The Temple of God

As living stones, Christians are being built up together to display the glory of the Lord in their fellowship. Today, Sinclair Ferguson examines the Bible’s depiction of the church as the temple of God.

Welcome to another edition of Things Unseen. How do you think about the church, and how do you think about your church? That’s the question we’ve been reflecting on this week, and we’ve done it by looking at some of the pictures that are used in the New Testament: body, flock, and bride. And here’s a fourth one: the church is a temple.

Twice, Paul writes to the Corinthian church about this: once to ask them if they know it, and then to tell them that they are it. What was a temple? It was a place where God made His presence known and met with His people. Biblical scholars have become much more conscious in recent years that the garden of Eden is actually described in temple-like terms. That’s why there are various echoes of the description of Eden in Genesis 1–3, and the descriptions and regulations that governed the tabernacle, and that were present too in the building of the Jerusalem temple. These were all special spaces and places where God met with man and man experienced the presence and the revelation of God.

You remember what happened in the temple when Jesus was crucified: the great temple curtain was torn from the top to the bottom. And on that curtain, apparently, there were emblems of cherubim, those creatures of God that with flaming swords turned in every direction, guarding the entrance back into the garden of Eden. What a picture that was. What was happening? Well, probably two things. One was that the way into God’s presence was now opened through Jesus, and the other was that the temple was now being deconsecrated by God Himself because now the place where God meets with men and women is no longer a specific geographical place built for one particular nation. Now, that temple is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as Simon Peter puts it, Christians are like living stones being built together into a spiritual house in which spiritual—no longer animal—sacrifices are offered to the Lord. Sacrifices of praise and obedience, and a community offering itself to the Lord in worship. Now the temple is being built not in one location, but being built in Jesus Christ throughout the earth, as stones are shaped and chiseled and fit together and begin to sparkle in their multicolored beauty to do what the old tabernacle and temple were designed to do: to reflect the praiseworthiness, the excellencies of our God.

I think that’s a wonderful and important picture of the church, but it’s also a good lens for us to view our own church through. We are part of this great temple of living stones that belong to the Lord Jesus. The divine stonemason, the Holy Spirit, is chiseling us into shape so that we fit in with each other. That’s something to think about, isn’t it? When we find there is friction between or among our members, we need to remember the Lord is chiseling us. He’s a master stonemason. He’s working our lives to make us fit better into his plan and fit better with these other living stones who are our brothers and sisters.

Don’t you think if stones could speak when they’re being chiseled, they’d be saying, “Ouch, that hurts”? So, it shouldn’t surprise us if our own lives are punctuated by a series of “Ouch, Lord, that hurts” when He builds us into His church. It’s no easy task to fit together stones of so many different shapes and sizes, especially if they’re resistant to being reshaped or being stuck beside a stone they don’t really care much for. But, you know, I hope what makes the difference—it’s knowing and trusting who is doing the chiseling, and not only that—why He’s doing it. Our master mason is working to make our church a place where we live together in such a way that the multifaceted grace, and glory, even, of our Lord Jesus will become visible among us, not just in isolated individuals, but in what we are as a fellowship.

You’re familiar, I’m sure, with the first question and answer in the Shorter Catechism, but I wonder if you’ve ever thought what the first question and answer in a church catechism might be. I think you’ll agree it should be this: What is the chief end of the church as the temple of God? Answer: the chief end of the church as the temple of God is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. I hope that’s begun to take place in your church.