But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
Even now when the writings of Moses are read, a covering remains upon the heart that keeps people from seeing their message rightly and clearly. That covering is stubborn unbelief itself, a blinded mind that refuses to accept Christ as Messiah and as the righteousness of the law. Because of it people cannot see that the sacrifices and offerings centered in Christ and were fulfilled by His death, so they cling to shadows instead of the reality and mistake the ceremonial system abolished at the cross for the moral law that was never a shadow and still stands. The covering is taken away only when a person turns to the Lord, for in Christ it is done away. The same blindness still hides the Lord's glory through sympathy with the world, pride and cherished sin, and resistance to God's law, which obscures the atonement and keeps the soul out of harmony with God.
Veil and Its Setting
Even to this day, whenever Moses is read a veil remains upon the heart, preventing people from rightly seeing the message and from seeing clearly. The veil is an image of blindness that keeps a person from clear sight until it is removed, and when a person turns to the Lord it is taken away. Through heavenly illumination the veil that hid the meaning of what was to be abolished was removed from the disciples' understanding, so that the Scriptures Christ had explained revealed with clarity the purpose of His mission and the nature of His kingdom. The veil is stubborn unbelief itself, a blinded mind that refuses to accept Christ as Messiah and as the righteousness of the law, and it remains to this day. Because of that unbelief the meaning of the old covenant in Christ cannot be seen, the significance of the sacrifices and offerings cannot be seen, and the ceremonies are meaningless.
Jews who reject Christ cannot recognize that their ceremonies and sacrifices have lost significance because Christ has come, and turning to the Lord removes the veil, in whom it is done away. The same blindness affects the Christian world in heart and eyes, so they cannot see to the end of that which was abolished and cannot discern that in Christ's death the typical offerings ceased because type met antitype. The moral law never was a type or shadow but existed before man was created and will continue as long as heaven and earth remain, and Christ's mission was to uphold it as God's rule. Resistance to that law keeps people out of harmony with God and prevents genuine repentance and faith. This belongs to Paul's writing to the church at Corinth to settle their minds about the gospel of Christ against Judaizing teachers who caused his greatest difficulties by making trouble and dissensions.
Those teachers continually presented the virtues of the law and the ceremonies, exalting them above the gospel of Christ, and condemned Paul because he did not urge the people to keep the ceremonies that typified Christ and were of no value since Christ's death. The background is the brightness on Moses's face, designed to impress Israel with the sacred, exalted character of God's law and the glory of the gospel revealed through Christ. While in the mount Moses was shown not only the tables of the law but the plan of salvation, seeing the sacrifice of Christ prefigured by all the types and symbols of the Jewish age, so the radiance came no less from heavenly light streaming from Calvary than from the glory of the law of God. That illumination symbolized the glory of the dispensation of which Moses was the visible mediator as representative of the one true Intercessor.
It illustrates the blessings to be received by God's commandment-keeping people through the mediation of Christ, testifying that the closer the communion with God and the clearer the knowledge of His requirements, the more fully conformed to the divine image and the more readily partakers of the divine nature. Moses was a type of Christ in veiling his countenance because guilty people could not endure its glory, just as Christ the divine Mediator veiled His divinity with humanity and was made in the likeness of sinful flesh because men in their sinful state could not have endured the brightness of heaven. Only by humbling Himself could He find access to reach the fallen race and lift them up.
What the Veil Hides
The veiled cannot see the significance of the sacrifices and offerings, so the ceremonies are meaningless to them. They fail to recognize Christ as the truth and life at the center of the Jewish services, and by perverting the types and symbols they are blinded to their fulfillment in Jesus' death. They cling to the ceremonies and shadows instead of discerning the reality to which they pointed.
The same veil is upon the Christian world in heart and eyes, so they cannot see to the end of that which was abolished. They cannot discern that in the death of Christ the typical offerings ceased because type met antitype. They mistake the ceremonial law abolished at His death for the moral law, while the moral law never was a type or shadow but existed before man was created and will continue as long as heaven and earth remain, and Christ's mission was to uphold it.
