Behold, I Am With You Always, Part III
God's Covenantal Presence In Jesus And The Church
Hello, and welcome to the Biblical Imagination, where we read the Bible with fresh eyes and shed new light on old truths. Thank you for reading! Welcome to Part III of our series tracing the covenantal presence of God among His people from Eden to the New Jerusalem. In this installment, we move from the First Testament (FT) to the New Testament (NT). 1
We closed the previous post by highlighting the similarities between the stories of Eden and Israel, examining their failures, and drawing parallels that lead to the exile of each from the land and the loss of God’s special or covenantal presence.
We also emphasized that God desires to have a relationship with humanity. What I have left unsaid until now is that this relationship is much like a human family, with God as the father and humanity as his children. In the biblical story, Adam is the first “son of God.” Israel, too, is God’s Son, as well as individual Israelites. Of course, Jesus is uniquely THE Son of God, and through faith in Him, Christians are called the sons (children) of God. It is a term of endearment, implying a close, intimate relationship between God and His covenant people. 2
“Adam, the son of God” - Luke 3:38
“Israel is my firstborn son” - Exodus 4:22
“This is my beloved son.” - Mark 1:1. passim
“All who are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God” - Romans 8:14
What I’ve also left unsaid until now is that God’s presence among His people is essential for His purposes in the world, which include filling it with His goodness and ruling over it through His faithful children as stewards. He created us to reflect His likeness through our relationship with Him. As we fellowship with God and engage with Him in prayer, fellowship, service, and worship, we become more like Him in character and likeness. Since we become like whom we worship, in this way, ultimately, all creation shall look at humanity and see what God is like.
Enough said. We now turn the page to a new chapter in God’s presence with His people: Jesus
The Living Temple: Jesus
The Spirit and Jesus’ Birth
In Luke’s telling of the nativity, the angel Gabriel says to Mary: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore, the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God" (1:35).
We typically give little attention to this imagery of “overshadowing” and so read past it. But Luke chooses his words carefully. His words echo back to the language and imagery of the Tabernacle and Temple in Jerusalem, even back to the creation story. 3
As we have seen, in Exodus, the Shekinah glory-cloud is said to cover or “overshadow” the tabernacle (Exodus 40:35; Numbers 9:18, 22). The word is also used to describe the presence of God over Mt. Sinai and Mt Zion (Ex 24:15, 16; Isaiah 4:6).4 When we recognize this Old Testament glory-cloud as the Spirit and presence of God, covering/overshadowing Mt. Sinai, Mt. Zion, and the Tabernacle, it is not difficult to imagine the same Spirit of God that hovered over the dark pre-creational waters of Genesis 1.
The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Genesis 1:1-2
Thus, as in the beginning, the Spirit hovered over the "formless and void” of creation, so the Spirit hovers over the "void" womb of Mary, bringing forth a new work of God. Indeed, if we have the eyes to see it, Jesus' birth marks the beginning of a new creation. As the original creation was ushered in through Jesus, shining forth literal light into the dark chaos, so now Jesus enters into our dark, sinful world and shines new light (i.e., new life) into it (John 1:1, 4).5 Granted, this isn't the typical stuff of most Christmas sermons; however, there are good reasons to believe this would not be a controversial reading for a first-century Jew. I explore the reasons for this in a previous post: The Biblical Imagination.
The Spirit and Jesus’
Interestingly, while John the Baptist is said to be filled with the Spirit from his mother’s womb, the same is not said of Jesus. The Spirit comes upon Jesus when he comes to John for baptism. Coming out of the water, Jesus sees “the heavens torn open and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove,” with a voice from heaven declaring ‘This is my beloved son.” (Lk. 3:22).
Following this, Jesus, being “full of the Holy Spirit,” was led by the Spirit into the wilderness where he was tempted by the devil (Lk. 4:1-2). This event parallels the temptations in Eden and of Israel in the wilderness. 6 Luke tells us, “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit, and taught in the Synagogues.” He preaches his first sermon in his hometown of Nazareth, opening with the announcement “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.”
These multiple references to the Spirit together with Jesus indicate to us that, for Luke, the presence of the Holy Spirit is essential to Jesus’ identity. Out of his seventeen references to the Spirit in the gospel, thirteen of them are associated with the birth, baptism, and start of Jesus's ministry! Yet, while Luke’s imagery, vocabulary, and mentions of the Spirit are suggestive, he doesn’t explicitly say that Jesus is a new temple. 7 For this, we must turn to John’s gospel.
Jesus As The New Temple
Moving from Luke to John, speculation disappears, and clear statements are made. Commentators insist that John’s gospel is a message of the tabernacling presence of the glory of God in the person of Jesus.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt (lit. tabernacled) among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14 ESV)
The Greek word usually translated “dwelt” in our English translations (KJV, ESV, RSV), literally means tabernacle, and so just as God had “tabernacled” among the Israelites in the OT, now God’s presence has come to tabernacle among the Israelites in the person of Jesus. Of course, in a broader sense, he came to dwell among humanity, but in keeping the incarnation in the context of John’s gospel, he came first to Israel: “He came to his own but his own did not receive him.” (Jn 1:11).
