17 He Spake of the Temple of His Body
XVII HE SPAKE OF THE TEMPLE OF HIS BODY
Away back in the very earliest beginnings of the world a temple was the simplest thing possible. If you would fain see the visual image of the very first temple of all--this was it. The primitive priest came out with his holy measuring-line and with his holy mattock in his hand. And entering the pasture meadow or the harvested field of his tribe, he first ran his holy line around a well-selected spot of ground, and then he dug a deep trench around that spot. And from that day the priest took sole possession of that separated spot and spake of it as his temple; his own cut off portion. No foot but his own ever crossed that consecrating trench, and nothing was ever done by the hand of man inside that consecrating trench but the offering of sacrifices, and the performance of the other acts of divine worship. As time went on an enclosing and a protecting wall was built; and thus, by degrees, a house of God gradually rose on that sacred site, till, in long after ages, all the magnificence of Solomon’s temple, and all the still greater magnificence of Herod’s temple, both stood on that sacred site. But with all that, the most primitive temple of them all has been preserved and perpetuated to us in the very name temple. And that, because the very name temple etymologically and originally means a portion of the everyday and common ground chosen, cut off, separated, consecrated, built upon, adorned, enriched, and dedicated to the service of God.
Already the text begins to shine out upon us. Already etymology and Christology have met together: grammar and the Gospel have kissed each other. Already a thousand things crowd into my own mind concerning the body and the soul of Jesus Christ. Till, if I shall succeed in telling you a tithe of the things I see in the text you will have cause to bless the text all your days.
We have already gone back to the beginning of Solomon’s temple and Herod’s temple and all the temples that have ever been built on the face of the earth. Let us now go back, in the light of all that, to the beginning of the temple of His body. Come away back, then, and see the Holy Ghost descending on the Virgin Mary with the measuring-line of election and sanctification in His hand. Look at Him running His holy line around that selected and sanctified portion of Mary’s substance, and separating off that selected and sanctified portion of her substance, to be the body and the soul of the Son of God. Till that holy thing that is to be born of her will be the everlasting temple of God the Son, both on earth and in heaven; both in grace and in glory. But for the descent of the Holy Ghost on the mother of our Lord that body and that soul which constituted her first-born Son would have been like all her other sons. But by that High-Priestly and all-sanctifying act of His, the Holy Ghost anticipated and prevented the profanation of that so privileged portion of our human nature, and for ever secured it for the possession and the service of the Son of God; secured it for Him before aught common or unclean had so much as touched it. And then the Son of God took to Himself that sanctified spot, that sacred site, so to call it, and on it He began to build up such a holy life that by this time be could here speak of it as the temple of His body. "That body which it hath pleased Him to make His own; that body wherewith He hath saved the world; that body which is the instrument wherewith Deity worketh: the sacrifice which taketh away sin; the price which hath ransomed souls from death; the leader of the whole army of bodies which shall rise again."
Open your eyes, then, my brethren, and look abroad on the wide waste wilderness of our fallen human nature. And then turn and look at that one selected, separated, and sanctified spot of holy ground at the heart of the vast fallen world of human nature. Look at that separated and prepared temple-site. And then see the Eternal Son of God descending upon it and taking possession of it as a sacred situation on which He begins to build up a life of sacrifice and prayer, till His body becomes, by reason of all that, the true Temple of God; the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man. I have given you Richard Hooker’s fine passage on our Lord’s body. I will now give you John Howe’s fine passage on the owner of that body; the Priest of that temple. "For here was to be seen a most pure, serene, dispassionate mind, unpolluted by any earthly tincture, inhabiting an earthly tabernacle, like our own; a mind adorned with the most amiable, lovely virtues faith, patience, temperance, godliness; full of all righteousness, goodness, meekness, mercifulness, sincerity, humility; most abstracted from this world, unmovably intent upon what had reference to a future state of things, and the affairs of another country; inflexible by all the blandishments of sense, not apt to judge by the sight of the eye, or to be charmed by what were most grateful to a voluptuous ear; full of pity towards a wretched, sinful world, compassionate to its calamities, unprovoked by its sharpest injuries; bent upon doing the greatest good and prepared to the suffering of whatsoever evil. Here was presented to common view a Life transacted agreeably to such a temper of mind; of one invariable tenor, equal, uniform, never unlike itself, or disagreeing with the exactest or most strict rules. Men might see a God was come down to dwell among