passivity and indifference. Those who insist on being uninvolved, or lukewarm will eventually be spewed out of Christ's mouth (Rev 3:16). I realize this will impinge on the theology of some. They assume that once a person is identified with Christ, there is no danger of losing that identity. If that were true, there would be no need for being sustained. The very idea of sustainment assumes some form of deterioration. The reason for intercession (Heb 7:25; Rom 8:26) is the presence of weakening influences. The ministration of the vast angelic host (Heb 1:13-14) assumes an environment fraught with activity, liability, and danger.

Even those contending for what is called "eternal security" will acknowledge the necessity of Divine sustenance, Christ's intercession, the work of the Holy Spirit, and the ministry of the holy angels. Only a fool would affirm the possibility of going to heaven without any involvement with heaven now. The very notion is so utterly absurd the individual accepting it must first be lulled into sleep.

The point of the passage I have been expounding is that salvation is accomplished in an environment of spiritual intimacy. We ingest Jesus, taking His very life into our spirits. The resources required to safely negotiate through the world are appropriated within the framework of the knowledge of, or personal affiliation with, the living God. God has called us "into the fellowship of His Son" because there no other way to appropriate salvation in all of its aspects.

In view of these things, the text closes with this challenge. "Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come" (vs 13-14). There must be a continued identity with Jesus–not just an initial one. Because we are in the world–a "present evil world" (Gal 1:4)–we are required to "go out to Him outside the camp" (NASB). It will not do for any believer to say once we are with Christ we are always with Him. Were that the case, there would be no need for this admonition.

Jesus is outside this world, seated at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens. He is apart from stilted religious structure, and all forms of worldly wisdom. A deliberate and aggressive effort must be made to go to Christ now, just as surely as you did initially. In the process we come to bear "His reproach," sharing in His sufferings. As it is written, "Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions, for the sake of His body, which is the church" (Col 1:24, NIV).

To the degree we leave the world to go to Christ, we are made partakers of Christ. A rich and bountiful feast has been prepared for us in salvation: "a feast of fat things full of marrow. Of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined" Isa 25:6). These are eternal benefits, and they are dispensed and enjoyed in the heavenly places. Thus the Spirit reminds us, "Here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come." Our quest for this "continuing city" will only be realized by eating from the altar that has been given to us. The world's provisions are not adequate to this quest. In fact, they militate against it.

As a fellow believer, I urge you to go to meet Jesus outside the camp--apart from the world in all of its delusive forms. Move out of the temporal zone into the eternal one. Thus God will be glorified, Jesus will be honored, and you will be fed.

PRAYER POINT: Father, in Jesus' name I seek grace to be with Jesus in separation from this world.

– Tomorrow, New Series: JESUS CHRIST, THE BEGINNING AND THE END --