Theological term
Veil of His Flesh
1 sermon · All terms
The Opened Sanctuary
Mark 15:33–39 presents three interlocking realities at the crucifixion: the forsaken Son bearing divine wrath, the torn veil opening the sanctuary to God's presence, and a Roman centurion's confession inaugurating the gospel's reach to the nations. The noontide darkness fulfills Old Testament types — the Egyptian plague of darkness and Amos 8:9 — while Christ's cry of dereliction, drawn from Psalm 22, expresses not a severing of the Trinity but the full weight of divine justice borne substitutionarily by the Son as mediator. The tearing of the veil declares that the shadowy Old Covenant order is fulfilled, the true high priest has acted, and access to the holy presence of God is secured through the veil of Christ's flesh. Those who gather at the Lord's Supper are exhorted to glory in the Savior who bore the wrath His people deserved so that they need never cry out in God-forsakenness themselves.