“And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed his last.  Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.” 

Mark 15: 37-38 NKJV

The veil in the Temple was a massive curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies.  It was the most sacred place in the Temple.  God’s Presence filled that place!  Only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies.  He could only enter once a year on the Day of Atonement, when the sacrificial lamb was slain for the sins of the nation.  The High Priest would then take the blood of that lamb that had been slain and place it upon the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies. Scholars tell us that the thickness of that curtain was as much as 6 inches.   The veil separated the people from the Presence of God.

When Jesus died on the cross, the veil in the Temple in Jerusalem was torn in two from top to bottom!   It was torn from top to bottom because God was the One who tore it open.  Not man! Jesus had become the sacrificial Lamb of God on the cross!   The torn veil signified that access into God’s Presence was now open for everyone!   

Now that the veil is torn, anyone who has surrendered to Christ has the Blood of the Lamb applied to their heart!   That Blood now makes one Holy in the sight of God!  Because the redeemed have been made holy through the Blood of Christ,  we now have access into the very Presence of the Living God.   We can come without fear, guilt, shame, or condemnation!   What a great blessing it is to have access into the very Presence of God!   May we take the opportunity of entering into His Presence daily. 

“I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

Gal. 2:20 KJV

In this passage, Paul uses the present tense to describe the genuine reality of the Christian life. He declares, “I am crucified with Christ…”.  Crucifixion meant death!   The crucifixion of his own life was not something that was going to happen.  It had already happened!   It was a past, present, and ongoing reality in his life.   Paul had experienced the power of the crucified life!  

All of his life, Paul had sought to please God by being religious, knowing and keeping the Law of God. But he was also painfully aware of his inability to fully keep the Law. He sought to find acceptance before God by striving to keep the Law better than anyone else. But despite all his efforts, he still was not certain he had done enough to be pleasing and acceptable to God.

But when the risen Christ confronted him on the road to Damascus (Acts 9,) everything changed. For the first time in his life, he understood the full weight of his sinfulness. And at the same time, he understood the powerful grace of God that forgave him and cleansed him of his sin!   On that road to Damascus, Paul had died.  He had been crucified with Christ.  And a new man was now alive in him, the risen Christ (2 Cor. 5:17).   As a result, Paul was radically transformed by the power of Christ. 

To be crucified with Christ means that we have died (in Christ) to the old life of the old man and are now surrendered to the new life of Christ who now lives within us!  This life is an ever-present, daily, ongoing reality in our lives. (1 Cor. 15:31).  It is the only place of liberty and the only place of life (Rom.14:8).  To be crucified with Christ means we have died to ourselves and are now alive in Christ and have the privilege of knowing Him, following Him, and experiencing Him in our daily life!   

James W.Black

“For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” 

Philippians 1:21 KJV

As followers of Christ, we often speak about the freedom we have in Christ.  We know that we are free from the penalty of our sin as well as the guilt, shame, and condemnation our sin produced in our lives. (Rom.8:1).  However,  sometimes God’s people struggle to walk in that freedom.  The struggle is not with the fact of our freedom but with the implementation of that freedom in everyday life.

The Word of God, however, explains to us the place we must come to if we are to actually experience that freedom. The place we must come to is the place where all that matters to us is Christ.  Paul had come to that place. He had come to the place in his life-changing encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus (Acts 9).  From that moment on Christ was more than a creed or a religion.    Christ was the resurrected, living, and glorified Lord!    Paul would never be the same again!   

Paul had come to the place where his past did not matter; his accomplishments did not matter; his position in society did not matter and his current circumstances did not matter (Phil. 3: 4-9).  All that mattered to him was Christ.  Christ was not just a part of his life.  Christ had actually become his life.  Because Paul fully understood that his life was in now Christ and that he now belonged to Christ, then nothing else really mattered.  (Phil. 4:12).

If Christ wanted him to live, then he would live for Christ.   And if Christ wanted him to die, then he would die for Christ.  So, whether he lived or whether he died it did not matter.  Either way, he belonged to Christ and would submit to whatever Christ wanted for his life. 

When we come to that place (the place where all that matters is Christ), then there is absolutely nothing in this life that can touch us. We are His and He is ours and there is absolutely nothing in this world or the next that can separate us from Him!  (Rom. 8: 36-39). That is the ultimate place of freedom!