Heavenly Mindedness (52)

 

In the word that God speaks we can taste all his goodness and grace. Hope itself is spiritualized, remaining no longer the hope of imagination but grasping in God the ideal root from which the whole future must spring and blossom in due time. The heavenly world does not appear desirable as simply a second improved edition of this life; that would be nothing else than earthly mindedness projected into the future. The very opposite takes place: heaven spiritualizes in advance our present walk with God. Each time faith soars and alights behind the veil it brings back on its wings some of the subtle fragrance that there prevails. G. Vos.

 

I want to conclude our consideration of the above section of Vos’s message on Heavenly Mindedness by looking at, “Each time faith soars and alights behind the veil it brings back on its wings some of the subtle fragrance that there prevails.”

 

The image invoked by “behind the veil” is, of course, that of the Tabernacle of Moses and the Temple of Solomon (along with its subsequent rebuilding). For simplicity’s sake we’ll look at the Tabernacle of Moses because the Temple in its various permutations is structurally complicated. The Tabernacle had three spaces, three areas: the Outer Court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies – that Most Holy Place. We may recall that there was a veil separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies and that only the High Priest could go into the Holy of Holies, and he could only do so once a year, on the Day of Atonement.

 

The Holy of Holies represented that Place where the Presence of Yahweh dwelt in a particular fashion – for while God’s Presence was certainly in the Holy Place and in the Outer Court, as well as beyond the Tabernacle with the People of Israel – His Presence was in the Holy of Holies in a most particular fashion. Within the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant with the Mercy Seat as its covering, or lid, with two cherubs with wings outstretched on the lid of gold. Within the Ark was Aaron’s rod, a bowl of manna, the Ten Commandments, and the Law as given in Deuteronomy. When the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement he brought sacrificial blood with him, to atone for his own sins and for the sins of the people.

 

Now there is much we could say about the above, for it all speaks of Christ and His glory, but the thing I’d like us to ponder is the image that the veil was a barrier to the Holy of Holies; not only could not the average person enter the Holy of Holies, but the average priest also couldn’t go inside it. Only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies, but even he could only go into it once a year, on the Day of Atonement. In other words, access to the Personal Presence of Yahweh was barred by the veil, just as, in a similar sense, access to the Garden of Eden was blocked by cherubim with a flaming sword (Gen. 3:24). (Note that cherubim were embroidered on the veil of the Holy of Holies, Ex. 26:31).

 

The average Israelite probably would have never considered the possibility of entering the Holy of Holies, just as the average priest would have never considered the possibility. Yahweh was holy and there was a barrier between Yahweh’s particular Personal Presence beyond the veil and the people of Israel. Generation after generation lived with this mindset, God lived in the impenetrable, He could not be approached beyond the veil. This was the Law of Moses, this was the way people were raised, this was the way the priests ministered, and anyone who suggested otherwise would have been thought a fool, a blasphemer, and a candidate for death as a false prophet.

 

(I need to parenthetically point out that the religious sentiments of Israel and Judah were hardly pristine and faithful to Yahweh; there was idolatry, human sacrifice, and idols were even brought into the Temple of Solomon – so the preceding paragraph does not encompass all the sentiments and practices from Moses to Christ, though it may be fair to say that after the Babylonian Captivity rampant idolatry was not likely to be tolerated.)

 

With the above as a backdrop, one of the first teachings of Jesus Christ is about communing with God in prayer, and it begins with “Our Father.” What must have some people thought when they heard those words? What must have His disciples thought as He told them that the Father would come and live within them? Consider the words of intimacy with the Father that Jesus uses throughout the Gospel of John, an intimacy first used of His own relationship with the Father, and then with our relationship with the Father in chapters 14 – 17. What must His hearers have been thinking?

 

Some of His hearers thought His language blasphemous and attempted to kill Him, finally succeeding. Perhaps we should not judge these people too harshly, after all, they were conscious of the veil barring the way to the Holy of Holies, who was this man Jesus that He should presume to speak of intimacy with God? Another reason for our caution in judging them is our own attitude, our own experience – for do we really believe that we are called to know the Father in such intimacy? Do we readily experience this, share this, and confidently affirm this as a core element of the Gospel? Is this the tenor of our worship gatherings?

 

Matthew writes, “And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom…” (Matthew 27:50-51a; see also Mark 15:38). What does this mean?

 

“Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water,” Hebrews 10:19 – 22.

 

While we may not understand this, the veil in the Tabernacle represented the body of the Incarnate Son of God, and when Jesus Christ completed His perfect sacrifice on the Cross, as the High Priest who did not need to make an offering for His own sins – for He had none (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15; 7:26; 1 Peter 1:19) – the veil of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom, opening the Way for us to enter into the fulness of the Presence of God through Jesus Christ. (See Hebrews for an exposition of the glorious priesthood of Jesus Christ and the surpassing greatness and glory of the New Covenant).

 

Ponder the words of Hebrews 10:19 – 22: “confidence,” “full assurance of faith,” “a great priest over the house of God,” “let us draw near.” Earlier in Hebrews 4:16 we read, “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

 

There is a great chasm between the Old and New Covenants, and sadly much of what passes for Christian thinking and teaching today has its roots in the Old Covenant, the Law of condemnation and death (2 Cor. 3:4ff). The New Covenant sprinkles our hearts from an evil conscience, while the Old Covenant maintains a message of sin and guilt and distance from God our Father. Old Covenant thinking wants to motivate us to sew the veil up, again and again and again. It is akin to the perpetual sacrificial system of the earthly Tabernacle and Temple, with sin consciousness pervading the minds and hearts of the people. How blessed we are to have a Great High Priest who, by one sacrifice, in which He is both Priest and Offering, has sanctified us “once for all” (Heb. 10:10).

 

This is the heart of justification and our being made holy and set apart for God – this is the heart of our transformation from sinners to saints, this is our invitation and calling to live not outside the Tabernacle, nor in the Outer Court of the Tabernacle, not even in the Holy Place of the Tabernacle, but to live in the koinonia of the Trinity beyond where the veil once was – for there is no more veil!

 

Sadly, many of us insist on sewing the veil up week after week, while others preach a message that acts as if there never was a veil, that denies the Atonement and the justice and judgment of God and the penalty of sin – both of these messages fall short of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The former message keeps people in a prison of sin consciousness; the latter promises people a deceitful freedom which leads to the bondage of the self. All the while the Father calls us to Himself through Jesus Christ, all the while the Father desires us to know koinonia with Him, with the Son, and with the Holy Spirit. We are called to live within the Holy of Holies as our way of life.

 

I will come back to this in the next post in this series.