“It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?” But the temple he had spoken of was his body.

— John 2:20-22

Did you know that the tabernacle in the Old Testament (Exodus 36-40), and the temple afterward (1 Kings 6-8), were made from heavenly blueprints? Hebrews 8 helps us to see this. All the features and furnishings were meant to show that the temple on earth was just a copy of the sanctuary in heaven.

When Jesus came to live among us, he brought the temple with him—in his person. The temple was the place where God met his people. It was where the Israelites presented themselves and their sacrifices before God.

When the Son of God became human, God and humankind were united as never before. God himself lived among us and was one of us. In fact, the original Greek text of John 1:14 tells us that Jesus “tabernacled” (“made his dwelling”) among us. Since God himself is present with us through Jesus, why would we need to meet with God anywhere else? The temple building in Jerusalem became obsolete after Jesus came, because God was present on earth in Jesus himself. And now a perfect human, Jesus, is present in heaven with God.

The book of Revelation adds that in the new heaven and earth God himself will dwell among us, and there won’t be a temple structure because “the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb [Jesus] are its temple” (21:3, 22). And we will live there forever with God!

O God, we long to be with you. Bring us into the holy place you have prepared for us. Amen.