The Temple in the Bible

The Torn Veil: The Way Into God's Presence Opened

At the moment Jesus died on the cross, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. This was the great curtain that had guarded the holy of holies, the inner room where God's presence dwelt, which only the high priest could enter, once a year, with blood. Its tearing, from top to bottom, was God's own declaration that the way into His presence, once barred, was now opened through the death of Christ. The New Testament reads it exactly so: we may enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus.

At the moment of Jesus' death, the Gospels record a sign in the temple itself:

And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;Matthew 27:51 (KJV)

The veil that barred the way

Within the temple hung a great and heavy veil, a woven curtain that separated the holy place from the holy of holies, the innermost room where the presence of God dwelt above the mercy seat. This veil was the sharpest symbol of the barrier between a holy God and sinful people. Behind it, no one could go. Only the high priest passed through it, and only on one day of the year, the Day of Atonement, and never without the blood of sacrifice, which he sprinkled on the mercy seat for his own sins and the sins of the people.

The veil preached a solemn sermon every day: God is holy, the way to Him is not open, and sin keeps us out. For all its glory, the temple was a place of distance as much as nearness. The barrier stood, and the ordinary worshiper could never pass it.

The moment it was torn

Then, at the ninth hour, as Jesus cried out and gave up His spirit on the cross, something happened in the temple across the city. Matthew records it: the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent. Mark and Luke record the same. The great curtain that had barred the way for a thousand years was torn in two.

The detail that it was torn from the top to the bottom is deliberate and profound. No human hand reaching up could have done it; the tearing came from above, from God Himself. It was not people forcing their way into God's presence but God opening the way to people. And it happened at the exact moment of Christ's death, tying the two events together as cause and effect: because Jesus died, the way in was opened.

What the tearing meant

The tearing of the veil was God's public announcement that the work of the temple was done. The whole system of sacrifice had pointed toward one final offering, and now that offering had been made. The blood of bulls and goats, which could never take away sins, had done its work of teaching and was set aside; the blood of Christ, offered once for all, had opened what all that blood could only picture.

The barrier between God and man had not been ignored or lowered; it had been dealt with. Sin, which kept us out, was borne by Christ on the cross, and so the very ground of our exclusion was removed. The holy of holies stood open, not because God had become less holy, but because the price of drawing near had been paid in full.

Boldness to enter

The letter to the Hebrews makes the meaning explicit, and it is worth hearing in full. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. Hebrews reads the torn veil as the flesh of Christ, torn in death, through which we now pass into the presence of God.

The change is total. Under the old covenant, one man, once a year, could enter the earthly holy of holies. Under the new, every believer, at any moment, may come with boldness into the true presence of God, because the way has been opened by the blood of Jesus. What the high priest could barely do, the humblest Christian may now do freely, for Christ has gone in before us and opened the way.

The Day of Atonement fulfilled

To feel the full weight of the torn veil, remember what it once guarded. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest and no one else passed through that veil into the holy of holies, and never without blood, which he offered first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people. Every other day of the year the veil stood shut. The whole nation lived with that closed curtain as the sign that the way to God was not yet open, that sin still stood between them and His presence.

The letter to the Hebrews takes up this exact picture and shows it fulfilled. Christ, it says, being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, entered in once into the holy place, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption for us. The yearly ritual that could never finish its work is answered by a single, unrepeatable act. Christ is at once the high priest who enters, the sacrifice whose blood is offered, and the new and living way through the veil. When the earthly veil tore at the moment of His death, it was the visible sign that the heavenly reality had been accomplished: the true holy of holies stood open, and it would never be shut again. The Day of Atonement, kept for centuries in shadow, had found its substance in the cross.

How it points to Christ

The torn veil is one of the clearest fulfilments in all of Scripture, told by the Gospel writers and interpreted by Hebrews. It gathers up the whole meaning of the temple and hands it to the cross. The temple had said, both come near and keep out. The cross tore the veil and said, come in. The distance that sin had built, Christ removed by His death.

This is why the temple could pass away without loss. Its deepest purpose, to bring people into the presence of God, was not abolished but fulfilled and surpassed. The veil is torn; the way is open; and the invitation of the whole gospel is that anyone, of any nation, may now draw near to God through Jesus Christ, who is both the sacrifice that was offered and the new and living way into the holiest.

Think of what that torn curtain means for the fearful and the guilty. For centuries the message of the veil was, you cannot come in. In one moment, at the death of the Son of God, that message was reversed for ever: now you may come, and come boldly. Not because sin has been made small, but because it has been fully borne. The distance you could never close from your side has been closed from God's side, at infinite cost. The invitation is not to the worthy but to the willing, not to those who have earned it but to all who will come through the way that has been opened. Because the veil is torn, no one who comes to God through Christ will ever be turned away.

A note for all traditions: the history above (the temples, their building, their destruction, and the rebuilding) is told as Scripture and the record present it. Where the New Testament states plainly that the temple is fulfilled in Christ, that is named as fulfilment; where a connection is a reflection rather than a direct statement, it is offered as such. The one Lord of the whole story, from Solomon to the new Jerusalem, is Jesus Christ, and every believer is called to draw near to God through him.

Read on: Jesus and the temple · Christ our temple · The Veil in the tabernacle · The Temple in the Bible