A Holy Temple in the Lord

During this advent season, we’ve been using the biblical theme of the temple of God to help us see the significance of Christmas, what was anticipated and fulfilled by Jesus’s birth.

Here in Ephesians 2, this temple theme comes up again. Notice what verses 21-22 say. Because of the achievement of Jesus, there is a new structure that is coming together, that is growing into a holy temple in the Lord. What is this new holy temple? It is the church. We are told in the next chapter that God’s plan all along was to make known his manifold wisdom “through the church” (Eph 3:10). The church is God’s temple. The church is where God intends to dwell forever by his Spirit (Eph 2:22). And although the church is not yet a finished project, God has already moved in. And this means that the church today, like the temple in the past, stands as a sign of hope to the world.

Crosstown Church, as we start to wrap up this advent season and look ahead to a new year together, let’s consider how significant it is for us as a church to be called a holy temple in the Lord. We must remember the privileges we’ve been granted in Christ so that we can offer real hope to the world.

One way to remember the privileges we’ve been given in Christ is to think about the temple that once stood, the temple that came down, and the temple that is now being built.

The Temple that Once Stood

First, the temple that once stood. What temple am I talking about? I’m talking about Israel’s second temple, the temple that was standing there in Jerusalem when Jesus was born. Ok, so what about it? So long as that temple stood, Gentiles like most of us were hopeless, and we should not forget about that. That’s what Paul says in verses 11-12.

Separated from Israel

Of course, Paul doesn’t speak in these verses about the temple. But this is easily implied by the way he does speak. Why were “Gentiles in the flesh” without hope, without God in the world? Notice he doesn’t say, “because you were not Christians” but rather, “because you were not Jews.”

As non-Jews, Paul’s Gentile audience (the word Gentilecomes to us from the Latin word that translated the Hebrew word for nations, a word which most often refers to non-Israelite nations) were “separated from Christ,” but again he doesn’t mean they were not believers in Jesus, because that would be true of so many Jews as well. He is simply referring to the fact that the Messiah who was to come was from the Jewish race (Rom 9:5). When Israel’s Messiah comes, he would come to save Israel.

Gentiles were also “alienated form the commonwealth of Israel.” They were not citizens of the people-group that God had chosen for his own. And they were also “strangers to the covenants of promise.” Just think of how the Abrahamic covenant, the promise that God made with Abraham, was that God would bless Abraham and his descendants. True, the blessing was promised to come not just to Abraham but also through Abraham to the rest of the nations, but that still means that Gentiles were strangers, on the outside looking in, hoping to receive something of the blessing that was promised to Abraham.

So, when Paul says, at the end of verse 12, “having no hope and without God in the world,” we understand what he means from the perspective of ancient Israel. Gentiles, simply because they were Gentiles, could not lay claim on the same hope that ancient Israel could lay claim on. The temple that stood was Israel’s temple, not the Gentiles’ temple. And with it stood Israel’s hope, not the Gentiles’ hope.

Israel’s Hope

What was Israel’s hope that the Gentiles did not have? Here’s a simple way to state it. As the chosen people of the one creator God, Israel’s hope was that their God would one day act for Israel and through Israel to re-establish his justice and wisdom and peace throughout the world.[1]This was not pure wishful thinking but was based on Israel’s history and, of course, on Israel’s sacred texts. It was also based on Israel’s temple. The temple was a sign of hope.

Jews . . . were hoping for the ‘real’ return from exile. . . . They were looking for the covenant god to fulfil his promises, to display his ‘righteousness’. . . . They were looking for a restored Temple, and for their god to come and dwell within it.[2]

I want you to see that the hope that is in view here is not so much about one’s personal hope as it was about national, or political hope. And Paul is not putting Christian hope over against it; this is the Christian hope, too. It’s what Jesus was talking about when he talked about the kingdom of God. When you read through the Old Testament, you’ll find the emphasis, the hope, is on what happens here in “the land of the living” rather than on what happens to a person when they die. The hope of Israel lived on even as one generation after another came to the end of their lives.

That’s not to say that there was no individual hope. Precisely because Israel’s hope was about what their God would do “in the world,” texts like Daniel 12:1-3 promised that at the time that Israel was delivered, the dead would be raised to enjoy the moment. Those who were dead were said to be asleep, not because this was their theology of the status of the dead but because it was their theology and hope about the life that would come. The word cemetery appears to be a Jewish and Christian term expressing this hope. The word is derived from the Greek word for a bedroom, the place where one goes to sleep.[3]And the expectation is that soon enough the new day will come and those who are asleep in their bedrooms will wake up and live in that new day.

Alternative Hopes

Paul is clearly speaking here from the perspective of Israel, who tended to boast about their hope and look down upon those uncircumcised Gentiles.

