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:
The revelation that God gave to Paul was dangerous for Paul to preach. After he was caught up to God in heaven to hear "unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter", he risked his life just to utter those holy things to men on earth. It was for good reason that Paul asked the saints to pray for him to have the courage to preach the truth that he had learned from God (Eph. 6:19-20).
One of the truths which he learned was that God no longer considered the nation of Israel, the physical descendants of Abraham, to be His special people. Instead, believers in His Son Jesus were now "the Israel of God"(Gal. 6:16). Jews could still be a part of God's new Israel if they believed in Jesus Christ; otherwise, they were strangers to God. There were many Jews who gladly would have killed Paul for teaching this, and many did try. Once, a group of about forty deeply religious Jews swore a solemn oath before God that they would eat no more food until they had killed Paul (Acts 23:12-13), and Israel's leading priests were partners with these men. A raging Jewish mob beat Paul to the point of death in Jerusalem, and would certainly have killed him if Roman soldiers had not forcibly intervened and rescued him (Acts 21:30-31). The soldiers actually had to lift Paul up and carry him away after that beating; he could not even walk (Acts 21:35). The furious mob followed the soldiers right up to the castle of the local commander, and there demanded that Paul be put to death. They were so filled with hatred and rage that they stripped themselves and threw dust into the air in their madness against the man of God (Acts 22:22-23).
Similarly, when Jesus in his first sermon suggested that the Old Testament demonstrated that God had loved some Gentiles and had not so loved some Jews, the Jews of Nazareth attempted to kill him (Lk. 4:28-29). But Paul did not merely point out that fact in Biblical history; he proclaimed that it was a present reality in Christ. To the Gentile believers in Rome, Paul explained the matter. I paraphrase his remarks: "In God's sight, a man is not a Jew because his body has been circumcised. In fact, God no longer even considers the physical cutting of flesh to be 'circumcision' at all. God's Israel is spiritual now, and in His sight a real Jew is a person whose heart has been circumcised by the Spirit. Such a man may not be praised by other men, but he will be praised by God" (Rom. 2:28-29).
Paul repeated this message constantly because it was at the heart of everything that Jesus had accomplished. "The descendants of Abraham's flesh", he would write, "are not the children of God. Rather, those who have been born again by receiving the promise of God [the holy Ghost] are counted as the seed of Abraham" (Rom. 9:8). "But you are not in the flesh, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you" (Rom. 8:9a). Paul's conclusion was simply this: "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ [the holy Ghost], he does not belong to God" (Rom. 8:9b).
This was the message for which Paul was most hated, and it is the message most hated today.