The Temple in the Bible

The Church as God's Temple: You Are the Temple of the Spirit

The New Testament makes a startling claim: that the people of God are now the temple. Paul writes, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? Because Christ, the true temple, has come and His Spirit has been poured out, God no longer dwells in a building of stone but in His people, together and individually. The church is being built as a holy temple in the Lord, a habitation of God through the Spirit, with Christ Himself as the chief cornerstone.

Paul tells the Corinthian believers what they have become in Christ:

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?1 Corinthians 3:16 (KJV)

The Spirit poured out

After Jesus rose and ascended, He poured out the Holy Spirit on His people at Pentecost. From that day the dwelling of God on earth shifted again: from the temple of Christ's own body to the community of those in whom His Spirit lives. What had been true of the tabernacle and the temple, that God dwelt there in glory, became true of the church. The living God took up residence not in cedar and gold but in people redeemed by the blood of His Son.

This is the direct teaching of the apostles. Peter, who had known the temple in Jerusalem, wrote that believers, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. The whole imagery of the temple, its stones, its priesthood, its sacrifices, is transferred to the people of God.

Ye are the temple of God

Paul says it twice, in two different senses, and both matter. To the church as a whole he writes, Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? Here the temple is the gathered community, the church, in which God's Spirit lives. To defile or divide that community is to profane God's temple, and Paul warns solemnly against it.

Then to the individual believer he writes, What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? Here each Christian's own body is a temple of the Spirit, which is why holiness of life is not a small thing. To follow Christ is to have become a dwelling place of God, and to live accordingly, in the body and in the community alike.

Built on the cornerstone

Paul develops the picture most fully in Ephesians. The church, made up of Jew and Gentile together, is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. The temple is now a growing building of living people, rising course upon course, with Christ as the cornerstone that holds the whole structure true.

This is a temple that crosses every boundary. The old temple had a barrier past which no Gentile could go; the new temple is built precisely by bringing Jew and Gentile together into one body. The dividing wall is broken down, and people of every nation are built together into one holy house for God to dwell in. What the Court of the Gentiles could only gesture toward, the church fulfils: a house of prayer for all peoples, made of the peoples themselves.

A holy and living house

Because the church is God's temple, the New Testament calls it to holiness, unity, and worship. If God dwells in His people, then His people are to be set apart for Him, kept from what defiles, joined together in love, and offered up as living sacrifices. The sacrifices of this temple are no longer bulls and goats but praise, thanksgiving, generosity, and lives given to God. The priesthood is no longer a single tribe but all believers, who have access to God through Christ.

This is a high calling and a humbling one. It means that the presence of God is not far away in a distant sanctuary but near, in the gathered church and in the believer's own life. It means that how Christians treat one another and how they live in their bodies is a matter of the honour of God's dwelling place. And it means that the ordinary fellowship of believers is, in truth, the house where the living God has chosen to dwell.

A priesthood and a temple still being built

Two things follow from the church being God's temple, and the New Testament draws them both. The first is a priesthood. In the old temple only one tribe could serve as priests and only one man could enter the holiest. Peter tells the whole church that they are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, built up as a spiritual house to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Every believer now has access to God and a share in His service. There is no longer a class of people who go in to God on behalf of the rest; through Christ, all may draw near.

The second is that this temple is not finished; it is still being built. Paul says the building is fitly framed together and groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, and Peter calls believers living stones being built up. Each person who comes to Christ is another stone set into the rising house. The work goes on across every generation and every nation, and it will not be complete until the last stone is laid. This gives the ordinary life of the church its dignity and its hope: the gatherings, the welcoming of new believers, the patient building of one another up in love are not incidental activities but the very construction of the dwelling place of God. And the whole structure is held together and made holy by the one cornerstone, Christ, on whom every stone depends and toward whom the whole building rises.

How it points to Christ

The church is God's temple only because Christ is the true temple. It is His Spirit who indwells His people, His blood that has cleansed them, His person who is the cornerstone. The believers are not a temple in their own right but a temple in the Lord, a habitation of God through the Spirit. Everything flows from Christ and holds together in Him.

So the story that began with a cloud filling Solomon's house continues here, in an even greater wonder: God dwelling not in one house in one city but in a people scattered through every nation, joined to Christ and filled with His Spirit. And it is not the end. This living temple is still being built, still growing, and it awaits the day when the dwelling of God with man will be complete, in the city where God Himself will be with His people, and the Lamb will be its temple for ever.

There is a quiet dignity in this for every believer and every gathering of believers. The place where the living God has chosen to dwell on earth is not a cathedral of stone but a people bought by the blood of His Son. When Christians gather, when they pray and love and bear with one another, when a single believer walks with God through an ordinary day, the temple is present, for God is present in them by His Spirit. To follow Christ is to be built into that house and to carry His presence into the world, until the day the building is complete and the whole city of God shines with His glory.

A note for all traditions: the history above (the temples, their building, their destruction, and the rebuilding) is told as Scripture and the record present it. Where the New Testament states plainly that the temple is fulfilled in Christ, that is named as fulfilment; where a connection is a reflection rather than a direct statement, it is offered as such. The one Lord of the whole story, from Solomon to the new Jerusalem, is Jesus Christ, and every believer is called to draw near to God through him.

Read on: Christ our temple · The new Jerusalem has no temple · The meaning of the temple · The Temple in the Bible