Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
Select a thought to read by choosing a collection, the month, and then the day:
“Behold! I will do a new thing.”
Isaiah 43:19
“. . . by a new and living way that he has consecrated for us . . .”
Hebrews 10:20
“As Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we should walk in the newness of life.”
Paul, in Romans 6:4
“If anyone be in Christ, there is a new creation; the old things are gone, and now, new things have come, and all things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ.”
2Corinthians 5:17
The “new way” of Christ is really new. God would not have sent His Son to suffer and die for something that we could have had any other way. The New Covenant is a new thing, a completely new thing. It is not such a small thing that we have to strain to find it; it is such a new thing that it cannot be perceived and understood by the carnal mind.
Part of this “newness of life” is the precious condition called “fellowship”. This is a new kind of closeness that is made available to us in Christ, but carnally-minded people can neither perceive it nor believe in it, even when they see it. It is a bond of hearts that is hidden from the world, though in clear view in the lives of faithful saints. It is hidden not because it cannot be found and witnessed but because “the god of this world has blinded the minds of those who are without faith.”
The fellowship of the saints, the new life we share together in Christ, is created within us by the power of God. True fellowship can be attained, but it is often claimed by man even though he does not really have it. This fellowship of saints, newly created for us by Christ, cannot be enjoyed or comprehended outside the holy Spirit of God.
When Jesus asked, “Who is my mother and my brothers and sisters?”, he was suggesting this spiritual reality. To him, the connection that exists between him and those who truly love God is so consuming that it makes even the closest human ties seem as nothing. In fact, according to the way Jesus said it, the fellowship of saints in the light of God replaced completely all of his human ties of kinship.
Jesus loved God; he was consumed by zeal for Him and His ways (Jn. 2:17). And it is only when we are consumed by the same love for God that Jesus had that we can comprehend how anybody could feel as he did. This “love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy Ghost that God has given to us”, and that is why I teach that without the holy Ghost, no one can ever know God or understand Christ. The mind and heart of the Father and the Son are so far beyond the capacity of mortal minds that most mortals on earth do not even believe the Gospel when they hear it.