Outside the Camp

But we must now consider the other expression, “Outside the camp,” for what the old hymn says is true:
“Our Lord is now rejected,
And by the world disowned;
By the many still neglected,
And by the few enthroned.”
Just as His place in glory is our place, so His place on earth is our place, as we go through this sinful world. What is His place down here? It is the place of rejection, for “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” These two expressions, “His own,” are not absolutely the same in the original. The first is the neuter; the second is personal, and the passage may be rendered: “He came unto his own things and his own people received him not.” Think of it, He came to His own city, Jerusalem, the city of the great King. If there was any place on earth where He might have expected to be received with gladness and acclaim, it was Jerusalem. He came unto His own temple, every whit of it uttered His glory, the very veil spoke of His perfect humanity, and every piece of furniture pictured Him. There was the altar, the laver, the candlestick, the table of show bread, and everything spoke of Him; but as He came to His own things, the very priests in the temple joined in the cry, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” and they led Him outside the gate, the rejected One.
“Our Man’s rejected, don’t you know
It happened many years ago,
Yea, centuries have passed away
Since it was great election day
In Salem’s city, e’en the same,
Where God the Lord had set His Name.”
There were two candidates that day, Christ and Barabbas. The people chose the murderer and rejected the Saviour.
He accepted the place they gave Him, and with lowly grace allowed them to lead Him outside the city, away from the temple, away from the palace, outside the gates, unto the place called Calvary,
“And there, He died,
A King crucified,
To save a poor sinner like me.”
As far as the world is concerned it has never reversed that judgment. He is still the rejected One, and the place the world has given Him should determine the place that you and I will take. He was rejected, not merely by the barbarian world, not merely by those who were living low, degraded lives, but also by the literary world, the cultured world, the religious world. It was the religious leaders of the people who demanded His death, and all the world acquiesced. The world still continues to do so. It has its culture, its refinements, its civilization (often mistaken for Christianity), its religion (one that has no place for the cross of Christ, or the vicarious atonement, or His glorious resurrection), but our blessed Lord is apart from it all, and the Word to us is this, “Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.”