Sanctified in and through Jesus Christ

Hebrews 13:10-12 We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. We have another contrast from which to be encouraged in our walking with Jesus in love. The writer was surely thinking of the Passover altar or sacrifice contrasted with the altar or sacrifice of Jesus. The high priest brought the blood of sacrifice into the holy place, but the body of the sacrifice was burned outside the camp because it was considered unholy and unclean. The priests and the worshippers identified with that sacrifice but received no benefit. In contrast, previously in Hebrews 12:24, he wrote that believers have come to “Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.” That is the believer’s altar. We who believe in Jesus identify with both the blood and the body of Christ, and we receive the benefit—entrance into an eternal, righteous, unshakable kingdom. We eat, spiritually speaking, from the blood and resurrected body of Christ. That sounds strange from an earthly perspective, doesn’t it? But it isn’t a foreign teaching to us strangers and exiles from the earth. Listen to these words of Jesus. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. The altar from which we eat is Jesus Christ, Himself. He was rejected and sacrificed outside the camp on a cross. He was despised and rejected by His own people, and the unbeliever has no right or privilege to eat from—spiritually benefit from—that altar. We are being set apart from the unbelievers as we identify with Jesus. Just as He was set apart to God’s purpose, suffering outside the city of Jerusalem, we are set apart to God for His use and glory as we live to love with Jesus as strangers and exiles from the earth. I invite you to become a partner in our ministry. Would you pray about becoming a regular supporter of Elijah Ministries and the Live to Love with Jesus ministry? I hope you will receive the joy and benefit of “giving it forward,” so others may receive encouragement to turn their hearts to God and to live to love with Jesus. You may give online or send a check to the address listed at www.spiritofelijah.com/donate.