In this article we shall continue our discussion of the scriptural-revelational meaning and implication of the terms: “holy place”, “the veil”, and “his flesh”. We will seek to understand what it implies to have “boldness” to enter into the Holy Place “through the veil, that is, His flesh”. Vs. 20.

It has become evident in our former article, that the Holy Place is really the throne of God as it is the throne of mercy to all who approach it by a living faith by the way of the altar in the outer court. The symbolism of the temple (tabernacle) portrays unto us the way that leads unto God, the Father. As we shall have occasion to point out presently, Christ is the only way unto the Father, because He is the truth and the life. (John 14:6).

Let us try to understand this from the text.

We should be engaged in this pursuit with believing hearts enlightened by the Spirit of grace, so that we may understand spiritual things spiritually. Then we shall not have troubled and fearful hearts, but we shall draw nigh in the full assurance of faith, our hearts we shall then have assured before God. (Compare John 14:1-6 and John 3:19).

The first matter that calls for our attention at this time is the meaning of the “veil” in the tabernacle and its relationship to the “flesh” of Jesus. For the text teaches us that we have boldness to enter into the Holy Place through the blood of Jesus and through His flesh.

How are we to account for this?

In answer to this we would call your attention to two matters. The first is the fact that elsewhere in Holy Writ the veil in the temple as well as the Sanctuary as a whole is directly associated with the “flesh” and “body” of Jesus. The first instance of this, and to this we now call your attention, is recorded to us in John 2:13-21. In this section of the well-known chapter of the gospel of John we have revealed to us the incident of Jesus’ cleansing of the temple; it refers to the first cleansing of the temple of Jesus at the very beginning of His mediatorial labors “in the days of His flesh”. We are told, that He drove out those who bought and sold cattle, sheep and doves, and overthrew the tables of the money changers. Furthermore, we are informed that hereupon the temple authorities (?) come and demand a sign of Jesus whereby He should convincingly prove to their satisfaction, that He is not simply taking powers upon Himself, but that He is indeed appointed an authority in the temple; He must convincingly demonstrate that He has the right to take into His hand the affairs of the temple in the face of the temple-police and priests. And it is then that Jesus gives these “temple-authorities” the sign of the death of the cross and of His resurrection from the dead after three days. Says He: “Break (ye) down this temple and in three days I shall build the same” (raise it up). At that moment in which Jesus speaks these words the Jews refer this matter of the sanctuary to the temple in which they are standing, they think of the earthly temple, the building which at that very moment is still in the hands of carpenters, masons and artists. They remind Jesus that this temple has been in the process of construction for forty-six years already; does He think that He shall be able to build it up again in three days? But they do not understand. And they shall not understand until that day when in their blind fury and unbelief they shall see this “sign” of Jesus fulfilled in His glorious death and resurrection. For Jesus is here not speaking merely of this earthly temple made with hands; He is thinking of the temple of the body of His flesh. In so speaking Jesus identifies the body of His flesh with the sanctuary. At the moment of the breaking down of His body—shall the temple be broken down in the rending of the “veil”.

In so speaking Jesus does not here identify the substance of the “sanctuary” with the substance of His “body”; He identifies them in their meaning. And in their revelational intent and language they are related as the reality and the promise, as the body and the shadow that is cast by the same. The sanctuary is the shadow of which Christ is the body. The sanctuary is a picture in the earthly form of the heavenly reality of God on the throne in the midst of His people, thus dwelling in our midst, ever making His abode amongst us. It is the tabernacle of God with man.

Thus it is understood by the disciples after the resurrection, then they are enlightened by the Spirit of Pentecost as He is the Spirit of truth leading into all truth, the truth as it is in Jesus. And they then believed the Scriptures and what Jesus had said to them.

Our point is established in this passage that the “flesh”, the body of Jesus is closely associated with that of the temple. In passing it may be remarked, that it is true, that in this passage in John mention is made of Jesus’ “body” and not of His flesh, as in Heb. 10:20, and that the text here also speaks of “sanctuary rather than of the “veil”. But to our mind all this makes little or no difference. In either case the connection between the two is clearly taught. There is indeed a distinction, a rather clear and marked distinction in fact, between the terms “flesh” and “body”. For the time being we pass this by; we shall return to this presently. Suffice it to say at this point, that both Jesus’ body and His flesh are always associated in His mediatorial consciousness with the temple.

