270. Earthly Christians and Heavenly Christians

“Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate.” Heb. 13:12. [Emphasis added].

Note that it says “sanctify the people.” Nothing will come of those who refuse to follow Him outside the camp and bear His reproach, and this is also righteous. We see Christians who are just “marking time” their entire lives. They aren’t walking on any “way,” even though Jesus is “the Way.” They are sanctified by His blood, yet they do not enter into sanctification at all. They won’t bear His reproach by going to Him outside the camp. For them everything revolves around the forgiveness of sins, which was also available in the old covenant.

The bodies of the sacrificed animals were burned outside the camp, while the blood was taken into the sanctuary by the high priest. In the same way, those who follow Jesus outside the camp have an altar, from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. They simply serve in the tabernacle for the purifying of the flesh, while those who follow Him outside the camp sacrifice their flesh.

When we follow Jesus, we follow the High Priest, and He became High Priest, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an incorruptible life. Heb. 7:16 [Norw.]. It is the power of this incorruptible life that manifests itself in us and compels us to follow the Lamb wherever He goes—even when that takes us outside the camp. It is not enough for us to be “sanctified” like the people inside the camp. This life breaks free from forms and customs; it breaks rank with every kind of denomination. It is not satisfied with anything less than fellowship with the Father and the Son.

The power of an eternal life consumes the flesh. It must find a sacrifice and an altar to eat from. Jesus gave His flesh for the life of the world, and now we carry the same flesh because we have been baptized by one Spirit to be one body with Him. God’s fire burns up this flesh outside the camp, and the High Priest takes the blood into the sanctuary. What then is the blood? It is the soul. Jesus has “sanctified” the people with His blood, enabling Him to have the rule over them, in the same way all those whose blood has been brought into the sanctuary will reign together with Him. This is quite logical and straightforward. For if we suffer with Him, we shall also be glorified together with Him, and if we endure, we shall reign with Him.

The bride is the city, and the people who are sanctified by His blood will walk in its light. Rev. 21:9-10 and 24. Everyone had agreed on a penny, the forgiveness of sins, and no one receives any more regardless of whether they have come at the first or the eleventh hour. The bride, on the other hand, has never agreed with Him on just the one penny. Instead she agreed to be conformed to her Bridegroom in life and death and in the same education, to be one flesh with Him. Clearly she is the weaker vessel, but nonetheless she is His helpmeet. She has learned the new song that only the 144,000 could learn, for she has been redeemed from the earth, from the people, as a firstfruit for God and the Lamb. Rev. 14:3-4.

“Nevertheless no devoted offering that a man may devote to the Lord of all that he has, both man and beast, or the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted offering is most holy to the Lord.

“No person under the ban, who may become doomed to destruction among men, shall be redeemed, but shall surely be put to death.” Lev. 27:28-29.

Whoever follows Jesus outside the camp and bears His reproach right up to the place of sacrifice is under the ban; he is sacred for the Lord. He belongs to those chosen by God “whom He foreknew and predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.” Rom. 8:29. God knows even from eternity a man’s attitude of mind, and those who have this mindset to follow the Lamb wherever He goes, He chooses them to become the Lamb’s bride. These receive divine nature by suffering with Christ; they die with Him and are glorified with Him. They are temple Christians, as opposed to the multitude of the saved. These are the outer court Christians who need to be guided and ruled from the holy place of the temple.

The first man is of the earth, earthly. The second Man is the Lord from heaven. The first man is soulish, the second Man is spiritual. In the same way, those who are sanctified by the blood of Jesus are soulish and earthly. They have received forgiveness for their sins, but their nature remains the same. The spiritual person is heavenly since he has suffered death according to the flesh just as the Master. But just as there are varying degrees of faithfulness, so it is with the resurrection of the dead; some have the glory of the sun, others that of the moon, and still others that of the stars.

Jesus said that John the Baptist was the greatest of those born of women, but the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

From this we understand the two births and the two natures, the earthly man and the heavenly man. So when God creates a new heaven and a new earth where righteousness dwells, it will be in complete harmony with what each person has attained to during their earthly pilgrimage. The faithful already possess the kingdom of heaven within while they live on earth, and in the days of their flesh they have already been born of incorruptible seed through the Word of God which lives and abides forever. Within them they carry “the power of an eternal life,” and by this they are formed into their Master’s likeness.

What a glorious life, precious for God and man. They are strangers on earth, but completely at home in the city from above that God is preparing, a city that has firm foundations and which cannot be shaken because it has been formed according to the Word of God and built upon it.

We, too, sense that we have received within us a kingdom that cannot be shaken. We can be very thankful for this in this present day and age where everything trembles and is shaken.

“Heaven and earth shall pass away; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”

Blessed is the lot we have received from God our heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, our Lord.