them; the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of His Person." Such, according to John Howe, was He who here speaks of the temple of His body. Look, then, without ceasing, at your Savior as He inhabits and ministers in that temple. Never take your eyes off that temple. See Him as He dwelt for thirty-three years on earth in the temple of His body. And then stand near Him on Calvary and see Him offering Himself in that temple as the sacrifice for your sins. And see Him still in that same temple making continual intercession for you at the right hand of God. What a sight is all that! What an enlarging, enriching, ennobling, enrapturing sight is all that! The sight of the temple of His body, and of all the High Priestly offices He carries on for us in the temple of His body. But the half of this great sight has not yet been seen. And John Howe begins the best half for us of his "Living Temple" when he begins to treat of our Lord’s body as a "seminal" temple. That is to say, our Lord’s temple-body is the seed, so to speak, of a like body and soul to ourselves. Now if that is to be the future destiny of our bodies, then they will all seminally and successively go through the very same operations and experiences that the body and the soul of our Lord went through. At our new birth, which corresponds to the descent of the Holy Ghost on the mother of our Lord, He again takes into His hand the very same instruments that He employed in His delimitation of our Lord’s body and soul, till our bodies and our souls all undergo that very selection, and separation, and dedication, that our Forerunner’s body and soul underwent. And then the Holy Ghost takes us and ordains us as so many kings and priests over our own bodies and souls. That is to say, over that marked-off, consecrated, and dedicated portion of human nature which our bodies and our souls now are. And it is on this strong ground that the Apostle takes his stand in these so impressive appeals of his: "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? What! Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price." And, again, "Ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people." And thus it comes about that the whole society of the regenerate is looked on as one great and united temple; Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building fitly framed together groweth into an holy temple in the Lord. In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. And then when it is taken in the line of all that, and read in the light of all that, there is no passage in all the Book of Revelation more noble, more magnificent, or more full of all blessedness to us, than just this passage: "And I saw no temple therein." That is to say, there is no spot in all heaven that is holier or happier than all the rest of heaven. The whole new heaven and new earth will be so holy and so happy in their holiness, that a holier ’or happier place will not be possible. The Holy Ghost will for ever lay aside His sacred measuring-line in heaven. No place will be found there for His separating and sanctifying work. All His separating and sanctifying work will be finished and at an end before that time. No; there will be no temple there, and no priest, and no altar, and no sacrifice, for there will be no sin there. Till both the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost Himself, all three will unite in saying of the new heaven and the new earth, and still more of the temple-body and temple-soul of every glorified saint: This is My rest; here will I dwell; for I have desired it.
Fellow believers! My truly dear brethren! Have you understood all that to-night? Have you received all that to-night? Have you taken all that to heart to-night? And is your soul full of holy joy over all that to-night? For it is something to be very joyful for. It is something to lay well to heart. This may well be a night to be remembered by us all. And it will be if we have laid to heart our Lord’s teaching to-night concerning the temple of His body. What a wonderful journey we have made in this house to-night! The wings of the strongest angel of them all have been far outstripped to-night. From the primitive priest, with his measuring-line, and his turf-cutting knife in his hand, on through all his sacred spots, and circles, and groves, and gardens, and cloisters, and churches, and temples, and altars, down to our own day. And then on through the annunciation of Gabriel, and the descent of the Holy Ghost on the mother of our Lord; on through our Lord’s holy birth, His holy life, the sin-atoning sacrifice of Himself on the Cross, His entrance into the holy place with His own blood, and His continual intercession for us. And then on through our own new birth, separation from sin, spiritual priesthood over body, soul, and spirit, till we shall be presented before God without spot or blemish. And then our abundant entrance into heaven itself, when we shall leave all our limited temples of all kinds behind us for ever. Yes, truly; what a journey we have made to-night! What sights we have seen! What words we have heard! And most of all, what manner of men must we ourselves henceforth be! And what diligence must ours be that we may enter in through the gates into the city! Till we shall see His face and His name shall be in our foreheads. "And I John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold the Tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And I saw no one temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof."