Biblical Essays
INSIDE THE VEIL, OUTSIDE THE CAMP
(Heb. 10; 13:9-16)
The power of our path – of our walk in this world, is the understanding, through the Holy Spirit, of our identification with Christ in all our ways and being set in the world to manifest Him, not merely to know that we have salvation, and the purging of our consciences through His most precious blood. The testimony of a Christian bears this character; he is treading in the footsteps of Christ. “To me, to live is Christ:” again, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” That puts each of us in the place of responsibility as to our ways, habits, feelings, and objects. Are we realizing the responsibility of living Christ? That is really what the church of our Lord is set in the world for – to be the expression of Christ in His absence. A Christian’s conscience often satisfies itself with handing the Bible to an unconverted man, so that he may read about Christ; but this is not the object for which Christ has left us here – “Ye are the epistles of Christ, known and read of all men.” Are we such an epistle? Or do people come to us and say, “What is your creed? What views do you hold?” and the like. If we are not an expression of the ways and feelings of Christ, we are a stumbling-block, rather than otherwise. The Christian should be the living, breathing expression of Christ – the principles, features, graces, of the character of Christ. But, in this age, too many profess a form of Christianity consisting more of opinions, creeds, dogmas and traditions of men. So much so, that one finds himself characterized more by what opinions he holds. We are called on to live for Christ; to be one with Him, and to show forth what He is. But the whole power, by which we are to act and to show that, is the understanding that we are one with Him.
Presented to us in the Epistle to the Hebrews there are two great stages of Christ’s path, and of the true believers, as identified with Him. The first ends (Heb. 10) where the soul is set in “the holiest.” Up to that the Holy Spirit is conducting us along, step by step; there He sets us down in this blessed place, “having boldness to enter into the holiest, by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh.”
The power of intelligent devotedness is the understanding of the purging of our consciences. Many do not understand this; they are aiming at getting it, and that is a complete reversing of God’s order. We have a purged conscience; we go on, not to obtain it, but because we have it. How do we get it? Not by anything we have done, by our frames or feelings, as a matter of attainment or experience; the Holy Spirit teaches us that it is by the blood of Jesus.
He shows the glory of the person of Christ, as contrasted with angels and with Moses; that of His priesthood as contrasted with Aaron’s; that of His sacrifice, as contrasted with the sacrifices under the law. And what is the result? We have a purged conscience. He has set us down within the veil. It is not what one Christian has, and what another is struggling after, but the common platform of all – we all have a purged conscience. Some suppose that the blood of Christ has put away our sins before conversion; and then, regarding what becomes of those after, they are met by the priesthood of Christ, but this is not what He says: it is by the blood of Christ; we are within the holiest with a perfectly-purged conscience, with “no more conscience of sins.” It is worthy of the sacrifice of Christ to put ourselves in possession of this, and nothing short of it – all our sins, not some of them, blotted out. There, where the High Priest could go in once every year, and only then, the simplest true believer is set down.
When one deals closely with souls, one discovers what doubts, clouds, fears, and anxieties, have possession of and distress them. If the blood of Christ does anything for us, it sets us there without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. “Having, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus . . . let us draw near,” etc. There is no difference here between apostle and others; in other words, the apostle Paul and the true believer today are alike and have a common place within the veil.
The priesthood of Christ comes in to maintain us where the blood of Christ has set us. As expressed in the Epistle of John, “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous [Jesus Christ is at God’s right hand on all principles of righteousness], and He is the propitiation [the mercy-seat] for our sins . . . If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (emphasis added).
For a child, it is easier to ask for pardon than to confess fault. We may be asking for pardon for a special sin, and we have no Scripture warrant to know that it is put away; but when we confess it, it is a matter of faith to know that it is put away. We are speaking of a true believer: the question of an unconverted person is met by the blood of Christ. God is “faithful and just [not merely gracious and merciful], to forgive us our sins” (emphasis added). The moment the true believer has judged self about it, he is entitled to know that it is gone.
What a wondrous place to set the true believer in at the beginning of his course of discipleship – washed from his sins, his conscience purged; set down in the unclouded sense of the light of God’s own countenance. But are we to rest there? No; that is the foundation on which the superstructure of practical devotedness is based. Legalism and antinomianism are alike met. What does the system of legalism say? You must work yourself up into this place of acceptance. The Gospel says Christ has put us there. On our own, we could never get there; the law proved that. When God gave the law, what was He doing? “You shall do this,” “You shall not do that,” brought out what man’s heart was. In other words, it was impossible for him to do what God was telling him he ought to do, and impossible that he should not be what God was telling him not to be – “As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse.” By works of law, we can never get into the holiest of all. We are put there as the result of what Christ has accomplished for us on the cross; and this is stated at the very beginning of the epistle: “When He had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. 1:3). Why does it say “sat down”? – To evidence the completion of the work. Aaron never sat down; there was no seat prepared for the priest, either in the tabernacle or the temple.
