What a staggering, and strange, thought. A thought that would likely never occur to us naturally because, as we in our fallen state look at it, life is all about us. If there is a God, why wouldn’t He want us to be near to Him? WHY would Christ want to keep us from God?

We forget Moses. We forget that, although he was God’s chosen man to lead His people out of Egyptian bondage, Moses was a sinful man who, when He pleaded with God to let Him see His face, was refused. But WHY? God told Moses that if he, a sinner, were to look on God’s face he would die. As it was, being only allowed to behold the afterglow of God’s passing by, Moses’ face glowed so brightly that he had to be veiled to keep from blinding the people of Israel.

Why did Christ keep us from God? To save our lives. If we, as sinners, had approached and looked upon the brightness of the glory of the Holy One of Israel in the beauty of His righteousness and holiness, our eyes would have dissolved in their sockets, the flesh would have been blasted from our bones, which would have crumbled to fine dust and ashes. But the greater horror is that our souls would have been damned for eternity without hope of recourse.

Yes, Christ had to keep us from God until He Himself had been in every way tempted as we are, and yet remained without sin; until He had completed His course as “very man,” having learned obedience through suffering; until He could die as a fully formed, fully developed, perfect human being who, because of His purity before the Father, was fit and able to bear our sins and God’s judgment upon them and us, FOR us.

Only THEN could the veil (His flesh) be torn to allow us access to the Father, because in bearing what He bore on our behalf, He was able to impute to us His righteousness, enabling us to live in, and not die from, the presence of the Living God, who is a consuming fire. We dare not take for granted our invitation to appear in the divine Presence, for it is the gift of God’s Providence, given to us at His own expense– at the greatest cost the universe will ever know.

Hallelujah! What a Savior.