We have seen that in the tabernacle there were two curtains, one called the veil and the other called the screen. We need to pray for spiritual understanding concerning the veil and the screen, for they imply some very important things. They indicate that through His all-inclusive death Christ has become the entrance for God’s chosen people to come into the enjoyment of God.
The tabernacle signifies God’s dwelling place. But if we see only that the tabernacle is the dwelling place for God, our understanding will be superficial. We must go on to realize that a dwelling place is a place for enjoyment, not only for living. Your home is not simply the place where you live; it is also a place for enjoyment. To live without enjoyment is actually to suffer the killing of death. The reason people commit suicide is that they feel their living is meaningless, without any enjoyment. God’s dwelling place is the place for Him to be the enjoyment for His people. We may also say that it is the place where God’s chosen people participate in the full enjoyment of God Himself. It is crucial to see this matter.
The two curtains, the veil and the screen, signify Christ in two aspects of His humanity. Through His all-inclusive death, this Christ has become the entrance for God’s people to come into the enjoyment of God. The two curtains signify the unique Christ and also Christ’s all-inclusive death. Christ died to take away our sins through the judgment of God He suffered. This judgment is indicated by the brass sockets under the pillars supporting the screen. Christ was fully judged by God on our behalf. Of course, in Himself Christ had no reason to suffer God’s judgment. In every way He was right with God and with man. He never did anything to deserve God’s judgment. But He was judged by God because of our sins. He died for our sins. The judgment through which He passed has become the brass sockets as the base on which we stand. This means that we stand on the judgment Christ suffered for our sins. Paul preached this as the first aspect of the gospel. In 1 Corinthians 15:3 he says, “For I delivered to you, among the first things, that which also I received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” Thus, in the gospel preached by Paul we see, as the first item, that Christ died for our sins.
In the book of 2 Corinthians Paul goes deeper. We may say that 1 Corinthians is partially in the outer court and partially in the Holy Place. Second Corinthians, however, is in the Holy of Holies. In 2 Corinthians 5:14 Paul says that Christ died for all. Not only did He die for our sins—He died for us. In His death we also were crucified. His crucifixion thus included all His believers. For this reason, Paul concludes that because One has died for all, then all are dead. This is not the first item of the gospel. It is more of an inward matter than the outward matter of Christ dying for our sins. This outward matter brings us into the Holy Place, but the inward matter brings us into the Holy of Holies.
In contrast to 1 Corinthians, the book of 2 Corinthians does not reveal a life partly in the outer court and partly in the Holy Place; it reveals a life in the Holy of Holies, a life which has passed through the riven veil. Second Corinthians is a book of a life in the Holy of Holies. This life is a life of resurrection through crucifixion. As ministers of the New Testament, the apostles lived a crucified life for the manifestation of the resurrection life. Thus, they could enter the Holy of Holies, for they had passed through the two curtains; they had passed through the screen and the veil. This means that they had passed through the judgment of God upon Christ for their sins and also through the crucifixion of the flesh by the death of Christ. In 2 Corinthians 4:11 and 12 Paul says, “For we who live are always being delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death operates in us, but life in you.” Paul was daily delivered to death so that the resurrection life might be manifested in him. This indicates that he had passed through the riven veil in order to live in the Holy of Holies.