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5. The Temple is God Himself and His Lamb (Revelation 21:22-23)
REVELATION 21:22-23
22 I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb, are its temple. 23 The city has no need for the sun, neither of the moon, to shine, for the very glory of God illuminated it, and its lamp is the Lamb.
Where is the Temple? In the report of the patriarch on the heavenly Jerusalem the core statement was missing so far! His Jewish church members may have waited for the decisive announcement and asked themselves: where is the temple of God in this eternal city? They may have become shocked at this point, when they read the succinct note of the seer, “And I saw no temple in New Jerusalem.” Is God not present in the midst of His people also in eternity? In this case all gold and all pearls and jewels of the new city would be useless and without any value. The new existence would have no centre, no strength, no life, and no spiritual sun! The understanding of the Old Covenant and its laws and sacrifices is emptied and perverted without a temple. The people of Israel have to return to their temple otherwise they must act contrary to their own heart.
John, however, had not yet completed his statement. He gave reasons for the lack of the temple in New Jerusalem by stating a short note, which was beyond men, “For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it!” (Revelation 21:22). This solemn confession was in such a manner so as to leave the homesick Jews and Jewish Christians speechless. A great silence may have seized them. New Jerusalem offers far more than the old and passed one!
Word by word John testified that Yahweh, the God of the Covenant, the everlasting faithful, the unchangeable and almighty God does not need a temple and does not dwell in the Holy of Holies any longer since the death of Jesus on the cross. During the age of the church the church itself is the temple of God. The Almighty dwells with His fullness in it and works with His Spirit through it (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19; Colossians 2:9-10; and other verses). This mystery of the New Covenant, i.e., that Jesus dwells by faith in our hearts and that He remains “in” us, is mentioned more than thirty times in the New Testament (Matthew 26:26-27; John 6:48-58; 14:23.25-26; 15:4-8; 17:23.26; Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 3:14-19; Colossians 1:15-27; and other verses.).
The New Testament, however, does not only mention that Christ lives “in us” but also that “we live in Christ". This phrase “in Christ” is mentioned in the New Testament 175-times which are six times more than that the fact that He is in us.
If you confess that Christ is “in you", then you will testify therewith the truth of the realization of the salvation as a fruit of the cross of Jesus. However, there is a subliminal danger that we think in an egoistic manner as if we possessed the Lord Jesus as our property, as if we were His owner. But the contrary is the case: Not we do possess Him, but we are His possession! He lives in us through His Spirit and is always with us, even until the end of the world (Matthew 28:20); at the same time Jesus has incorporated us so that we become active members of His spiritual body and deny ourselves. He is the head, and we are to move and work as he likes. In this manner we live and die “in Him” (John 6:56; 14:20; 15:4-7; 16:33; 17:21, Romans 6:23; 8:1; 9:1; 12:5; 14:14; 15:17; 16:2-27 (eight times); 1 Corinthians 1:2; 4:10; 15:18.22.58; 2 Corinthians 2:12.14.17; 5:17.21; Ephesians 2:6.13.21; 4:1.21.32; 5:8; 6:10; and other verses.).
Christ is our air-raid shelter, the centre of our strength, and our control station. If you enter an airplane, you will entrust your live to the pilot for better or worse. In the same way we do not exist any longer on our own, if we have committed ourselves to Him completely and forever.
The spiritual reality of this legal relationship can be seen in eternal Jerusalem. We will rest there in God's grace, Spirit, light, live and presence as John testified, “God is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God and God in him.” (1 John 4:16). We are to think of this verse often so that we better understand its scope and depth. God wants to dwell among His creatures in a visible manner, to shape them by His presence, to embrace them by His Spirit, to fill them therewith and to shelter them. “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24).
He who loves us forever and is threefold holy wants to draw us into His force field, into Himself, into the midst of His Trinity (John 17:20-26). He wants to be our temple, our father, our strength. That way, only that way the following commandment of Christ will be fulfilled, “Therefore be perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect!” (Matthew 5:48).This privilege is given to us already now by the guarantee of the Holy Spirit, but its fulfillment is attached to the return of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:42-45.54-57).
John testified clearly that not only God Lord Almighty embraces, shapes and pulsates New Jerusalem and its holy inhabitants, but that simultaneously and in full unity with him the Lamb of God, our high priest, the new existence embraces, holds and preserves. Likewise as the two sides of the same coin, so the Father and the Son are an indissoluble unity. What the one wants and does, likewise the other wants and does. Jesus asked His Father that we may become one as He is in the Father and the Father is in Him. Likewise we are to be established “in the Father” and “in the Son” through the Holy Spirit (John 17:20-23).
If you sense the richness of these promises, you will worship God and His Lamb. For none of us is worthy and able by himself to be a pillar in the temple of the living God and to have the name of the Father and of the Son and of the city of Jerusalem on his forehead as it was promised the church leader of Philadelphia (Revelation 3:12-13).
PRAYER: We thank You, Father, because You are our Father and have delivered us from judgment and wrath through Your beloved Son, who died for us in atonement of our sins. We worship to You in the Holy Spirit because you drew us to Your family and to the unity of the Holy Trinity so that Your Fatherly name may be hallowed. Amen.
QUESTION:
- How did the impossible become possible such that the holy God lives in us and we in Him?