Chapter 3

The Apostles Reveal the Living Temple

If Jesus revealed that His own body was the true temple, the apostles would soon explain what that revelation meant for those who followed Him.

After the resurrection and ascension of Christ, the New Testament writers spoke with remarkable clarity about where the dwelling place of God now exists. The temple was no longer defined by stone walls in Jerusalem. Through Christ, the presence of God would now dwell within His people.

The apostle Paul stated this truth plainly:

“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?”
— 1 Corinthians 3:16

This declaration was not symbolic language. It was a theological reality. The Spirit of God, which once filled the sanctuary of the temple, now dwells within the lives of believers.

Paul repeated this truth again when speaking about the body of the believer:

“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?”
— 1 Corinthians 6:19

The temple had moved from stone to flesh—from a structure built by human hands to a living sanctuary formed by the Spirit of God.

The apostle Peter described believers as the very materials of this new temple:

“Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house.”
— 1 Peter 2:5

And Paul explained that this spiritual temple was not limited to one nation or one city, but was being formed from people across the world who belong to Christ:

“Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord.”
— Ephesians 2:19–21

This “fitly framed” temple is not a static building of the past; it is a living and growing identity. The dwelling place of God is now the living temple of believers.

But this truth raises a profound and unsettling question.

If the temple of God now exists within people, then where could the “man of lawlessness” possibly sit when he exalts himself in the temple of God?