THE RESURRECTED TEMPLE
The Father’s house is also the resurrected temple. This temple is Christ enlarged in resurrection as the house of God, the church. John 2:19-21 speaks of this: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then the Jews said, It took forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days? But He spoke of the temple of His body.”
The resurrected temple in John 2:19-21 is Christ raised up with His members, who are the many abodes in the Father’s house. These many abodes are also the many sons of God. All the sons of God together are the many abodes in the Father’s house. According to Ephesians 2:6 and 1 Peter 1:3, we, the members of Christ, have been raised up with Him.
The resurrected temple is built up a spiritual house with Christ as the foundation. Concerning the spiritual house, 1 Peter 2:5 says, “You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house.” Concerning Christ as the foundation, 1 Corinthians 3:11 says, “For other foundation no one is able to lay besides that which is being laid, which is Jesus Christ.”
The resurrected temple is the house of the living God, and this house is the pillar and base of the reality (1 Tim. 3:15). First Corinthians 3:16 and 17 also indicate clearly that the believers are the temple of God: “Do you not know that you are a temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys the temple of God, God shall destroy him; for the temple of God is holy, which you are.”
Ephesians 2:21 and 22 reveal that the resurrected temple is the dwelling place of God in our spirit: “In whom all the building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.” The fact that God’s dwelling place is in our spirit indicates that the church is in our spirit. Whenever we are out of the spirit and in our natural mind, we are outside of the church. Because the church life is in our spirit, we all need to learn the lesson of turning to our spirit and staying there. Many of us can testify that after coming into the church life, we have learned to turn to our spirit. However, sometimes we may leave the spirit and dwell in our natural mind. As a result, we may have questions concerning the church and problems with the church and with the saints. The longer we stay away from our spirit, the more questions and problems we shall have. But if we come back to our spirit and stay in the spirit, to us the church life will be wonderful. Today the Father’s house is in our regenerated spirit.
In the resurrected temple the believers dwell with Christ. In John 14:3 the Lord Jesus says, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will receive you to Myself, that where I am you also may be.” The Lord is in the Father (14:10-11). Through His death and resurrection He has brought His disciples into Himself. Because He is in the Father, therefore, they also are in the Father by being in Him. Hence, where He is, the disciples are also. Now in Christ we dwell with Him in the Father.
(The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John, Chapter 38, by Witness Lee)
