Outside the Gate

Hebrews 13:7-14

Remember your leaders who have spoken God’s word to you. As you carefully observe the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Don’t be led astray by various kinds of strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be established by grace and not by food regulations, since those who observe them have not benefited. We have an altar from which those who worship at the tabernacle do not have a right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the most holy place by the high priest as a sin offering are burned outside the camp. Therefore, Jesus also suffered outside the gate, so that he might sanctify the people by his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing his disgrace. For we do not have an enduring city here; instead, we seek the one to come.

This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.

We are down the home stretch of Hebrews. Almost a year and a half in this book, and we are finishing it at the end of October. Last week we were in verses 1 through 6 — brotherly love, hospitality, marriage, contentment, and the promise that God will never leave us or forsake us.

This morning we come to verses 7 through 14. And here the author does something important. Verses 1 through 6 gave us the commands. Verses 7 through 14 give us the ground underneath the commands. He is telling us why we can live that way. And the answer runs through three things: the leaders who showed us the way, the Christ who never changes, and the city we are actually heading toward.

The passage will take us from the memory of faithful leaders, to the constancy of Christ, to a warning about strange teaching, to an altar, to a place outside the camp, to a city that is coming. And the whole thing hangs on verse 8.

Big Idea: Christ never changes. So trust His grace and bear His reproach.

Hebrews 13:7

Remember your leaders who have spoken God’s word to you. As you carefully observe the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith.

The author tells us to remember those who spoke God's word to us. Notice the tense the author used — these are leaders who have spoken, past tense. Though their current leaders could be involved in the instruction the author has given, the emphasis points toward leaders who are no longer with them, who are no longer alive. Because he then tells us to look at the outcome of their lives. The Greek word behind "outcome" is ekbasis. He is referring to how those leaders have exited this life, the way their lives ended. He is pointing us at finished lives, not just current ones. People whose race is over and whose ending we can see.

That is why he can say "imitate their faith." We are not imitating a personality or a style. We are looking at a life that ran all the way to the end and finished in Christ, and we are saying: I want that ending.

Do we actually have people in our lives whose ending we are watching? Not just their platform, not just their best sermon — their finish.

If we stopped looking at the Apostle Peter after he denies Jesus, he looks like a terrible person to follow. But seeing how Jesus calls him back, how Peter stood with conviction to preach the truth on the day of Pentecost, and how he refused to deny Christ to the Roman Empire and was executed for it, we see a life that ended well.

Thomas Cranmer was a Protestant reformer in England. He quietly issued reforms under the Roman Catholic Church in England, writing a Protestant version of The Book of Common Prayer in English so the common man could worship the Lord in his native tongue instead of Latin. He disagreed with the Catholic teachings on communion and purgatory. He was arrested for sedition in his role trying to get Lady Jane Gray (a Protestant) on the English throne instead of Mary I (aka Bloody Mary), who was catholic and wanted to reverse the English Reformation that started under her father.

After being forced to watch his fellow bishops get burned at the stake for heresy, Cranmer signed his recantation, declaring six different times he turned from his Protestant beliefs and would follow the Catholic Church. His last declaration of support of the Roman Catholic church was to happen at the University Church at Oxford. However, after opening with prayer, he renounced his recantations, declared that he was wrong to deny his Protestant convictions, declared the pope and his doctrines enemies of God, and said the hand that signed his recantations would go in the fire first.

He was taken to the place where his friends were executed 6 months earlier. And being tied to the post, the fire starting to blaze, he stuck out his right hand to be burned before the rest of his body. Though Cranmer stumbled, he finished well.

This is why we read the old saints, and why we sit under the same teaching week after week. We are watching for the outcome.

This text cuts back on us who teach. James 3:1 tells us teachers will receive a stricter judgment. So if we are going to stand up and speak God's word to people, we had better be living it out with fear and trembling, because someone in this room may be watching our ending.

The verse gives a positive command with a condition attached. Imitate their faith as you observe the outcome. However, the pattern of Scripture shows that a life that contradicts the word it teaches is not a life to be copied. Though that is a principle we find elsewhere, it is a sober thing for those of us who teach.

Hebrews 13:8

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

This is not a slogan dropped into the middle of the passage. It is the hinge. Look at the three horizons in that one sentence.

