Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
The temple to be raised in three days is his own body, not the Jerusalem building, and he did not say he himself would destroy that building. In another sense it also points to the destruction of the Jerusalem temple and its worship together with the destruction of his body in death. To destroy means his enemies would put him to death, and to raise it up in three days means he himself would take his life again in resurrection on the third day. Its fulfillment showed that in his divinity he had power to lay down his life and take it again, possessing life in himself and breaking the bonds of death. To destroy him was in that sense to destroy the temple, because the temple and its sacrifices and priesthood pointed to him and lost their value as types once he offered himself as the perfect sacrifice.
Temple Meaning in Saying
The temple to be destroyed and raised in three days is Jesus' own body, not the Jerusalem building. He did not say that he himself would destroy the Jerusalem temple, but that when his body was destroyed he would raise it in three days. In that saying the temple destroyed is Christ himself, and the raising is his resurrection.
The saying has a double meaning, referring both to the destruction of the Jerusalem temple and its worship and to the destruction of the temple of his body in death. His body was the earthly temple of the Son of God, to be destroyed in death and raised three days later. In the same words he foretold both the destruction of the Jerusalem temple and the death and resurrection of his own body.
The temple and its services pointed to Christ, for he is their foundation and life. Its sacrifices foreshadowed his death to redeem the world, and its priesthood represented his mediatorial work. His death fulfilled what the sacrificial services represented.
To destroy Christ was in that sense to destroy the temple, because in rejecting and putting him to death the Jews rejected what gave the temple and its services their meaning. His crucifixion destroyed the temple in the sense that its sacrifices and ceremonies, which pointed forward to his death, would no longer have value once he had offered himself as the perfect sacrifice. Those offerings and ceremonies became valueless as types once the reality had come, when type met antitype in his death, bringing the sacrificial system to its close. The torn inner veil signified that his final sacrifice had been made and the sacrificial system had ended, leaving the offerings without meaning apart from faith in him. Christ was the foundation of the Jewish economy, and the temple was a place that belonged to him.
Destroy means his enemies would destroy him, for his words exposed the leaders' hatred and plot to kill him. The people who carried out his destruction were Satan and those acting in his spirit. I will raise it up in three days means he himself would raise his destroyed body in his resurrection on the third day. After being put to death he would raise himself from the dead on the third day, remaining in the grave for the allotted, appointed period and then taking up his life again, which showed his power to lay down his life and take it again.
Setting and Misunderstanding
Jesus spoke these words as his answer when the leaders demanded a sign proving his authority to cleanse the temple, after the cleansing itself had already given the strongest proof of his divine commission that no further evidence could surpass if that failed to convince them. That cleansing announced his mission as Messiah and the beginning of his work. News of the act, and of the temple authorities' judgment against him, reached Galilee and helped prepare people to receive him, since many resented the priests' abuse of the temple and hoped he would drive out the rulers and prove to be the promised Deliverer. What Nicodemus witnessed in that temple-cleansing scene led him to seek a private interview to learn more about his mission and identity as the promised One.
He spoke in the figurative language of prophecy and deliberately veiled the hidden meaning so the skeptical Jews would not discover it, nor even his disciples at that time. Its meaning was not meant to be understood by the Jews or even the disciples at that time. He spoke them for future believers: after he rose their meaning would become clear and serve as conclusive evidence of his divinity. Later events also made his lessons clear to the disciples and gave them comfort after he was no longer with them.
The Jews took the saying literally as referring only to the Jerusalem temple, understanding it as a claim that he could rebuild that building in three days, and used that misunderstanding to reject him. His hearers mistook them for a claim about the Jewish temple. The disciples only called the words to mind and understood them correctly after his resurrection. Then they connected them with his saying that he had power to lay down his life and take it again, which he spoke knowing fully the path his feet had entered even unto the end.
