In Hebrews Chapter 13, the apostle explains that in the Old Covenant, the blood of the sacrificial animals was brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as an atonement for sin, but their bodies were burned outside the camp, V. 11, even though the sacrificial animals were to be without blemish (no defects). See for example Exodus 29. He then continues: “ Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach.” V. 12-13. This is the exhortation that Karl Pedersen brings out in this song, published in 1932, sung to a Swedish folk melody.
Inside the Camp You Are Consecrated—Outside the Camp You Partake of Sanctification
Go out from the camp! O go out to Him!To suffer alone He was led there. He feared not the people, their mocking and shame.
In Hebrews, the apostle urges believers to go outside the camp and bear the reproach of Jesus, and points to the city to come, which has not yet arrived (Heb. 13:14). There are many different opinions about what “the camp” means. You might perhaps think it is the world. But in the story of Israel’s journey out of Egypt, which we find in the Old Testament, it is clear that the camp was where God’s people stayed. They had been saved out of the darkness of Egypt, but their relationship with God was nevertheless such that He was not pleased with most of them.
It is the same in our time: many Christians would gladly be consecrated by the blood of Jesus, who suffered for them outside the gate. But they themselves would rather remain “inside the camp,” together with their own people, and enjoy a good name and standing there inside the camp. They are preoccupied with being members of their religious community, their church, and with being good practitioners of their religion. It is not so desirable to follow Jesus, removed from such human religiosity, to where He was led, outside the camp, bearing reproach, under mockery and contempt, and to be crucified. But it is precisely there, outside the camp, that we find His footsteps, that we can be crucified with Him, that we can hang by nails of faith on the cross and testify as Paul did: “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” Gal. 2:20.
This is despised by many—it is of course so much more pleasant to simply be consecrated by the blood of Jesus, without longing for personal sanctification, to be justified without longing for personal righteousness, which comes through suffering in one’s own flesh, by the power that is in the cross. “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” 1 Cor. 1:18.
But this is indeed the way that Jesus opened up for us, through His flesh. Heb. 10:20. And He invites us to come out to Him, to follow Him on this new and living way, which leads all the way to the sanctuary, to a life in fellowship with the almighty God. We are called to present our members in service to righteousness—this leads to sanctification. Rom. 6:19.
Jesus has opened this way; by His power and grace this has become possible for you and for me. He waged a mighty battle when God condemned all sin in the flesh He had partaken of, since God had sent Him in the likeness of sinful flesh. Rom. 8:3.
Jesus’ Battle in the Days of His Flesh, to Open This Way, to Free Us from Death
In the song, Karl Pedersen writes: As Lion of Judah and God’s Lamb He came, the winepress alone He did tread there. Here he is referring to Isa. 63:1-3, a prophecy about the Messiah: “Who is this who comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah, this One who is glorious in His apparel, traveling in the greatness of His strength?— ‘I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.’ Why is Your apparel red, and Your garments like one who treads in the winepress? ‘I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with Me. For I have trodden them in My anger, and trampled them in My fury; their blood is sprinkled upon My garments, and I have stained all My robes.’”
Edom is a picture of the flesh, the human flesh in which no good thing dwells. Jesus stood alone and faithful in this battle, His whole life. Even His closest disciples did not understand what was happening there in His winepress; it was only revealed to them later, when they received the Holy Spirit.
The song continues: Outside of the camp, Satan’s head He crushed. There battles were fought and decided. Then darkness gave way before bright noonday sun; He strove and prevailed till full vict’ry was won. There good was from evil divided.
Ever since sin entered the world through the disobedience of Adam and Eve, man has been a slave to sin. A curse rests over all mankind; they could no longer live in intimate fellowship with their Creator. But God promised beforehand that this would come to an end. He said to the serpent, Satan: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” Gen. 3:15.
In the flesh, in which no good thing dwells and which barred the way into God’s presence, absolutely all sin was condemned during Jesus’ life on earth. And right before He was to be crucified at Calvary, He said to His disciples: “The ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.” John 14:30. All sin in the flesh had been condemned and put to death, everything was finished, so when Satan incited the Jews to crucify Jesus, he actually made his very greatest blunder.