"Yesterday" reaches back to the leaders the author just talked about — the ones whose outcome we can observe. "Forever" reaches forward to the city in verse 14. And "today" is where we live. Jesus spans the whole passage. He is the same Christ those departed leaders served, and He is the same Christ who will receive us into the enduring city.

This is the doctrine of Immutability.

God is Immutable

God does not change. He cannot learn. He is constant always.

Hebrews 1 already told us the Son is the unchanging Creator — the heavens and earth will be rolled up like a garment, but He remains the same. So when the author says Jesus is the same, he is telling us that the Son shares the divine attribute of unchangeableness that the Father has.

Why does God’s immutability matter?

If Christ never changes, then the way we live out His instructions does not change. He is the King of an unshakable kingdom, which means His instructions are unshakable. This verse is a reminder about everything the author has already said, and a foundation for everything he is about to say.

When we are going through struggle or hardship, the temptation is to think the ground has moved. It has not. The Christ who held the saints of the past holds us. When we are drifting, we do not need a new Christ — we need to come back to the same one who the author has already shown “will never leave you or abandon you.”

Hebrews 13:9

Don’t be led astray by various kinds of strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be established by grace and not by food regulations, since those who observe them have not benefited.

The point: The word behind "strange" is xenos (G3581) — foreign, alien. Teachings from outside the household. And the word behind "various" is poikilais (G4164) — many-colored, kaleidoscopic. The danger is not one obvious heresy. It is a whole spectrum of them.

What was the teaching here? The context tells us: food regulations, altar, tabernacle, sacrifices. This is Judaizing pressure — the same problem behind Galatians and Acts 15. The argument would have sounded reasonable to Jews at the time: yes, trust Jesus, but also keep the dietary laws and the sacrificial system, because that is how you stay right with God.

The author's answer is not that those things were evil. His answer is that they have been superseded, and going back to them now is going backward.

The key word: "Established." The Greek is bebaiousthai (G950) — to make firm, to confirm, to guarantee. It is the same root as Hebrews 2:3, where the great salvation was confirmed, and Hebrews 6:19, where our hope is an anchor, firm and secure. The heart is stabilized by grace. Not by what we eat. Not by what we avoid. Not by what we add.

This is where Ephesians 2:8–9 lands underneath the verse. By grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves — it is God's gift, not from works, so that no one can boast.

Every generation has its own version of "grace plus something." Grace plus a spiritual experience. Grace plus a particular worship style. Grace plus a moral performance. Grace plus a political posture.

Now, I want to be clear: When we have been given new life by God’s grace, we will have spiritual experiences that will satisfy our souls and provoke us to know God more deeply. There are people who would call our church a dead or dry church because we don’t have miracles and signs and wonders happening in our church on a regular basis. But those things are not what establish us in Christ; as Craig pointed out so well in his sermon last week, it is the grace of God.

When we are made new by God’s grace, our actions will align more and more with the moral law of God as the Holy Spirit works his fruit in us. But being a moral person is not what brings us to Christ.

When we have new life in Christ, by God’s grace, that will impact how we think about politics and our involvement as citizens of the country we live in. Political affiliation does not save us. Both major political parties in this nation are trains to hell. One may be doing it with a steam engine and the other with a bullet train, but the destination is the same.

The xenos teaching always has the same shape — it adds a condition to grace. And the heart that is established by grace is the heart that can spot where people or institutions are adding something to God’s grace.

Where are we tempted to add to grace? Do you think you can’t come to God because you haven’t done something specific? What are we quietly trusting in alongside Christ? Do we actually believe that grace alone establishes the heart, or are we still trying to finish the job ourselves? (Put these questions in the notes)

Hebrews 13:10

We have an altar from which those who worship at the tabernacle do not have a right to eat.

The point: Under the old system, the priests who served at the tabernacle had a right to eat a portion of certain offerings. The author says there is an altar now, and those who are still serving the tabernacle have no right to eat from it.

Notice the direction of the logic. He is not saying the priests lost access to Christ. He is saying the two tables are mutually exclusive. You cannot eat from both. To keep serving the tabernacle is to forfeit the altar.

What is the altar?

This is a debated point, and it is worth naming the options. Some take it as the cross — Christ's sacrifice is the altar, and we eat, or partake from it by faith. Some take it as Christ Himself, since Hebrews 9 and 10 make the altar and the sacrifice of Christ one thing. Some take it as the Lord's Table, the ongoing participation in that one sacrifice.

