Learning to Live on the Outside

When I served as the associate pastor of our CB church in Buffalo, the church received publicity about an evangelistic crusade which was going to be held in the city. The speaker was a dynamic preacher who is especially well-known for his ability to quote from memory long passages of Scripture. We were encouraged to bring our unsaved friends to hear the Gospel at the meetings at the Buffalo Convention Center. However, we were also informed that, due to the fact that our church was a supporter of the National Association of Evangelicals, our pastors would not be allowed to participate in the planning of the crusade, nor would our church be invited to be a sponsoring church. We heard later that, even if our church had not been affiliated with the NAE, this evangelistic organization would have excluded us because we allowed our women to wear slacks!

This is an example of how Christians can make an issue out of the most minor things. In the name of separation, some Christians go to bizzarre lengths to set themselves apart from people who do not believe precisely as they do. Nothing is beyond the realm of possibility here. For example, I have read about certain Christian groups which will not fellowship with any Christian who wears wire-frame glasses. Others practice secondary separation - that is, they will not fellowship with me if I in turn have had fellowship with someone whose beliefs they disagree with. Apparently, they feel that I am tainted by such association, and they will be tainted if they hang around with me.

Today we come to a fascinating passage in the book of Hebrews which talks about separation. And it talks about it in two ways:

v.9-10 False separation

v.11-14 True separation

v.9-10 False separation:

Hebrews 13:9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them.

The Hebrew Christians were being bothered by a group of teachers called Judaizers. These folk believed that to be a genuine child of God, you not only had to place your faith in Jesus Christ, you also had to practice the Jewish Law, with its many ceremonies, its special holidays, and its regulations about what you could and could not eat. But the problem with this view of spirituality, is that it made being a Christian a matter of following certain rules. It turned the Gospel into a list of do’s and don’ts. Though they gave lip service to faith in Jesus, what the Judaizers were all about was legalism.

Their idea of spirituality was based on external things. The word Pharisee literally means “separate one”, and the Pharisees prided themselves on how separate they were. They wouldn’t do this, and they wouldn’t do that, and they wouldn’t associate themselves with people who did. Their motto was: “We don’t spit and we don’t chew, and we don’t go with the boys who do.”

But this is false separation. Paul dealt with this very issue with the Christians in Galatia, who had become enmeshed in this practice of defining spirituality in terms of do’s and dont’s.

Galatians 2:15-16 “We …know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.

So that’s pretty clear. If you want to get saved, you can’t do it by keeping the law. And just as salvation is a matter of faith in Jesus Christ, so is sanctification - growing in the Christian life is a matter of faith.

Galatians 3:1ff You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?

You see, while the Jews believed (and still do) that a man is made right in God’s eyes by observing the Law, the Judaizers believed that a man, once he placed his faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, grew spiritually by observing the Law. But the Bible says that neither view is correct. The Christian life is a matter of faith in Jesus Christ from beginning to end. So there is no place in the Christian life for thinking yourself more spiritual than others on the basis of external practices, because that’s not what spirituality is all about.

I grieve when I hear about Christians who hop around from church to church on the basis of such things. They say “Oh we left that church because the pastor didn’t preach from the King James Version.” or “We left such and such a church because they didn’t sing the doxology every Sunday.” And the impression that these people are trying to leave is that they are very spiritual because they have strong convictions about things like that. I have learned to be very wary of Christians who make a lot of noise about their convictions. Such people are actually very immature. They are trying to cover up their lack of true spirituality by throwing up a smoke screen of strong feelings and opinions about everything under the sun except the things that really matter. They’d make good Pharisees. I’m never excited to see these kind of people come to our church, because I know that it’ll be only a matter of time before they leave here over some triviality. They have separationitis.

Have you noticed that mature believers are pretty mellow people? They’re not always fighting over how things should be done. They’re not always hopping from church to church. They are not dividers, they are unifiers, because they are always looking to maintain the unity of fellowship in Christ. That’s not to say that they don’t have opinions and convictions: it is just that they hold them with humility, recognizing that they don’t have all the answers.

Well, what does this passage teach us about true separation?

v.11-14 True separation

Hebrews 13:11-14 The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

Some of the most important events in Scripture took place outside the camp.

• Lev.16 Day of Atonement: the scapegoat, bearing all the sins of all the people was taken outside the camp. ATONEMENT

• Num.19 Red heifer burned outside the camp and ashes used by priest to provide PURIFICATION for those who were unclean.

• Exod.33 Moses used to meet with the Lord in the Tent of Meeting outside the camp for guidance, and wisdom, and FELLOWSHIP.

But the most important event of all is in the New Testament and it, too, took place outside the camp - the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ, where atonement and purification and fellowship with God was made possible. They took Jesus from the Temple courts - from the very heart of the religious Jewish world - and they took him all the way over to the other side of Jerusalem, carrying his cross - as far away from the Temple as they could get. They took him outside the city of Jerusalem - the city was too holy to be defiled with the death of a common criminal - and they took him to a hill called Golgotha, the Place of the Skull, and it was there they hung him up to die. Outside the gate with its hustle and bustle of merchants coming and going and making commerce. Outside the city with its homes and its hearths and its sense of security. Outside. A total outcast.

If we are going to go to Jesus (- and this is the Biblical view of separation: it is never separation from, it is always separation to - ) we have to go outside, for that is where we find him. Outside, hanging on the cross. If we are going to take our place at the foot of the cross, then we’re going to have to become outsiders to the city - and all that it stands for in spiritual terms. We have to be willing to put behind us this desire to belong to the world, this hunger for acceptance and popularity and approval.

You see, Golgotha can never be a suburb of the city. Some Christians try to stay inside the camp and identify with Jesus there. They want to be closet Christians. They don’t want to risk the ridicule of the world, the snide remarks, the superior looks, the stigma of being different. They try to keep one foot in the world even as they place one foot inside the kingdom. It never works.

But, on the other hand, some Christians want to get away from the world so far that they can’t see it anymore. They become monks, or in more practical terms, they immerse themselves in a Christian ghetto where they no longer have any real discourse with unbelievers. But remember where Jesus was crucified: on a hill just outside the city. Close enough to see and be seen for who He was. Close enough for the people to come out and laugh at him and throw their insults at him. Close enough to be a witness.

Our distinctiveness, our separateness from the world does not revolve around externals such as what we eat, what we drink, how we dress, or how we wear our hair. The world could care less about such things. Our unique identity as Christians in this world happens as we take our stand with Jesus Christ. As we stand up and are numbered among his followers, we will find that the world will disown us, just as it disowned him. We may find ourselves being ridiculed as religious fanatics, laughed at, made the butt of jokes, or worse. We will find ourselves outside the city, just as he did.

But praise God that we are looking for a better city anyway. Our citizenship is no longer here in this world. We’ve transferred our papers. We’re citizens of the heavenly city, and we’re looking forward to getting there. Jesus has prepared for us a place up there, and believe me, it beats anything that’s down here! If, for a short time, we have to put up with the bitterness of learning to live on the outside, for the sake of Jesus Christ, that will just make our arrival in the heavenly city that much sweeter when that day comes.