The Temple in the Bible

The New Jerusalem Has No Temple: God and the Lamb Are Its Temple

The whole story of the temple ends in a city with no temple at all. In his vision of the new Jerusalem, John writes, And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. Where the entire Bible has moved toward God dwelling with His people, at the last there is no need of a special holy place, because God Himself, and the Lamb, dwell in the midst of the city face to face. The temple was always pointing to this: the unhindered presence of God with His people for ever.

In the final vision of Scripture, John looks for the temple and finds something greater:

And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.Revelation 21:22 (KJV)

The end of the whole story

The Bible begins with God walking with man in a garden and ends with God dwelling with man in a city. Between those two lies the long story of the temple: the tabernacle in the wilderness, Solomon's house of glory, its destruction and rebuilding, the temple Jesus knew, and His declaration that He Himself was the true temple. In the last two chapters of Revelation, John sees where it has all been going.

He hears a great voice from heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. The word is tabernacle again, the same word that runs from Moses to John's Gospel. The dream of the temple, God dwelling with His people, is fulfilled completely and for ever.

A city with no temple

Then John says something that would have astonished any Israelite: And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. In the new Jerusalem there is no building set apart as the holy place, no sanctuary at the centre, no veil, no court, no barrier. There is no temple, because the whole city is filled with the immediate presence of God.

The reason no temple is needed is that a temple was always only a means to an end. A temple exists to bring people into the presence of God. When that presence fills everything and everyone dwells in it directly, the means is no longer needed. The scaffolding comes down because the building is complete. God and the Lamb are the temple, which is to say the presence once housed in a holy place now fills the whole city without limit.

No more distance

Everything the old temple guarded against is gone. There is no veil, because there is no barrier; the way into God's presence, opened at the cross, is now the whole atmosphere of the city. There is no more need for sacrifice, because the Lamb who was slain stands at the centre. There is no night, no sun, and no moon, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. The glory that once filled Solomon's house as a cloud now lights an entire city.

And there is no more distance of any kind. God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain. The people see His face. The nearness the temple could only picture, and the church now knows in part by the Spirit, becomes complete and unbroken. God is with His people, and they are His people, and He is their God, without veil and without end.

The Lamb at the centre

It is not only the Lord God but the Lamb who is the temple of the city. The one who was crucified, whose body was the true temple destroyed and raised, stands forever at the heart of the new creation. The whole way to this city was opened by His death and resurrection. He is the light of it, the temple of it, and the one whose blood has washed the people who dwell there. The end of the story is unmistakably Christ-centred.

This is the honest reading of Revelation's own words. John does not merely reflect that heaven will be temple-like; he states directly that there is no temple, for the Lord God and the Lamb are its temple. The typology of the whole Bible reaches its plain and final fulfilment: God dwelling with His people, with the Lamb at the centre, for ever.

The garden restored in the city

The last vision of Scripture deliberately echoes its first. The Bible opened in a garden where God walked with man, with a river flowing through it and the tree of life growing beside it. Now, at the end, John sees a river of water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the street of the city, and on either side the tree of life, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. What was lost in Eden is not merely regained but surpassed: the garden has become a city, filled with a countless multitude from every nation, kindred, and tongue.

This is why the absence of a temple is such good news and not a loss. Through the long middle of the story, a temple was necessary precisely because the free walking of God with man had been broken by sin, and access had to be carefully guarded and mediated. In the new creation the breach is fully healed. There is no need for a mediating holy place because the whole city is the presence of God, and His servants see His face, and His name is in their foreheads. The temple was the sign of a promise kept partly and looked forward to fully. In the new Jerusalem the promise is kept completely, the sign is no longer needed, and God dwells with His people directly, with the Lamb at the centre and the light of His glory over all.

How it points to Christ

The new Jerusalem shows what the temple was for all along. Solomon's temple, with all its glory, was a promise; the church, filled with the Spirit, is the promise being kept; and the city of God is the promise fulfilled completely. Through it all the constant is Christ, the Lamb, the true temple, the light, the one through whom God comes to dwell with His people at every stage of the story.

So the sweep is complete: from a tent in the wilderness, to a temple of gold in Jerusalem, to the Word made flesh, to the torn veil, to the church that is God's temple, to the city where God and the Lamb are the temple and there is no more distance for ever. The whole Bible has been telling one story, and its ending is the answer to its beginning: God with us, at last and always, in Christ.

And this ending is offered as a beginning to you. The city with no temple is not a distant abstraction but the sure hope of everyone who belongs to the Lamb. The same Jesus who is its light and its temple is the one who stands even now and says, if any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink, and who promises the water of life freely to all who will take it. The whole story of the temple, from the cloud over Solomon's house to the throne of God and of the Lamb, is God saying, in every age and in a thousand ways, that He means to dwell with His people. The only question the story leaves is whether you will come and dwell with Him.

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 church as God's temple · The Temple in the Bible (hub) · The Temple in the Bible