Text : 2 Corinthians 3:1-18
What does it mean to Live Beyond the Veil? The Veil of the temple symbolised the division between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies the place where the presence of God dwelled.
Because of JESUS!! We are able to enter in and experience the presence of God. Yet some of us are still living your lives outside of an intimate relationship with God. You don’t speak to Him on any regular basis and when you do, you come with a sense of I need to bring something to make myself acceptable.
To go beyond the veil is to move beyond regular religious, paced, scripted worship. Yet some of us are still living like this.
The veil was the boundary between heaven and earth, man and God, the clean from the unclean, the Holy and the disrespectful. The veil makes visible whatever passes through it.
Question: So, what significance does the torn veil have for us today?
The tearing of the veil at the moment of Jesus’ death dramatically symbolised that His sacrifice, the shedding of His own blood, was a sufficient atonement (payment) for sins. It shows us that now the way into the Holy of Holies is open for all people, for all time, both Jew and Gentile When Jesus died, the veil was torn and God moved out of that place never again to dwell in a temple made with human hands Acts 17:24. God dwells in a temple of our own making…actually He doesn’t because He said He would never again.
So what is it you’re worshipping in your temple? It’s not God the Father but it is a god made in your own image.
God was finished with man-made temples and their religious system. The temple and Jerusalem were left ‘desolate’ (destroyed by the Romans) in A.D. 70, just as Jesus prophesied in Luke 13:35. It was necessary for the old temple to be destroyed because as long as the temple stood, it signified the continuation of the Old Covenant.
We cannot hold onto the old things, when God is doing something new and fresh. We have to let go of the old patterns, the old ways of doing things.
And I am not saying we throw away everything that has gone before but if we are not prepared to change and hold on to them at any cost, it will hinder what God wants to do in this moment.
In a sense, the veil was symbolic of Christ Himself as the only way to the Father John 14:6 “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
We can now enter the Holy of Holies through Him. Hebrews 10:19-20 says, ‘We have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body.’The veil being torn from top to bottom is a fact of history.
The things of the temple were shadows of things to come and they all ultimately point us to Jesus the Christ. He was the veil to the Holy of Holies and through His death the faithful now have free access to God.
The veil in the temple was a constant reminder that sin renders humanity unfit for the presence of God. That’s why the veil in our lives has to go and learn to live beyond the veil.
The fact that the sin offering was offered annually and countless other sacrifices repeated daily showed graphically that sin could not truly be atoned for or erased by mere animal sacrifices.
Jesus Christ, through His death, has removed the barriers between God and man, and now we can approach Him with confidence and boldness Hebrews 4:14-16
The important thing is this: all of what we have is accomplished by the death of Jesus, a ransom for many Matthew 20:28, whose blood accomplishes the forgiveness of sins and establishes the new covenant in our lives. Matthew 26:28
The veil was a physical, visible barrier indicating that access to God was strictly prohibited because of His holiness. It is imperative to remember that the holiness of God remains unchanged from all eternity — even after the veil is torn.
But what has changed is that the atoning death of Jesus on the cross has provided the appropriate wrath-bearing sacrifice, one which the bulls and goats of the old covenant could not provide Hebrews 10:4
And This is the ‘new and living way’ Hebrews 10:20 that Christ opened for us through the veil, which, the writer says, is through His flesh.
Three Veils That Hinder Us
Veil of Moses 2 Corinthians 3:13 not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end.
Veil of Christ’s Flesh 2 Corinthians 3:14b But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.
The Veil of Unbelief 2 Corinthians 3:13-16 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
Christ Jesus gave Himself so that we could go beyond the veil. The veil was torn and is irreparable but some of us are in futility trying to sew it back together.
Still some of us you are standing beholding God’s beauty but not His glory and are afraid or unwilling to approach Him.
There is nothing stopping us from having and enjoying intimate relationship with God but ourselves.
So what are you going to do?