The veiled cannot clearly see that the old order was abolished by Christ, even though His death broke down the barrier between Jews and Gentiles and opened the gospel's full privileges to Gentiles. Those without the veil understand that the things abolished by Christ's death and the system brought to an end by His death had reached their end. They recognize that worship is no longer confined to temples made by human hands but can take place throughout the world in Spirit and in truth.
Those who read the Old and New Testaments while believing God's law was abolished at the crucifixion or is too harsh to bear do not understand its holiness and its place alongside Christ. The law exposes sin while Christ pleads for the sinner, so rejecting the law obscures the meaning of the atonement. Resistance to that law keeps people out of harmony with God and prevents genuine repentance and faith. When the veil is removed by heavenly illumination, the Scriptures Christ explained become clear and reveal the purpose of His mission and the nature of His kingdom. Thus unveiled, the disciples could teach the plan of salvation with power.
Removal and Present Application
When a person turns to the Lord the veil is taken away, for in Christ it is done away. The veil remains while Moses is read because stubborn unbelief blinds minds that refuse Christ as Messiah and as the righteousness of the law, so the meaning of the old covenant and the significance of sacrifices and offerings cannot be seen and the ceremonies become meaningless. The same veil lies on the Christian world in heart and eyes, so they cannot see to the end of what was abolished and cannot discern that at Christ's death type met antitype and the typical offerings ceased. They mistake the ceremonial law abolished at His death for the moral law, which was never a type or shadow but existed before man was created and will continue as long as heaven and earth remain, and whose upholding was Christ's mission, while resistance to it keeps people out of harmony with God and prevents genuine repentance and faith.
The veil will be removed for individual Jews, not for the Jewish nation as a whole, so that they see prophecy fulfilled, receive Jesus as Savior of the world, and recognize the great sin of rejecting and crucifying Him. Today sympathy with the customs and practices of the world acts as that same veil upon the heart and hides the Lord's glory. Keeping the eyes fixed on God helps lose sight of worldly things, and to see God's face people must become Christlike, know Christ as a present personal Savior, and set aside whatever comes between them and God.
The same blindness that kept the Jews from receiving Christ still keeps professed Christians from receiving Him into the inner sanctuary of the soul. The veil is upon the heart through undiscerned pride, self-uplifting, self-glorying and self-exaltation, through offerings tainted with self-corruption, through pet idols and favorite sins, and through living in sinning and repenting in unbelief. By this the soul temple is defiled and unless purged will become entirely corrupted, the Holy Spirit can do little for the professed believer, and people walk far from the light while the Lord is coming. There is also a willful blindness of heart toward God's law, in which transgressors who teach others to transgress refuse to open their eyes lest they see truth, deliberately keeping them closed while saying they cannot see. Even claiming sanctification they remain sinners who strengthen other sinners, as hopeless as the Jews who would not recognize Christ as Redeemer.
Hearts still covered by the veil throw off conviction and rise against truth even when it is presented ever so wisely and plainly, because prejudice and lust blind them to the beauty of truth. When hearts stay covered after plain presentation neither the truth nor the presenter is at fault, so labor should not be discouraged. The covering on the heart can be unbelief in God and lack of confidence in one another, worked by darkness to make people suspect brethren and stand apart as criticizers, hiding Jesus like a fog. It is cleared when a person breaks the heart before God, lays self on the altar to be consumed, puts away criticizing and judging, and prays earnestly with free confession until Jesus is seen clearly and great blessing comes.
Hereditary prejudice and mistaken ideas can make young people hate the truth, but acquaintance with those who know it can lead them to recognize error and change feelings, for the spiritually blinded need the love, pity, and holiness of truth. The veil leaves the heart in blindness without the control of God's Spirit, entering fatal delusion and walking in sparks of one's own kindling, unable to distinguish self-kindled fire from God-given light. Turning from plain Bible principles places a veil over the heart that keeps a person from seeing God, while Scripture needs no tradition to make its teaching clear. The veiled person is deceived and blinded by highly censurable imprudence and cannot see all things clearly until the Lord tears off the veil.
