By Randal Seiver

All the Synoptic Gospels, in their accounts of Jesus' crucifixion, inform their readers that when Jesus had yielded up His spirit, the veil of the temple was torn in two.¹ Matthew alone adds that the earth quaked and the rocks were split (27:51). The symbolical significance of this occurrence did not escape their attention, nor should it escape ours. We intend to show that the tearing of the temple veil has profound significance for the new covenant people of God.

In order to understand and appreciate the significance of the torn veil, we first need to understand the significance of the veil itself. The veil they referred to was a thick veil made of woven linen that separated the holy place in the tabernacle from the most holy place. Into this most holy place, no one was allowed to enter except Israel's high priest. Even he could enter only once a year with the blood of a sacrifice. Only after he had made an offering for his sins could he offer the blood of a sacrifice for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. The plain significance of the linen curtain was that the old covenant could not reveal the way for the sinner's approach to God. After describing the physical arrangement of the tabernacle, the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews discloses the symbolical significance that the Holy Spirit intended to convey by this arrangement. He writes, (Hebrews 9: 6-10).

It does not require a wild imagination or inspired ingenuity to find a symbolical significance for the tabernacle veil. The text makes the Holy Spirit's intention concerning this matter very clear. It stood as a symbol of the old covenant's inability to reveal the way into God's holy presence.

The writer understood that Jehovah's intended the old covenant to emphasize His absolute holiness and unbending righteousness (2:2; 10:27-31; 12:18-21, 29). While the first tabernacle stood and the old covenant remained in force, the way into God's holy presence remained hidden; . . .the way into the Most Holy Place the had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still standing (Heb 9:8).

A Remembrance of Sin

The priests of the old covenant had to repeat the same sacrificial ritual year after year, thus signifying that God had not truly forgiven the sins for which they had offered the sacrifice. The Day of Atonement was a solemn reminder that guilty, covenant-breaking sinners could not approach a holy God.

10:1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming--not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.10:2 If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 10:3But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, 10:4because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins (Heb 10: 1-4).

The best the old covenant sacrifices could do was to provide ceremonial cleansing for sins committed unintentionally ( Heb 9:7-10). They could formally restore the relationships that had been broken between a man and his God and a man and his neighbor, but they could not take away those sins that had caused the breach. F.F. Bruce writes, Our author does not deny that such a ritual cleansing was real and effective so far as it went. What he does deny is that cleansing of this kind could be of any use for the removal of inward and spiritual defilement ²

The Nagging Conscience

One of the more important ways in which the old covenant was weak and unprofitable was its inability to quiet the nagging conscience. Under the old covenant, even the believer's conscience could not be silenced.

The word translated conscience or consciousness (syneidesis) occurs 32 times in the New Testament Scriptures (five times in this Epistle). In general, it refers to the awareness that a person possesses concerning the moral character of his actions. A person's conscience tells him whether he is guilty or innocent. His thoughts accuse or perhaps defend him (Rom 2:15). His conscience, acting apart from Scripture, is not a safe guide since it may have been wrongly instructed. Yet, it is never safe for a person to disobey his conscience. If he did so, he would be acting contrary to what he believed was right or wrong.

The function of the old covenant was to awaken the sinner's conscience to witness concerning his guiltiness before the Holy One of Israel. That God gave His covenant to Israel on tables of stone testified that the righteousness God requires is, to a sinner, merely an external code, instead of an internal, governing life principle. By instructing the Israelite's conscience, the intricacies of the Mosaic code intensified his awareness both of God's infinite holiness and of the heinousness of his transgressions. The law produced in the sinner what our author calls an evil conscience. The heart of the sinner in Israel whose conscience had been awakened by the covenant of Sinai was so overwhelmed by a sense of unpardoned guilt that drawing near to God was inconceivable. The law could not produce acceptable worship or acceptable worshippers (Heb 10:1) because it could not grant sinners a bold entrance to God's holy presence. John Brown rightly understood this relationship between the sinner's guilty conscience and his inability to draw near to God. He wrote,

'An evil conscience' is a conscience burdened and polluted with a sense of unpardoned guilt. A man who has offended God and knows this, and who has no solid ground of hope of pardon, is totally unfit for affectionate fellowship with God. His mind is a stranger to confidence and love It is full of jealousy, and fear, and dislike. The man must get rid of this 'evil conscience' in order to his coming to God.³

Under the old covenant, the believer's conscience would not allow him to enter the holy presence of God. It could not be satisfied by sacrifices he knew were inadequate to satisfy God's holy wrath for sin.