The phrase “ we saw his glory” evokes the imagery of God’s glory visibly dwelling above the ancient tabernacle in the wilderness and later over the Temple in Jerusalem. It also suggests that what was concealed in the heart of the Tabernacle—God’s visible presence sitting upon the throne of the mercy seat—is now revealed for everyone to see! 8
That Jesus’ body has replaced the holy structure is made explicit in John 2:19-22. “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up,” Jesus says to the Jews in the temple. In Matthew 12:6, Jesus says, clearly referring to himself, “something greater than the temple is here,” 9 and later, quoting Psalm 118, he refers to himself as “the stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.”
In short, in the person of Jesus, God has come to dwell in the midst of his people and, as Israel of old, those who “saw his glory” followed him. But Jesus makes it clear this is not an end in itself. There is more to come. A time is coming, and even now is when he shall give living water to those who believe in him. His words may sound somewhat cryptic to us unless we are familiar with the living water from Ezekiel's vision of the future temple, which flows from the altar in the Holy of Holies (Ezekiel 47:1). While Ezekiel doesn’t call it living water, it reanimates everything it touches, even the Dead Sea becomes fresh water filled with fish and other living creatures!
Living water, then, is an image of the Holy Spirit. And if we have any doubts about this, John spells it out for us
“On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive. . .” (John 7:37-39)
The human heart, Jesus is saying, is to become like the Holy of Holies, within the Temple - for those who believe in him and follow him, it becomes the place of God’s presence on the earth. The Spirit of God shall dwell there, and it is the Spirit who gives life (Jn 6:63). That is to say, those who are born again or born from above are born by the Spirit!10 In other words, the human heart becomes a temple. It is to this image that we now turn.
I must add a brief caution at this point. While our focus has been on the Spirit dwelling within each believer, the clear emphasis of scripture is upon the gathered people of God - those assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ are the Temple of the living God. 11
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The Church as God’s Temple
The Temple in Acts
At his ascension, Jesus tells his disciples to remain in Jerusalem and wait for the promise of the Father. He says to them, “You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” When the day of Pentecost arrives, the promise of the Spirit is fulfilled. At his baptism, the Spirit comes to rest upon Jesus; here, Jesus baptizes his church, as John the Baptist promised, “with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Mat 3:11).
Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Acts 2:1-4 NIV
Much could and should be said here, but I must limit our exploration to the imagery of the Spirit in Acts, paralleling the Old Testament fillings of the tabernacle and temple with the Spirit of God. We’ve noted the overshadowing or resting of the Spirit over the OT structures; here, we focus upon the tongues of fire coming to rest over each person present in the upper room. 12
The image of fire associated with the tabernacle and temple includes the fire that burned continually on the temple altar and the Shekinah pillar of cloud and fire that led Israel through the wilderness and later rested over the Tabernacle. The tongues of fire now dividing and resting over each person suggest that the Spirit of God has come to dwell both corporately—among those gathered in the upper room—and individually with each believer. Pentecost also reminds us of the glory of God, not only resting over but filling the tabernacle and temple (Ex 40:34-38, I Kings 8:10-11).
The chief difference between the two is that in the temple, God dwelt among his people, while in the church, God dwells among them and individually within them. Or to say it differently, under the First Covenant, God indwelt the temple in Jerusalem; under the New Covenant, the people of God are the temple, and God dwells in them. 13
The Apostle Paul’s Description Of The Temple
One of three metaphors for the church the apostle Paul uses in Ephesians is that of the temple. Writing to the Ephesians and speaking specifically to the Gentiles there, the apostle tells them they are now part of God’s people, Israel: “You are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household founded upon the apostles and prophets” (3:19-20).
Through Jesus, both Jews and Gentiles now have access to the Father through the Spirit (3:18). In other words, they are now part of the grand story that God has been working out since the call of Abraham! The passage is worth quoting.
Notice the structural language he uses:
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22 ESV)
Note especially here that the temple is not simply being built, but it is ‘growing!’ The church, like Jesus, is a living temple!
Continuing to note his structural vocabulary, in the following chapter, Paul prays for the church using more structural language.
So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17-19 ESV)
“Breadth and length and height and depth.” Considering the context, these dimensions surely refer to the Holy of Holies, the innermost sanctuary in the temple, the place of God’s presence. It is a perfect cube; its breadth, length, height, and depth are all equal. The same is true, as we saw in the previous post, of the Tabernacle and Temple. And as we will see in our final post, it also applies to the New Jerusalem that comes down out of heaven to the earth in Revelation 21. It, too, is a cube.
“That you may be filled with all the fullness of God” summarizes the goal of the church as a temple. Under the New Covenant, the people of God are the temple, and God dwells in them. So much could be said here of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the church, but it must wait for another time.
Believer Also Dwell in Christ!
