Separation and Sacrifice
Published by Stanley Pouw in 2025 · 16 March 2025
My view is that it is intrinsic to the entire letter and that it is the climax. The Jews, to whom this was written, lived their lives according to the law. Under the Old Testament, there were many rules. In fact, there were so many rules that it became very difficult not to break some of them. The Old Testament is loaded with ethical patterns, principles of conduct dealing with every kind of situation.
God wanted the Jews to be a very unique people. He wanted them separate. He wanted them different. And so, their uniqueness had to do with the witness. Their reaching the world was dependent upon the fact that the world looked at them and saw something in them that they desired. A life that was different. God wanted a national witness, and Israel was that witness.
In fact, in Exodus 19:6, the Bible calls the Jews a kingdom of priests. Now, a priest’s function was to take men to God and that’s exactly what Israel was to do. Men were to look at Israel, see Israel’s distinctiveness by virtue of the kind of conduct they maintained, and come to them and say, “What is it that causes you to live like this?” And then Israel would usher them to God.
“Wow, those people have some principles that function. That’s a dynamic witness. And then, people who wanted to know God would come to them and be introduced to God. Verse 9 says, “Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you don’t forget the things your eyes have seen as long as you live. Teach them to your children and your grandchildren.”
They became so absorbed in legalism that they went way further than God ever intended. God gave them enough laws to maintain things and they just got real law-happy and just started inventing laws. And they came up with a whole series of laws that they passed on orally. And this series of oral laws was known as the Mishnah. Finally, they wrote it all down and called it the Talmud.
There are six parts to the Jewish Talmud. There is a section on agriculture. There is a section on feasts. There is a section on women. There’s a section on civil and ceremonial law, legal matters. There’s a section on sacrifices, a section on unclean things and their purification. Now, all of those sections are loaded with law after law for the conduct of all the Jewish people.
During the time of Jesus Christ, you find that the Jews were meticulously concerned with obeying laws. When Jesus did something that was not allowed in their law. Jesus said, your problem is you strain a gnat and swallow a camel. What He meant was you’re all worried about the minutiae of the law and you ignore all of the principles that God really wanted to communicate through the law.
The group of Jews that’s being written to in Hebrews are legalists. They live by the law, they function by the law, and they know nothing about liberty, only about being attached to a particular system. They were not free spirits. They were not libertines. They were staunch, absolute legalists. Now here comes the New Testament. And the first guy that really explained this was Paul.
And Paul said, “I want you to know that the New Testament is not law, it is grace.” And, he blew the minds of the Jews with that. They really should have known it because the Old Testament is full of God’s grace. They thought this was some kind of heresy. And even when Jews became Christians, they found it extremely difficult to let go of all of the rituals they were used to.
And as we study the New Testament, we find that the new covenant releases them from all of the ceremonial features of the law but not the moral issues. There is to be no more feasts, no more sacrifices, no more holy days, no more ritual, no more temple, no more priests, and no more offerings. All those legalistic standards are gone. It’s all grace. On the cross Jesus said, “It is finished.”
The perfect work by the perfect high priest through a perfect covenant who offered a perfect sacrifice brings about perfect promises and perfect salvation, and what do I do? You just believe. And the Jew says, “No, I can’t handle that. Don’t we have to do something? Aren’t there any principles at all? Can I just exercise a free kind of liberty and do whatever I want?” Well no.
They know that God hasn’t changed and God expects certain things out of His children, be they old covenant or new covenant. And so as you come to Hebrews 13, the Holy Spirit says a resounding “Yes” to their questions and says “Yes,” there are standards. God likes you totally. He loves you infinitely. But there are some standards that are very important to keep.
You’re a part of the church. The church is made up of Jews and Gentiles. The standards are there. God expects you to behave in such a fashion that men still see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. That hasn’t changed at all. And so while Israel is no longer a witness nation, the whole body of the church, Jews and Gentiles are God’s witnesses. And so there are principles.
Now, we’ve been talking about the principles, the ethics, and we see that in the first 19 verses, the ethics of the Christian life are given. And what happens here is everything is reduced to general concepts. There are three categories of Christian ethics. Number one, relation to others, sustained love and sympathy. Then, second category, beginning in verse 4, was in relation to ourselves.
Verse 4. “Marriage is honorable in all, let the bed be undefiled. Fornicators, adulterers, God will judge.” The second, in relation to ourselves, is satisfaction. Verses 5 - 6, “Learn to be without covetousness, learn to be content with such things as you have and know that the Lord’s going to help and take care of your needs.” So in relation to ourselves, there is sexual purity and satisfaction.
Verse 7, “Remember your leaders who have spoken God’s word to you. As you carefully observe the outcome of their lives, imitate their faith.” He says, “Look at those who came before you and look how they stayed true.” Verse 8, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” Did He change? No. Did the one who is your spiritual creator change? No.
In relation to ourselves, God desires that we be steadfast. Verse 9 says, “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.” Don’t get hung up on legalism. Yes, there are moral standards, but they are not the external ceremonial deals.
