Imperishable Inheritance

One of the amaz­ing rev­e­la­tions in the New Covenant is that, where God’s pres­ence was exter­nal in the tabernacle/temple, God’s pres­ence now takes up loca­tion inside of His peo­ple. The Psalmist under­stood long before this event of the holy nature of the temple:

“How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You To dwell in Your courts. We will be sat­is­fied with the good­ness of Your house, Your holy tem­ple. By awe­some deeds You answer us in right­eous­ness, O God of our sal­va­tion, You who are the trust of all the ends of the earth and of the far­thest sea.” (Psa 65:4–5)

To enter the tem­ple was a high honor reserved for God’s nation of Israel. It was a mark to all the nations that God has set His lov­ing affec­tion and grace upon this nation (Deu 4:5–6). God’s con­tin­ual com­mand to Israel was to “be holy as I am holy” (Lev 11:44–45, 19:2; Num 15:40), and to come to the tem­ple involved a rig­or­ous process to make your­self “holy” before the tem­ple sac­ri­fices, and only one man, the High Priest, was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies once a year to make atone­ment for the peo­ple but only after offer­ing a sac­ri­fice for him­self (Lev 16). The empha­sis on being holy is through­out the Old Tes­ta­ment, but it is not con­fined only to that.

The New Covenant Assurity of Holiness

We are told by the Apos­tle John that “the Word became flesh, and dwelt [taber­na­cled] among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begot­ten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14; cf. John 2:21). The return of God’s pres­ence to His peo­ple is embod­ied in the apex of His revelation–His Son Jesus Christ. Jesus says: “But I say to you that some­thing greater than the tem­ple is here” (Mat 12:6). Not only did God’s pres­ence return to His peo­ple, but Jesus also accom­plished atone­ment once-for-all as the anti-type of the tem­ple sac­ri­fices (Heb 9:24–28). Peter uses this les­son of Jesus’ holi­ness and obe­di­ence to encour­age us:

“As obe­di­ent chil­dren, do not be con­formed to the for­mer lusts which were yours in your igno­rance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy your­selves also in all your behav­ior; because it is writ­ten, ‘YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.’” (1 Pet 1:14–16)

Atone­ment had been pur­chased by the Mes­siah in His blood. No longer will futile sac­ri­fices be made God took “no plea­sure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats” (Isa 1:11). Jesus “gave Him­self up for us, an offer­ing and a sac­ri­fice to God as a fra­grant aroma” (Eph 5:2), and we are secure in His grace.

The New Tem­ple and Impe­tus For Holiness

In Matthew 21 it is recorded that Jesus drove out those who were buy­ing and sell­ing in the tem­ple. It was an abom­i­na­tion to Jesus that they would pro­fane the house of God in such a way. This should give us a clue on how we should per­ceive the tem­ple, and the loca­tion of the tem­ple in the New Covenant encour­ages us in this.

“Do you not know that you are a tem­ple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the tem­ple of God, God will destroy him, for the tem­ple of God is holy, and that is what you are.” (1 Cor 3:16–17; cf. 1 Cor 6:19)

Paul’s amaz­ing teach­ing is that now, with the Spirit of God that indwells every believer in the New Covenant (Eph 1:13–14), the tem­ple and res­i­dence of God’s pres­ence is in us! To pro­fane the tem­ple through­out God’s his­tory is an offense of the high­est mag­ni­tude; there­fore, we must keep holy what God has made holy. This is a great impe­tus to con­tinue to fight sin, our depraved nature, and rid our­selves of worldly desires.

It should be noted that the “you” Paul says in that pas­sage above is plural not sin­gu­lar. This adds more weight to the con­clu­sion that Chris­tians are not made to live by them­selves but in com­mu­nity. So, when two or more are gath­ered then the pres­ence of God man­i­fests itself as intended, and that is what Jesus taught: “For where two or three have gath­ered together in My name, I am there in their midst” (Mat 18:20). Our sin not only effects us, but it also has neg­a­tive con­se­quences on our fel­low believ­ers.

Long­ing For the Pres­ence of God

John writes in his rev­e­la­tion of the end that God’s pres­ence needs no tem­ple, because God in all His glory will inhabit God’s peo­ple. It is some­thing to look for­ward to, to strive for, to pur­sue holi­ness for.

“I saw no tem­ple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its tem­ple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illu­mined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the day­time (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed; and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into it; and noth­ing unclean, and no one who prac­tices abom­i­na­tion and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are writ­ten in the Lamb’s book of life.” (Rev 21:22–27)