Hebrews 13:13 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Hebrews 13:13

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But the writer does not stop there. Christ was crucified outside the city of Jerusalem, without the camp, but we must go to him there. We must not be ashamed of him who was not ashamed of us, though he had infinitely more cause to be ashamed of us. Our shame is fully deserved on account of our sin; his was taken on entirely voluntarily for our sakes. Are we going to disassociate ourselves from him, when our life, our eternal salvation, is bound up with him? That would be an act of immeasurable ingratitude, which would mark us out as having no part with him. Our Saviour warns, ‘Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels’ (Mark 8:38). Will we disown our own shame when he has been willing to embrace it? No, we are to go ‘unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach’. But how do we go forth to him without the camp, bearing his reproach, his shame? His act of suffering and dying for sinners, his message, and his church is still outside. It is not accepted by society in general, and you see the passage fitting together. Just as the food laws in the Old Testament taught the people that they were to be separate from the Gentile world, from the pagans – they were to reach them, they were to preach to them, to pray for them, but they were not to be like them or adopt their culture – so it is that Christ and his message of Calvary will never be popular in the world. It cannot be because it is the message of repentance from sin, reconciliation with God. ‘New life?’, says the world, ‘I do not want that. I want liberty to sin. I do not want to humble myself before God and repent of my sin and seek a new life.’ Even in periods where a country like ours has seemed to be Christian an awful lot of those who outwardly adopted the Christian faith would not receive the heart of the message, Calvary. Christ is always outside the establishment, and that is where we must go in order to serve him. So now it is more sophisticated. Under the law it was: eat this; don't eat that, to show you are different from pagan society. Now it is put differently: Christ has died for your sins; go outside the camp where he suffered, outside what is accepted in modern society. Modern society adopts a system of entertainment which promotes promiscuity, immorality, godlessness, atheism or false religion. Do not adopt that. Yes, reach the world in order to win it but do not be like them. Believers are not of the world; you cannot mix the world and the church. There are some things in the arts, in the culture of the world, that are not sin-based, which are not blatantly and openly intended to promote a doctrine of unbelief in morality. Speaking of Christ Paul wrote, ‘Who gave himself for [us] our sin, that he might deliver us from this present evil world.’ There are no diet laws anymore; we are not treated like infants any more, but we are under the same rule to be separate from worldliness.

Application

The internet brings all the errors and mistakes of today to everybody's notice. Countless people are swept away by these things: ‘Oh but this preacher does it, and that preacher goes in for it, and this person promotes it.’ The compromised church says, ‘Why don't you have women preachers? Why are you so stiff and set apart?’ Even people who are Christians will reproach you for it. Stay loyal to Christ, be faithful to him and he will be with you and sustain you all the way to your journey's end. Our churches will be blessed and people will be truly saved, not simply stuffing the church with wood, hay and stubble.

There is a resurgence in our day of the idea that the task of the Christian is to win the culture of the world for Christ. Now this sort of idea has always been around, but the vast majority of Bible believing Christians have quite rightly rejected it. However it has made a great comeback in our time, and it is becoming extremely popular. It is even said very boldly, ‘The purpose of your salvation and mine is so that Christ can restore society and restore the world.’ The biblical concept is the opposite: that this is a doomed world, and it is under the judgement of God. There will indeed be a renovation of all things, but that comes after the day of judgement after this present order is burned-up and judged. Our task is not to restore the world; that cannot be done. Certainly, we are to be compassionate people, and in fact the Christian church is the most compassionate institution in the history of the world. You had William Wilberforce and his work to abolish slavery, the Earl of Shaftesbury with all the Parliamentary Acts that he bought in to take children out of the mines and down from the chimneys. Then you get George Muller and Dr Tom Barnardo and CH Spurgeon and the children’s homes, and many others also. All compassionate works that are operated today by the state started with the churches, and the state eventually shamed into inactivity took them over one by one. But it is absurd for Christian people to think that the task of the church will ever be social reformation and restoration. Our task is to gather out the lost through the preaching of the cross of Christ, and a side effect will be increased levels works of compassion. But we don't put any hope in that, because, without conversion, human depravity as a result of the fall will always express itself.

Young people grow up and the world is all around them. It is very hard for them to extricate themselves from the fashions, the pleasures, and the entertainments of this world. But it must be done. This is not the severity of an old Puritan preacher; this is the Word of God. We must go forth to him outside this world.

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Hebrews 13:13 Commentary and Bible Study