12. Without the camp. The whole bullock was carried without the camp and burned in a clean place, not merely to dispose of it, nor because it was considered unclean, for it is distinctly called “most holy” ( 6:25). The book of Hebrews attaches a symbolic meaning to the burning of the victim without the camp. Says Paul, “Jesus also … suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach” (Heb. 13:12, 13). The burning of the body without the camp was then a type of Christ, crucified outside the city of Jerusalem, “that he might sanctify the people with his own blood” (Heb. 13:12). Some have seen in this the further thought that He died not for the Jews only but for the world. No sacrificial use was made of the body even though it was considered most holy. As it was not burned on the altar, no redemptive value inhered in it. It was therefore not the body that counted in the atonement, for “it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul” (Lev. 17:11).
However, it was not the blood as such that atoned, but the blood shed and applied. No atonement could have been effected in the sacrificial service by having an animal killed and the blood poured out on the ground. It was to be caught in a vessel, after which the priest ministered it by sprinkling and otherwise. It was the sprinkled blood that effected atonement, not the unused portion of the blood later poured out on the ground (see on 4:7). The atonement was made by the blood that was put on the horns of the altar, not by that which was poured out on the ground (Ex. 29:12; Ex. 30:10; Lev. 4:7, 18, 25, 30, 34).
It is unfortunate that Christians stress the “spilt blood,” an expression not found in the Bible, and forget the “sprinkled” blood, which alone effected atonement. The spilt blood was the unused blood, that which was poured out at the bottom of the altar after the atonement was completed. Paul speaks of “the blood of sprinkling” (Heb. 12:24), that is, the blood that was ministered. At the institution of the Passover, Israel was commanded to slay a lamb and strike the blood on the lintel and on the two side posts (Ex. 12:7, 22, 23). God did not promise to save the first-born by virtue of the slaying of the lamb. It was only when the blood was applied that He would “pass over.”
The same principle holds good in all offerings. It is not enough to bring a victim and slay it; the blood must be applied. After His ascension Christ “by his own blood … entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us” (Heb. 9:12), and there as a “high priest, … a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle” (Heb. 8:1-3), He ministers on our behalf. This phase of the ministry of Christ is as necessary to our salvation as was the ministry of the blood of the lamb at the time of the first Passover, and as with all offerings in which blood was shed.
The ministry of the blood on the great Day of Atonement was the high point in the yearly service. The killing of the victim was certainly important—without it there would be no blood to minister—but the climax was reached when the high priest went into the most holy with the blood of the Lord’s goat (see Heb. 9:25). Similarly, Christ “by his own blood … entered in once into the holy place” (Heb. 9:12). His death on Calvary was essential—without it He would have nothing “to offer” (Heb. 8:3)—but without the continuing ministry of the blood in the sanctuary above, the sacrifice on Calvary would be unavailing.
Most Christians neither understand nor appreciate Christ’s ministry as our great High Priest. To be sure, they believe in the shed blood; but they fail to understand that there must be a ministry, or application, of the blood to make it effective. It is time that the attention of the world, and of professed Christians in particular, be called to the work in which Christ is now engaged. Many ask why Christ tarries so long. They know He went away, but they know nothing of His mediatorial work. They have not followed the Lamb, and know not where He now is and what work He is doing. It is our duty and privilege, our appointed task as a people, to restore the old paths (see Isa. 58:12), and to present Christ to the world in His mediatorial capacity as our great High Priest. His work is nearly done, and when it is finished He will come in power and glory.