The Curtain is Torn: Mark 15:38
The only question that remains is how we will respond to His love. Sin has been dealt with. Favorable judgment has been guaranteed. Life with God is ours for the taking. What difference will that make in your life?
When Jesus breathes His last, the temple curtain is torn. At that moment, the curtain that separated all but the highest priest from the presence of God is removed. That which provided a barrier between our sinfulness and God’s righteousness was no longer necessary.
The spiritual point here is blunt and should not be missed. Jesus’ death on the cross covers our sin. Because of Jesus’ death on the cross, separation between God and mankind is no longer necessary. Our sins are dealt with, paid for, forgiven, and washed away. God desires to count us as clean in His presence.
There is nothing I can do to earn God’s love. There is nothing I can do to earn God’s forgiveness. There is nothing I can do to earn my place in the presence of God. It is utterly a gift God gives through the death of His Son. We do not make our way to God; He made His way to us and carries us back into His presence.
This allows us to follow God’s lead rather than earn God’s love. We obey Him not because we are trying to earn His favor but out of a response to His grace. We step out in servant leadership not to impress God but because He first served us. We see through eyes of sacrificial love not to earn favor with God but because Jesus’ sacrificial love showed us the way.
The shape of the word changed when Jesus died. Prior to that last breath of Jesus, religion across the face of the globe was focused on pleasing the gods and earning their favor. Prior to the last breath of Jesus, our ritual purity was the primary concern prior to coming into the presence of the divine. Prior to the last breath of Jesus, most religious systems were predicated on determining the balance of scales between the amount of good in a person’s life versus the amount of bad.
With that last breath of Jesus, forgiveness pours into the world to cover sin. The disciples who denied knowing Jesus and ran away in His moment of need are already forgiven for their absence. The crowd that looked at Jesus as a spectacle are already forgiven for the error in their perspective. Each of us are already forgiven for the sins we have committed as well as the sin we have yet to commit. We don’t need to worry about the balance of scales in our life. Jesus’ last breath and His subsequent death wiped the scales clean and tipped them in our favor. Without question, we have God’s love and mercy. The only question that remains is how we will respond to His love.
