The author reflects on the practice of Israel’s priests who would sacrifice an animal for the sins of the people, carry its blood into the tabernacle, and then carry other parts of the body outside of the came to be burned (Leviticus 4:5-7, 4:16-18; ch. 16). This is how unwanted parts were disposed so that they would not be eaten. The blood was the critical part in this sacrifice. The blood was sprinkled in the Holy of Holies by the high priest on the Day of Atonement.
This Old Testament practice was a type or prelude of the greater sacrifice that Jesus made of his blood. The author connects the old and the new together with the transition and so. Jesus suffered (epathen, the last word in the sentence for emphasis) outside of Jerusalem, on the hill of Golgotha, in order to make the people holy (hagiasē). Outside the gate would have been considered unholy. Jesus took our sins upon himself and became sin for us, so that we might be redeemed from the very power of sin itself (2 Corinthians 5:21). This sanctification is only possible because of his blood. The cross both justifies and sanctifies. All of salvation is by grace through faith in what Jesus has done for us. Our holiness is dependent solely on the grace of God shown through the sacrifice of the cross. It is only by Jesus’ blood that we are able to approach the throne of grace and be in God’s holy presence.
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