God never intended for the Israelites to believe they could appease His righteous anger by offering the blood of dumb and unwilling beasts. Until the thinking Israelite could see a correspondence between the sacrifice appointed and the awful predicament that existed because of his transgressions, his conscience could not be silenced. He had good reason to rejoice that God was pleased to continue to dwell in the camp of Israel and to receive the sacrifices He had sovereignly appointed. Still, he knew that the sacrifice appointed did not have sufficient value to take away his sins. Consider F.F. Bruce's excellent comment concerning the effect of the old covenant sacrificial system.

It was inevitable that the earlier law should be abrogated sooner or later; for all the impressive solemnity of the sacrificial ritual and the sacerdotal ministry, no real peace of conscience was procured thereby, no immediate access to God. That is not to say that faithful men and women in the Old Testament times did not enjoy peace of conscience and a sense of nearness to God; the Psalter provides evidence enough that they did. . . .But these experiences had nothing to do with the Levitical ritual or the Aaronic priesthood. The whole apparatus of worship associated with that ritual and priesthood was calculated rather to keep men at a distance from God than to bring the near.⁴

The Shadow and the Substance

If the Levitical system could have met the needs of sinning Israelites, then it would have been the substance not the shadow. As the author argues in Hebrews 7:11, there would have been no need for another priest, if the Levitical priesthood had been able to accomplish the task of bringing sinners to God. He wrote, If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the law was given to the people) why was there still need for another priest to come. . . ? The effect of the ceremonies of the Levitical system should have been to cause dissatisfied Israel to look for a sacrifice that could silence the nagging conscience by canceling guilt completely. Instead, come to whom this epistle was addressed had become infatuated with the shadows when they should have been enthralled by the substance.

As long as the old covenant remained in force, the veil that concealed the most holy place gave profound symbolical testimony to the old covenant's inability to quiet the guilty conscience and grant boldness to sinners in their approach to God.

There are also redemptive historical implications to the presence of the veil in the temple. The author of Hebrews writes,

This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings external regulations applying until the time of the new order (Heb 9:9-10).

The fleshly ordinances of the old covenant cultus applied until the time of the new order. Their inability to clear the conscience was witnessed by the veil that hung in the temple. As long as the tent was standing, as long as the veil hung in the temple, the old order was still in force.

The tearing of the temple veil is full of significance for the new covenant people of God. The radical shaking that accompanied this event (cf. Heb 12:25-29), as well as the event itself, bears eloquent testimony that the redemptive work of Christ effected far more than a mere change of administration within an overarching covenant of grace. His redemptive word was a divine intervention in history that inaugurated a new age; a new creation. Those who belong to this new creation are heirs of better promises that are granted by a new and better covenant. The old order has passed away, and the new order has come to stay.

The tearing of the temple veil amounted to an unemployment notice. It was a public announcement to the priest of the Levitical order that their services were no longer needed. It said to them, You don't work here anymore! Another priest has risen who by His one act of sacrifice has accomplished what all you priests of the old order have failed to do. All your priestly service and all the sacrifices you have offered, continually, have failed to clear the sinner's conscience and give him bold access into God's presence. Those priests stand daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, . . . (Heb 10:11-12). For the Law. since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near (Heb 10:1). Isaac Watts wrote,

Not all the blood of beasts
On Jewish altars slain,
Could give the guilty conscience peace,
Or wash away the stain:

But Christ, the heav'nly Lamb
Takes all our sins away,
A sacrifice of nobler name
And richer blood than they.

The writer to the Hebrews argues that the coming of another priest of a different priestly order points to the inadequacy of the existing order. He writes.

7:11If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the law was given to the people), why was there still need for another priest to come--one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron? . . . 7:18The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless 7:19 (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God. (Heb 7:11; 18-19).

Ebrard, commenting on the weakness and uselessness of the law, has written,

The law in every respect opened up and imposed a number of problems without solving any of them. It set up in the decalogue the ideal of a holy life, but it gave no power to realize that ideal. By the law of sacrifice it awakened the consciousness of the necessity of an atonement; but it provided no true, valid offering for sin. In the institution of the priesthood it held forth the necessity of a representation of the sinner before God; but it gave no priest able to save men [completely]. In short, it left everything unfinished.⁵

The presence of the temple veil gave profound testimony to the old covenant's inability to give sinners confident access into God's presence. The priests of that order could never with those sacrifices they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. Likewise, the rending of the veil announced a new hope by which we draw near to God. When God tore the veil in two, He was announcing that all the problems raised by the law have now been answered in Christ.

