WHAT ONCE WAS VEILED
All praise and glory be to God for giving us His Word.
What once was veiled is now revealed in Jesus Christ Our Lord.
For God has spoken by his Son, through whom all things were made.
In Christ alone, the Righteous One, is our foundation laid.
He is the source of Heaven’s light, yet in our world has shone.
He is true God by every right, yet made our frame His own.
He took our guilt, our sin, our shame, for these He bled and died,
And having cleansed us by His blood, has now been glorified.
To Christ, that Name above all names, to Him we gladly sing.
Enthroned on high, He rules and reigns—Our Prophet, Priest, and King!
All praise and glory be to God for giving us His Word.
What once was veiled is now revealed in Jesus Christ Our Lord.
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REFLECTION
This hymn was written to compliment the chapel series of one of my professors in seminary. The series, like this hymn, was on the first four verses of Hebrews 1, which exalts Christ as our Prophet, Priest, and King. "Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son" (v. 1). In days of old the Israelites could only hear from God as His word was mediated through the prophets. But Christ has come as the Word Incarnate, the one who perfectly reveals God. More than being our Prophet, Jesus is also our great High Priest. The tip comes in verse 3: "After making purifications for sins." As was the role of the priest in Ancient Israel, Jesus came to make atonement for our sins. He has purified us and cleansed us so that we can draw near to God. Finally, Christ is our great King. You can hear the royal imagery in verse 3, "he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." He is now filling the throne that has always been rightfully His, for indeed Christ has been and will be the King of the universe from everlasting to everlasting. As we see in verse 2, He is the heir of all things and the creator of the entire cosmos--King indeed!
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