The cross-reference that makes this vivid is 1 Corinthians 10:18–21, where Paul uses almost identical altar and table language and says you cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons.

1 Corinthians 10:18–21

Consider the people of Israel. Do not those who eat the sacrifices participate in the altar? What am I saying then? That food sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? No, but I do say that what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons! You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot share in the Lord’s table and the table of demons.

You cannot have a place at both tables.

This is the question of divided allegiance. We want to keep a foot in the old system and a foot in the new. We want the comfort of the familiar and the security of Christ.

There is a problem within the Church, where we want to be close to Christ, we want to know His love and grace. And yet, we still want our sin. So we say:

“I am a Christian, but I cuss a little.”

“I am a Christian, but I still tell inappropriate jokes.”

“I trust Christ to take care of me, but I still check my horoscope.”

“I believe life is precious, but still advocate for a woman’s right to an abortion.”

If there is anything in your life that would make you say, “I am a Christian, but…” and anything you say after that is something that the Word of God strictly speaks against, you are trying to eat from both tables. You are trying to be okay with your sin but still claim Christ.

“Be killing sin or it will be killing you.”

John Owen, The Mortification of Sin

The author is telling his readers there is one altar, and it has one table, and it calls for our whole being. We will still struggle with sin after we come to Jesus, but if we are still excusing that sin, deliberately choosing that sin over and over again without guilt or repentance, without hating our sin, then we need to ask the Lord to reveal to us if we are truly seated at his table.

Hebrews 13:11–12

For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the most holy place by the high priest as a sin offering are burned outside the camp. Therefore, Jesus also suffered outside the gate, so that he might sanctify the people by his own blood.

Leviticus 16:27 required that the bodies of the sin offering on the Day of Atonement be carried outside the camp and burned. The blood was carried inside and sprinkled on the ark. The body was taken out and disposed of away from the holy place.

This is what the author of Hebrews is describing concerning Christ. His blood cleanses us of all our unrighteousness in the heavenly tabernacle. At the same time, he suffered outside the city, as the burned bodies of the animals sacrificed on the Day of Atonement. The author says Christ suffered outside the gate.

And the word "gate" is deliberate. In verse 11 he says camp — the wilderness imagery of the original tabernacle. In verse 12 he says gate — the city of Jerusalem. He is bridging the two. He is showing how the sacrifices of the Old Testament were “types and shadows” of what would eventually be fulfilled through Christ.

Jesus died outside the wall of Jerusalem. That is a historical fact — Golgotha was outside the city. This is also a theological statement. Jesus was expelled from the sacred space, bearing the reproach of one who was cursed. Deuteronomy 21:23 says cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, and Galatians 3:13 tells us Christ became a curse for us.

Galatians 3:13

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, because it is written, Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.

Why did Jesus do this?

"So that he might sanctify the people by his own blood."

The word is hagiazō (G37) — to sanctify, to set apart, to make holy.

This is the third time in Hebrews the author has used it. Hebrews 10:10, Hebrews 10:14, and now here.

The whole sacrificial argument of this book lands on that word. He went outside; he suffered away from the temple, so that we could be made holy.

The cross was not an accident of geography. Jesus was not crucified outside the city because the Romans ran out of room inside. He was crucified outside because He was bearing the reproach of His people, and the reproach had to be carried out. That is what it cost to sanctify us.

Hebrews 13:13

Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing his disgrace.

This is the invitation. And notice the direction — to Him. We go outside to Christ. He is the one who is outside. We are not going outside to be outside. We are called to go outside because that is where He is.

The word behind "disgrace" is oneidismos (G3680) — reproach, insult. It is the same word used in Hebrews 10:33 and Hebrews 11:26, where Moses considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt. This is not generic suffering. This is the reproach Christ bore, and it is transferred to those who belong to Him.

Jesus said the same thing in the upper room. In John 15 He told His disciples that if the world hated Him, it would hate them too — the servant is not greater than his master.

But the reproach Hebrews is talking about is even closer to home. These Jewish Christians were being asked to leave the synagogue. To be seen as unfaithful to Moses. The author is calling these Jewish Christians to be cut off from family, from community, from social standing. That is the shape of the reproach here — being counted outside your own covenant community. And the author says: that is the reproach Christ bore. Go outside and bear it with Him.