The tearing of the temple veil also signified that the new order had been established. As a result, the most holy place on earth during the old covenant order was no longer holy. This is true, not in the sense that Jesus took that which was holy and made it profane. The Most Holy Place lost its sacredness because, for the new covenant believer, Jesus has sanctified the entire earth and everything in it. Now, every place is holy, every food is holy, every day is holy, every believer is holy and every calling is holy. To the Corinthians Paul wrote, FOR THE EARTH IS THE LORD'S, AND ALL IT CONTAINS. (1 Cor 10:26). Psalm 24, the Psalm from which Paul quoted these words, is a typical Psalm that finds its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus' inauguration of His mediatorial kingdom and His ascension to the throne of glory. Since the dawn of time, it has been true that the earth and all it contains belongs to Jehovah because He created it. Now, because of Jesus' redemptive accomplishments, it is true in an even higher sense. Now, for the believer, nothing is common or profane in itself (See Romans 14:14).

Every Place is Holy

It is clear that under the old covenant God designated certain places as holy places. The chambers of the tabernacle proper are the holy places (Exo 26:33), Jerusalem is the holy city (Neh 11:1); the hill of Zion is God's holy hill (Psa 2:6), Palestine is the holy land (Zech 2:12); etc. When the Samaritan woman (John 4) asks Jesus about the proper place to worship God, He answers decisively, Salvation is of the Jews [not the Samaritans] (v. 22). In this way, He let her know that Jerusalem, not Mount Gerizim, was God's appointed place of worship. During the old covenant period, worship offered in any other place was false worship. Yet, Jesus informs this woman that both her question and His answer were about to become outdated. In fact, he announces the obsolescence of all such questions.

4:21Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.4:22You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 4:23Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 4:24God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth" (John 4:21-24).

The hour about which Jesus spoke has come. It is not that there is no longer a holy place of worship. Instead, every place that God's people meet for worship is a holy place. A grand cathedral is no more holy [often less so] than a humble barn as a place of new covenant worship. A modest room is transformed into a sacred temple whenever one of God's people lifts his heart to praise and adore his Savior. All ground is holy ground for the new covenant believer.

Every Food is Holy

Christ in the new covenant makes no distinction between clean and unclean foods. For the new covenant believer, Jesus has made all things clean. Nothing is now common or unclean. The Lord said to Peter, What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy (Acts 10:15). Similarly, Paul wrote to Timothy,

For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected, if it is received with gratitude; for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer (1 Tim 4:4-5).

Now for the believer, every meal is a sacred banquet in honor of the Lord, Christ. The believer eats whatever food he has chosen as unto the Lord and gives God thanks (Rom 14:6).

Every Day is Holy

It seems clear that the early new covenant believers regarded the first day of the week as a day of special celebration. It was on this day that Jesus rose from the dead and inaugurated the new creation over which He now reigns as Lord. There is a special sense in which the first day of the week is the Lord's day. When God's people gather for corporate worship on the first day of the week, we celebrate our Lord's resurrection and the new creation rest into which we have now entered by faith. Yet, that rest does not come to an end when the sun sinks below the horizon on the first day of the week. By faith, the believer in Christ has now entered God's own rest, of which the old covenant Sabbath was only a faint and fleeting emblem. Now every day is the Lord's Day. Every day is holy!

Every Believer is Holy

Unlike the old covenant situation in which some of God's people were more holy than others, there are now no special priests among God's people who represent the others and carry out religious functions on their behalf. Every new covenant believer is to offer God rational worship that is holy and acceptable (Rom 12:1). Under the old covenant God's chosen servants (prophets, priests, and kings) received an anointing with holy oil, symbolizing that God has given His Spirit to enable them in their task. These chosen servants acted as holy representatives for the others. Under the new covenant, every believer has been anointed by the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 1:22). Moses' wish, Would that all the LORD'S people were prophets, that the LORD would put his Spirit upon them! (Numbers 11:29), was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost when the Spirit was given to every believer. Now there are no holy representatives for the people of God. Every believer is holy. Elders do not, or at least should not, act as priests for the church. Nor do they have a right to act as kings over God's heritage. An elder is merely a member of the flock whom God has gifted to teach or to lead the flock.

