A “Spiritual House”

The Church is a “spiritual temple”, of which Christ Jesus is the “Chief Cornerstone”. The whole universe is in reality the “temple” of God, for He exists in all of eternity IN which the entire universe itself exists.

Eternity itself cannot contain him, let alone a small speck of dust called earth. Yet he chose to manifest His presence in an ancient temple made of human hands – it was “the habitation of His earthly house, the place where His honour dwelt”. But lets not forget that that temple was only a figure, a prophecy of a holier temple to come, being you and me the Believer in Christ Jesus.

God is a Spirit therefore His temple in the highest sense must then also be a spiritual house, built up of living stones, Christian men and Women, LIVING the life of Christ. Who come drawn by the attracting force of love to the one living Stone. Once disallowed of men, but chosen of God, and precious and built up by the power of the Holy Spirit, as chosen stones upon the one Stone first chosen, which is at once the Foundation on which this entire living building rests and the Chief Cornerstone that holds the walls together, so that the whole building fitly joined and compacted in all its parts grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

The whole building therefore is one temple; so in a true sense is each individual living stone therein, for the bodies of Christians are temples of the Holy Spirit.

“What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

1 Corinthians 6:19, 20

So we see that in the fullest sense the whole Christian Church is the spiritual temple of God – a corporate unity, knit and framed together into one building by the chief Cornerstone, the principle of unity on which it rests binding its various parts into one whole.

Christ is the true Priest and we are priests through Him. The duty of the priest is to present man to God and God to man. His chief function is sacrifice, and, in addition to it, he has to be intercessor and mediator – to bring the messages of God to His worshippers and to represent the worshippers before God.

Christians are the priesthood of the true and spiritual temple of God. There are indeed special ministries in the Church – bishops, presbyters, deacons, etc; but there is one general ministry to which all Christians are called, and that is the priesthood.

Shalom

Dr Neil Kleynhans