06/05/2017
WHAT HAPPENED WHEN THE VEIL WAS RENT
THERE were many fateful things that happened while Jesus hung upon the cross, but I want you to think about two of the events that contain eternal significance. You remember that Jesus said, "Matthew 23:38, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate." Jesus was uttering a prediction of the most marvelous event that ever happened to the Israelite people. Again, Matthew 26:61, "But afterward came two, and said, This man said, I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to build it in three days." Jesus was standing before the Sanhedrin. The High Priesthood and the elders at last had Him on their hands, and they were bringing witnesses against Him. Two of them accused Him of saying, "I am able to destroy the temple and build it in three days." Little did they realize what Jesus was referring to, or that it would actually take place. The Temple was destroyed as the place where Jehovah dwelt, when the veil was rent from top to bottom.
In Matthew 27:50-51, "Jesus cried again with a loud voice, and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom." Just before that happened, He uttered those three strange words, "It is finished." What did He mean? First, I want you to notice the statement, "It is finished." He had come as the Incarnate One, the God Man, Jehovah ! He had walked before His Father for thirty-three and one half years. Twice, He had heard His Father say, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." There had never been a man before who had pleased the Father. I call Him the Father-pleaser.
Every other man had lived to please himself. At last God has a man on earth that lives to do His will.
You remember these four remarkable scriptures. John 4:32-34, "But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not. The disciples therefore said one to another, Hath any man brought him aught to eat?
Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to accomplish his work." John 5:30 "I can of myself do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is righteous ; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." Notice, "I seek not my own will, but the will of Him who sent me."
Again Jesus said, John 6:38 "For I am come down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me." The reason He came was to do the will of His Father. He died for our sins because it was the will of the Father. But John 8:29 is to me, in some ways, the sweetest. "He that sent me is with me; he hath not left me alone; for I do always the things that are pleasing to him." How precious Jesus must have been to the Father. How precious one is who lives that Jesus life, to Him who gave Jesus for us. Jesus lived to please and make glad the heart of Him, who created the first man in the Garden, who became humanity's failure.
Next, Jesus not only satisfied the heart of the Father, but He had been circumcised into the Abrahamic Covenant. He had become a part of Israel. He was Abraham's Blood Covenant friend, Jehovah !
Now He must fulfill that Abrahamic Covenant. What would that mean to Israel? That Covenant had given them their national life, had given them their Law, their Sacrifice, their Priesthood.
It had given them their national home.
It had given them the Atonement Blood.
It had given then their Temple where God dwelt in the Holy of Holies.
It had given them their Messiah whom they had nailed to the cross.
Jehovah manifested in the flesh! And when Jesus said, "It is finished," the Abrahamic Covenant had come to an end, so far as Israel was concerned. Not only was the Covenant at an end, but everything connected with the Covenant. It was the end of the Covenant Law, the Ten Commandments. They had worshipped that Law. It was a law of death ; a law that begat fear in the hearts of men.
It was not a law of love, nor a law of life.
Paul called it, "the law of sin and of death," but they loved it. It was a law for natural man, just as the Abrahamic Covenant was a Covenant for natural man. There will never be another scape-goat to bear Israel's sins away in type. It was the end of the Holy of Holies in Israel's Temple. This is what it meant, when Jesus said, "It is finished," and yielded up His spirit, "the curtain was rent from top to bottom," and their Temple was left desolate. It was no wonder that there was an earthquake. It is no wonder that darkness came down and settled over Jerusalem and Golgotha. The heart of the Son of Man had been broken on that cross. He had been made Sin. He had said, "It is finished," and all Heaven heard it. The ears of man had not taken it in. I wonder if you realize that it was not only the end of Israel, and of Judah, and all that pertained to them as a nation ; but it was the beginning of a new Covenant.