Even now when the writings of Moses are read, a covering remains upon the heart that keeps people from seeing their message rightly and clearly. That covering is stubborn unbelief itself, a blinded mind that refuses to accept Christ as Messiah and as the righteousness of the law. Because of it people cannot see that the sacrifices and offerings centered in Christ and were fulfilled by His death, so they cling to shadows instead of the reality and mistake the ceremonial system abolished at the cross for the moral law that was never a shadow and still stands. The covering is taken away only when a person turns to the Lord, for in Christ it is done away. The same blindness still hides the Lord's glory through sympathy with the world, pride and cherished sin, and resistance to God's law, which obscures the atonement and keeps the soul out of harmony with God.
Veil and Its Setting
Even to this day, whenever Moses is read a veil remains upon the heart, preventing people from rightly seeing the message and from seeing clearly. The veil is an image of blindness that keeps a person from clear sight until it is removed, and when a person turns to the Lord it is taken away. Through heavenly illumination the veil that hid the meaning of what was to be abolished was removed from the disciples' understanding, so that the Scriptures Christ had explained revealed with clarity the purpose of His mission and the nature of His kingdom. The veil is stubborn unbelief itself, a blinded mind that refuses to accept Christ as Messiah and as the righteousness of the law, and it remains to this day. Because of that unbelief the meaning of the old covenant in Christ cannot be seen, the significance of the sacrifices and offerings cannot be seen, and the ceremonies are meaningless.
Jews who reject Christ cannot recognize that their ceremonies and sacrifices have lost significance because Christ has come, and turning to the Lord removes the veil, in whom it is done away. The same blindness affects the Christian world in heart and eyes, so they cannot see to the end of that which was abolished and cannot discern that in Christ's death the typical offerings ceased because type met antitype. The moral law never was a type or shadow but existed before man was created and will continue as long as heaven and earth remain, and Christ's mission was to uphold it as God's rule. Resistance to that law keeps people out of harmony with God and prevents genuine repentance and faith. This belongs to Paul's writing to the church at Corinth to settle their minds about the gospel of Christ against Judaizing teachers who caused his greatest difficulties by making trouble and dissensions.
Those teachers continually presented the virtues of the law and the ceremonies, exalting them above the gospel of Christ, and condemned Paul because he did not urge the people to keep the ceremonies that typified Christ and were of no value since Christ's death. The background is the brightness on Moses's face, designed to impress Israel with the sacred, exalted character of God's law and the glory of the gospel revealed through Christ. While in the mount Moses was shown not only the tables of the law but the plan of salvation, seeing the sacrifice of Christ prefigured by all the types and symbols of the Jewish age, so the radiance came no less from heavenly light streaming from Calvary than from the glory of the law of God. That illumination symbolized the glory of the dispensation of which Moses was the visible mediator as representative of the one true Intercessor.
It illustrates the blessings to be received by God's commandment-keeping people through the mediation of Christ, testifying that the closer the communion with God and the clearer the knowledge of His requirements, the more fully conformed to the divine image and the more readily partakers of the divine nature. Moses was a type of Christ in veiling his countenance because guilty people could not endure its glory, just as Christ the divine Mediator veiled His divinity with humanity and was made in the likeness of sinful flesh because men in their sinful state could not have endured the brightness of heaven. Only by humbling Himself could He find access to reach the fallen race and lift them up.
What the Veil Hides
The veiled cannot see the significance of the sacrifices and offerings, so the ceremonies are meaningless to them. They fail to recognize Christ as the truth and life at the center of the Jewish services, and by perverting the types and symbols they are blinded to their fulfillment in Jesus' death. They cling to the ceremonies and shadows instead of discerning the reality to which they pointed.
The same veil is upon the Christian world in heart and eyes, so they cannot see to the end of that which was abolished. They cannot discern that in the death of Christ the typical offerings ceased because type met antitype. They mistake the ceremonial law abolished at His death for the moral law, while the moral law never was a type or shadow but existed before man was created and will continue as long as heaven and earth remain, and Christ's mission was to uphold it.
