|
SEPTEMBER 28
TEMPLES MADE WITH HANDS
“Howbeit the Most High
dwelleth not in temples made
with hands; as saith the
prophet, heaven is My
throne, and the earth is My
footstool.” (Acts 7:48-49)
One of the most imperative
challenges of the New
Testament is, “Let us go on
to perfection.” (Heb. 6:1).
Developing spiritual
maturity, growing in the
grace and knowledge of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. While the arena, the
sphere in which this
progression occurs, is
“without the camp.” (Heb.
13:13). Taking the boos of
Hebrews as a whole makes it
clear that “outside the
camp” means outside of all
that which in its Judaistic
nature systematizes and
crystallizes Christianity
into a set form which is
earth-bound and final.
In the testimony of Stephen,
given at the cost of his
life, he dared to touch the
temple, and as such touched
the heart of the Jewish
system. Localized temples,
forms, names, orders, times
and seasons, all wrapped up
with creeds and dogmas. The
effect of Stephen’s
pronouncement was to
repudiate the whole system
which had at least served
its purpose, and, at worst,
became an empty shell and a
hindrance to the spiritual.
Stephen saw something as the
Spirit illuminated his inner
being, that even the
apostles had not yet come
to, for they were still
going to the temple at the
hour of sacrifice, they
observed circumcision, and
moved within the shadow of
the temple. It was this
truth which Stephen saw that
caused some of the first
division in Christianity,
and one that has carried
down to this present day.
The Spirit was sovereignly
moving towards the true
spiritual temple, and he
told them that to be blind
to the spiritual
significance of the history
of their fathers in Israel,
and to continue in that
blindness now that the One
signified had come, was
nothing less than “resisting
the holy Spirit.” For the
Spirit would take us past
the symbols, past all the
“temples made with hands,”
and work in us the
perfection of God’s will
until we BECOME “the temple
of the Living God,” (2 Cor.
6:16), in whom God’s
fullness shall be pleased to
dwell.
Ray Prinzing
|