At his trial witnesses misstated the words as a boast that he was able to destroy the temple of God and build it in three days. Their testimony was perjury that did not truthfully represent what he said and was intended to support a charge of blasphemy, but the false testimony could not establish it. His enemies misconstrued the words to suit their own purposes and used them as false and malicious evidence against him. Reported accurately, the saying would not have proved a crime or blasphemy and would hold nothing offensive or worthy of death. Even as misrepresented it did not amount to a Roman capital offense, and even if he were a mere man the declaration would show only an unreasonable, boastful spirit, not blasphemy.
It was the only saying the priests could use against him, because an accusation that a humble man claimed he could build the temple in three days if destroyed would stir the indignation of the Romans, who had rebuilt and embellished it and took great pride in it as a work of science and art. On this ground of veneration for the temple Romans and Jews, Pharisees and Sadducees could all meet together against him. He knew his enemies would twist the words into an accusation at his trial and a taunt at Calvary. They were twisted into mockery at the cross, as though having spoken about rebuilding the temple he should save himself by coming down. His words were misstated as a claim that he would destroy the temple and rebuild it, and this false version was used as a charge against him and repeated in mockery at the cross. The false version was proclaimed by his enemies, which made the statement more widely known while its fulfillment was taking place.
His enemies remembered the declaration along with his statement that he had power to lay down his life and take it up again, and recognized his words as a plain prophecy of the events that had occurred. His words foretold that after being put to death, he would raise himself from the dead on the third day; his enemies remembered this prediction and sealed and guarded his tomb, fearing the prediction would be fulfilled. At his death, the torn temple veil showed that his sacrifice ended the sacrificial offerings and opened a new and living way; this sign also filled his enemies with fear because they recalled his prediction. After the crucifixion the rulers joined this saying with his private prediction to his disciples on the way to Jerusalem that he would be betrayed to the chief priests and scribes, condemned to death, delivered to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify, and rise the third day. They understood both sayings as plain prophecies of what had happened and what would happen, and because they had witnessed his miracle at the grave of Lazarus and knew he was all-powerful to raise the dead, they believed his prediction could come true and trembled with fear that his body in Joseph's tomb would come forth to life.
Resurrection Power Foretold
The saying is a prophecy that he would be killed and would rise from the dead three days after his death, foretelling his conflict and his victory. It foretold his own death and resurrection in figurative language, declaring that the temple of his body, once destroyed, would be raised up in three days. His enemies afterward remembered the declaration together with his statement that he had power to lay down his life and take it up again, and recognized both as plain prophecy of the events that had occurred.
He remained in the grave for the allotted, appointed time, resting in the tomb during the Sabbath and coming forth untarnished by corruption. He remained in the tomb for that appointed time under divine justice, bearing the world's sins, and only the Father could release him. Then he took up his life again and rose from the dead on the third day, coming forth victorious over death and Satan.
Its fulfillment showed that in his divinity he had power to lay down his life and take it again, and he came forth by the life that was in himself. Unlike created beings he was not dependent on another for life, but possessing life in himself he had power to break the bonds of death. His humanity died but his deity did not, and in that underived life lay his power to rise from the grave.
His rising fulfilled prophecy and his own assurance. It revealed his divine power and confirmed his claims, so that the disciples understood his meaning when they saw him risen from the dead.
Sanctuary Fulfilled in Christ
At His death the torn inner veil showed that His final sacrifice had been made and the sacrificial system had ended. The rending opened a new and living way, leaving the offerings without meaning apart from faith in Him. The words about the temple referred to His death and resurrection, that after His enemies destroyed His body He would rise on the third day. This sign also filled His enemies with fear because they recalled His prediction.
Christ was the foundation of the Jewish economy, and the temple was a place that belonged to Him. His death would bring the temple's sacrificial system to its close, because the sacrifices and offerings pointed to Him and their type met its antitype in His death. His sacrifice fulfilled what the earthly sacrifices had pointed to. His body was destroyed in death and raised three days later, in both the destruction of the Jerusalem temple and His death and resurrection.
