Faithful on Fridays Blog

The Veil

Can you imagine growing up with access to your father only one day a year? Unfathomable. Yet that’s the image of the Tabernacle and its veil. This curtain was thirty feet long, fifteen feet wide, fifteen feet high, four inches thick, and took three hundred priests to manipulate it. The point was clear; God the Father was separated from His children.

That one day Day of Atonement was selected by God to be the day when the High Priest alone was allowed entrance into the Holy of Holies through the veil. One priest representing believers was given access to God to obtain forgiveness for the coming year. The same ritual was repeated year after year, generation after generation: sin covered for one year. 

Two thousand years ago another Day of Atonement occurred but this one was different. The Messiah, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the final High Priest, was sacrificed on a cross and His blood satisfied the necessary payment for our sin. Something incredibly awesome happened at that moment:

… the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. Matthew 27:51 ESV

The veil was split apart giving entrance to the place where God dwelt in the Temple (the permanent tabernacle). A supernatural event materialized to prove to the people that His justice was complete: Jesus took our punishment and we have access to God.

We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf … Hebrews 6:19-20 ESV

Think about that. Jesus presented His own blood as a ransom to the Father (the lower story), consequently, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place and be in His Presence at will. We’re now privileged to be with God and receive His life-giving way (upper story) as we fully trust Him (Heb. 10:19-20). That’s a promise of grace and that’s an anchor to my soul. 

The veil symbolized that access to God was blocked every day but now we celebrate the truth that we can come into His presence whenever we choose. That’s the key: how often do you choose to be in His Presence? 

Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:2 ESV

Do you see it? The grace of God allows us to stand in His presence. We don’t come crawling, we don’t approach Him falling in terror; we come boldly in faith believing His promises are true. We have free access because we have the key code: Jesus. Take advantage of this privilege often.

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16 ESV