The Body of Christ
The Body of Christ
For millennia, God had promised that He would establish a place for His name and glory—a temple that would serve as heaven’s embassy on earth.
But you will soon cross the Jordan River and live in the land the LORD your God is giving you. When He gives you rest from all your enemies and you’re living safely in the land, you must bring everything I command you—your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, your sacred offerings, and your offerings to fulfill a vow—to the designated place of worship, the place the LORD your God chooses for His name to be honored. (Deut. 12:10-11)
“May You watch over this Temple night and day, this place where You have said, ‘My name will be there.’ May You always hear the prayers I make toward this place. May You hear the humble and earnest requests from me and Your people Israel when we pray toward this place. Yes, hear us from heaven where You live, and when You hear, forgive.” (1 Kings 8:29-30)
Mankind would focus their prayers toward this temple, make their sacrifices and experience God’s glory at this temple. At the center of the temple was the ark of the covenant, the symbol of God’s contract with man unto oneness. The ark of the covenant was called God’s throne, where His presence dwelt. Still, a stone building was never God’s final plan, though it served as a type and shadow of the reality that was to come. Scripture tells us that the “Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands” (1 Kings 8:27, Acts 7:24; 17:24).
Jesus: The Temple Made with God’s Hands
When Jesus was born, He became the individual expression of God’s final temple. “And the Word became flesh, and did tabernacle among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of an only begotten of a Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). God lived by His Spirit in the “tabernacle” of Christ’s human life. At the center of Christ’s living temple was a covenant of trust. Enthroned in that covenant was the very presence and glory of God. Christ’s humanity is called the “veil” of the temple that screened visitors from the glory that once dwelt above the ark (Heb. 10:20).
In John’s gospel, Jesus spoke of His life, saying, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will build it back again.” John explains this statement: “They did not understand that He was speaking to them about His body” (John 2:19, 21). Christ’s individual house would afterward become a tremendous corporate house—God’s final temple (Matt. 16:18).
Christ’s Body—The Temple Made with God’s Hands
Christ envisioned that those who had died to sin in repentance, committed their lives in baptism and been filled with the empowering Holy Spirit would then be configured according to the heavenly design of a glorious temple. Paul would write to Gentile believers, “So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. Together, we are His house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus Himself. We are carefully joined together in Him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. Through Him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by His Spirit” (Eph. 2:19-22).
Peter also said, “You are living stones that God is building into His spiritual temple. What’s more, you are His holy priests. Through the mediation of Jesus Christ, you offer spiritual sacrifices that please God” (1 Pet. 2:5).
Order Brings Wholeness—A Fitly Framed Temple
What is the difference between a heap of stones and a stone building? It is the order or design by which the components are arranged or assembled. So we see that God has “placed the members in the Body just as He wanted them to be” (1 Cor. 12:18; Eph. 2:21). The body of Christ is now the place of God’s name—of our sacrifice and His glory (1 Kings 8:29; John 2:19; 1 Cor. 3:16-17). It is not a building designed or constructed by man; God designates a special place where each of us belongs (Matt. 16:18; Heb. 11:10). To become part of this design is to become part of Christ, for this is His Body. As fingers cannot choose where they attach to the body, our carnal flesh cannot decide how it is joined to Christ. We must submit to His design.
God reveals His relational order to us when He shows how people should treat each other and honor one another—spouses to each other (Eph. 5:22-25; Col. 3:18-19), children to parents (Eph. 6:1; Col. 3:20), disciples to elders (Matt. 28:18-20; 1 Pet. 5:1-5; Heb. 13:7, 17; Eph. 4:7-12; Rom. 6:17) and so on.
Selfishness Brings Fragmentation
The “full measure of the stature of Christ” (Eph. 4:13) is never individually attained. It is a corporate pursuit (Eph. 3:18), realized as the many members become “one” through a God-given design. Independence, envy, competition, self-seeking—these fruits of un-repentance only serve to break apart the stones of God’s temple, even while masquerading as “freedom.” God can only compose “lively stones” that have repented and rejected their own design, ambition and will (1 Cor. 12:24). Such people determine to no longer pursue or impose their views of what, for example, a marriage or family should be; they’re instead eager to discover the heavenly design for human relationships.
Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. (1 Cor. 3:16-17)
If you have renounced your carnal will and the destructive fruits named above, then God will open your eyes to see His kingdom, His bride, His church (John 3:5; 1 Cor. 2:14). He will reveal to you the specific relationships where you belong. These promptings of the Spirit will reveal God’s abiding place of salvation for you, the context where faith can survive and commitments endure.
Order Contains the Power
Many Christians throughout history have marveled at the difference in power between the Acts of the Apostles and the present day. But Pentecostal power only came when they were “of one mind and one accord” (Acts 2:4). God pulls the stones from the rubble, mortaring lives together through commitment and fashioning a temple made by His own hands. For Christians who will submit to this recovery of heavenly pattern and design, a promise of great power and glory awaits. Each time God’s temporary houses—the tabernacle and temple—were built precisely according to pattern, the glory of God filled those structures so that no human could even enter (1 Kings 8:11; 2 Chron. 7:1). God’s glory dissipates through all the gaps and fractures in our unity, sanctity and order. But if we will submit to the five-fold ministry and wise master builders, God will free us from thrashing immaturity, unite us as one indivisible man and fill His beautiful house with glory and power.
Seek not your individual improvement alone; seek the kingdom of God, the body of Christ, and its restoration. The restoration of this temple is the realization of God’s heavenly Jerusalem on earth, the city of peace, set on a hill that cannot be hidden.
If I forget you, Jerusalem,
may my right hand forget its skill.
May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
if I do not remember you,
if I do not consider Jerusalem
my highest joy. (Ps. 137:5-6)
Because I love Zion,
I will not keep still.
Because my heart yearns for Jerusalem,
I cannot remain silent.
I will not stop praying for her
until her righteousness shines like the dawn,
and her salvation blazes like a burning torch.
The nations will see your righteousness.
World leaders will be blinded by your glory.
And you will be given a new name
by the LORD’s own mouth.
The LORD will hold you in his hand for all to see—
a splendid crown in the hand of God.
Never again will you be called “The Forsaken City”
or “The Desolate Land.”
Your new name will be “The City of God’s Delight”
and “The Bride of God,”
for the LORD delights in you
and will claim you as his bride.
Your children will commit themselves to you, O Jerusalem,
just as a young man commits himself to his bride.
Then God will rejoice over you
as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride.
(Isa. 62:1-5)