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| Billie Silvey |
| The Living Temple |
| February 2007 |
| We Are God's Temple, God's House. We who have accepted the good news of salvation in Christ are God's temple, both as individuals and as a body. Our individual identity as God's temple is seen in Paul's teaching to the Corinthians: “Don’t you know that you yourself are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). |
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| Jesus Is the Cornerstone. Jesus is the cornerstone, the source of stability for the structure. The Psalmist first used the image of the cornerstone or capstone: “The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes” (Psalm 118-22-23). Peter applied it to Jesus, who was rejected by God's people, the descendants of Abraham: “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: ‘Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and everyone else in Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you completely healed. He is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:8-12). |
| Long ago, Abraham envisioned it, as the writer to the Hebrews points out: “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Hebrews 11:8-10). |
| We Are Living Stones. We, as individual Christians, are living stones in this structure God conceived and built. “As you come to him, the living Stone --rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him--you also, like living stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says: ‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.’ Now to you who believe, this stone is precious, but to those who do not believe, ‘the stone that the builders rejected has become the capstone,’ and ‘A stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.’" (1 Peter 2:4-8). |
| The Apostles and Prophets Are the Foundation. God's house, God's building, the living temple, is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, as Paul tells the church at Ephesus: “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple to the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit” (Ephesians 2:19-22). |
| Since God has built us into a structure for his use, we should center on him and live as he lived, as the writer to the Hebrews points out: “Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess. He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future. But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast” (Hebrews 3:1-6). |
| God Is the Architect, the Master Builder. There are many images for God in Scripture. One I enjoy thinking about is God as Architect and Builder. God is the one who created us and sustains our lives, but he's also the one who drew up the blueprints for our salvation. God is the architect of the church--not a cold, stone structure, but a living edifice, made up of individual living entities. |