Kindness of Christ
4 min read
19 “Anyone who has killed someone or touched someone who was killed must stay outside the camp seven days. On the third and seventh days you must purify yourselves and your captives.”
Numbers 31:19
“Outside the camp” is where purification of sins happens so that the people of God may dwell (live life in worship to God) “inside the camp.” For that reason, Jesus bore all the sins of all of humanity across time on the across outside the holy city, Jerusalem. And so the author of Hebrews writes:
11 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. 12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. 14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
— Hebrews 13:11-14
And the purpose is so that
15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.
— Hebrews 13:15
To “go to Him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace He bore” means to lay down the burden of all of our sins at the cross, recognizing that He bore our sins and our disgrace once for all.
And it is that kindness and mercy of God that leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4). Or it should. In fact, it will sooner or later. Hopefully sooner.
Because if the kindness and mercy of God does not lead us to repentance, we can keep turning to the Lord for mercy and kindness, but we may find ourselves living in the fear of condemnation, guilt, and shame.
As the word of God says,
9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
—Jeremiah 17:9
And so we have to cry out in accordance with the word of God,
14 Heal me, LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.
— Jeremiah 17:14
Father, Your love, kindness, and mercy know no bounds. You have healed me and saved me. Let Your kindness, love, and mercy always lead me outside the camp to receive Your forgiveness and lead me into the camp to worship You with all my heart, soul, strength, and mind. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