You remember that Jesus said, just before He died, Luke 22:14-23 "with desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: for I say unto you, I shall not eat it, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God." It is the story of the institution of the Lord's Supper. Notice the language. "He took bread, and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and gave to them saying, This is my body which is given for you : this do in remembrance of me." Of the cup He said, "This cup is the New Covenant, in my blood, even that which is poured out for you." In Matthew 26:28 "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many unto remission of sins." The Old Covenant died. The New Covenant is born. The New Covenant began functioning on the Day of Pentecost. It was not established in Heaven until Jesus carried His blood into the Holy of Holies and poured it out there as the red seal upon the document of our redemption.
How little we have appreciated the New Covenant in His blood. Old Covenant men had a limited righteousness, and on the ground of that, they performed the miracles and prodigies that the Israel people saw. We hear the marvelous prayer of Abraham, in Genesis 18. The miracles that happened under Moses' ministry in leading Israel out of Egypt. The miracles of Joshua, of Elijah and Elisha, of David and Daniel, were performed with limited righteousness. It was based upon a Covenant sealed with the blood of Abraham, along with the blood of God's offering, a bullock. Now we have a New Covenant, and it is sealed not with the blood of bulls and goats, but the united blood of Deity and humanity. The strange feature about that offering was that the representatives of the Abrahamic Covenant offered Jesus, their Jehovah, on the cross altar and did not know it.
He was forced onto the hands of the Roman government to be crucified. So the hands of the Priesthood and the hands of the Roman Gentiles met on the sacrifice that they offered upon the altar of the cross. Israel became identified with the offering. The Gentile world became identified with that offering. Just as no offering was acceptable unless hands had been laid on its head under the Abrahamic Covenant, so the offering up of the body of Christ was made acceptable because the priesthood and the Roman government laid their hands upon our beloved Lord, "The Lamb of God who was to take away the sin of the world."
This new Covenant gave to us the beginning of the New Creation, the Circumcision of the heart.
Collossians 2:11-12; "In whom ye were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh (or rule of the senses) in the circumcision of Christ ; having been buried with him in baptism, where in ye were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead."
A person entered the Abrahamic Covenant by circumcision. We enter the New Covenant by circumcision of the heart, or the New Birth. The First Covenant was made for Natural Man. Everything connected with it was for Natural man. The New Covenant is for the recreated man, the New Man in Christ. It is not only the beginning of a New Creation, but it is the beginning of a new Priesthood. Hebrews 8:1-2, "Now in the things which we are saying the chief point is this: We have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man." You should read very carefully Hebrews 8:1-13. We haven't space to copy it all, but it tells of the New Covenant that is to be given to the New Creation. It closes with this significant sentence, "A new covenant, he hath made the first old. But that which is becoming old and waxeth aged is nigh unto vanishng away."
There was an annulling of the foregoing Commandment and foregoing Covenant, and foregoing Priesthood and Sacrifices. There was the inauguration of the New Covenant, the New Priesthood with the New Creation folk who are called a New Covenant people. The New Covenant had a New Law, John 13:34-35: "A New commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another ; even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to an other." The Old Covenant had a law of fear. The New Covenant has a Law of Life and a Law of Love. Paul tells us in Romans 8:1-2: "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death." Notice the contrast between the two Covenants, the Old Covenant with Natural man and the New Covenant with the recreated man.
Our hearts cannot too clearly grasp the significance of the fact that this New Covenant Law of Love is to govern the Church absolutely.
Leviticus and Deuteronomy are an exposition of the Law of the Old Covenant, known as the Ten Commandments. The Pauline Revelation is an exposition of the New Covenant Law. I Corinthians 13 gives us in condensed form the outstanding features of this New Covenant Law. Hebrews 9:11-12 gives us a description of Christ's entering the Heavenly Holy of Holies, with His blood. Note carefully this translation : "Nor yet with the blood of goats and calves but with His own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy place, having obtained eternal redemption." The high priest entered with blood once a year to cover the broken law for Spiritually Dead Israel. But Christ enters with His blood into the Heavenly Holy of Holies once for all, obtaining for us an Eternal Redemption. How it thrills the heart that our Redemption is Eternal.
