The Body of Christ Torn to Open a Living Way

 
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When God ripped open the inner veil of the Temple, he showed the Jewish priests and people, and later the Gentiles, that the way into God’s most holy dwelling-place, heaven itself, is not through the Temple veil anymore, but through Christ the New and Living Way .

Exodus 26:31-33; Matthew 27:51-54; Hebrews 10:19-25 (text)

© Rev. Nollie Malabuyo • April 3, 2015 • April 2, 2010

Introduction

In Manila, there is an amusing, yet foreboding, street sign on major roads that says, “No Crossing: You Will Die.” The Old Testament Temple has such a warning in the form of a curtain that bars the entrance to the Holy of Holies, “Unauthorized Persons Keep Out! You Will Die.” Although Matthew, Mark and Luke devote only one verse each to the tearing of the Temple curtain, its immensity cannot be overlooked when harmonized with the rest of the Scriptures.

After Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” and was given drink for his thirst, he “yielded up his spirit.” For three hours before his death, there was darkness in the land. Two more cosmic upheavals followed his death. First, there was a great earth­quake which shattered rocks and opened the tombs, from where Old Testament saints were raised. Matthew does not give details on who these were, how many, and what happened to them afterward. Did they die again, or were they all lifted up to heaven? No one knows.

Another great cosmic upheaval followed Christ’s death. It may not be as great as “dark­ness over all the land,” or as a big earthquake, but in the spiritual realm, it was one of the huge turning points in redemptive history. Matthew tells us that “the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.” What is so important about this seemingly insignificant event that compelled Matthew (also Mark 15:38 and Luke 23:45) to tell us about it?

Matthew was talking about the curtain of the Tabernacle in the wilderness, and later the Temple of Jerusalem, that separated two of the three sections of both structures. The first section, the front part called the courtyard, is accessible only through an entrance curtain. A second curtain separated the middle section, called the Holy Place, from the third section, called the Most Holy Place or the Holy of Holies. These two curtains segregate those who are allowed entrance into the three different sections in decreasing numbers, but in increasing degrees of holiness: all of God’s people in the courtyard, the priests in the Holy Place, and only the high priest in the Most Holy Place.

The curtains were beautifully embroidered with purple, blue and scarlet yarns, all three colors signifying Christ’s redemptive work. Blue is the color of heaven, the place where the true Temple resides, where he will take all those who worship him as Lord. Those who worship him as Lord on earth and in heaven also bow to him as their eternal King, signified in royal purple. And not only is he Lord and King; with his shed blood as the once for all sacrifice for sin, signified in the red yarns, he saved his people from sin and death.

Access to the Holy of Holies is given by God only to the high priest as he enters it once a year on the Day of Atonement to sprinkle the sacrificial blood on the mercy seat for the people and for himself (Heb 9:7). As he fearfully enters the Most Holy Place through the curtain, he enters the dwelling-place of God in which is the Ark of the Covenant, above which are the cherubim who keep away unholy people from God’s consuming presence. The veil serves as a warning to all God’s people, “Unauthorized Persons Keep Out!” Any other person entering would be killed, and any mistake, intentional or unintentional, by the high priest while performing his duties would also mean death.

This then is the curtain of the Temple—exceedingly rich in its foreshadowing of Christ’s redemptive work—that Matthew describes as being torn from top to bottom when Christ died on the cross. It is as if God’s hands from above took hold of it and rent it violently from top to bottom, exposing the once-forbidden and once-hidden Most Holy Place.

Christ’s Body is the Curtain

What is so important about the tearing of the curtain of the Temple that Matthew, Mark and Luke have to mention it in their crucifixion accounts? Hebrews 10:19-20 explains:

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh…

In his death, the body of Christ was torn and “broken” for the complete forgiveness of our sins. Commenting on the bread of the Lord’s Supper, Paul says, “The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Cor 10:16). And again, he quotes Jesus when he instituted the Holy Communion, “and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, ‘This is my body which is broken for you’” (1 Cor 11:24).

The writer of Hebrews says that the curtain of the Temple torn at Christ’s death signifies the body of Christ broken and the blood of Christ shed on the cross for the sins of his people. All the design, materials, furniture, and utensils used in the construction of the Temple represented the person and redemptive work of Christ. What seemed incidental and unimportant in the Gospel accounts about the tearing apart of the curtain would later be revealed by the writer of Hebrews as one of the major scenes in the drama of Christ’s death on the cross.

