48 - We Do Have an Altar!

Hebrews 13:9–16 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. 10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. 13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. 15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

I want to spend a few moments focusing on this passage, because it contains truth that is full of glory but easy to miss.

If you have read the letter to the Hebrews or some of our earlier meditations on it, you will know that the writer presents Jesus to us as the Better Sacrifice - offering Himself once for all on the cross and doing what all the Old Covenant animal sacrifices could never do; cleansing the conscience of those who draw near through faith. So Jesus put an end for all time to sacrifice for sin - wonderful news!

But then in verse 10, the writer quite categorically says that as believers, we do have an altar - and an altar is a place for offering sacrifices. So what kind of altar do we have, and what kind of sacrifices do we make? Let’s see what this passage says.

Under the Old Covenant, the priests could eat certain portions of some of the animal sacrifices that were offered, but they were not to eat the flesh of the sin offerings, whose blood was taken into the holy place in the tabernacle and sprinkled seven times before the Lord in front of the veil of the sanctuary. The bodies of these animals had to be burned outside the camp (verse 11 - see Leviticus 4).

In a similar manner, Jesus suffered outside the gate of the city, and in verse 12, the writer links this fact to the sin offerings of the Old Covenant. In other words, he is saying that those sacrifices were types, pointing forward to THE sin offering who would come - Jesus.

But now we return to verse 10 and we see more clearly what is being said. First, the Old Covenant priests have no right to eat from our altar. It belongs to a New and better Covenant than theirs. They couldn’t even eat the flesh of the sin offerings under their own covenant, so they certainly have no right to eat from our New Covenant altar. But the writer is saying more than this, isn’t He? He is saying that as New Covenant priests we do have a right to eat from THE Sin Offering that was made on our altar!

This is amazing! We know that as believers in Christ, our souls are nourished in Him. In a spiritual sense, we eat His flesh and we drink His blood. This is what Jesus was referring to in John 6:53-58. This is not a physical eating and drinking, but rather a spiritual participation in and union with our Sin Offering. Neither is it the Lord’s Supper, although that meal does show our participation in Christ symbolically.

So if Christ is the Sin Offering that was made upon our New Covenant altar, from which we have a right to eat as priests, then what is the altar that we have? Clearly we have no physical altar - rather, it is spiritual. And if the altar under the Old Covenant was the means by which the people were made outwardly acceptable to God under that economy, our New Covenant Altar must be the One by Whom we are made completely clean in conscience and fully acceptable. In other words, Jesus is our Altar, and He is also our Sin Offering!

In verse 9, The writer is warning his readers against trying to be strengthened by physical foods - possibly used in some physical religious ceremony - when it is grace they need. So he lays out before them the far greater spiritual food that we have in Christ, through which we obtain grace that strengthens us. “Why turn away from the precious and wholesome spiritual feast that we have a right to eat from as believers, in order to go chasing after stuff that is useless and obsolete?” he asks.
Once again, he turns the gaze of his readers away from the difficulties they were facing in the here and now in order to show them the surpassing greatness of what they possess in Christ. How could it make any sense to turn away from Jesus, back to the Old Covenant where even as a priest you couldn’t eat from the sin offerings, and where all you have is types and shadows intended to point us to Christ as the fulfillment and the reality?

He ends the section above urging the readers to follow Christ’s example - to join Him outside the camp and bear the reproach He bore (rather than trying to avoid it). After all, we have no lasting city here but are looking forward to the city that is to come. And as we do so, he encourages us to continue offering the sacrifices that are made by Christ’s Royal Priesthood - praise and thanksgiving, doing good and sharing.

So think of the privilege we have in Christ - the right to eat from this Altar! And think of the future that is before us. Let’s look to Him for grace to strengthen us, and keep offering praise and thanksgiving to Him, doing good and sharing with our neighbor!