This is not easy. We want the approval of others. We want to be viewed of well. And that itself often stops people from following after Christ. “If I leave my community and become a Christian, my family/friends/community will hate me.” That very well may be true.

But if that is the case, did they ever actually love you in the first place?

1 Corinthians 13:4–7

Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love is kind; it does not hate. Love is not rude, irritable, or keep track of all the ways someone has been wronged. Love is willing to tell a friend that the things they are doing are hurting themselves - and that hurt could be physical, emotional, or spiritual.

I love this congregation enough to tell you what Scripture says is a sin and to plead with you to turn away from it. Some may call that unloving or judgmental. But if you are standing in the middle of the road with a car barreling down on you and I don’t do everything in my power to get your attention and point you to safety, I don’t actually love you.

The disgrace we receive for following after Christ is a byproduct, not the goal. We do not aim at being outsiders. We aim at Christ, and outsider-ness follows because of where He is. If we aim at being odd, we end up with a subculture. If we aim at Christ, we end up with His reproach — and that is a different thing entirely.

And here is the symmetry with verse 9. The false teachers said: add something to grace to be safe. The author says: go outside the camp to be with Christ. One adds a condition. The other accepts a cost. Both involve an extra — but one is a work we perform, and the other is a reproach we receive.

Believers: Where is following Christ costing us right now? Not in the abstract — actually. At work. In our family. In the way our neighbors talk about us. Are we willing to bear that, or are we quietly negotiating to keep our standing?

Galatians 1:10

For am I now trying to persuade people, or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Application for those still weighing it: Following Christ will cost you something. It cost Him everything. And the author does not hide that. He puts it right in the invitation. Come outside. Bear the reproach. It is worth it — and the next verse tells us why.

Hebrews 13:14

For we do not have an enduring city here; instead, we seek the one to come.

The point: The word behind "enduring" is menousan (G3306) — remaining, abiding. We do not have a city here in this world that remains. We are seeking the one that is coming.

This is the third time the author has made the same move. Sinai versus Zion in chapter 12 — the mountain that could be touched and the mountain we have come to. The tabernacle versus the true sanctuary in chapter 9. And now the camp versus the city to come. Over and over, the visible, touchable, temporary thing is not the real thing.

And this reaches back to chapter 11, where Abraham looked for a city whose architect and builder is God. And forward to chapter 12, where we are told we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.

We cannot take anything from this life into the next. The heavens and earth will pass away, rolled up like a garment. We need to store up treasure where moth and rust cannot destroy. That treasure can only be found in Christ! We need to hold loosely to what is passing and tightly to what remains.

Do we actually believe that? Do we live like people who have no enduring city here, or do we live like people whose whole hope is in this one? Do we not invite people to church or have gospel conversations with people because we care more about their approval? Or even worse, do we live like we don’t actually care? And we end up not inviting people to church because we don’t see the urgency or importance?

“Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”

C.S Lewis

The Reformers thought it was so important they were willing to be burned at the stake by the Catholic church for wanting the everyday farmer to know Scripture as well as the priests, for calling people back to Scripture and not to follow after man-made traditions that have nothing to do with Jesus. The disciples were willing to be put to death for saying there was no king or lord except Christ alone.

Are we willing to endure some social discomfort, some social disgrace, to follow after the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Creator of the universe, and tell people that He is the only thing worth pursuing in this world? Or would we rather be liked by the people around us?

Conclusion

We have leaders whose endings we can watch, and a Christ who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We have a heart that is established by grace and not by anything we add to it. We have an altar, and it calls for our whole being. We have a Savior who went outside the gate and bore the reproach so that we could be made holy. And we have a city that is coming.

So the question is not whether we will go outside. The question is whether we will go outside to Him. Jesus is the object of our faith. Everything rests on Him.

Because if we stay inside the camp — if we keep the old system, if we keep our standing, if we keep the approval of the people around us — we are choosing a city that does not remain. We are choosing death.

But if we go to Him, we go with His reproach, and we go toward a kingdom that cannot be shaken. We go to life, to eternity.

So will we hold on to a city that is passing, or will we go outside the camp and follow the One who is the same yesterday, today, and forever?

Let us go to Him.