But the indwelling Spirit is but one side of the coin of the Spirit’s baptism. Not only is the Spirit given to those who believe in Jesus, so that Jesus is in them, but God’s people are also said to be “in Christ.” This, too, is the work of the Spirit. Through the Spirit, believers have been baptized into Christ such that they become united with him, so much so that they are crucified, buried, and raised again to new life in him. “Whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in S/spirit” (1 Cor 6:17 NIV). 14
This intimate relationship between Christ and the church is grounded in Jesus’ own body as God’s temple. T. Desmond Alexander explains.
The Gospel passages that present Christ’s own body as a temple also help us understand how the church can be a temple constructed of people. Since Christ’s body is the temple of God and since, as Paul repeatedly emphasizes, Christians are those who are ‘in Christ’, it naturally follows that the church, as the body of Christ, is also the temple of God. 15
In other words, there is a fitting and intimate correspondence between Jesus’ own body, indwelled by the Spirit, and the church as the Spirit-formed, Spirit-led, and Spirit-indwelled body of Christ on the earth. “For in the Spirit we are all baptized into one body” (1 Cor 12:13). And, in the Spirit, we “are God’s temple and in whom God’s Spirit indwells” (1 Cor 3:16).
While the OT temple housed the presence of God, it was situated in one place, Jerusalem. We should remember that Jesus sends his apostles out to make disciples of all nations, promising: “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Mat 28:20). The book of Acts records an expansive movement of the church through the power of the Spirit. The Spirit first comes upon those gathered in Jesus’ name in Jerusalem. This Pentecost is followed by two others, the gift of the Spirit to the Samaritans, an intermixed race of Jews and Gentiles, coming thirdly upon a gathering of Gentiles only, in the house of Cornelius.
The transition from the OT to the gospels into the book of Acts and beyond, marks a shift from a localized view of God residing in the temple to a broader, expanding perspective designed to fulfill the OT hope of the earth being full of the knowledge of the LORD.
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
Habukkuk 2:14
While I have quoted the prophet Habakkuk, he echoes a hope that resonates throughout the Old Testament, introduced as early as the book of Numbers (14:20): “... all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.”
This eschatological (future) hope will be the topic of our final post, which I hope to send out next week.
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The designation “First Testament” is my occasional reminder that the Old Testament (OT) is not really old or outdated, but rather it is the continuation of the story that began in the OT.
Angels, too, are called “sons of God,” but that will have to wait for another post.
Here, I am following Raymond Brown in his The Birth of The Messiah, p. 314, 327
Luke is writing in Greek. He is using the vocabulary of the Greek translation of the Old Testament, also known as the Septuagint.
Adapted from a point made by Charles P. Baylis, in “The Meaning of Walking ‘In The Darkness’ (1 John 1:6),” Bibliotheca Sacra 149 (1992): 217.
This temptation ties all three stories together as Satan tempting the “Sons of God:” Adam, Israel, and Jesus. All three are called Son of God (Lk 4:38; Ex 4:22: Mk 1:11). See the opening to this post.
There are hints that Jesus was in some sense embodying what the Temple stood for - he offered people forgiveness of sins, for example, something that only took place before a priest at the temple.
As noted in the previous post, this presence could potentially kill the High Priest on the Day of Atonement. But, in Christ this glory is made manifest! A staggering and humbling thought!
Those listening to Jesus must have been aghast at his claim. In Israel, there was nothing greater than the Temple! It was the place of God's presence on earth! It was the navel of the earth, the place where heaven and earth meet! Such a claim by any mere human was blasphemy. Of course, we as readers know Jesus was not merely human.
The popular use of the phrase “born again” originates from the confused Nicodemus. The Greek is deliberately ambiguous; it can mean from above or again. The context makes it clear that Nicodemus misunderstands Jesus. “Born from above” is what Jesus intends - born of water and Spirit (Jn 3:6). Water and Spirit are not two different things. Water is a metaphor or an image for the Spirit.
Very briefly, the text of John 7:37-39 is one of only two where the individual believer is clearly in view. Jesus says, “out of his heart. . .” and in 1 Corinthians 3:16 the apostle Paul writes, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” The English word translated as “you” is plural in the Greek, clearly meaning the gathered church, not the individual believer only. Yet, by necessity, the individual must also be inhabited by the Spirit.
The coming of the Spirit at Pentecost is also filled with echoes of Sinai. The scene is that of the house shaking as it is filled with the sound of a mighty rushing wind, and then, in the midst of the commotion, divided tongues of fire appear and come to rest over each person in the room. Shaking, wind, fire are all encountered at Sinai.
James M. Hamilton Jr., Typology: Understanding the Bible’s Promise-Shaped Patterns: How Old Testament Expectations Are Fulfilled in Christ, pp 160, 248
I add the Spirit/spirit (S/spirit) distinction following Pauline theologian Gordon Fee who insists that Paul implies a close relationship between the believer's spirit and the Holy Spirit.
T. Desmond Alexander, From Eden to the New Jerusalem: Exploring God’s Plan for Life on Earth, (Nottingham, England: Inter-Varsity, 2008), 71.