The fourteenth verse is so suggestive. "How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish unto God, cleanse your conscience (or spirit) from dead works to serve the living God?"
"For this cause He is the Mediator of a New Covenant." He died for the sins under the First Covenant.
You must not omit Hebrews 9:24: "For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the true ; but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us." I Peter 2:3-10 gives us a picture of the new sacrifices that we are to offer to the Father. Here is a view of the two-fold Priesthood of the Church. From 3 to 5 we see the Holy Priesthood offering up " .. . spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." This is the private Holy of Holies of the individual believer. Hebrews 13:15 gives a beautiful picture of it. "Through him then let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which make confession to his name." In the Holy Priesthood we offer up our praises, our worship, and our love, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. That ties perfectly with Ephesians 5:20: "Giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father."
We never offer up thanksgiving to the Father but through the Name of Jesus. Why? Oh, that glorifies the Son. It constantly stresses upon our hearts His place of Mediation and of His great High-Priestly Ministry.
In the ninth and tenth verses, we catch a glimpse of the Royal Priesthood. "But ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light; who in time past were no people, but now are the people of God, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." Notice here is a wonder ministry. It is toward the world, and also toward the Church. Before the world it is the revealing of Christ as their Redeemer. I stand before the congregation and I minister to them in the Royal Priesthood.
But the heart should always remember this.
My Royal Priesthood does not function in reality unless there has been time spent in the Holy Priesthood.
Unless my lips have been bearing fruit of love and worship and fellowship with the Father in the holy priesthood, they will be dead lips when I attempt to unfold the Word to the Body of Christ in the Royal Priesthood. The Word becomes a living thing in the lips of love. The lips of love are always faith-creating lips. The words that you speak will be satiated with love and grace and tempered with wisdom.
Because we have taken our Bible, gone into the Holy Place and fellowshipped and visited with our Father until our whole being seems to be saturated with love. Hebrews 10:19-22 gives us a glimpse of the new Holy of Holies.
"Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh ; and having a great priest over the house of God ; let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith, having our body washed with pure water." Our earth walk is cleansed by the Word. In Hebrews 4:16, He has invited us to come with boldness unto the Throne of Grace. That is the new Holy of Holies, the new Throne-room where we, as sons and daughters, have a standing invitation to come. We not only come when our hearts are burdened with grief and need, but we come when our hearts are filled with joy and laughter. We come when our hearts are filled with gratitude and love and praise. Our Father is holding a reception all the time for us. We go in there and make our requests known. We open our hearts to Him with the fullest confidence.
We have Jesus' assurance, "Whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, He will give it to you."
We are His love children. Now we come to one of the most remarkable sentences from the lips of Jesus.
We have already quoted it, but I want you to note it again. It is Matthew 26:61 and I Cor. 3:16. He told them that He could destroy that Temple and build it again in three days. They did not understand it, but He did destroy the Temple, didn't He? When He said, "It is finished," the temple was an empty building and God was getting ready to move into the new building. The veil guarding the Holy of Holies was rent in twain from top to bottom; no Holy of Holies on earth now. "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you. If any man destroy the temple of God, him shall God destroy for the temple of God is holy, and such are ye."
That is the temple that Jesus raised or built in three days. That is the new home of God. Not only is the Church the corporate body in which He dwells, but I Cor. 6:19 shows us a closer contact and relationship.
"Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God : And ye are not your own; for ye were bought with a price. Glorify God therefore in your body." Notice that your body, as His Temple, is a holy thing. Romans 12:1-2: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service."
