Daily Bible Verses for 3/26/2016

Bible Verse
Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split, and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep [died] were raised; and coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many. So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, “Truly this was the Son of God.”

Reading Notes
The crucifixion of Christ was surrounded by many miracles or what we would call “God events.” These events show us how special this moment of human history truly was. This was the moment in time when the eternal God of Heaven, by His own will lay down His life for us, in order that we through faith may spend eternity with Him. Jesus told us in John’s Gospel, “therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. This command I have received from My Father.” And we see this power of Jesus portrayed for us in the next “God event” which occurred after the ninth hour. While darkness covered the world, “Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.” The word used here for “yielded” means that Jesus by His own will gave up His life. No one took it from Him, this is important for us to understand because this one moment in time was the entire purpose of His incarnation, this one moment in human history is why Jesus stepped out of eternity and took on humanity. We can mark this event in history as the exact moment when God won, and Satan, sin and death were forever defeated. This was one of the most important “God events” and it occurred for one reason alone, and that was because of God’s tremendous love for us. This was followed by several more “God events,” however, there is one more we must look at because of its significance. The Bible tells us, “then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked.”

Why is this event so meaningful, why is this so important to us and the eternity which lies ahead? Because it is the single point in human history, where because of Jesus sacrifice for us, our relationship with God the Father, which was destroyed by sin since the fall of mankind, was forever restored back again. The veil spoken here was the veil of the Temple, which separated the Holy of Holies. The Holy of Holies was the inner chamber of the sanctuary in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, separated by a veil from the outer chamber. It was reserved for the presence of God and could be entered only by the High Priest on the Day of Atonement. This place was so special the High Priest could only enter once a year, at the prescribed time and only in the prescribed manner, after cleansing himself and making a sacrifice for his sins. After which he could make a sacrifice for the nation and bring the blood and place a small amount on the Ark of the Covenant. This would cover, not remove the sins of the nation for another year. In other words, this heavy, thick veil, which was impossible to tear, guarded the one place where only a single individual could come before God on behalf of the people. With the death of Jesus on the Cross, God tore this veil permanently. He did so because Jesus sacrifice for us forever restored our relationship with God the Father. Because of what Jesus did for us and our faith in Him, we can now come before God the Father any time with our prayers, our praise and our fellowship. Jesus not only took upon Himself the penalty for our sins, but He also restored our fellowship with God the Father as we by faith become children of God and joint-heirs with Him in the kingdom of God.