Remember Peter and his vision in Acts 10? He saw all the animals in the sheet and he heard the word, “Rise, Peter, kill and eat.” Don’t call anything unclean that God has set aside.” In Romans 14, Paul says, “The kingdom of God is not food, meat and drink, but righteousness and joy in the Holy Spirit.” So don’t listen to the Judaizers, the Gnostics, the Catholics, or the Seventh-day Adventists.
All right, so we see, then, the believer’s behavior in relation to others, sustained love and sympathy. In relation to himself, sexual purity, satisfaction, and steadfastness. Lastly, the believer’s ethics in relation to God. What does God want? What are the things which I am to do toward God? In relation to Him? One, separation. And that, we see separation in verses 10 to 14.
I’ll give you a couple of sentences and tell you my opinion. Verses 10-11, “We have an altar from which those who worship at the tabernacle do not have a right to eat. 11 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.” Now, we have an altar. What kind of eating is done on an altar?
In verse 11 it talks about the bodies of beasts whose blood is brought there. That doesn’t sound like the church. No, in fact the evidence here is not on eating. Some say it refers to a heavenly altar. Well, that doesn’t make any sense, either. And what is this about the bodies of beasts? What beasts were ever burned on the altar in heaven? I think He’s talking about the idea of separation here.
A Christian’s obligation to God is to be separated from the world unto God, right? We have an altar. He’s talking about Jews. Once you establish that, it flows. Remember that the altar includes the sacrifice and the ritual. Who were the men who served the tabernacle? The priests. Was there a certain sacrifice on a certain altar they couldn’t eat? Yes, it was the sin offering.
On the Day of Atonement, when the sin offering was made, they could not eat it. All the other times, the priests ate what was left. The sin offering, once it was made and the blood was sprinkled in the holy of holies on the mercy seat, the animals were taken outside the camp and burned. That’s verse 11, “For those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary are burned outside the camp.”
It’s an analogy. Here’s the principle. You people need to be separated from the system. Like those sin offerings that nobody could touch but they had to be taken outside the camp? You need to be so separated from the camp of the world. He’s saying like the animals in the sin offering were taken outside, the believer needs to be removed from the system, removed from the world.
Verse 12 says, “Therefore, Jesus also suffered outside the gate, so that he might sanctify the people by His own blood.” Jesus was separate from the system, right? In the Old Testament, the Jews took those bodies of those sin offerings, both the priests’ and the peoples’ offering, and they took them outside the camp. They separated them from themselves. Jesus did the same thing.
The system didn’t want Jesus, either, they threw Him out. He suffered outside the gate. And He sanctified the people with His own blood. So Jesus was killed outside the city of Jerusalem and perfectly fulfilled the picture of the Old Testament. You know those old sin offerings were the pictures of Christ? And so when He came, He suffered outside as the offering had been taken outside.
Verse 13, “Let us then, go to Him outside the camp, bearing His disgrace.” Let’s us separate from the system as well. Jesus, the true sin offering, also was rejected by the system, though for a different reason. He’s simply saying this is like Jesus who was also suffering outside the city. And Jesus was so willing that He might sanctify the people with His own blood.
Christ was despised, He was rejected, He was hated, He was unwanted, betrayed, arrested, mocked, beaten, killed like a common criminal, and He accepted every bit of it to shed His blood on the behalf of men. The Bible says in Hebrews, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Jesus knew that, and He shed His blood for the forgiveness of sins.
Now, what was the system for them? Judaism. What he is saying to the Jewish reader here, separate yourself from Judaism. Come outside the camp to the Christ. Oh, you’ll have to suffer. Jesus said, “In the world you’ll have tribulation, be of good cheer, I’ve overcome the world.” In Hebrews 15, He said, “Don’t be surprised if they kill you, they did it to Me. Are you willing to bear my reproach?”
It’s not just what you do, it’s an attitude. Jesus said, “If any man comes after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” That means go where Jesus is, outside the system. And the only people who really identify with Jesus Christ are the ones who are willing to pay the cost and move out. Paul didn’t have anything to do with it, and yet he kept leading people to Jesus.
Our relation to God is not only this separation but the idea of sacrifice. Verse 15 says, “Therefore, through Him let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.” There are two sacrifices God wants. The first one is word, the second one is deed. God wants the praise of our lips. There’s only one way to God, through Jesus Christ.
What comes out of your lips toward God? Let us learn what to say to God when you want to praise Him. “I will bless your name forever and ever.” “Great is the Lord and He is greatly to be praised and His greatness is unsearchable.” “One generation shall praise thy works to another and declare thy mighty acts.” “I will speak of the glorious honor of your majesty and your wondrous works.”
Notice the key word to it. “Let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually.” First Thessalonians 5:18, “In everything give thanks for this is the will of God.” Verse 16 says, “Don’t neglect to do what is good and to share, for God is pleased with such sacrifices.” God says another sacrifice that I really accept is sharing. The lip begins and added to that is the life.
Do good to one another, share, and minister to the needs of others. This is what God is pleased with. This is your spiritual sacrifice that we talked about offered to God. Everything you do in your Christian life is a sacrifice to God. What are you giving Him? Isaiah 58:2 says, “They seek me day after day and delight to know my ways, they ask me for righteous judgments.” Let us pray.