From Heaven Downward

04.02.10
J.A. Matteson

“And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom….” Matthew 27:51

Pilgrim, let not the Apostle’s record of our Lord’s crucifixion escape your notice too quickly, for within that short statement is be found divine love, initiative, justice, satisfaction, and glory. The Lord instructed Moses to construct a dwelling place for Him during their wilderness wanderings. Inside the tabernacle was the holy place, and further inside the holy of holies (the dwelling place of God), a space roughly five meters cubed (let the reader also note the New Jerusalem is described a perfect cube).

Separating the holy place from the holy of holies was a curtain or veil about the thickness of a man’s hand. The veil was intended to keep sinners out of the presence of the Holy, lest in His wrath toward sin He should consume them instantly. The veil was a physical representation of human sinfulness, that which blocks the race from communion with the Lord, for He who is holy. When the Price of Glory breathed His last on the cross, yielding up His spirit, the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom symbolizing that sinners now had access to fellowship with God through the atoning sacrifice of God’s only begotten Son.

That God sent His Son to die for sinners is a fact attested to in Scripture, but what was the basis for it? The answer to that question is divine love and it may be found in Deuteronomy 7:6-8a, “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers….” Indeed, believers love Him because He first loved them and chose them as His own special possession. With love as the basis for Christ’s atoning death on behalf of sinners, divine initiative was the means to bring it about.

There are many ways in which a peace of cloth might be torn. That the veil was torn is vital, how it was torn invokes awe, for in it’s destruction we see the implication of divine initiative in salvation—the veil was torn from top to bottom, or from heaven downward toward sinners. God’s condescension through the incarnation and atonement leads the pilgrim to worship and lavish praise on his heavenly Priest and King who, “although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:6-8).

The tearing of the veil also informs sinners that the death of the Lord Jesus Christ satisfied the Fathers own justice while simultaneously revealing His mercy, for “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. 5:21). As weak as the Law was, being unable to correct the depravity of mankind in order to justify the race, serving rather to magnify the heinous nature of indwelling sin, Jesus Christ incurred sins holy wrath in His own body, nailing to the cross sin, subjecting it to the Father’s righteous justice. Oh how marvelous is the love of Christ toward those He came to redeem, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (Jn. 15:13).

In addition, beloved, the tearing of the veil informs you that your sin debt has been completely paid. In no way was your ransom at Calvary partial, Christ securing part of your pardon through His shed blood, and now you must complete the work in the flesh. God forbid as that is the teaching of the Pope! But someone may say, “Yes, I know that Christ died for sinners, but especially for those who believe, and I believe.” To this end we agree. But how is it that you came to believe, dear pilgrim? Was it that while in the flesh you came to see the wisdom of God as precious, that which the Apostle states is foolishness to those who are perishing? (1 Cor. 1:18). Do you not yet realize that flesh and blood profits nothing, and it is the Spirit who brings life? (Jn. 6:63).

Your faith is indeed your own and your exercise of it is necessary for salvation (Rom. 10:9), but where did it originate? How is it that at one moment you did not believe, and in the next instant your heart was pierced by the truth of the Gospel; do you account for this? Do you claim this insight of your own doing while in the flesh? If so then you have much to boast about in the flesh, but not before God. Let God alone be glorified, beloved, for the faith you possess is a gift from God (Eph. 2:8-9). Faith exercised is the outcome of the work of the Spirit within you (Phil. 2:13). For how did the Jesus respond to Peter when he confessed Him as the Christ, the Son of the living God? Had the apostle’s faith and insight been conjured up in the flesh why then did Christ respond, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 16:17)? Therefore, the Gospel of the grace of God both atones for sin through the shed blood of the Savior at Calvary for those foreknown to the Father in eternity past, and quickens the same who are dead in sins and trespasses to new life and faith through the Word of Christ (Rom 10:17).

Finally, beloved, the tearing of the veil from top to bottom symbolizes the guarantee of your future glorification. What the Lord initiated in you He will be faithful to complete (Phil. 1:6). The same divine power that saved you will sustain you in faith to the end (Rom. 8:29-31). Let us rejoice in the goodness of God who has secured our salvation from start to finish, for we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus, and let us in humility confess that the only reason we love Him is that He first loved us, and that without any merit in us He chose us before the foundation of the world according to the good pleasure of His own will (Rom. 9:11; Eph. 1:4). Beloved, let us ponder these things as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

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