Through His death and resurrection He became minister of the true, heavenly sanctuary, of which the human-built tabernacle and temple and the earthly sanctuary were types. His ministry as high priest of the new covenant replaced the earthly sacrificial service and priesthood, which gave way to His ministry. Though He is unseen in heaven, He remains present with His church through the Spirit, and His ministry gives believers access to mercy and grace.
Though the powers of darkness seemed to triumph at His death, He rose as conqueror and His resurrection defeated the powers of darkness. His death made the temple seem destroyed and the head of the serpent seem bruised, but this apparent defeat was actually His victory. Through His suffering and death He accomplished the work ordained for Him before the foundation of the world, overcame the powers of earth and hell, and broke Satan's hold over millions.
Through His suffering and death He restored humanity from the position it had lost through temptation and sin. His perfect obedience to God's law placed humanity on restored ground. He rose from the grave after three days, victorious over death and Satan, and His resurrection opens emancipation from Satan, sin, and transgression to every son and daughter of Adam. Though unseen in heaven He remains present with His church through the Spirit, and His ministry gives believers access to mercy and grace.
Human Body as Temple
The body is a temple of God that must be preserved in the best possible condition in obedience to the laws of health. That keeping is to be in harmony with the laws of health through true temperance and health reform. The reason is practical and spiritual: only so can it render acceptable service to God and remain susceptible to the sanctifying influence of truth, for without true temperance there is no such susceptibility. The temple to be destroyed and raised in three days was Christ's own body, and the saying is thus joined to health reform and the care of the body.
God's people have a duty to practice the principles of true reform and to be temperate in all things. They are to educate themselves line upon line and to teach others the better way and keep the subject fresh before them, with conscience aroused to duty. God has placed knowledge of those health laws within reach and made it a duty to use that knowledge in order to render acceptable service to Him. To refuse to improve this mercifully given light and knowledge is to reject one of the means He has granted to promote spiritual as well as physical life.
The temple was an object lesson of God's purpose to dwell in His creatures. Sin defiled humanity and turned the human heart from a temple of God. Through the incarnation God dwells in humanity, and saving grace makes the heart His temple again.
The temple to be raised in three days is his own body, not the Jerusalem building, and he did not say he himself would destroy that building. In another sense it also points to the destruction of the Jerusalem temple and its worship together with the destruction of his body in death. To destroy means his enemies would put him to death, and to raise it up in three days means he himself would take his life again in resurrection on the third day. Its fulfillment showed that in his divinity he had power to lay down his life and take it again, possessing life in himself and breaking the bonds of death. To destroy him was in that sense to destroy the temple, because the temple and its sacrifices and priesthood pointed to him and lost their value as types once he offered himself as the perfect sacrifice.
Temple Meaning in Saying
The temple to be destroyed and raised in three days is Jesus' own body, not the Jerusalem building. He did not say that he himself would destroy the Jerusalem temple, but that when his body was destroyed he would raise it in three days. In that saying the temple destroyed is Christ himself, and the raising is his resurrection.
The saying has a double meaning, referring both to the destruction of the Jerusalem temple and its worship and to the destruction of the temple of his body in death. His body was the earthly temple of the Son of God, to be destroyed in death and raised three days later. In the same words he foretold both the destruction of the Jerusalem temple and the death and resurrection of his own body.
The temple and its services pointed to Christ, for he is their foundation and life. Its sacrifices foreshadowed his death to redeem the world, and its priesthood represented his mediatorial work. His death fulfilled what the sacrificial services represented.
To destroy Christ was in that sense to destroy the temple, because in rejecting and putting him to death the Jews rejected what gave the temple and its services their meaning. His crucifixion destroyed the temple in the sense that its sacrifices and ceremonies, which pointed forward to his death, would no longer have value once he had offered himself as the perfect sacrifice. Those offerings and ceremonies became valueless as types once the reality had come, when type met antitype in his death, bringing the sacrificial system to its close. The torn inner veil signified that his final sacrifice had been made and the sacrificial system had ended, leaving the offerings without meaning apart from faith in him. Christ was the foundation of the Jewish economy, and the temple was a place that belonged to him.
