Building the Temple of the Lord
In Zech. 6: 12, 13, we read: “Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the Man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord: even he shall build the temple of the Lord; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.” As we read this, the mind involuntarily turns to the words of Christ in answer to the Jews who asked him for a sign to show that he had authority to drive the buyers and sellers and money-changers out of the temple rebuilt by Herod: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” John 2: 19. Blind because of their unbelief, the Jews caviled, and said: “Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body,” a temple not made with hands. From these last two texts we see that Jesus—The BRANCH—builds the temple of the Lord by the power of the resurrection. He was “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Rom. 1: 4); but he was just as much the Son of God before his resurrection as he was afterward; and hundreds of years before he was manifest in Bethlehem, he was sitting and ruling on the throne, “a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec.” Ps. 110: 1, 4. His own body was the true tabernacle; his name is Emmanuel,—“God with us,”—and so in his manifestation in the flesh, just as truly as it will be on the new earth, the tabernacle of God was with men, and God did in very deed dwell on the earth. But that which was, is now; for Jesus Christ is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.” He says, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Therefore the tabernacle of God is still with men, and he dwells with them; as we read: “What agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” 2 Cor. 6: 16. Thus not only the body of Christ,—that body which was born of Mary,—but all his people are the temple of God. “Ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are 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.” Eph. 2: 19-22. The church as a whole is the body of Christ, but the same is true of each individual member. It is your body and mine, as well as that which was born of Mary, that God has prepared for him to dwell in and to offer as a living sacrifice. “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God?” 1 Cor. 6: 19. Christ himself is the temple of God, and “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Cor. 5: 17. Notice that it is when “the former things are passed away,” and he that sits upon the throne says, “Behold, I make all things new,” that the tabernacle of God is with men, and he dwells with them. Rev. 21: 1-5. But “now are we the sons of God” by the power of the resurrection, and that which in the world to come will be true of all creation is even now the case with the true believer. God dwells in those who receive Christ, working through them to reconcile the world unto himself, even as he did through Christ.—Present Truth.