The veiled cannot clearly see that the old order was abolished by Christ, even though His death broke down the barrier between Jews and Gentiles and opened the gospel's full privileges to Gentiles. Those without the veil understand that the things abolished by Christ's death and the system brought to an end by His death had reached their end. They recognize that worship is no longer confined to temples made by human hands but can take place throughout the world in Spirit and in truth.
Those who read the Old and New Testaments while believing God's law was abolished at the crucifixion or is too harsh to bear do not understand its holiness and its place alongside Christ. The law exposes sin while Christ pleads for the sinner, so rejecting the law obscures the meaning of the atonement. Resistance to that law keeps people out of harmony with God and prevents genuine repentance and faith. When the veil is removed by heavenly illumination, the Scriptures Christ explained become clear and reveal the purpose of His mission and the nature of His kingdom. Thus unveiled, the disciples could teach the plan of salvation with power.
Removal and Present Application
When a person turns to the Lord the veil is taken away, for in Christ it is done away. The veil remains while Moses is read because stubborn unbelief blinds minds that refuse Christ as Messiah and as the righteousness of the law, so the meaning of the old covenant and the significance of sacrifices and offerings cannot be seen and the ceremonies become meaningless. The same veil lies on the Christian world in heart and eyes, so they cannot see to the end of what was abolished and cannot discern that at Christ's death type met antitype and the typical offerings ceased. They mistake the ceremonial law abolished at His death for the moral law, which was never a type or shadow but existed before man was created and will continue as long as heaven and earth remain, and whose upholding was Christ's mission, while resistance to it keeps people out of harmony with God and prevents genuine repentance and faith.
The veil will be removed for individual Jews, not for the Jewish nation as a whole, so that they see prophecy fulfilled, receive Jesus as Savior of the world, and recognize the great sin of rejecting and crucifying Him. Today sympathy with the customs and practices of the world acts as that same veil upon the heart and hides the Lord's glory. Keeping the eyes fixed on God helps lose sight of worldly things, and to see God's face people must become Christlike, know Christ as a present personal Savior, and set aside whatever comes between them and God.
The same blindness that kept the Jews from receiving Christ still keeps professed Christians from receiving Him into the inner sanctuary of the soul. The veil is upon the heart through undiscerned pride, self-uplifting, self-glorying and self-exaltation, through offerings tainted with self-corruption, through pet idols and favorite sins, and through living in sinning and repenting in unbelief. By this the soul temple is defiled and unless purged will become entirely corrupted, the Holy Spirit can do little for the professed believer, and people walk far from the light while the Lord is coming. There is also a willful blindness of heart toward God's law, in which transgressors who teach others to transgress refuse to open their eyes lest they see truth, deliberately keeping them closed while saying they cannot see. Even claiming sanctification they remain sinners who strengthen other sinners, as hopeless as the Jews who would not recognize Christ as Redeemer.
Hearts still covered by the veil throw off conviction and rise against truth even when it is presented ever so wisely and plainly, because prejudice and lust blind them to the beauty of truth. When hearts stay covered after plain presentation neither the truth nor the presenter is at fault, so labor should not be discouraged. The covering on the heart can be unbelief in God and lack of confidence in one another, worked by darkness to make people suspect brethren and stand apart as criticizers, hiding Jesus like a fog. It is cleared when a person breaks the heart before God, lays self on the altar to be consumed, puts away criticizing and judging, and prays earnestly with free confession until Jesus is seen clearly and great blessing comes.
Hereditary prejudice and mistaken ideas can make young people hate the truth, but acquaintance with those who know it can lead them to recognize error and change feelings, for the spiritually blinded need the love, pity, and holiness of truth. The veil leaves the heart in blindness without the control of God's Spirit, entering fatal delusion and walking in sparks of one's own kindling, unable to distinguish self-kindled fire from God-given light. Turning from plain Bible principles places a veil over the heart that keeps a person from seeing God, while Scripture needs no tradition to make its teaching clear. The veiled person is deceived and blinded by highly censurable imprudence and cannot see all things clearly until the Lord tears off the veil.