But of course, the Gentiles had their own ways of looking for hope. They could convert and join the Jews. Or they could look for hope in other ways, disbelieving that Israel’s hope would ever be fulfilled. A Gentile might be drawn to Stoicism as a way of finding hope, or they might adopt the philosophy of the Epicureans, both ways of seeking out the “good life” until death came calling. Platonism was an option to try to offer some hope—at least the soul was now free from the dreaded confines of the body.

None of these reflect the Jewish hope, which Jesus did not come to repudiate, but to offer to everyone, Jew and Gentile alike.

The Temple that Came Down

And you know how he did this? “But now in Christ Jesus.” It’s all because of Jesus, who has taken down the temple. You’ll see in verses 13-18 this kind of “demolition” language. Jesus “has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility,” verse 14 says, resulting in both Jew and Gentile having access to the Father, verse 18 says. You and I take this for granted some 2000 years after Jesus, but it is important to remember where we Gentiles would be without him.

The Prince of Peace

The thing that must be stressed in these verses is the achievement that Jesus of Nazareth has already accomplished, and all for our benefit. Jesus himself is the emphasis of these verses. This must be the defining characteristic of Christianity, an emphasis on Jesus and what he has done. A Christian ought to be marked by someone who is obsessed with Jesus and not with anyone else.

But it is also important to note that Jesus did not come to replace Israel or to start some new religion. He came to be Israel and to see Israel’s hope brought to fulfillment. That’s why Paul stresses peace in these verses: “For he himself is our peace” (v. 14). “So making peace” (v. 15). “He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near” (v. 17). Peace. That is what Israel hoped for. That is what Jesus has achieved. For Israel, yes, but also for the Gentiles, like you and me. We Christians are obsessed with Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

The Making of Peace

It is really important that we grasp this. Verses 13 and 18 say much the same thing: it is “in Christ Jesus,” it is “through him,” that Jew and Gentile alike find hope. And since both Jew and Gentile—all human beings—can find this hope the exact same way, they can find peace with one another as well.

Remember, as long as the temple stood it signified to the Gentiles that hope and peace could only be found by coming over to Israel’s side. You know how that works. One way to find peace with another is to give in to the other’s demands.

But here’s how Jesus has made peace. Verses 14-15 say that he “has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances.” The word abolishing here is probably not the best translation. It is better to say that Jesus “set aside” or nullified “the law of commandments expressed in ordinances.”[4] The point is that what Jesus achieved made all that divided Jew and Gentile obsolete.

What did Jesus do? These verses emphasize his death, speaking of “the blood of Christ” (v. 13) and his cross (v. 16). This is because of the temple theme. It is atonement language. Sacrifice and blood have to do with washing away the stain of sin and death so that God could come and dwell in the presence of his human beings.

How then has Jesus, in his sacrificial and atoning death, made peace? He has made peace by reconciling both Jew and Gentile to God, verse 16 says. But what he is emphasizing here is how “in Christ” and “through him” peace has been made between Jew and Gentile alike. And the way that that has happened is not by making Jews out of Gentiles, nor in proving that Israel’s hope was all a fraud so Jews might as well give it all up and become Gentiles themselves—let’s just get rid of all those fussy Jewish laws and rules. No! This peace has been made by his creating “in himself one new man in place of the two” (v. 15).

This is a major part of the work of Christ that does not get emphasized enough.

The purpose of the work of Christ is that [Jew and Gentile] should be brought together into a new unity. . . . Where two opposed groups once stood over against each other, he has “in himself”—“in Christ Jesus” (v. 13)—created a new humanity, indeed, a new human being.[5]

The Proclamation of Peace

And so, peace. Real peace, for all who are “in Christ.” Verse 17 says this is what Jesus came and preached to Gentiles and to Jews, to the “far off” and to the “near.” The language is borrowed from Isaiah 57:19, a prophecy that looked forward to the day when God who dwells “in the high and holy place” would come and make his dwelling with the lowly (Isa 57:15). Paul is convinced that because of the achievement of Jesus, that time has come.

Jesus came and preached this message of peace through his actions on the cross. Jesus continues to come and preach this message of peace through his Spirit-empowered witnesses who announce the Trinitarian-shaped gospel of verse 18: “Through [Jesus] we [all] have access in one Spirit to the Father.” Equal access to God, on equal terms.

If it’s true, this is such a climactic moment in history. Because it means that Gentiles can find themselves in Christ to be “members of a newly created community whose privileges transcend those of Israel.”[6] It’s not something other than Israel, but the fulfillment of what Israel was meant to be all along.

The Temple that Is Being Built

That’s what Paul goes on to say in verses 19-22. This newly created community of Jew and Gentile alike is a new temple that is being built, so we should know the privileges we’ve been granted in Christ. This new temple of which we are a part is also what we are called to protect and to promote. This is who we are in Christ. It is because of Christ that we Gentiles can be called, along with believing Jews, “the Israel of God,” in Galatians 6:16. So, as God’s new temple that is being built, let’s remember who we are, what it is God is now wanting to do with us, and never forgetting how we got here in the first place.

