Wherefore, Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate. Hebrews 13:12
Time to dust off our dictionaries, and find out what the word ‘sanctify’ means. According to Vines, it means firstly to set apart as holy, meeting God’s requirement for purity. According to our text, that is what the blood of the Lord Jesus does for us. We who once were condemned, hopelessly bound by sin and incapable of pleasing or satisfying God in any way, have been transformed into creatures who are not only acceptable unto God but also capable of words, deeds, and thoughts that can bring pleasure to God’s heart. Our position before God is perfect. We are accepted in the Beloved. Conditionally, we fall short, but that does not take away from the reality that we are sanctified. Each Lord’s day, we do homage to the One who has made it possible.
How is it possible that God can view us as acceptable as His own Son? It is because the Son has conferred on us the value of His sacrifice for our sins. It is because He suffered without the gate. For us He departed from the pearly gates of Glory, setting aside the riches and wonders of the Father’s presence. For us, He entered into time and creation, retaining His deity, accepting humanity. For us, He lived a life of being rejected, despised, and forsaken, living outside the gate of mankind’s perception of greatness and acceptability. For us, He allowed His own creatures to take Him outside the gates of Jerusalem to be crucified. Jerusalem, the center and focus of the only religion that God ever instituted, had no room for Him. He went outside all that mankind would count worthy in order to suffer for our sins. The gates of Glory, of society, of religion, were all portals through which He passed in order to save and sanctify us.
Our right to worship is based on the position into which the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ has brought us. Our position of sanctification within the veil is based on His position of rejection and humiliation outside the gate. -Jim MacIntosh