Luke 23:45

The veil of the temple was rent

The rent veil

This miraculous event was plainly typical of several important things.

1. This was a type of the violent rending of Christ’s body on the cross.

2. This typified our Lord’s own entrance into heaven.

3. This miracle intimated that, by the death of Christ, the ceremonies of the law were, at once, explained and abolished.

4. This miracle intimated that the distinction between Jew and Gentile was at an end.

5. The rending of the veil typified evangelical freeness of access to the throne of grace.

6. The miraculous rending of the veil was typical of Christ’s having opened up, by His death, an entrance into heaven for all His followers. (James Foote, M. A.)

The rent veil of the temple

I. THE VEIL IS REMOVED FROM HUMANITY. Surrounded by this ethereal light, how pale and sickly is the lamp of philosophy--how shallow are the findings of human reason--how contemptible and unintelligible are the mutterings of infidelity! Both for the reach and the grandeur of its discoveries, Christianity stands alone. Not only is it a mighty advance on all which went before, but it includes within itself that which will take infinite ages to evolve.

II. NATURE IS UNVEILED. It is a fact of which we ought never to lose sight, that there is no discrepancy between the readings of Nature and the higher readings of the Christian Book. Christianity did not come to ignore nature, but rather to unveil her more hidden life and beauty. Amid those disturbing forces which we everywhere find to be at work, we are reminded that the present condition of our world does not correspond with its original integrity; that all nature stands in need of a grand renovation; that this chancre must be brought about by the exertion of Divine power; and that the present throes of creation will result in some mightier birth. All nature will be delivered from the bondage of corruption; and the glorious liberty of the children of God will be preceded by making all things new. Such is the light which Christianity sheds over the constitution, design, and final condition of this material world.

III. TRUTH IS UNVEILED. We say not that this rending of the veil has left no mystery in the great wide field of revelation. Such a result would have been no positive advantage. Progress in discovery and in knowledge seems to be involved in the idea of mental existence and activity. Mind is endued with exhaustless power, and that power must be directed to pursuits and employments corresponding with the dignity of its nature, and the elevation of the ground to which it is raised. For this element of our nature, provision is made in that fulness of revelation which is reserved for another state of being. Heaven is a world of everlasting development.

IV. THE VEIL IS LIFTED FROM THE GRAVE. For the revelation of this immortality we are indebted to the advent and the ministry of Christ. He brought life and incorruption to light.

V. THE GLORIOUS FUTURE IS UNVEILED. It was like a morning without a dawn on which the Saviour rose from the dead. His resurrection was not only the triumph of Life over Death, but it became the pledge and assurance of a glorious immortality. (R. Furguson, LL. D.)