Lessons From History.Sýnishorn

God Un-Separates the Separation

by Rev. Kenley Mann

On May 10, 1869, the final railroad spike was pounded into the track at Promontory Point, Utah. The spike was gold to symbolize the transcontinental railroad’s completion—a railroad stretched from one end of our nation to the other. While the last spike was pounded in, someone in the crowd shouted, “It is finished.”

Does that remind you of anything? After the final spike was pounded into Jesus’s hands and feet, he shouted, “It is finished.” It announced that God’s plan of salvation was now complete. It was finished. This was the ONLY WAY Jesus could remove sin from OUR LIVES.

Matthew tells us what happened after Jesus cried out this message.

Suddenly, the temple curtain was torn in two from top to bottom. (Mt. 27:51)

The curtain symbolized the separation that sin created between God and man. Sin separated the Jews and Gentiles from God. No one could go past the curtain to the Ark of the Covenant except for the high priest—one day a year and only with blood. That blood pointed to Jesus’s blood. When his blood was spilled, when he finished God’s rescue plan, and when the curtain was torn from top to bottom, God showed the nation that the separation was gone. When a Jew is brought to faith in Christ, he is joined to one nation. When a Gentile is brought to faith in Christ, he is joined to the same nation.

In Christ is the key. The East Coast is joined to the West Coast, becoming one nation: the Holy Christian Church.

Prayer: Dear Father, before Jewish converts were brought to faith in Christ, they would have shunned Gentiles, and unconverted Gentiles would have mocked Jews. We marvel at and profess how marvelous your workmanship is, so much so that Jewish and Gentile converts were one family in that church at Ephesus. Help us have no prejudice but share Christ’s “It is finished” with all. Amen