by Kevin Burton
If you don’t know the Old Testament you’re going to gloss over, what is now one of my favorite parts of the gospel story.
I missed it completely until somebody on one of the radio ministries (I forget which one now), explained it.
It has to do with the veil of the temple and the immediate aftermath of Jesus’ death on the cross. This eye witness account is recorded in Matt. 27:51 (NKJV):
“Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split.”
Well a lot of things happened when Jesus died. A torn curtain hardly makes the headlines, unless you know the significance of that veil and the need for it.
You have to understand that “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5 NKJV). The sin of Adam and Eve, made necessary a separation between mankind and God. The veil, in the center of God’s house the temple, was the physical manifestation of that separation.
Here we get an explanation of God’s proximity to man, before and then after the cross, from Alistair Begg, speaker on the Truth For Life radio ministry.
“Distance and separation were marks of the old covenant. When God appeared even to His servant Moses, He said, ‘Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet,’” Begg wrote “and when He revealed Himself on Mount Sinai to His own chosen and separated people, one of the first commands was, “You shall set limits for the people all around.’”
“In the sacred worship of the tabernacle and the temple, the thought of distance was always prominent,” Begg wrote. “The majority of the people did not even enter the outer court. Into the inner court, none but the priests might dare to intrude, while into the innermost place, or the holy of holies (the part behind the veil), the high priest entered but only once in the year.”
“It was as if the Lord in those early ages was teaching man that sin was so utterly loathsome to Him that He must treat men as lepers put outside the camp; and when He came closest to them, He still made them feel the extent of the separation between a holy God and an impure sinner,” Begg wrote.
But Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross changed that narrative. Sin is still loathsome to God, but Jesus has made a way for hopelessly lost sinners such as you and me, to have our sins forgiven, through belief in Jesus.
“When the Gospel came, we were placed on quite another footing,” Begg wrote. “The word “go” was replaced by “come”; distance was replaced with nearness, and we who previously were far away were brought near by the blood of Jesus Christ.”
“Incarnate Deity has no fire wall around it. ‘Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest’ is the joyful proclamation of God as He appears in human flesh. He no longer teaches the leper his leprosy by setting him at a distance, but by Himself suffering the penalty of the leper’s defilement.”
“What a state of safety and privilege is this proximity to God through Jesus! Do you know it by experience?”
“If you know it, are you living in the power of it?”
“This closeness is wonderful, and yet it is to be followed by a greater nearness still, when it shall be said, ‘The dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people,”Begg wrote. “Lord, haste the day!”
That day indeed is zooming toward us. Are you ready?
Page 7 