Mankind was created to live in God’s presence and was doing so in the Garden of Eden.  The word “Eden” means pleasure and delight, and the word “Garden” represents a border or enclosure.  Adam and Eve were created and placed where they were surrounded by God’s joyful presence.  The Psalmist encapsulates this truth when he writes, “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11), and Adam and Eve had been granted this privileged access.

However, because they disobeyed God and ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, sin was introduced into their lives and it caused a barrier between them and God as they now fled from his presence (Genesis 3:8).  They were subsequently banished from the garden (Genesis 3:23-24) and unable to return on their own.  The access they once freely received from God was now denied.

But God’s desire to dwell with His creation had not changed.  In Exodus, God instructed Moses to build a tabernacle with strict guidelines on how to enter into it.  There was to be a veil or curtain separating a restricted section called the Most Holy Place where God’s presence would dwell (Exodus 26:30-34).  Once a year, after offering atoning sacrifices for the people and himself, only the high priest could enter the Most Holy Place.  God later instructed King Solomon to replicate this same tabernacle model when he built the temple. Although limited, God had again granted His people access to His presence.

The good news is that God did not stop there.  In Matthew 27:50-51, we read that at the moment of Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross, “The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.”  Because of this, the author of Hebrews indicates that,

• “we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:19-22).

Jesus took upon himself the very things that separated us from the presence of God (2 Cor 5:21).  The debt we owed, as a result of sin, Jesus paid in full.  He made a way through the veil by giving his life to restore our relationship and granting us access once again to live fully in the presence of God.