In His Resurrection Christ Enlarged God’s Temple to be the mystical Body of Christ

God’s desire throughout the Bible is to gain a building, a mutual dwelling place of God and man; for this, He created Adam, He called Abraham, He chose Moses, He brought His people into the good land, and He did everything for His people.

Throughout the Bible we can see that God’s intention is to make His chosen, redeemed, and regenerated people the reproduction of Christ for the temple of God, the Body of Christ, as the corporate expression of the Triune God.

In the Old Testament, David touched something from what’s on God’s heart: he wanted to build God a house, and God was very happy; even though he himself didn’t build a house for God, David prepared the plans and materials and ordinances for the temple so that his son Solomon would build the temple.

But not many in the Old Testament saw God’s heart’s desire to gain a people to be His temple, His mutual dwelling place; actually, not many believers see this even today, in the New Testament age!

God’s desire is that, in His complete salvation, He would transform sinners into sons of God so that they would be members of the Body of Christ.

God desires to regenerate us with His life so that we may become the many sons of God in whom the law of life is functioning to conform us to the image of the firstborn Son of God, so that He may be the Firstborn among many brothers. Actually, the whole creation eagerly awaits and even groans until the sons of God are revealed, glorified, for the whole creation was subjected to vanity until it will be redeemed and liberated, which will happen at the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Furthermore, what we see in both the Old Testament and in the New Testament is the golden lampstands: in Exo. 25 the exodus signify Christ as the divine light, shining as seven lamps with the Spirit (the oil); in Zech. 4 it signifies the Spirit as the seven lamps shining as the seven eyes of God; in Revelation the lampstands signify the seven Spirits of God for God’s intensified move.

Amen, hallelujah for God’s heart’s desire to obtain a building, a mutual dwelling place of God and man – and He will get it today in the church and for eternity in the New Jerusalem!

The Temple in the Old Testament Typifies both the Individual and the Corporate Christ

The temple of God is the goal of God’s eternal economy. In the Old Testament, the temple typifies both the individual Christ and the corporate Christ, the church (1 Kings 6:1-2).

First, the temple typifies Christ Himself as the embodiment of God, the dwelling place of God; on the one hand, Christ is the tabernacle of God with man (John 1:14) and on the other, He was the temple of God (see John 2). Christ is the embodiment of God, and all of God’s fulness dwells in Him as the temple, and the individual, incarnated Christ is the reality of the temple as the dwelling place of God on earth (Col. 2:9; John 1:14; 2:19-22).

The temple also typifies the corporate Christ, the church, the enlarged temple, the unique building of God in the universe (see Matt. 12:6; 1 Cor. 3:16-17; 12:12; Eph. 2:21). Actually, Christ and the church are one: Christ is the Head, and the church is the Body of Christ, and Christ and the church are the temple of God (Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 1:18).

Christ is the Head, the Body is the enlargement of the Head for God’s dwelling; Christ and the church are the center, reality, and goal of God’s eternal economy.

If we read the books of 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles we see that the history of Israel is very much related to the temple as God’s dwelling place on earth. David had a heart to build a house for God; he cared for a place for God to rest. Satan is doing his best to destroy God’s temple: he fought to capture the ark, destroy the tabernacle, and destroy the temple, but if you read the prophets and the books of the Old Testament you see that God is recovering the rebuilding of the temple with His people who are willing to remove any corruption from Satan.

Today there’s a battle: we need to fight Satan’s attempts to distract us from building up the church as the Body of Christ, the temple of God.

Praise the Lord, we are being brought back to the Lord’s original intention to obtain a dwelling place, a temple, which is the church as the Body of Christ today – Christ as the Head and the church as the Body of Christ! We need to let Christ fill us, saturate us, and permeate us with Himself so that we may become His fulness, His corporate expression on earth!

Lord Jesus, thank You for coming on earth as the temple of God to be enlarged and expanded into the corporate temple of God, the church as the Body of Christ. Hallelujah, today the church is the Body of Christ, the enlargement of Christ, the expansion of Christ in humanity for God to have a corporate expression in man! Lord Jesus, fill us, saturate us, and permeate us with Yourself so that we may be Your fulness, Your corporate expression, Your testimony on the earth!