Citizens and Siblings

“So then,” verse 19 begins, this is what we have become in Christ. This is who we are, as God’s new temple. Three metaphors to help us remember our identity in Christ.

First, we “are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints.” It is because of Jesus that we non-Jewish Christians are full members of the kingdom of God. We don’t have permanent legal status; we don’t just possess a “Green Card.” We have all the rights and privileges as all the rest of God’s people through the ages.

Second, we are “members of the household of God.” We non-Jewish Christians are not half-bloods. This one is hard for us Gentiles to grasp, but the vision of Psalm 87 was of a day in which the LORD himself would say of the various people groups, “This one was born there.” It’s an astounding vision that has now come true for us in Christ.

Some 2000 years into Christian history, we have lost a bit of this astonishment and of the tensions between Jewish and Gentile Christians that the early church had to work through. But we have our own tensions in the church that the third metaphor can help us with. Here in verse 20 the explicit temple language starts to come. We are not just citizens of the kingdom and authentic members of the family but also stones of a building. The image is meant to help us see that we are part of something that is so much bigger than our own selves, our own individual spirituality or salvation. That, of course, is important. But contemporary Christianity has, I think, continued to overemphasize it, much to the church’s detriment and witness.

The Beautiful Temple

You see, our status as citizens and family members has been given to us for a purpose. We’ve been given such privileges so that we can be joined together with our fellow citizens, with our family members. Yes, we get individual benefits. But Christianity is not primarily about that. It is, fundamentally, a team sport, with each of us joined together for a purpose.

What purpose? Think of the temple that is being built. This is nothing less than a new creation. One commentary puts it this way:

In its newness, it is not merely an amalgam of the old in which the best of Judaism and the best of Gentile aspirations have been combined. The two elements which were used in the creation have become totally transformed in the process. This is “the third race” which is different from both Jews and Gentiles.[7]

This is the purpose for which you have been granted such amazing privileges in Christ.

Just a few verses earlier in this chapter, we were told that we were saved “by grace” and “through faith,” pure “gift” from God himself. For what purpose? “For we are his workmanship”—the word is poiema; we are God’s beautifully-crafted poetry or piece of art—“created in Christ Jesus for good works.” We have been granted peace so that we can be part of God’s peace-making mission to the whole world. This is the excitement of being “in Christ” of being his church, of being the Israel of God.

We aren’t to be simply waiting for heaven. In Christ, heaven has come near, against the day when heaven will fully engulf all creation.

The Strong Foundation

Every generation of Christians for two millennia has had the challenge and the opportunity to figure out what this might look like in their own day, in their own local communities. But this is what ought to excite us about being “brought near,” about being counted as part of God’s temple where God intends to dwell “by the Spirit.”

Just think of it! Try to imagine it! What might we be able to see God do through us in the new year if we embraced our new identity in Christ? It will take all of us, because all of us are important. As we look forward to a new year, let’s renew our covenant with God and with each other to embrace our solidarity, to be committed to our Missional Families, to pray and plan for the good works God has given us to do.

Never of course forgetting the strong foundation on which we are being built together. “The foundation of the apostles and prophets,” verse 20 says, with “Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.” When the church gets away from that foundation—and that really does happen—we can’t just say, “Well, who cares? We are still Christians after all. Still saved. Still going to heaven.”

We must never become proud, but fear, and “stand fast through faith” (Rom 11:20). It is only by faith in Christ that we are part of this family, so if you start to think that you can have it any other way, watch out![8]

Our baptism signifies our faith in Christ, our saying “yes” to following him, to being his disciple. We must be steadfast, then, and help each other learn to be his disciples. It is always a challenge to do this well. So many Christians have so many different ideas about what this ought to look like.

But this is what the Christian faith and the Christian life is meant to be, so that those who encounter a credible gospel community might find, to their great surprise and delight, that this is where God himself dwells by his Spirit.

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[1] N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992), 279.

[2] Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, 320–21.

[3] F. F. Bruce, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 45, ed. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard, and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Books, 1982), 96.

[4] Harold W. Hoehner, Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2002), 375.

[5] F. F. Bruce, The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, ed. F. F. Bruce (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1984), 299.

[6] Andrew T. Lincoln, Ephesians, Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 42, ed. Bruce M. Metzger, David A. Hubbard, and Glenn W. Barker (Dallas: Word Books, 1990), 139.

[7] Lincoln, Ephesians, 144.

[8] N. T. Wright, “The Letter to the Romans,” in Acts, Introduction to Epistolary Literature, Romans, 1 Corinthians, The New Interpreter’s Bible, ed. Leander E. Keck, vol. 10 (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2002), 685.