The Rent Veil
By Horatious Bonar

      The Epistle to the Hebrews was written by the eternal
      Spirit for the whole Church of God in all ages. It
      shows us on what footing we are to stand before God as
      sinners; and in what way we are to draw near as
      worshippers.
       It assumes throughout, that the present
      condition of the Church on earth is one continually
      requiring the application of the great sacrifice for
      cleansing. The theory of personal sinlessness has no
      place in it. Continual evil, failure, imperfection,
      are assumed as the condition of God's worshippers on
      earth, during this dispensation. Personal imperfection
      on the one hand, and vicarious perfection on the
      other, are the solemn truths which pervade the whole.
      There is no day nor hour in which evil is not coming
      forth from us, and in which the great bloodshedding is
      not needed to wash it away. This epistle is manifestly
      meant for the whole life of the saint, and for the
      whole history of the Church. God's purpose is that we
      should never, while here, get beyond the need of
      expiation and purging; and though vain man may think
      that he would better glorify God by sinlessness, yet
      the Holy Spirit in this epistle shows us that we are
      called to glorify God by our perpetual need of the
      precious bloodshedding upon the cross. No need of
      washing, may be the watchword of some; they are beyond
      all that! But they who, whether conscious or
      unconscious of sin, will take this epistle as the
      declaration of God's mind as to the imperfection of
      the believing man on earth, will be constrained to
      acknowledge that the bloodshedding must be in constant
      requisition, not (as some say) to keep the believer in
      a sinless state, but to cleanse him from his hourly
      sinfulness.[1]
       Boldness to enter into the holiest is a
      condition of the soul which can only be maintained by
      continual recourse to the blood of sprinkling, alike
      for conscious and for unconscious sin: the latter of
      these being by far the most subtle and the most
      terrible,--that for which the sin-offering required to
      be brought.
       "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
      ourselves, and the truth is not in us." The presence
      of sin in us is the only thing which makes such
      epistles as that to the Hebrews at all intelligible.
      When, by some instantaneous act of faith, we soar
      above sin, (as some think they do) we also bid
      farewell to the no longer needed blood, and to the no
      longer needed Epistle to the Hebrews.
       "Through the veil, which is His flesh," is our
      one access to God; not merely at first when we
      believed, but day by day, to the last. The blood-
      dropped pavement is that one which we tread, and the
      blood-stained mercy-seat is that before which we bow.
      In letters of blood there is written on that veil, and
      that mercy-seat, "I am the way, the truth, and the
      life; no man cometh to the Father but by me": and,
      again, "Through Him we have access, by one Spirit,
      unto the Father."
       Every thing connected with the sanctuary, outer
      and inner, is, in God's sight, excellent and precious.
      As of the altar, so of every other part of it, we may
      say, "Whatsoever toucheth it shall be holy" (Exo
      29:37). Or, as the Apostle Peter puts it, "To you who
      believe this preciousness belongs" (1 Peter 2:7, i.e.,
      all the preciousness of the "precious stone").
       Men may ask, May we not be allowed to differ in
      opinion from God about this preciousness? Why should
      our estimate of the altar, or the blood, or the veil,
      if not according to God's, be so fatal to us as to
      shut us out of the kingdom? And why should our
      acceptance of God's estimate make us heirs of
      salvation? I answer, such is the mind of God, and such
      is the divine statute concerning admission and
      exclusion.
       You may try the experiment of differing from Him
      as to other things, but beware of differing from Him
      as to this. Remember that He has said, "This is my
      beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Say what you
      like, He is a jealous God, and will avenge all
      disparagement of His sanctuary, or dishonour of His
      Son. Contend with Him, if you will try the strife,
      about other things. It may not cost you your soul.
      Dispute His estimate of the works of His hand in
      heaven and earth; say that they are not altogether
      "good," and that you could have improved them, had you
      been consulted. It may not forfeit your crown. Tell
      Him that His light is not so glorious as He thinks it
      is, nor His stars so brilliant as He declares they
      are. He may bear with this thy underrating of His
      material handiwork, and treat thee as a foolish child
      that speaks of what he knows not.
       But touch His great work, His work of works,--
      the person and propitiation of His only-begotten Son,
      and He will bear with thee no more. Differ from Him in
      His estimate of the great bloodshedding, and he will
      withstand thee to the face. Tell Him that the blood of
      Golgotha could no more expiate sin than the blood of
      bulls and of goats, and He will resent it to the
      uttermost. Depreciate anything, everything that He has
      made; He may smile at thy presumption. But depreciate
      not the cross. Underrate not the sacrifice of the
      great altar. It will cost thee thy soul. It will shut
      thee out of the kingdom. It will darken thy eternity.