Death had entered the world because of sin, but since absolutely everything had been condemned in the flesh of Jesus, death could not hold Him back: “Whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.” Acts 2:24.
Not only was He Himself delivered from death—no, He opened a way for us; He made it possible for us also to live in the power of His resurrection. “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” Heb. 2:14-15.
Through the Cross You Can Break the Power of All Hypocrisy and Dead Works
Outside there God shows you what’s in the camp, how woeful it is and inglorious— the pride and deception, the flatt’ry and lies, the forms and the customs, the strife and the guise. With Christ on the cross you’re victorious.
It is possible to live your entire life as a Christian “inside the camp”—attend worship services and meetings, give money, time, and energy to “God’s cause”—yet still be full of pride, falseness, and hypocrisy of various kinds. People hold on to forms and customs and consider this “correct Christianity.” People flatter a little here and there in order to be recognized and have a good name among fellow Christians. But if you begin to follow Jesus on the new and living way through the flesh, out there, outside the camp, far from others’ discernment of your life, then God has much to condemn in your flesh as well. Then you catch sight of many things dwelling in your nature that you must acknowledge as hypocrisy, falseness, or also “dead works,” which the apostle says we are to repent of in Heb. 6:1.
Dead works are good works you do in order to please God, but when at the same time you take credit for it yourself, it does not bring about sanctification. The works remain dead. We see that everything they labored at under the law gave them no sanctification. In Matthew 23, Jesus confronts the Pharisees powerfully, who boasted of what they did and who sought the testimony of people. They did not live before God. There was no inner sacrifice, no death on the cross over all these things that dwell in human nature.
When you are crucified with Jesus, the death of the cross works over all these things, as they are revealed to your inner eye. You who want to do good will discover time and again that evil is present with you. Rom. 7:21. You hate all these things, and you rejoice that God will condemn them in the flesh. This brings suffering, but a glorious result: you become finished with sin. 1 Pet. 4:1. This is a victorious life!
An Altar Where We Receive Food for Our Spiritual Life
Further in the song, Karl Pedersen quotes something written just before the verses about going out to Jesus outside the camp: “Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.” Heb. 13:9-10.
Outside there the altar is made of earth for all those who bear His dishonor. From this with the life-giving word we are fed. We thank You, dear God, for Your table well-spread. To You be all glory and honor.
In the old covenant there was a sacrificial ministry performed in the outer part of the temple or tabernacle, a ministry for the people, to keep all of the practical matters in order (Ezek. 44:11). But the blood of these sacrifices was not brought into the sanctuary (Lev. 6:30). The sons of Zadok, on the other hand, who had not strayed from God, could enter the sanctuary to minister to God (Ezek. 44:15-16). For such people, the testimony of other people means nothing.
We cannot live in the New Covenant and want to please people. If we follow Jesus in His footsteps, we come to this inner ministry before the face of God. There we have an altar where we can be cleansed from our own “taste”—all this humanness that only wants to be seen and acknowledged by other people. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and He will guide us into all truth. When we then walk in the light, as He is in the light, His blood cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:7.
This is an altar where we receive food, as Jesus said to His disciples: “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life. And I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” John 6:54-56.
We die with Him and are made alive with Him. This altar is within us, and we have the right to eat of it, for the more we eat, the more we are made alive according to the Spirit, and the more we are consumed and put to death according to the flesh. For we must die with Him in order to be able to live with Him.
Go out from the camp, and take up your cross! Fear not for the suff’rings—He’ll guide you. O give God your spirit; your flesh crucify. Demands from the flesh now and ever shall die. Fear not! He is there right beside you.
The song ends with a strong exhortation to follow Jesus on the new and living way—to be crucified with Him. Outside the camp, far from the attention of people, we can allow the cross to work within us and come to a glorious, victorious life in fellowship with the almighty God. This is the great salvation that Jesus has made available.
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