Every Calling is Holy

In keeping with the preceding section, we must note that every calling is holy. We are often told that to be called as a Pastor or a missionary is the highest calling anyone can receive. Yet, for the new covenant believer, every calling is holy. For those in Christ, the most menial task is an act of sacred worship. The Christian husband who has reached middle age and has begun to be bored with the humdrum of his chosen profession needs to remember that he serves the Lord, Christ. The Apostle Paul wrote,

3:23Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men; 3:24since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving (Col 3:23-24).

The slave may exult that he is the Lord's freeman (1 Cor 7:22). His bonds cannot prevent his offering of acceptable sacrifice to God.. The Christian wife and mother can find fulfillment while she prepares meals, washes dishes, or changes dirty diapers, when she remembers that in performing these tasks, she renders acceptable worship to the Lord of the Church.

The work of bringing sinners into favor with God and granting them access into his holy presence is God's work alone. Matthew tells us that the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom (Matt 27:51). This is significant because it informs us that there was a thorough tearing of the veil. Additionally, it is meaningful because it shows that the work of saving sinners is not a work that originates on earth and ascends to heaven. All earth born efforts to merit God's smile are sure to fail. It is heaven that initiates the work of salvation, and it is heaven that brings it to completion. The most vigorous human exertion and the best of human intentions cannot merit the expression of God's mercy toward sinners. Paul wrote, So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy (Rom 9:16). The writer to the Hebrews makes it clear that it was God, not the sinner, who opened the new and living way into the heavenly holy of holies through the sacrifice of Calvary. He writes, Since, therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, . . . (Heb 10:19-20). Only God Himself could remove the barriers that blocked the sinner's access into His holy presence. Only He could cancel the sinner's guilt and quiet his nagging conscience. Only He could give His people confidence to come into the presence of absolute holiness.

The verses we have quoted in the preceding section from the Epistle to the Hebrews not only teach us that salvation is God's work. They also teach us that God's new covenant people may now have free and confident access into His holy presence. Not only has God removed the veil; He has canceled the believer's guilt and forever silenced the nagging conscience that kept him at a distance from God. When the writer tells us that God has opened for us a new and living way through the veil, that is, His flesh, he wants us to understand that it is through Jesus sacrificial death that God grants sinners access into His presence. The point of resemblance between the torn temple veil and Jesus' flesh is this: Through Jesus' redemptive sacrifice in which His flesh was torn for our sins, we now have free access into God's sanctuary. Commenting on these words, John Owen wrote,

The time when the high priest entered into it, [the veil], it was indeed turned aside; whereon it immediately closed again, and forbade an entrance and a prospect unto others. Wherefore there could be no entrance into that holy place abiding, unless the veil was rent and torn in pieces, so that it could close no more. For it came to pass on the death of the Lord Jesus, that 'the veil of the temple was rent from the top to the bottom.' And that which is signified hereby is only this, that by virtue of the sacrifice of Christ, wherein His flesh was torn and rent, we have a full entrance into the holy place, such as would have been of old upon the rending of the veil.⁶

Everything about the law said stay away. Everything about the gospel says . . .let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (Heb 10:22).Jesus, our great priest, has removed every obstacle that hindered our confident approach to God. Let us therefore approach God's gracious throne with confidence, that we may receive mercy and find grace that provides timely help for our needs (Heb 4:16).

Turn then my soul into thy rest;
The merits of thy great High Priest
Speak peace and liberty;
Trust in his efficacious blood,
Nor fear thy banishment from God,
Since Jesus died for thee.

A.M. Toplady

Brown, John. The Epistle to the Hebrews. Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, reprinted., 1972.

Bruce, F.F. The Epistle to the Hebrews. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 1964.

Owen, John. An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews. Evansville, IN: Sovereign Grace Publishers, reprinted., 1960.

1 Matthew 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45.
2 F.F. Bruce. The Epistle to the Hebrews. (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964), p 218.
3 John Brown. The Epistle to the Hebrews, (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, reprinted. 1972), p. 461.
4 Bruce. Hebrews,1964, pp. 148ff.
5 John Brown, The Epistle to the Hebrews, (London: The Banner of Truth Trust, reprinted., 1972), p. 344.
6 John Owen, An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews, (Evansville, IN: Sovereign Grace Publishers, reprinted., 1960), p. 506.