When God ripped open the inner veil of the Temple, he showed the Jewish priests and people that the way into God’s most holy dwelling-place, heaven itself, is not through the Temple anymore. He is teaching the Gentiles that now, they are not “alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12), but are “fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Eph 2:19). Through the body of Christ broken on the cross, both Jews and Gentiles can now enter the God’s Most Holy Place, his throne of grace in heaven, and “tabernacle” with him (John 1:14). “God with us,” Immanuel, is now a partial reality not in the Temple, but in every place where God’s people worship him in spirit and truth (John 4:23). And in the day of Christ, God dwelling with his people in the Holy of Holies will be a full reality, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Rev 21:3).

Because the way into the Holy of Holies is now open to God’s people through Christ’s crucified and resurrected body, the office of an earthly high priest who brings the sacrifices of God’s people has become obsolete. In fact, the Old Testament Temple and all of its sacrifices are now obsolete since these are mere foreshadows of Christ and his redemptive work. This is why in A.D. 70, about 40 years after Christ’s body was broken on the cross and the veil of the Temple was torn in two, the Temple itself was broken completely by the Roman army. Never ever will another Temple be built because now Christ is the Temple (John 2:19-21), God’s people is the Temple (2 Cor 6:16), and in the age to come, God himself and the Lamb will be the Temple in the new heaven and new earth (Rev 21:22).

After Christ’s body was broken and the Temple curtain was torn, a “new and living way” was opened for God’s people to enter the Most Holy Place. It is a new way because the old way through a high priest performing animal sacrifices has ceased, and the new way through Christ the Eternal High Priest offering his once-for-all sacrifice on the cross was inaugurated. It is a living way because the entrance into God’s presence is not through dead animals but through a Lamb slain and then raised from the dead (Gen 3:15; Rev 5:12). As well, the high priest of the Temple served only until he died and then was replaced by another, while Christ the High Priest is a priest forever (Heb 7:23-24), having the power of an “indestructible life” (Heb 7:16). After his resurrection, he lives forever!

After Christ died on the cross and was raised from the grave on the third day, he ascended into the Most Holy Place, which represented heaven: “He entered once for all into the holy places… into heaven itself” (Heb 9:12, 24). He is now leading a procession of his holy ones into the Most Holy Place. His holy ones now have confidence and boldness to enter it.

Our Response

As people who have been given confidence to enter into God’s presence by the work of Christ on the cross, how are we to respond to this blessing?

First, draw near to God. How? Not with presumption and pride, but “with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb 10:22). Only by faith in Christ are our hearts sprinkled clean and our bodies washed with pure water, a sure allusion to water baptism. As God’s people who have been cleansed of sin, we have confidence to draw near to God to “receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:16) when we need forgiveness, strength in faith, and help and perseverance during trials and sufferings. We also have confidence that we are not under God’s wrath when we enter God’s heavenly places, since those who are clean and perfect in Christ can enter. At Mount Sinai, the Israelites had to purify themselves first with animal sacrifices before they can draw near God’s holy mountain, lest as sinners, they be consumed by God’s holiness (Exod 19:12-23).

Second, hold fast the confession. When we draw near to God, it means that we want to hear him speak and then respond to his word. God has spoken in these last days through his Son whose body was broken for us so we would have confidence to draw near to him. And our confession is the words of his Son in the Scriptures read by us and preached by his apostles and now his ministers. Just as the Hebrews were exhorted to be firm in the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints, we too are to hold fast to this confession without wavering, even in the midst of false teachings, persecutions and sufferings.

Third, stir up one another in the church. Christ’s body was broken and his blood shed on the cross for his church, his holy nation, not just for individual sinners (Eph 5:25). When we enter the Most Holy Place, we enter as the church in corporate worship of the Lamb who was slain. Therefore, we are to “exhort one another every day… that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Heb 3:13). We are to love one another, to do good works for one another, to regularly assemble to hear the confession of our faith and participate in the sacraments, and to strengthen each other’s faith. We are to do these things until the day of Christ’s return, because the deceitfulness of sin that weakens our confession will not cease until that day comes.

Beloved people of God, today we see all around us people walking in the scorching heat of day in a pilgrimage to a church, fasting, flogging themselves bloody with nails, and even having themselves crucified. All of these penances—even making the ultimate sacrifice of death—for the forgiveness of sins will be for nothing, and all these people are still hell-bound. Only one sacrifice is acceptable to God: Christ’s sacrifice. The only way for sinners to enter the heavenly places is through Christ’s body broken and his blood shed on the cross.

How is a sinner able to enter? Through faith in Christ, who alone has done everything God requires for our salvation, we are able to enter the Holy of Holies. No amount of tears shed for a crucified man, no fasting, no pilgrimage, no self-flagellation, no crucifixion—no, not even death—could add to his perfect, completed work to atone for the sins of his people.

Not the labors of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no languor know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone. (“Rock of Ages” by Augustus Toplady, 1776)