Destroy means his enemies would destroy him, for his words exposed the leaders' hatred and plot to kill him. The people who carried out his destruction were Satan and those acting in his spirit. I will raise it up in three days means he himself would raise his destroyed body in his resurrection on the third day. After being put to death he would raise himself from the dead on the third day, remaining in the grave for the allotted, appointed period and then taking up his life again, which showed his power to lay down his life and take it again.
Setting and Misunderstanding
Jesus spoke these words as his answer when the leaders demanded a sign proving his authority to cleanse the temple, after the cleansing itself had already given the strongest proof of his divine commission that no further evidence could surpass if that failed to convince them. That cleansing announced his mission as Messiah and the beginning of his work. News of the act, and of the temple authorities' judgment against him, reached Galilee and helped prepare people to receive him, since many resented the priests' abuse of the temple and hoped he would drive out the rulers and prove to be the promised Deliverer. What Nicodemus witnessed in that temple-cleansing scene led him to seek a private interview to learn more about his mission and identity as the promised One.
He spoke in the figurative language of prophecy and deliberately veiled the hidden meaning so the skeptical Jews would not discover it, nor even his disciples at that time. Its meaning was not meant to be understood by the Jews or even the disciples at that time. He spoke them for future believers: after he rose their meaning would become clear and serve as conclusive evidence of his divinity. Later events also made his lessons clear to the disciples and gave them comfort after he was no longer with them.
The Jews took the saying literally as referring only to the Jerusalem temple, understanding it as a claim that he could rebuild that building in three days, and used that misunderstanding to reject him. His hearers mistook them for a claim about the Jewish temple. The disciples only called the words to mind and understood them correctly after his resurrection. Then they connected them with his saying that he had power to lay down his life and take it again, which he spoke knowing fully the path his feet had entered even unto the end.
At his trial witnesses misstated the words as a boast that he was able to destroy the temple of God and build it in three days. Their testimony was perjury that did not truthfully represent what he said and was intended to support a charge of blasphemy, but the false testimony could not establish it. His enemies misconstrued the words to suit their own purposes and used them as false and malicious evidence against him. Reported accurately, the saying would not have proved a crime or blasphemy and would hold nothing offensive or worthy of death. Even as misrepresented it did not amount to a Roman capital offense, and even if he were a mere man the declaration would show only an unreasonable, boastful spirit, not blasphemy.
It was the only saying the priests could use against him, because an accusation that a humble man claimed he could build the temple in three days if destroyed would stir the indignation of the Romans, who had rebuilt and embellished it and took great pride in it as a work of science and art. On this ground of veneration for the temple Romans and Jews, Pharisees and Sadducees could all meet together against him. He knew his enemies would twist the words into an accusation at his trial and a taunt at Calvary. They were twisted into mockery at the cross, as though having spoken about rebuilding the temple he should save himself by coming down. His words were misstated as a claim that he would destroy the temple and rebuild it, and this false version was used as a charge against him and repeated in mockery at the cross. The false version was proclaimed by his enemies, which made the statement more widely known while its fulfillment was taking place.
His enemies remembered the declaration along with his statement that he had power to lay down his life and take it up again, and recognized his words as a plain prophecy of the events that had occurred. His words foretold that after being put to death, he would raise himself from the dead on the third day; his enemies remembered this prediction and sealed and guarded his tomb, fearing the prediction would be fulfilled. At his death, the torn temple veil showed that his sacrifice ended the sacrificial offerings and opened a new and living way; this sign also filled his enemies with fear because they recalled his prediction. After the crucifixion the rulers joined this saying with his private prediction to his disciples on the way to Jerusalem that he would be betrayed to the chief priests and scribes, condemned to death, delivered to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify, and rise the third day. They understood both sayings as plain prophecies of what had happened and what would happen, and because they had witnessed his miracle at the grave of Lazarus and knew he was all-powerful to raise the dead, they believed his prediction could come true and trembled with fear that his body in Joseph's tomb would come forth to life.
