LIBERATION ON THE CROSS

Matthew 27:50-53

And Jesus cried out again in loud voice and yielded His spirit. And behold the veil of the temple was torn in two form from top to bottom, and the earth shook and the rock split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many Holy people who had died were raised to life.

Surrounding Christ’s death on the cross, was a chain of miraculous events that gave themselves testimony to the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, His claim as son of God,as a result, to the fact of the redemption that comes through faith in Him.

When Jesus gave up His spirit, the curtain of the temple is ripped in half from top to bottom, likely signifying that a new access to God for both gentiles and Jews has been opened up by the death of Jesus as well as God’s judgement on the temple. Matthew next reports an earthquake as God opens up the tombs any many people who had died were raised to life. This points to the beginning of a new age of salvation where Christ resurrection guarantees the future resurrection of God’s people.

The veil was a covering, a concealment and the barrier that stood between the Holy of Hollie’s. It spoke of the barrier that separate man from God. In the Old Testament ritual, it showed the way into God’s presence was not yet open.

Please read Hebrew 9:1-14

The congregation of Israel assembled in the court and daily the priest entered the Holy place ministering according to their office. Into the Holy of Hollie’s no one was allowed except the high priest and he was only allowed once a year, on the Day of Atonement. Each year in this day the high priest would come with blood from alter of sacrifice and with smoke of incense from alter of incenses which would be placed in the Holy of Hollie’s. This spoke of the person of Christ, who through death opened the way into God’s presence. Hebrews 10:20

By a new and living way opened for us through curtains, that is, His body. It spoke of Christ as God’s way into his presence, but it also manifested the fact that Christ became new barrier since there’s no salvation apart from personal faith in Christ.

The tearing of the veil from top to bottom showed that the way into God’s presence has been opened by the death of Christ, the perfect substitution, so all men may now have fellowship with the Father through His son. Hebrews 9:14-15 (read) clearly showed that the barrier which separate man from God had been removed and effectively dealt with once and for all. It shows that Christ sacrifice was final and all sufficient sacrifice. It signifies that not only was He the fulfillment of all the old testament types and pictures, but that no other form of human work or system of religion opened the way into God’s presence. Christ work was a work of God. Christ’s work was sufficient and complete. No human work or religion system could ever accomplish what God had done in Christ.

Thus let’s fully understand this:

Jesus Christ, the incarnate, paid fully penalty for men’s sins when He died on the cross of Calvary. Any person who, in simple faith, trust in the risen Christ as their only hope of heaven, refusing to trust in anything else, receives the gift of internal life which, once granted, can never be lost.

By Thuli Maphanga.