This body becomes God's Holy of Holies. It is the most hallowed thing on earth today. I can understand how Satan hates it and would fill it with disease and sickness. In can understand how Jesus spent most of His three years of public ministry in healing sick bodies. He knew what they were to be. He knew what they would be when the spirit of the man in that body was recreated and received the nature and life of the Father. He knew that body would then become the earthly Holy of Holies in which God would dwell.
What a wonderful thing it is that we can have God in us! "Greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world." I wonder if Ephesians 2:19-22 has ever challenged your heart? "So then ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but ye are fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God, being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner stone ; in whom each several building, fitly framed together groweth into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit." Notice that we are fitly framed together and we grow into a Holy Temple in the Lord and we become builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit." Now you can understand that strange phenomenon that takes place when a body of believers begin to walk in Love. The room where they gather is charged with something that men can feel. I have known the power of God to be so great in a congregation that men and women could feel it as they walked past the open door.
I have heard their strange confession, "There was some power that pulled me into the church that day."
That is when the Body of Christ becomes the habitation of the Spirit, when love is let loose in us.
The very atmosphere of God dominates us. In Colossians 1:18, Jesus is called the Head of the Church, and as the Head of the Body, the Church, He is the beginning or first-born from the dead. You remember that He tasted death (spiritual death) on the cross. The moment that sin was laid upon His spirit, He died in spirit.
I showed you in another part of the book that He died in spirit first, then in body. He was made alive twice.
"He was made alive in spirit." 1 Pet. 3:18. Then His body was raised from the dead. He was the first person ever Born Again. Those on the Day of Pentecost were the first group ever Born Again. What a wonder thing it is to become a partaker of the Divine Nature!
To become the very Sons and Daughters of God ! Just to capitulate a bit, the Old Covenant was not for Gentiles, but for Israel alone. No Gentile could get into that Covenant except through a long process.
It was for Natural man only, not for Christians. That Old Covenant has been fulfilled and laid aside.
How unhappy it is that men and women are trying to get into that Covenant now. We have large bodies of men and women today who are attempting to keep the Mosaic law, as they call it, but it has been fulfilled and laid aside. Note this fact ; no one could keep that Covenant outside of Palestine. They could not keep it without a High Priest and Sacrifices and Blood Atonement. The Israelite who had left his homeland for commercial reasons was obliged to come back once a year in order to keep under the Abrahamic Covenant blood sacrifice. How unfortunate it is that men try to get under that Covenant today and try to keep the Law, when God has set it aside and everything that pertains to it.
The New Covenant has its Priesthood, Sacrifices and its Holy of Holies. But it has a Redemption instead of Atonement. It has Remission instead of a Scape-goat. It has a New Birth instead of circumcision.
It has fellowship with the Father in the place of the burnt offering, the peace offering and the meal offering.
It has the name of Jesus instead of Urim and Thummin. The New Covenant has the Lord's table in the place of the Passover.
We are sons instead of servants.
We have the law of love in the place of the law of sin and of death.
We have life in the place of death.
We have righteousness instead of condemnation.
When we break the law of love, we have an Advocate. They have judgment and stoning and death. We have a living Father who watches over us. This chapter is a revelation of eternal love. It is Jesus, the master of Satan, yielded to his dread control. It is God manifest in the flesh being made sin. He has uttered that heart-breaking cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
He is humanity's substitute, paying the penalty of its transgressions. He is bearing the fruit of Adam's sin in the substitution. He is suffering the torments of the damned, for the men who crucified Him. He was God manifest in the flesh as He walked the earth ; He is God made sin now, suffering in our stead. If one could write over this entire chapter in letters of living light, one word, it would be "Love."
"God so loved."
Our language is inadequate to express this love of One who became sin for us. Deity is paying the penalty for having loved humanity so much, and for craving a family. He is suffering because He created humanity; because He brought man into being. "Him who knew no sin has become sin." "He is putting sin away by the sacrifice of himself." The agonies of Deity in redeeming the human race can never be known by finite mind.
What Happened From The Cross To The Throne
Kindly share this post