Resurrection Power Foretold
The saying is a prophecy that he would be killed and would rise from the dead three days after his death, foretelling his conflict and his victory. It foretold his own death and resurrection in figurative language, declaring that the temple of his body, once destroyed, would be raised up in three days. His enemies afterward remembered the declaration together with his statement that he had power to lay down his life and take it up again, and recognized both as plain prophecy of the events that had occurred.
He remained in the grave for the allotted, appointed time, resting in the tomb during the Sabbath and coming forth untarnished by corruption. He remained in the tomb for that appointed time under divine justice, bearing the world's sins, and only the Father could release him. Then he took up his life again and rose from the dead on the third day, coming forth victorious over death and Satan.
Its fulfillment showed that in his divinity he had power to lay down his life and take it again, and he came forth by the life that was in himself. Unlike created beings he was not dependent on another for life, but possessing life in himself he had power to break the bonds of death. His humanity died but his deity did not, and in that underived life lay his power to rise from the grave.
His rising fulfilled prophecy and his own assurance. It revealed his divine power and confirmed his claims, so that the disciples understood his meaning when they saw him risen from the dead.
Sanctuary Fulfilled in Christ
At His death the torn inner veil showed that His final sacrifice had been made and the sacrificial system had ended. The rending opened a new and living way, leaving the offerings without meaning apart from faith in Him. The words about the temple referred to His death and resurrection, that after His enemies destroyed His body He would rise on the third day. This sign also filled His enemies with fear because they recalled His prediction.
Christ was the foundation of the Jewish economy, and the temple was a place that belonged to Him. His death would bring the temple's sacrificial system to its close, because the sacrifices and offerings pointed to Him and their type met its antitype in His death. His sacrifice fulfilled what the earthly sacrifices had pointed to. His body was destroyed in death and raised three days later, in both the destruction of the Jerusalem temple and His death and resurrection.
Through His death and resurrection He became minister of the true, heavenly sanctuary, of which the human-built tabernacle and temple and the earthly sanctuary were types. His ministry as high priest of the new covenant replaced the earthly sacrificial service and priesthood, which gave way to His ministry. Though He is unseen in heaven, He remains present with His church through the Spirit, and His ministry gives believers access to mercy and grace.
Though the powers of darkness seemed to triumph at His death, He rose as conqueror and His resurrection defeated the powers of darkness. His death made the temple seem destroyed and the head of the serpent seem bruised, but this apparent defeat was actually His victory. Through His suffering and death He accomplished the work ordained for Him before the foundation of the world, overcame the powers of earth and hell, and broke Satan's hold over millions.
Through His suffering and death He restored humanity from the position it had lost through temptation and sin. His perfect obedience to God's law placed humanity on restored ground. He rose from the grave after three days, victorious over death and Satan, and His resurrection opens emancipation from Satan, sin, and transgression to every son and daughter of Adam. Though unseen in heaven He remains present with His church through the Spirit, and His ministry gives believers access to mercy and grace.
Human Body as Temple
The body is a temple of God that must be preserved in the best possible condition in obedience to the laws of health. That keeping is to be in harmony with the laws of health through true temperance and health reform. The reason is practical and spiritual: only so can it render acceptable service to God and remain susceptible to the sanctifying influence of truth, for without true temperance there is no such susceptibility. The temple to be destroyed and raised in three days was Christ's own body, and the saying is thus joined to health reform and the care of the body.
God's people have a duty to practice the principles of true reform and to be temperate in all things. They are to educate themselves line upon line and to teach others the better way and keep the subject fresh before them, with conscience aroused to duty. God has placed knowledge of those health laws within reach and made it a duty to use that knowledge in order to render acceptable service to Him. To refuse to improve this mercifully given light and knowledge is to reject one of the means He has granted to promote spiritual as well as physical life.
The temple was an object lesson of God's purpose to dwell in His creatures. Sin defiled humanity and turned the human heart from a temple of God. Through the incarnation God dwells in humanity, and saving grace makes the heart His temple again.