Editorial
From the Newsletter of Revesby Presbyterian Church
November 2007
Rev Dr Peter Barnes
In the prologue to his Gospel, the apostle John writes of the one who is both divine and human. So we read in John 1:14, ‘The Word became flesh and dwelt (or, literally, ‘tabernacled’) amongst us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.’ The words sound solemn and majestic, but what exactly is being claimed here? John, one of the twelve apostles and as such an eyewitness to Jesus’ ministry, claims that in Jesus, the Word who was God (John 1:1) became human. John was a strict Jewish monotheist. Every day he would have recited the Shema from Deuteronomy 6:4, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one’. This is the God who says that He will not give His glory to another (Isa.42:8), yet in Jesus Christ, John beheld His glory. Paul too describes Him as the Lord of glory (1 Cor.2:8).
When the tabernacle was set up, the glory of God descended upon it (Ex.40:34-35). Something of heaven was seen on earth. Glory is where God is known in all His fullness. This presence of God was confirmed at the beginning of the work of the Levitical priests (Lev.9:23-24). God consumed the penalty for sin, and made His glory known. Then when the tabernacle became the temple under Solomon, the ark of the covenant containing the ten commandments (as well as some manna, incense, and Aaron’s rod that blossomed) was brought into the temple, and again the glory of the Lord made itself known, and filled the temple (2 Chron.5:11-14).
Yet this was only in shadow form in the Old Testament. Something greater was coming. Even as Solomon prayed the prayer of dedication at the opening of the temple, he realised this, that God is far greater than any temple built on earth (2 Chron.6:18; see Isa.66:1). The Old Testament laws regarding the priests, the sacrifices and the tabernacle (temple) are all true, but they are shadows of a greater reality.
So we have a promise that God would ‘tabernacle’ amongst His people: ‘I will put my dwelling place (or tabernacle) among you … I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people’ (Lev.26:11-12). When Israel sinned by trusting in the temple of the Lord rather than the Lord of the temple (Jer.7:4), God removed His glory from the temple, and the city, including the temple, was destroyed by the Babylonians in 587 B.C. (Ezek.10:18-19; 11:22-23).
The glory departed, but Ezekiel 40-48 prophesies that the glory would return (Ezek.43:1-2). Indeed it did! In the New Testament we have Jesus’ clear statement that He stood amongst His people as one who is greater than the temple (Matt.12:6). He referred to the temple of His body – a temple that would be raised in three days (John 2:19-21). Jesus is both like and unlike the temple in Jerusalem.
Christ is the tabernacle or temple – living and walking and talking amongst His people. That is why there is no temple in heaven (Rev.21:22). The glory of God in Christ is all over the new heaven and new earth. The Old Testament ordered that sacrifices for sins be made daily, but in Christ the one perfect sacrifice is made once for all (Hebrews 7:25-10:18). The new Jerusalem is the whole earth! The new temple is Christ Himself!
In Christ we see the glory of God, and the perfect and sufficient sacrifice forsinners. This is the claim of the incarnation, made not by Homer whose works are full of gods and goddesses interacting with human beings, but by John, the strictest of monotheists. The Western world has grown lost sight of the wonder of this claim, and entrenched itself in the self-adulation associated with a media-driven view of reality. Dancing with the Stars is what we are meant to find relevant and exciting, and Christianity is discarded as outdated. But ponder the message of the incarnation again: God entered human history in the person of Jesus Christ in order to suffer and die that sinners might be forgiven and live. As Dorothy Sayers put it: ‘If this is dull, then what, in Heaven’s name, is worthy to be called exciting?’
With warmest regards in Christ,
Peter Barnes