A thread through the Bible
The Way In
From Eden's guarded gate to the torn curtain
The Bible is honest that access to God is a problem. Eden's gate is guarded; Sinai is fenced off; the temple has walls within walls, and behind the last curtain, only one man, once a year, with blood.
Then, in one afternoon, the curtain tears. Follow the thread of the way in.
Follow the thread
- 1
Genesis 3:24
“He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword… to guard the way to the tree of life.”
The story's wound: the way to life is guarded. The problem of the whole Bible is stated in one verse.
- 2
Exodus 19:12
“You shall set limits for the people all around, saying, 'Take care not to go up into the mountain.'”
At Sinai, God comes down — and the people must stay back. Nearness is still dangerous.
- 3
Exodus 26:33
“And the veil shall separate for you the Holy Place from the Most Holy.”
The tabernacle builds the separation into architecture: a handbreadth of heavy curtain between the people and the presence.
- 4
Leviticus 16:2
“Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil… lest he die.”
One man, one day a year, trembling, with blood not his own. Access exists — but barely.
- 5
Isaiah 59:2
“But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God.”
The prophet names the real curtain: not fabric but sin. The separation is moral, not architectural.
- 6
Mark 15:38
“And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.”
At the moment Jesus dies, the curtain tears — top to bottom, God's direction, not ours. The way is open and no one sewed it back.
- 7
Hebrews 10:19–20
“We have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain.”
The interpretation: the way in is now a person, and it is 'living' — the way itself is alive.
- 8
Revelation 21:22
“And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb.”
The thread's end: no temple because no separation. Nothing is guarded anymore. The whole city is the Holy of Holies.
Where the thread leads
The Bible begins with a guarded gate and ends with a city that has no walls between God and people. In between, every curtain, fence, and barrier is a promise waiting to be torn — and on one Friday afternoon, it was.
Where are you still living as though the curtain is intact — standing outside something that has been opened?