NEW WINE/OLD WINESKINS. HOW THE COVENANTS INTERSECT. PART II: THE TEMPLE

We are engaged in a study of how the Old and New Covenants relate to one another. We have attempted to show that the key word that defines this relationship is the word fulfilled. The New Covenant is that eternal covenant that came into being when Jesus Christ struck hands with the Father and covenanted to die on a cross for His people and to subsequently gather them from every tribe, kindred and nation. This covenant as foretold in Jeremiah 31:31-34 was that which stamped the law upon the hearts of Christ’s people who, unlike those of the Old Covenant, could now obey God in the Spirit. Those who live on this side of the cross and believe in Christ by faith are members of the New Covenant. This series of articles is intended to show that this New Covenant is great end to which all the elements of the Old Covenant point.

Now it must be said that the advent of the New Covenant does not negate the need for the Old Covenant. The New Covenant does not make the Old Covenant unimportant, but rather brings the Old Covenant types into sharp focus and interprets their true meaning. Bible readers can now look back into Old Covenant texts and discover how they point toward the consummation of all things in Christ. When the ram is caught in the thicket and dies in lieu of Isaac (Genesis 22), the New Covenant steps in and interprets the story and reveals its full meaning. Without the sacrificial death of Jesus this story would merely be another historical record of obedience and divine providence. The New Covenant unlocks its mystery and shows how the ram pictures the substitutionary death of Jesus, the Messiah.

We now look at some of the major Old Covenant themes and will attempt to show how they are fulfilled in the New. The first theme we will investigate will be that of the tabernacle/temple. In the Old Covenant the tabernacle and subsequently the temple was the central place of worship. More importantly it was the place where God dwelled among His people (Exodus 25:8). But what is the significance of the temple? Were we left to interpret the importance of the temple simply from the Old Covenant we might put an emphasis on the structure itself. We might infer that ornate temples are very important things. In the noonday light of the New Covenant, however, we learn what the temple really is. It is God’s dwelling place; the external structural shell is not all that important. When we come to the New Covenant we find that this idea of God’s dwelling place is linked not to a building but to a body. The New Testament writers clearly link the temple idea to Messiah Himself. Jesus is the true tabernacle and He is the true temple. That is, Jesus is the One who dwells with us. He is Immanuel; God with us. This fact is made clear by such texts as John 1 which says, “The Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us.” In John 2, Jesus goes a step farther and says, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up,” and several verses later John adds, “But He was speaking of the temple of His body.” The New Covenant writers and Jesus saw Himself as the true temple, the place where God dwells with His people. Once we see Christ in this light it opens up other many other texts. For example the Shekinah that radiated from the Tabernacle points to the radiance of Jesus Christ who is the brightness of God’s glory (Hebrews 1:2). He is the very light of the world (John 9:5). To think of the temple as merely a structure is to continue to look at the temple through the lens of old wineskins. Such a view obscures the real meaning of the temple. To esteem Jesus as the true Temple of God is to put new wine in new wine skins. In every way Jesus fulfills the essence of the Old Covenant temple. So now, when any New Covenant believer reads Old Covenant passages about the tabernacle or temple he must immediately ask how this points to Jesus, the Messiah of God.

Not only is the Temple the place where God dwells in the midst of His people, it is also the place where God meets His people. Often in the Old Covenant the physical temple is called the “tent of meeting” (Ex 33:7; Lev 24:3; Joshua 18:1). It was the place where Yahweh met His covenant people. If a Jew wished to meet with God he must go to the temple. He must also carry with him a sacrifice. This reminds us that Jesus alone is the very place where man meets God. He is the mediator of the New Covenant (Heb 9:15, 1 Tim 2:5). He is the one who Job yearned to see who might plead his case (Job 9:32-35). Christ is the only meeting place between God and man for Christ Himself bears both the nature of God (Co 2:9) and the nature of man (Heb 2:17). He is the only One able to bring man and God together. God supremely meets us in the New Covenant temple called Jesus Christ.

But the Old Covenant temple imagery goes even deeper. Just as the ancient nation of Israel was a habitation of the Lord, so the New Covenant people of God are also the Lord’s habitation in the midst of a very dark world. If Jesus is the everlasting temple of God, then those who are united to Jesus are also the temple. Indeed, the church alone is the place where Jesus dwells in all His fullness. Paul asks in 1 Corinthians 3:16, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” In Ephesians 2:21, Paul speaks of the Gentiles becoming fellow citizens with the saints and resting on the apostles and prophets. Peter says that Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone in whom “you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (1 Peter 2:22). Truly the church, by virtue of its attachment to Christ, has now become God’s holy temple.

The typology goes even to one more level. The temple will be firmly and finally established in the New Heavens and the New Earth. But what kind of temple will it be? A physical structure? The Book of Revelation describes it as the tabernacle of God which is “with men and He will dwell with them and they shall be His people” (Rev 21:3). That is, the eternal temple will not be a building but the Lamb who sits on a throne among His people (Rev 22:3). So we have come full circle with the temple imagery in the Bible. Much more could have been said. The point is that the tabernacle/temple concept in the Old Covenant is only fully understood when one sees its fulfillment in the Messiah, Jesus Christ and His New Covenant people. .

The application of this temple typology is profound. Every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ ought at once to bow his head in solemn adoration as he considers how Christ is the very center of God’s redemptive purposes. To worship Christ is the only way to worship God for He is the place where God dwells. Furthermore, to be vitally attached to Jesus Christ is to be oneself the very temple of God. The church is the dwelling place of God. Outside the church the heathen nations stumble along in darkness. But in the church there dwells the shekinah glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Should not this sobering reality cause each and every Christian to soberly reflect upon the high calling to which he has been called? Christians are the bearers of the very person of God! Shouldn’t this truth be the grandest deterrent to sin? Let every Christian now say, “I am the very habitation of God, the infinite God, the Creator God. May I lead a life that properly reflects this high calling.” Now that is a mystery that will dazzle our feeble minds and stimulate and excite our God-filled souls.