The second passage teaching this close association between Jesus’ “flesh” and the “veil” is Matt. 27:51, where we read: “And, behold, the veil of the sanctuary was rent in twain from top to bottom, and the earth quaked and the rocks were rent.”

In this passage too there is a close connection between the “veil” and Christ’s “flesh”. This is evident from the connection of this verse with the foregoing. It is there that Matt, places us at the very end of the sufferings of Jesus, of His sacrificial and mediatorial work; the end of the work, which had been given to him to perform. This work He had just completed in the suffering of the anguish and torments of hell, bearing the wrath of God against the sin of His children. There was nothing more to do; His people are redeemed from their sins by the ransom price, which He paid. He need learn no more obedience from that which He suffered. The cup which He had taken from His Father’s hand He had emptied. It is finished! It is finished before God and men, before the angels about God’s throne and before all the demons of hell. The latter have been stripped of all their power to accuse the saints, an open shame they have been made by God in Christ, who nails the handwriting that was against us to the cross. That is the context of Matthew 27:51.

And now there is something at that very moment when Jesus gives up the Ghost that should claim our believing attention. It is the rending of the veil in the sanctuary and the striking way in which it happened. “Behold” says Matthew, “the veil in the sanctuary is rent from top to bottom in twain”. A hand which is not human had affected this. That is what we must see. It was the hand of Him who makes His abode in the temple—in the holiest in the temple. He has rent the veil. And He did this at the very moment that the work of atonement on the cross is perfectly and forever finished in Christ Jesus our Lord on the cross. And writing to us, the Church, Matthew says: Behold this singular fact of the cross! It may by no means escape our attention. For our soul’s salvation sake we must see this—and believe!

Look then, and perceive! Look with a beholding and with a perceiving of faith in perfected assurance, and draw near unto the throne of God’s mercy in the Holy Place.

Behold what, do you ask?

I answer that you must notice that when Jesus had passed through His own “flesh” on the cross in the obedience to the law of God in our stead, having been cursed with our curse, from that moment we may pass through the veil of His flesh and draw near unto God the Father, who dwells in the Holy Place.

But that is not all. There is still another element in the gospel of Matthew that shows that God is maintaining the connection between the veil of the sanctuary and the “flesh” of Christ. It is that Christ in His whole suffering keeps this reality before His Messianic consciousness. It is there always before His priestly, prophetic and kingly heart. It is there constantly in the love wherewith He loves us even to the bitter and shameful death of the cross.

This becomes strongly evident in the hearing of Jesus before Caiaphas. There too the matter of Jesus’ connection with the temple is mentioned. It is brought up by false witnesses to be sure. They even corrupt the text. But even so the connection is there, and Jesus’ willfully maintains this connection of Himself with the temple. Jesus is here intentionally silent, that these men, who have His word once spoken, may by their wicked hands do all the determinate counsel and foreknowledge God had set them to perform. And through it all Jesus obedience reached for the cup from the Father’s hand to empty it to the bottom. They will break down the body of flesh and nail it to the cross, but He will raise it again the third day in glory.

And all this again shows beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Christ’s flesh is to all intents the same as the “veil”. It is the real veil that is rent. And when this flesh is rent the veil in the temple must be rent too. The body has come and’ so the shadow must disappear.

But now the question in this connection still may be raised at the term “flesh”. Is this term “flesh” the same in scope and content as body? We think not.

The reason? In the first place because the term “body” is a more comprehensive term than “flesh”. This is evident from the fact that presently we shall indeed have our own body again, but it shall then to be flesh and blood; the latter cannot inherit the Kingdom of heaven. (I Cor. 15:50). Also Christ Himself shall have a body in heaven. It will be the glorious body. But it will not be flesh and blood. (Phil. 3:21). In this latter passage we could not possibly read “His glorious flesh”. Flesh and body are not identical in Scripture as the above passage shows.

Of this more in the next issue, D. V.