02.12. THE UNRENT VAIL
THE UNRENT VAIL WE have a direct Scripture which tells us the vail was a symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest (the Most Holy Place in Heaven) by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the vail, that is to say, his flesh.” (Hebrews 10:19-20.) By “flesh” is meant, of course, our Lord’s humanity.
Behind the vail in the Most Holy Place was the ark of the covenant, the symbol of the throne of God, with the shekinal light, symbol of the divine presence, shining above the mercy seat (the golden lid of the ark) and between the figures of the cherubim. As the cherubim figures were fashioned into the vail, and as these in their final terms signify deific powers, the vail is a symbol of the deity dwelling in the humanity of our Lord. The vail was the silent, but prophetic declaration that God should be made manifest in the flesh; as it is written:
“Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.” (1 Timothy 3:16.)
“God was in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 5:19.) “In him dwelleth all the fulness of the godhead bodily.” (Colossians 2:9.) It shone through His humanity on the “holy mount,” the mount of Transfiguration.
He had led three of His disciples, Peter, James and John, to the snow-crested heights of Hermon.
It was midnight. The stars were far off and the darkness deep. A light came across the darkness.
It began to glow, it widened in its shining till it filled all the place where they were even as the sun at high noon. But the light came neither from moon, nor stars, nor sun.
It came from His body. His garments were white as no fuller on earth could whiten them. The light proceeded out of His very flesh.
There was a cloud, a cloud of white light that canopied them all, expanding, enfolding, matching and becoming one with the light that shone from His body. The light of the cloud and the light of the body were one.
It was the shekinal splendor that had dwelt in the pillar of cloud and of fire of old time and between the wings of the cherubim.
It was the shining out of the divine essence.
Out from the midst of the terrible light came the voice of God the Father, saying:
“This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” (Matthew 17:5)
It was the official announcement from Heaven that He was the spokesman of God, the very Word of God. The vail is the perfect symbol and the absolute affirmation that” God was in Christ.” So long as that vail hung down it shut man out from the typical presence of God. So long as Christ walked the earth in His beautiful and perfect humanity, He shut men out from God. And this ought to be self-evident.
If the humanity of Christ is the standard humanity in ‘Which alone God can enthrone Himself; if man must be as perfect as Christ was before God can take up I His abode in him, before man can have fellowship and I accepted and intimate relationship with God, then the: Christ of God so far from being a way by which men can approach God, or God enter into man; becomes an impassable barrier, a terrific, concrete witness to the hopeless, measureless distance between God and the natural man. A man might stand before this vail as it hung down between him and the symbolic dwelling place of God.
He might admire the fineness of its texture, the perfectness of its coloring, the majesty and mystery of the winged figures; but the more he should look, the more he should study, the more evident it would become to him that in its imperviousness, even though beautiful, it shut him out from and entirely concealed the God who typically dwelt behind it.
He would see that all approach to the presence of God ended there. Let a man study intently and analytically the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let him take up His deeds, His words, His attitude to God and man, the more he studies, the more evident it will become that he and Jesus of Nazareth were not cast in the same mould, that they exist upon planes as far apart from each other as the east is from the west, as the ever receding west is from the east.
Take the history of the best man who ever lived and who may have sought continuously and with consecrated effort to copy that life and shape his character according to it, and it will be found, no matter who the man may have been, nor what intensity of endeavor he may have made, that he approaches no nearer to its faintest and most rudimentary outlines than the crawling worm to the soaring eagle, no nearer than the’ smallest grain of sand at the bottom of the highest mountain is to that mountain’s most exalted height. To set Christ before men and bid them attain unto the consciousness of God by following His example is as much a mockery as it would have been to have told the priest to fix his eyes upon the vail and by dint of looking at its impenetrable material persuade himself that he was inside the Most Holy Place or that he beheld even a gleam of the divine light as it flashed between the wings of the cherubim above the mercy seat. The startling and demonstrable truth is, the incarnation of Christ neither brings man to God nor God to man.
If there had been nothing more than the incarnation of Christ, if Christ had lived and then after a season had gone back to the Heaven from whence He came, there would have been left to the world only the memory of a man who made manifest the bridgeless gulf between Himself and the natural man.
There was just one means by which that vail could be put aside as a barrier and become a way of entrance into the Holy of Holies, and into the glory of the symbolized presence. That one means was the blood of sacrifice shed on the brazen altar.
Once a year, on a day called” the day of atonement,” the high priest went out to the brazen altar, took a bullock and a goat, slew them, put the blood in a bason, brought it into the Holy Place and sprinkled before the vail.
Having sprinkled the blood he lifted up the vail, put it aside, entered the Most Holy Place and sprinkled the blood upon the mercy seat.
He could not sit down.
He must not tarry, he must hasten in that which he had to do and go out quickly lest he die.
It was by the blood of atonement the way into the throne room of God was opened. Not by the beauty of the vail could the priest enter. Not because of the fineness of its texture, nor the perfectness of its workmanship could he enter. Not by contemplating the vail and seeking to stamp its color and figures upon the retina of his soul could he enter into the presence of the most excellent glory.
No!
There was only one way.
He must enter with the blood of the altar-the blood offered in sacrifice on the brazen altar. Not by or because of the beautiful earthly life of Christ can any man come to God. Not by the study of His life, nor the praising Him for His spotless character, His unselfishness, His consecration to humanity; not by seeking to copy the life He lived on earth can any man enter Heaven and find acceptance of God.
No!
There is only—one way. That one and only way, is the way of the blood the blood of the great brazen altar-the blood of the cross. By that sacrificial death of the cross our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, opened Heaven to all who own and confess it as such; wherefore it is written:
“By his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” (Hebrews 9:12.)
After He rose from the dead, entered Heaven and made the atonement there by placing His blood upon the throne, turning it from a throne of judgment to a throne of grace, it became possible for all who believe, for all who by faith offer Him on the cross as a sacrifice for sin to draw nigh and as spiritual priests, in Spirit, to enter within the vail and worship there; as it is written:
“Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest of all-by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the vail, that is to say, his flesh (by the sacrificial death of that flesh). And having an high priest over the house of God (the Church).
Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water (this -as we shall see later-has reference to the brazen laver at the door of the Tabernacle in which the priests washed hands and feet before entering in-the laver if> a symbol of the Word of God, and the teaching here is that on the basis of a perfect sacrifice we have a right to draw nigh unto God in worship, but should continually bathe ourselves in the Word that our service and walk may be according to the mind and will of God-nevertheless we are to draw nigh and with boldness, not on the ground of our walk but by the merit of the blood).” (Hebrews 10:19-22.)
Let it be impressed upon the heart of every believer that we draw nigh to-God, enter within the secret place of communion and fellowship with Him, not by the life of Christ, but by His death.
Let it be known and held with thankful joy that by virtue of the death of Christ, not only has every barrier been taken away between us and the Heavenly Father, but that by the sanctifying value of the blood of the cross, should we die, we at once depart from this body and are immediately at home with the Lord within the vail.
Such is the meaning, the glory and the wonder of the vail. By His death we get deliverance from death, get life and entrance into Heaven.
Rejoicingly therefore it may be said, the three hangings, the hanging at the gate of the Court, the hanging at the door of the Tabernacle and this hanging on the four golden pillars, the beautiful vail, proclaim in unit testimony that our Lord Jesus Christ is THE WAY, THE TRUTH, THE LIFE