Jan. 12, 2020

The Veil

What I have discovered while writing the various blog entries is the number of times I have repeated ideas. I haven’t gone back to count the number of times I have mentioned the passage in John chapter three or the times I have quoted Jeremiah chapter one and verse five but be that as it may, what I am clear about within the repetition is the importance, at least within myself, of the “truth reality” that is constantly changing my theological perspectives introducing me to a freedom I have never known before now. This freedom is a challenge to describe especially when my former understanding of freedom has also changed. In other words, the freedom I was convinced I was experiencing in the past pales in comparison to my present day understanding. 

I want to mention once again a passage in Galatians the first chapter found in the new testament of the bible. The reason I want to hold this up for the reader to consider again is related to the freedom that was revealed to the writer that caused him to mention this awareness in his letter to the Galatians. The word gospel means good news. For the apostle Paul to reveal an awareness that he had not known previously, in spite of his religious upbringing, must have taken him by storm. The passage in question in Galatians chapter one is verses fifteen and sixteen. It reads:

But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:

I recall sitting with a friend of mine as I attempted to explain this newfound freedom that I was beginning to experience. Even my explanations about my understanding of this freedom was challenging. All of a sudden the afore mentioned passage came roaring into my thoughts. Then I said to her, “…allow me to offer you an example from scripture that may shed some light on the freedom I am experiencing” I looked up this passage on my phone and shared it with her. I came to the phrase, “…to reveal his Son in me.” I told her that all of my life I was told by preachers and the like that in order for Jesus to be within us we had to invite him in. I held up the notion that we probably get our word revelation from the word reveal. I then placed a sheet of paper over my cell phone indicating that my phone represented the apostle Paul. I indicated that the words on the screen represented the Son of God or the Christ and the sheet of paper represented  the veil that needed to be removed in order for the revelation to take place. I then asked her where was the Son once the veil was removed?

I will never forget her reply to my question. She looked at me with what appeared to be a look of amazement and then she spoke these words, “He’s already there!” I looked at her and smiled and said, “yes, he is already in you.” I often wonder if this amazing awareness the apostle Paul discovered and then conveyed to his friends in Galatia has somehow gotten lost behind veils of religious rules and regulations. My guess is it has. So I ask you all once again, “where was the Son when the veil was removed?”