New Jerusalem is the Living Temple of God
“Jesus answered and said to them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up….He spoke of the temple of His body.” (John 2:19, 21)
“You are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16).
“In whom [Christ Jesus] all the building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord.” (Eph. 2:21)
in the New Testament both the tabernacle and the temple are a person. After His resurrection this person was enlarged, multiplied, and propagated, so this person became a corporate person…. In the Gospels Christ is called the temple, and in the Epistles the church is called the temple (1 Cor. 3:16). Both are a person, not physical things. Since this is the case, how could the consummation of the New Testament be a physical building?…The tabernacle and the temple in the Gospels are a person, the temple in the Epistles is a corporate person, the church, and the New Jerusalem in Revelation as a consummation of the New Testament is a corporate person.*
Three verses in Hebrews present contrasts between the physical OT tabernacle and temple and the living NT temple: “the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man” (8:2), “the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by hands, that is, not of this creation” (9:11), “Christ did not enter into a holy place made by hands, a figure of the true” (9:24).
The old Jerusalem is merely a figure of the true, new Jerusalem, which is not of the old creation but of the new creation. Hence it is the heavenly and better country for our eternal dwelling.
* From chapter 27, Witness Lee, God’s New Testament Economy, published by Living Stream Ministry, © Witness Lee, 1986.
Posted by Don on November 25, 2022
