The Third Day

 

Chapter Two

THE VEIL

 

It is obvious that the veil in the Tabernacle and Temple, represent for us a VEIL OF IGNORANCE. Physically, the veil was simply a heavy curtain and from a strength point of view, could easily be brushed aside by any man. For this reason, the veil itself had no power to restrict entry to the Most Holy Place where God dwelt. If we wanted to keep people out of a place we would use a very strong barrier of wood or even steel and stronger locks to make the barrier impregnable.

 

Could it be that God never had any real desire to exclude man from his presence at all? After all, I am sure God could have devised a far better barrier if this was indeed his purpose. What then does this VEIL actually represent for us in the pattern of the Tabernacle. Under the Old Covenant, the High Priest was the only man who was given the right to enter into the Holy of Holies, and then only once a year. Therefore we know that God's presence was not designed to be a total exclusion zone for man. Now the High Priest of the Old Testament was himself a TYPE of one that was to come, which is Jesus Christ. Every year on the Day of Atonement, there had to be a sacrifice made for the sins of the people as well as for the High Priest, before he could enter into the Most Holy Place.

 

BUT THIS MAN, Jesus Christ, after he had made one sacrifice for sins forever, not only entered into the Most Holy Place, BUT HE SAT DOWN ON THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD!! Heb 10:12-13. This is a most instructive statement and we need to understand what the Spirit is saying to us today. For the first time God allowed someone to share the secret place of his divine presence. Not just as a fleeting visit, but to remain there on a permanent basis, in a relationship which was not even for shadowed under the Old Covenant. To sit in the presence of God implies an equality with God that was never before revealed. On the "RIGHT HAND" of God, suggests the place of authority, and so the scripture adds, "From that time there is an expectation that all enemies of the seated one will become subjected to him." Heb 10:13.

 

Now we are discovering the reality of this THIRD DAY into which we are moving. For some 6000 years of history man has believed he had been evicted from the Garden of Eden and thus from the presence of God. However 2000 years ago there came a MAN born of a woman who declared he came down from HEAVEN. He said, "No man has ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven, even the SON OF MAN WHICH IS IN HEAVEN." Jn 3:13. His name is JESUS.

 

He confounded the people of his day by claiming that he existed BEFORE ABRAHAM. Such a concept today still causes consternation, when ever it is mentioned that ALL mankind has existed since the day God said, "Let us make MAN in our image and after our likeness." No, I am not suggesting we existed in the form we have today, for having come out of GOD we must originally have been SPIRIT. Now if you have ears to hear listen to what the spirit is saying to us today.

 

God only created ONE SON, not two or a thousand, ONLY ONE, and he is referred to as the ONLY BEGOTTEN SON OF GOD. Then where did all the other sons come from, for are we not called, "THE SONS OF GOD?" 1 Jn 3:2. The answer is that every other SON was created IN THAT ONE SON. Paul declares this truth in Eph 2:10. "We were CREATED IN CHRIST JESUS." Beloved you were IN CHRIST in the very beginning, as SPIRIT waiting for the moment of our manifestation as the dwelling place of God on the earth.

 

Christ who was called the WORD or LOGOS by John, was in the beginning with GOD and WAS GOD. Just think about it for a moment, we began existence IN CHRIST who is the same substance as the FATHER, who IS SPIRIT. This is the THIRD DAY beloved, the day of RESURRECTION, when the CHRIST came forth triumphant over hell and death. He could say, "I am he that LIVETH and was dead, and behold I AM ALIVE FOR EVERMORE, AMEN, and have the keys of hell and death." Rev 1:18. This is the THIRD DAY for us also, who WERE RAISED IN HIM ON THAT RESURRECTION DAY.

 

Now this only begotten Son was told he had dominion over all the works of God’s hands, and there is no mention of any ENEMY. But let us pursue this amazing truth a little further. God said to him, "Be fruitful and replenish or fill the earth." Now most Christians today believe this simply involved Adam and Eve having children and they then have children etc etc. So we have these childish questions about where Cain’s wife came from? I want to tell you, God’s plan and purpose went far beyond any natural conception. Here is the TRUTH behind this plan of God to FILL THE EARTH. James tells us,

 

 "Of his own will begat he us with the WORD OF TRUTH, that we should be a kind of FIRST-FRUITS of his creatures, or of the HIMSELF KIND." Jas 1:18.

 

Take careful notice of what James is saying. He says we have been BEGOTTEN BY THE WORD OF TRUTH! It was TRUTH beloved, that birthed us IN CHRIST. The darkness of our ignorance was swallowed up in the knowledge or LIGHT of the TRUTH, birthing us into a new understanding of our identity IN CHRIST. These "IN CHRIST" people are the ones God has purposed to use to fill the earth. Not a sinner saved by grace, or those who repent of their sin and ask Christ into their hearts, this is not what God had in mind. It is those who do not look back to Adam the man of dust as being their origin, but to the CHRIST OF GOD in whom they were created and begotten.

 

Paul tells us quite plainly,

 

 " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings IN HEAVENLY PLACES IN CHRIST. According as he has CHOSEN US IN CHRIST before the disruption of the world, that we should be HOLY AND WITHOUT BLAME before him in love. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by JESUS CHRIST TO HIMSELF according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he has made us ACCEPTED IN THE BELOVED." Eph 1:3-6.

 

The TRUTH is, that we were CREATED IN CHRIST, BLESSED IN CHRIST, and CHOSEN IN CHRIST, and made totally acceptable to God IN CHRIST. That little phrase "IN CHRIST" is the key to the whole purpose and plan of God in this age and in the ages to come. Paul presents the GOSPEL quite differently to Peter who ministered to the CIRCUMCISION which is ISRAEL. Paul ministered to the GENTILES or the UNCIRCUMCISION, who were not at Mt Sinai when the LAW was given to Israel. Speaking about redemption or Salvation he simply says, "IF ANY MAN BE IN CHRIST HE IS A NEW CREATION." 2 Cor 5:17. He says, "IN ADAM all DIE, but IN CHRIST shall ALL BE MADE ALIVE. I want you to notice carefully that it is not BECAUSE of Christ or THROUGH CHRIST, but I-N C-H-R-I-S-T. Here we have the contrast between two different ideas concerning our ORIGIN and IDENTITY.

 

We have been taught right from Sunday School days, that we came from Adam the man of DUST, who sinned in the garden. Romans 5:12 "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." The problem is that Bible teachers interpret S-I-N as being transgression of the Law. But the Greek word for sin is HARMATIA, which has nothing to do with LAW, but is a sporting term which means, MISSING THE MARK. If an archer shoots an arrow and misses the bulls eye, you do not call him a criminal as having broken some LAW. He failed to hit the mark. However under the Hebrew concept of the LAW GOD in the Old Testament many sins were punishable by death, and this concept has infiltrated the so called "Gospel" many Churches preach.

 

The TRUE concept of Sin as revealed in the New Testament under the NEW COVENANT is MISSING THE MARK. The "Mark" is the MEASURE OF THE STATURE OF CHRIST. Any thought, word or deed that does not meet the standard of CHRIST is called MISSING THE MARK. It is not a legal question but one of maturity. When a child spills food we do not treat it as a federal offence, but help them to try again and we encourage them to do better. Here is the attitude of Jesus towards the woman taken in adultery. Jn 8.