What does antinomianism lead men to say? “I have it, I possess it all in Christ,” and there it ends. But no – the Gospel puts us there, to run the blessed race that is set before us, in ardent, earnest breathing of the soul to become like Christ.
If the first division sets us down within the holiest, the second places us without the camp. Regarding the conscience, we find Christ “inside the veil.” Regarding the heart, we find Christ, “outside the camp.”
It does not become us to take only the comfort that flows from knowing Christ to be within the veil – the comfort His sacrifice gives us; we must seek identification with Him outside the camp. Christ within the veil tranquillizes our conscience. Christ outside the camp quickens, energizes our soul to run the race set before us more devotedly. “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” (vs. 11-13).
No two points are morally more remote than inside the veil and outside the camp, and yet they are brought together here. Inside the veil was the place where the shekinah of God’s glory dwelt; outside the camp the place where the sin-offering was burned – no place gives such an idea of distance from God as that. It is blessed to know that the Holy Spirit presents to us Jesus filling up all that is between these two points. We have nothing whatsoever to do with the camp. The camp was the place of ostensible profession. Why did Christ suffer without the gate? Was it in order to show the setting aside of the mere machinery of Israel's outward profession?
We may be clear regarding the work of Christ being done for us (and God forbid there should be a cloud cast across the blessedness of that), knowing the conscience to be made perfect; but is tranquility of conscience all we need? Is there no responsibility? Is Christ’s voice from within the veil all? Has He no voice outside the camp? It will be found that the joy, peace, and liberty, flowing from hearing Christ’s voice inside the veil is dependent on listening to His voice outside the camp. Those who suffer the most with Him, and bear His reproach, will know most of the blessedness of His place within the veil. Our conduct, our ways, our path through the earth, must be tested by Christ – “Would Christ be there? Would Christ do this?” The Holy Spirit must be grieved if the saint pursues a course contrary to that which Christ would have pursued; and then the soul must be lean. How can a grieved Spirit testify of Christ – how can He give the soul the comfort and joy and peace of His testimony to Him? In other words, how can one enjoy Christ if not walking in company with Him? We know that we cannot enjoy the company of a person unless we are where that person is – where then is Christ? He is “outside the camp” – “Let us go forth, therefore, unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach.” This is not to go forth to the traditions of men, or to opinions, to man’s organized religious systems, or to a creed, but to Christ Himself. We are not of the world – why? Because Christ is not of the world; the measure of our separation from the world is the measure of Christ’s separation. “For here have we no continuing city;” do our hearts seek one? – Some set of circumstances or the like; something on which to lean? Are we saying, as it were, “Leave me something”? Like Lot pleading for Zoar, “Is it not a little one?” do not take it all away, “is it not a little one; and my soul shall live!” Lot’s was a heart going out after a little of the world. When the heart is filled with Christ it can give up the world, and there is no difficulty in doing so. The mere saying, “Give up this,” or “give up that,” to one loving the world, will be of no avail; that soul needs more of Christ.
We are outside the camp, we are seeking a city that is to come, and we are waiting for Him who is to come. In this condition of dislodgement from the world and its system, we find ourselves in two positions – one towards God, and the other towards man. The first, “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” (v. 15). The second, the development of the spirit of active benevolence of the next verse, “But to do good and to communicate forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” (v. 16).
We are within the veil with Christ – outside the camp in the world, “bearing His reproach;” and, while thus delivered from the profession around us, that is not of Him, we are engaged in worship and doing good to all.
Regarding our hope, it is not, as some say, the “holding the doctrine of the second advent,” but “waiting for God’s Son from heaven.” This is not a dead, dry doctrine. If we are really waiting for God’s Son from heaven, we shall be sitting loose to the world.
We have Christ for our soul’s need, and we are only “waiting for God’s Son from heaven,” for Christ to come from heaven to take His people unto Himself, that where He is we may be also, and that may be this very day – this very night. We are not looking for antichrist, for signs, for movements among the nations, but for this one holy, happy thing – God’s Son from heaven. We pray that we may never be inconsistent, that we never seek to grasp Christ with one hand, and hold fast the world with the other. If we know our position “within the veil,” we must know our position “outside the camp,” reproached though it may be; scorned, hated, and suspected by those who are not outside, but in the joy of fellowship with Him. “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, we also then shall appear with Him in glory.”
