The Way into the Holiest

But the unrent veil shut man out from God, and the holy spotless life of Jesus was in itself a barrier rather than a means of approach to God. The unrent flesh of Jesus only served to shut God in and to shut man out. Jesus said, “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” (John 12:24). Men seem to think that our blessed Lord came to earth as an example to show us what man ought to be or do in order to obtain God’s favor. The life of our Lord, instead of being an example which unconverted men may follow in order that they might find their way into the presence of God, is simply the condemnation of all men everywhere, for in Christ we see what man should be, but what no man ever was, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23).
The unrent flesh of Jesus was a barrier into the presence of God. No man is perfect as Jesus was, and therefore no man has a title as He had to enter into the presence of God uncondemned. But now the glorious gospel is this, that the holy One, the perfect One, the righteous One, the heavenly One, the kingly One, went to Calvary’s cross, and there His flesh was rent; there He took the place of guilty sinners; there He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, He, the sinless One, was made sin for us.
“All our iniquities on Him were laid;
All our indebtedness by Him was paid.”
He took the sinner’s place, and bore the sinner’s judgment. He drank the cup of wrath that sinners so justly deserve to drink, endured the awful forsaking of God, and cried out at last, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Then, having drained that cup to the bitter dregs, having borne the judgment that you and I so richly deserve, He cried in triumph, ere He surrendered His spirit to the Father, “It is finished!”
When He died, we read that “the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom”; not from the bottom to the top as though some priest might have torn it asunder, but from the top to the bottom. It was the hand of God that rent that veil, in order to declare that now the way into His immediate presence has been opened through the rent flesh of His beloved Son. We read in the New Testament, “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he consecrated (or dedicated for us) through the veil, that is to say, his flesh” (Heb. 10:19, 20).

“The Holiest we enter
In perfect peace with God,
Through whom we found our center
In Jesus and His blood.
Though great may be our dullness
In thought and word and deed,
We glory in the fullness
Of Him that meets our need.

“Much incense is ascending
Before th’eternal throne;
God graciously is bending
To hear each feeble groan.
To all our prayers and praises
Christ adds His sweet perfume,
And Love the censer raises
These odors to consume.
And there into the immediate presence of God, He who died upon the cross to put away our sins has entered as our great High Priest. We are told in Hebrews that He is entered within the veil as our forerunner. His place in the Holiest is the pledge that all who believe on Him shall be there. He has gone in as our representative. He has gone in to announce to God the Father that through the virtue of His shed blood untold millions shall also be there.