How many only look through the veil of religion, ritual, or relatives’ traditions. Why are so many people satisfied with living their lives in the outer court? They know about God but don’t really know God. Some even read the Word of God but there is a veil covering their mind and heart. (II Corinthians 3:7-15) A veil of religion, pride, unbelief, and sin darkens the understanding of multitudes to the truth. What is the answer? “But whenever a man turns to the Lord the veil is taken away” (II Corinthians 3:16 NASB).

Notice the glorious results when the veil is taken away – there is liberty, a consuming love for the Lord, and life transformation. “Now the Lord is the Spirit; where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (II Corinthians 3:17-18 NASB). Take off the veil and experience liberty, all consuming love for the Lord, and a life that is being transformed day by day into the very image of Christ. When the veil is taken away, the Word of God will become alive to you and in you.

Something powerful and glorious happened when Jesus died on the cross as our substitute. “Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Mark 15:37-38 NRSV). One of my favorite writers, A. W. Tozer, had this to say: “The interior journey of the soul from the wilds of sin into the enjoyed Presence of God is beautifully illustrated in the Old Testament tabernacle. The returning sinner first entered the outer court where he offered a blood sacrifice on the brazen altar and washed himself in the laver that stood near it. Then through a veil he passed into the holy place where no natural light could come, but the golden candlestick which spoke of Jesus the Light of the World threw its soft glow over all.

There also was the showbread to tell of Jesus, the Bread of Life, and the altar if incense, a figure of unceasing prayer . . . Another veil separated from the Holy of Holies where above the mercy seat dwelt the very God Himself in awful and glorious manifestation. While the tabernacle stood, only the high priest could enter there, and that but once a year, with blood which he offered for his sins and the sins of the people. It was this last veil which was rent when our Lord gave up the ghost on Calvary and . . . this rending of the veil opened the way for every worshipper in the world to come by the new and living way straight into the divine Presence.”

Friend, the barrier between God and man is gone. When Jesus died, the veil in the temple, 60 feet tall and 30 feet wide, was ripped in two from top to bottom. We are welcome to enter God’s presence through the sacrifice of Christ. God has removed the veil that separated us from Him. The barrier of sin is gone. Don’t live in the “outer court”. Come into the Holy of Holies of His presence through repentance and faith in Christ.