19Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, 20built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
Dig Deeper
Years ago, while coaching high school basketball, we had an opponent that we faced that was fierce. He was big, fast, smooth, and intelligent. In short, he was a nightmare to face. Every time we played his team, we had to spend most of the week preparing to face him. Everything we did on defense centered around trying to stop him. The weird thing was he had several friends on our team and he always wanted to hang around our team, after practices, after games, sometimes even during practice. Sometimes I let him be around, most times I didn’t. He wasn’t one of us no matter how much he wanted to be. On the first day of school during his senior year, he suddenly transferred to our school. I discovered that he had been on the waiting list for our school all along, and now he was let in. Rather than being an outsider, he was one of us. Once that was taken care of, the real work began in teaching him how to become a true member of our school and team (concepts that were very important to what we were trying to accomplish at this high school, and the thing that set us apart from most other schools). Rather than being an outsider, he was now part of what we were trying to build and he had to learn how to become part of that project (for those interested he went on to be a stellar student and set school records for scoring and rebounding averages in a single season).
Similarly, Paul’s message to the Gentiles is that they were once outsiders. They were the aliens that were on the outside looking in when it came to being part of God’s people, a member of his family. Now, however, they were part of God’s family. They had become part of the very structure of God’s people and now the task was to get about teaching them how to be part of that structure. In order to do that, though, they had to realize and constantly remember the foundation on which this new structure was being built.
In Exodus 25:8, God told Moses, ". . . have them make a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them. Make this tabernacle and all its furnishings exactly like the pattern I will show you." God was telling the leader of God’s people that His very own presence would dwell among them in the Tabernacle. That’s the primary thing that would mark out God’s people from all others. They were chosen, of no worthiness of their own, to be the people among whom the very presence of the creator of the universe would dwell. Years later, God allowed His people to build a permanent structure, the Temple, within the confines of Jerusalem. After Solomon finished the prayer of dedication to the Temple, we are told, "When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. The priests could not enter the temple of the LORD because the glory of the LORD filled it. When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the LORD above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, ‘He is good; his love endures forever.’" Throughout the Old Testament, God’s presence is described as fire (Deut. 4:24; Ps. 97:3; Ex. 19:18-22; Lev. 10:1-2; Numb. 11:1-3; Num. 26:9-10; Deut. 4:33; 5:26; Deut. 9:3; 1 Ki. 18:36-39; 2 Ki. 1:10-15; Ex. 3:2; Ex. 13:21; 24:15-18; Num. 9:15-16; 2 Ki. 2:11; 2 Ki. 6:17; Ezek. 1:5-6; Dan. 3:19-27; Dan. 7:9-11). It is this very fire, the presence of God that filled the Temple of the Israelites. Thus, throughout the Old Testament, the Temple became synonymous with the presence of God. It was the place on earth where heaven (God’s presence) and earth overlapped. The Jews were the people among whom YHWH, the almighty God of the universe chose to dwell.
At one time, Gentiles were not part of God’s people. The law kept them separate from God’s people so that they were foreigner and aliens. Now because of the Messiah, however, they could be considered fellow citizens with God’s people. They were full-fledged members of God’s household, as Jesus had promised, those who would trust and enter into his life (John 14:2, 6) would be welcome into his Father’s house, in which there were many rooms (In the Jewish culture, the extended family routinely lived together, so the family dwelling would consist of many rooms. The point being that they were being welcomed into God’s family).
This new family was built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. The apostles were the rather limited group of people who were witnesses of the resurrected Messiah, and were the authoritative messengers of the Christian tradition (this group included the twelve, Paul, and others). The prophets were almost certainly not Old Testament prophets that Paul has in mind but the New Testament prophets (see Eph. 3:3-5 where Paul says that the mystery of Christ has been revealed to "God’s holy apostles and prophets"), those who had been given the gift and responsibility of declaring God’s word through prophecy. The point is that the word of God with which they have been entrusted make up the foundation of the new structure, the new people God has been building. The key to the foundation, however, is the chief cornerstone which is Christ Jesus himself. Cornerstones in ancient building were the load-bearing stones that determined the lines of the building and how the rest of the building was built. The language Paul uses here comes from Isaiah 28:16, which speaks of a cornerstone, the one in whom those who believe will never be dismayed. It is a cornerstone of refuge when everything else is washed away by a flood.
The metaphor of a cornerstone will only go so far, however, because Christ is not only the chief cornerstone, it is also in Him that the whole building is joined together. Those who have entered into the life of Christ have become a holy temple in the Lord. Imagine the shock of language like this for a first-century Jew. Paul has redefined the Temple, the place where heaven and overlapped and the very presence of God could be found, as no longer being an actual building but now being the people that make up the body of Christ. That’s not the only shock. The even more horrendous part for the orthodox Jews was that the Gentiles were part of this new Temple. The ones that had been kept out of the Temple, now are the Temple. What an incredible blessing for the new people of God and a distasteful scandal to the former people of God.
The purpose of the Temple in Jerusalem was to demonstrate that God was dwelling with His people. Paul is clear that those who are in Christ have now replaced that Temple. The Temple is holy because God dwells there. In Christ, believers are brought together in unity through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit to experience the very presence of God. In Christ all things that would separate and keep apart are broken down as unity with God and His people is finally attainable. This is not just something that happened in the past or will happen in the future, but this life with God is available in the present.
Devotional Thought
Do you view yourself as a brick in God’s Temple, the place where heaven and earth overlap, and the very presence of God can be found? How does your life reflect that reality? How does it fail to reflect that reality? In what areas do you need to make changes in order to live in a manner worthy of being the Temple of God?
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