In His Resurrection Christ Enlarged God’s Temple to be the mystical Body of Christ

At one point when the Lord Jesus was on earth the Jews asked Him, What sign can You show us that we may believe You’re the Messiah? The Lord answered, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will rebuild it again (see John 2:19-22). The Jews thought that the Lord was speaking of the physical temple made of stones and wood, but the Lord was referring to the temple of His body.

The body of Jesus was the temple of God while He was on earth; in Him God was manifested, He had God’s presence, and He brought God to man wherever He went. Christ brought God into man, and God dwelt in Him as in a tabernacle, taking His body as a temple (John 1:14).

The temple of God is not a place but a person: the Lord Jesus Christ. The body of Jesus, the temple, that was destroyed on the cross was small and weak, but the Body of Christ in resurrection is vast and powerful (see Eph. 1:22-23; 2:21-22; 4:16). Christ died as a small man on the cross, but in His resurrection His Body was enlarged and expanded to include all those who are joined to Him by faith, and now the Body of Christ is mystical and universal (1 Pet. 1:3; Eph. 2:6).

Since the day of His resurrection nearly two thousand years ago the Lord Jesus has been enlarging His Body, the temple, in His resurrection life, and today He is still working for the building of His Body under the process of resurrection. Satan tries his best to frustrate the Lord’s purpose; he lies, cheats, deceives, brings in confusion and division, yet the Lord always goes on and builds up His Body in resurrection, in “three days”.

In the church life today we don’t have any other sign to show others but the sign of death and resurrection; we follow the Lord not to “perform miracles” but to go through death and resurrection so that Christ may be manifested through us!

As seen in John 14, whoever loves the Lord and keeps His word has the Father and the Son coming to make an abode with them, and the Lord Himself went to the Father to prepare an abode for us that we may be with Him; this abode, this mutual dwelling place, is nothing physical but the person of the Triune God, into which Christ wants to bring us that we may be part of God’s corporate expression.

Everything God does is for His work of building a dwelling place: His redemption, regeneration, transforming, renewing, and glorifying, everything is for God to gain a dwelling place in man! God loves man so much that He wants to make Himself man and make man God in life and nature so that God and man may have a mutual dwelling place. In His resurrection, Christ enlarged God’s temple and expanded it to be the Body of Christ, the corporate expression of God on earth.

Hallelujah, now Christ is constantly working to expand the Body of Christ – and who can measure its size? You could probably measure the size of the Lord’s human body, but who can measure the size of the Body of Christ in resurrection? Hallelujah, we are the Body of Christ built by Christ in resurrection to be the house of God, the temple of God, the dwelling place of God (1 Tim. 3:15; 1 Pet. 2:5; 1 Cor. 3:9; Eph. 2:21-22).

Lord Jesus, thank You for including us in the Body of Christ, the enlargement of God’s temple! Hallelujah, we now are members of the mystical Body of Christ where Christ is working in resurrection to build up the Body and expand the Body for God’s corporate expression! Lord, enlarge Yourself in us and have a way to increase through us into many others to be part of Your dwelling place, Your habitation! Lord, we want to follow You through death and resurrection to be one with You for the enlargement of God into man!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, bro. Andrew Yu’s sharing in the message for this week, and Life-study of John, msg. 7 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Church as the Temple of God – The Goal of God’s Eternal Economy (2015 Thanksgiving Conference), week 4 / msg. 4, The Economy of God, the Temple of God, and the High Peak of the Divine Revelation.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Thou art God, yet flesh becamest, / God with man in Thee doth dwell; / Thou, the Temple for His glory, / God in Thee Himself doth tell. / Thus the Church too is the mingling / Into one of God and man; / So it is with every member / For the building of God’s plan. (Hymns #834)
  # The temple was a type of Thee; / The house of God Thou art; / God dwells in Thee, Himself to show, / His fulness to impart. / Though Thou by Satan wast destroyed / And numbered with the dead, / In resurrection Thou dost build / A larger one instead. (Hymns #194)
  # Oh mystery of mysteries— / Lord, Thou in me and I in Thee! / The church, Thy tabernacle, we; / Our temple, Thou eternally. (Song on being the church, God’s temple)