The Veil of the Flesh

Isaiah 59:1-2 Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy that it cannot hear: (The truth here is) But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that He will not hear. 

Hebrews 10:20 (Speaking of Christ) By a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh;

(Here the writer of Hebrews declares that Jesus Christ has made a new and living way that we might have fellowship with God – A way which Christ hath consecrated [Note that the writer of Hebrews does not declare that we have automatically been consecrated] and this way was made through the sundering or rending of the veil of His flesh.  As we understand Christ to be our forerunner and we are to walk as He so walked, here the writer of Hebrews opens to us the truth of the veil of the flesh.

As you may be well aware in the tabernacle of Moses the holy of holies was sealed off with a thick veil behind which the Shekina of God dwelt. And later when Solomon built the temple on mount Zion this too was built in the same manner with a heavy veil behind which the Shekina of God dwelt.

1 Corinthians 3:17 If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.  

2 Corinthians 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Ephesians 2:21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: (Concerning the doctrine of the Ek-Klesia being the temple or tabernacle of God we see here that corporately it is only as the individual members of body of Christ conform and fit compactly together [Abide in Him and enter into the unity of the faith] that they are the tabernacle of God.)

Irregardless of all the religious or spiritual furniture and furnishing one church or another can amass this does not make them into the sanctified and holy tabernacle of God.  In the scheme of things they are but a common tent peg or an unsanctified vessel or utensil. 

The growth unto an holy temple is two-fold the primary understanding here is a growing together, an intermingling as in vines so that one can not see where one begins and the other ends so that together these vines have become inseparable as one just as Christ prayed for His disciples in John 15 that I might be in them and they might be in me and that my disciples may be one. 

This event has never occurred in church history. And the body of Christ has never been more divided or broken than it is today despite all the rhetoric that declares the church has never been better or more glorious than it is now.

The second interpretation of these passages as brought out in Ephesians that overshadows the primary interpretation is the word “groweth”.  The word growth implies strongly that the making of the temple in the day of Paul was yet incomplete. That in that day though they had the greatest preachers and teachers, in the day these were fed the purest doctrine, and having seen the greatest demonstration and power – that those that heard the Apostles words were not able to enter in. (Just as the majority of Israelites in the wilderness were not able to enter in. 7/07)  Not because Christ and the Apostles omitted any good thing to them, but they entered not in because of unbelief, that is faithlessness and disobedience.

And so for the last 2000 years this same thing has occurred generation upon generation and era upon era, for instead of going through the process of pruning (Repenting and cleansing and stripping themselves of death and fruitlessness 7/07)  and growing these have declared themselves full grown, fully mature, and complete, echoing the words of their fathers the Pharisees and the Laodiceans who boasted that they were rich and in need of nothing. And were thus left desolate in their sin and nakedness.

1 Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? (Here now Paul speaks individually rather than corporately and we see he says something different to the individuals within the Ek-Klesia. Individually our bodies are to be a holy of holies where the Shekina of God dwells. We say “to be” because in Ephesians 2:21 Paul speaks that corporately it is not automatic but there is a “groweth” in order to enter in. And as the church corporately has been incomplete for the last 2000 years so it is that no man since the time of Christ and the Apostles has “groweth” into this holy of holies where the Shekina of God dwells as they would stand like Moses with the radiant visible glory of God emanating from them, or be transfigured as Christ was.)

Concerning our bodies being a holy of holies we see that in 2 Corinthians 3:13-16 that besides being something that is grown in the same manner as the fruits of the Spirit that there is another function that is a bit different than the earthly tabernacle of Moses.

2 Corinthians 3:13-16 And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: (Christ so has also veiled himself from the corrupt church that they might not look to the end when the church made with hands shall be abolished) But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old (Greek Palaias Ancient or venerated) testament; (Diathekes Covenant) which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses (The word of God) is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, (This is the turning of true repentance unto full conversion) the vail shall be taken away.

And here we speak to the vail that was in the tabernacle of Moses that filtered the Shekina glory of God from the rest of the tabernacle and also the world. In us is a vail that is to say our flesh, and this vail of the flesh filters out God and the Shekina from dwelling within the holy of holies that growth into a glorious dwelling for God (If we walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh. And if we seek after the Lord with all our hearts  and following him into the baptism of His death – this veil shall be rent and the Lord of Glory shall suddenly enter into His temple.)

Christ through the rending of His flesh has made the way manifest, but it is through our entering through true sanctification, submitting to the tutor and governor of loving the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul with all our mind and all our strength and loving our neighbor as our self that we can with our whole heart and an open spirit follow the Lord into the fellowship of His sufferings, and become partakers also of the baptism of His death so that we might fearlessly preach the gospel with signs following.

This is not the message for those who love their lives and the things of this world more than they Love God and Jesus Christ. And those are not truly followers of Christ because they can not walk as He walked or go where He went.  

But there is the place where many sons shall made manifest in His Glory. Here is the place where His Glory shall suddenly enter into His temple in us and go the no more out and we shall enter into His temple and abide there and go the no more out as well.

I in He and He in me.