The Spiritual Temple Of God
We are it!!!
This is the Eighth Post in a series from Chapter 3 of Friends With God: “The Joy That Was Set Before Him”.
In the Seventh Post we discussed God’s justice and mercy toward sinners, and how we must follow after righteousness.
In this post we will examine what God means when he says we must be “righteous” and “perfect”, for scripture clearly tells that is what God expects: Matt 5:48, 19:21, Luke 1:6, Rom 12:2, 1Cor 2:6, 2Cor 12:9,13:11, Eph 4:13, Phil 3:12-15, Col 1:28, 4:12, 2Tim 3:17, 2Tim 4:8, Heb 13:20-21, 2Pet 2:8, 1 John 2:1, 2:29, 3:7, 3:12, James 1:4, James 3:2, Rev 3:2.
God Is Building His Spiritual Temple
While righteousness and perfection may seem a tall order, what it actually means is that we must follow Christ as the exemplar of perfect behaviour. This expectation of our perfection, can be appreciated through the analogy of Christ being the “chief corner stone” in the spiritual temple of God. (Matt 21:42, Mark 12:10, Luke 20:17, Acts 4:11, 1Peter 2:6-7, Eph 2:19-22) We will examine these verses in some detail below.
A corner stone is the one point in any building that all measurements are taken from in order to determine if everything is square and upright in relation to each other. When you are “in line with the corner stone”, no matter if you are on the other side of the building, on the roof, or part of the floor, then you are following that standard set by the corner stone.
This analogy shows that while we are all different we are to follow Christ in order to fill up the sufferings of Christ. (Col 1:24, Heb 11:36-40) We do this by living according to his standards, like a brick, door, or roof tile is aligned to the standards of the chief corner stone.
We, however, are a bit more complex than a brick that is placed in a building, for we can choose at any time to actually leave the building! Throughout our life we must stay in line with Christ and continue to walk the walk that Christ showed us in his life:
if indeed you continue in the faith grounded and settled, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you have heard and which was proclaimed in all the creation under Heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister, who now rejoice in my sufferings on your behalf, and (through this suffering) I fill up the things lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh (by suffering physically), on behalf of His body, which is the church; of which I became a minister, according to the administration of God given to me for you, to fulfill the Word of God; (Col 1:23-25)
Jesus fulfilled the word of God (Matt 5:17-20). We, too, can fulfill it in our actions, if we imitate his way of life. (1John 2:3-6) We are part of a living creation that is always growing, but only ever according to the standard of the Corner Stone, Jesus Christ. We have been placed in the building to grow up into the full measure of the stature of Jesus Christ. (Eph 4:12-13)
Lacking In The Afflictions Of Christ?
How can anything be lacking of the afflictions of Christ? Looking at the building analogy, we see that Christ is not meant to be the entire building; he is the corner stone to which the building is aligned.
We are all elements of the building, but we must stay aligned to Christ:
Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, (part of the building of God) and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, (the apostles of the New Covenant and prophets of Old Covenant) Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom every building having been fitly framed together, (we are the rest of the building that) grows (is alive!) into a holy sanctuary in the Lord; in whom you also are built together for a dwelling place of God through the Spirit. (Eph 2:19-22)
Christ being the corner stone, and our being the rest of the elements of the holy building of God, is a great analogy, yet it too should not be carried to an extreme, or you could misunderstand the profound and simple concepts being taught.
Christ was not a woman, or an old person. He never married or had physical children. He was never unemployed, or put up with the pollution of this modern age, nor had any sickness in his life. We are all in different circumstances from Christ, yet we are to still follow his example that he set in his life.
We do this in the same way that a window is not made of the same material as the corner stone, yet it must be aligned to the corner stone, in order to be of value to the building. We say that such a window is right for the building. That is what it means to be righteous, and perfect, within the spiritual building that God is constructing.
We align ourselves to Christ’s righteousness, by the power of the Holy Spirit, then God the Father considers us as being righteous and justified to be within his building. That is all that the spiritual term “justification” means.
Once we are justified, we are then set apart, like building materials carefully stored on the building site, so that they are ready to be used in its future construction. The scriptural term for being set apart is “sanctified”:
… but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. (1Cor 6:11)
We are first “set apart” as an integral element of his building by being called by God, to be granted the Holy Spirit which enables us to follow the Lord Jesus. We are then justified as being a part of the design of his truly magnificent and grand building, by living the life of righteousness that he has set for us.
We do this, as discussed in the next chapter, by living by the covenant of his blood in us, because his blood aligns us to him, and we partake of his flesh, by living as he lived. This is what it means to “eat his flesh and drink his blood”.
God expects us to be perfect and comparable to Christ:
For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ (which is the entire Church): Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: (Eph 4:12-13)
Christ is the standard of what our perfection is measured against. How we attain this perfection, is very important to understand.
The Fruit Of The Spirit
Once we have the Spirit of God he expects a great deal of us. God wants abundant fruit of the Spirit from us- Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; so shall you be my disciples. (John 15:8)
What are these fruits? the fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control, against such things there is no law. (Gal 5:22-23) There is obviously no law of God that forbids our having love, joy, peace etc. because against such things there is no law.
Looking at these fruits in Galatians 5:22-23, it’s clear that they are outcomes of how we voluntarily yield our life to God’s way of living. The Spirit doesn’t force us to produce such fruits.
They are something we work with the Spirit to produce. God is not forcing you to love him, is he? Or making you have joy in your life? Or pressuring you to be at peace? Neither is he coercing you to be patient, or kind or good or faithful or meek. And if he were to force you to have self-control, it would be an obvious oxymoron!
To produce these bountiful fruits of the Spirit is to actualize the true meaning of your relationship with God- to be one with him, and reflect his mind in your life, as you relate to others. It shows that you truly worship and admire God the Father by wanting to be like Him:
that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. And I have given them the glory which You have given Me, that they may be one, even as We are one, I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them as You have loved Me. (John 17:21-23)
Walk In The Spirit
Paul continues to say: But those belonging to Christ have crucified the (mind of the) flesh with its passions and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (Gal 5:24-26)
If you profess to live in the Spirit of God, then you should actually also be walking in the Spirit, and thereby produce the fruits of the Spirit.
When we produce these Godly characteristics in our life, it’s the result of living a righteous life, guided by the Spirit of God.
When we work with God’s Spirit, we are like a branch grafted into a vine, from which we take the nourishment to grow and produce life-giving fruit. In doing so we abide in the life exemplified by Christ. (John 15:12-17)
Without abiding in Christ, we are as useless as a branch that produces no fruit, and God will cut us off the vine, and we will die like all natural people.
Later in Galatians, in another agricultural analogy, Paul reiterates the same points:
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever (crop) a man may sow, that (crop) he also will reap. For the one sowing to his flesh (living the way of the fleshly mind) will reap corruption of the flesh (mortality and death). But the one sowing to the Spirit, will reap everlasting life from the Spirit. But we should not be slack in doing good, (walking in God’s way of life) for in due time we shall reap (eternal life), if we do not faint (be slack). (Gal 6:7-9)
It’s the Spirit of God that imparts eternal life to us, but in order to reap eternal life, we must continually walk in God’s spiritual way of life, not being slack in doing good.
God expects us to put in a lot of effort, and to produce much fruit. We can’t take what he is offering half-heartedly, he expects us to love him with our whole heart, and mind and soul.
God will then greatly desire to give you eternal life as his Sons and Daughters. What it means to be his children, is the topic of the next post in this series.
Thank you Martin 🙏