THE TEMPLE OF GOD - PART II
The physical temple in Jerusalem was a picture of the relationship that we have with Christ. “And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said:I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (2 Corinthians 6:16). The reason that he uses the word temple is because his readers understood temples. People today understand temples, though they most often call them churches in our society.
But what God is interested in, is in being “in” his people. Saying that God will “dwell in us” and “walk among us” is the equivalent of saying he wants to have a personal relationship with us where he is in charge. He deserves to be in charge. He is God. But he does not rule over us as an earthly king would—to boost his ego or show his authority. God’s rule comes from a heart of love and concern for his people. He truly knows what is best for us, and is the only one who does.
All of this man-made religious talk about Jesus returning to earth, rebuilding the temple, and ruling in an earthly kingdom is just nonsense. The Bible does not teach it, and, in fact, teaches against it on virtually every page. God is interested in people, not military kingdoms or physical structures.
There is nothing happening in Jerusalem or anywhere else on earth that has any bearing on God’s intentions for the world or his people. Jesus will return one final time to end the world and take us to be with him forever. Until then, while he rules sovereignly in the affairs of nations because he is God and because what nations do affect his people, his interest lies in the hearts and lives of those who love him. His plan always has to do with Jesus being accepted by men and women. He loves everyone, but not in the sense that he loves those who love his Son.
To understand the temple of God is to understand the relationship God wants and has with the people of Christ. The Book of Revelation, while containing many signs and symbols that no one on earth understands or ever will understand in this life, has a primary point that is easy to decipher: Jesus rules and reigns in the lives of his people. And nothing that is happening in the world or ever will happen in the world will change that or stop it.
It was the unification of Jew and Gentile in the one body, the church, that John was primarily speaking about when he said, “But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (Revelation 21:22). The new Jerusalem that John saw was not heaven, for it came down out of heaven (Rev. 21:2). It was the church. And in this new Jerusalem, this spiritual city of saved people, there is no physical temple like there was in the literal city of Jerusalem. The only temple we have or need—or should want—is Jesus.
God lives in us. Dwells in us. Walks among us. Through Christ, we have been reconciled to God and we are the recipients of the culmination of everything God has done from the Garden of Eden onward. We belong to him because he lives in us. “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?” (1 Corinthians 6:19). What God has always wanted is a relationship with people. That is what the “temple of God” is all about.
Dewayne Dunaway