The Greatness of the House

The church is the temple of God in the measure that it is an expression of Jesus Christ.

Rodrigo Abarca

"These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly; but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Tim. 3:14-15).

The apostle Paul's letter to Timothy belongs to the group of epistles which he wrote at the end of his days, a short time before his death. So in them we find the final burden of Paul's heart before departing, that which he tried to leave written, especially to Timothy and his co-workers, in the work of the Lord, and these were the truths and fundamental principles that had governed all his life and ministry.

In these letters we no longer have the great revelations that Paul wrote in Ephesians, in Colossians or in Philippians. What we have here is the apostle's final words, in which he tries to leave established that which will mark a direction for the church in the times to come.

He knows, as he often announced before, that an entire system of things; of customs and forms, would be introduced in the church starting from that moment, and he also knows that the house of God will lose its form, it will lose its content, it will be changed in the centuries to come, up to the point of becoming something completely different from what is in the heart of God.

And for that reason he writes to Timothy about the necessity that the house of God is kept in its glory, in its sanctity, and in its dignity. And he tells us that the house of God is the church of the living God. Of course, the house is not the place where the brothers meet. The house of God is the church, and the church are the children of God.

But here the apostle Paul won't explain to us what the house of God is. He simply makes a very broad statement, with a very general sense, because he has already explained about it before. This matter -the house of God - has been the specific burden of his ministry. During the last 22 years of his life, Paul has been dedicated to communicate the glory and the greatness of the house of God to the saints; that which he in particular denominated "the mystery of God and of Christ".

Christ is the tabernacle of God

To put it very simply, we might ask, what is the house of God? The apostle Paul in Colossians says that the mystery of God is "Christ in you, the hope of glory." So the house of God is Christ in us. What does that mean?

In the Old Testament, God, in a figure, ordered a physical house to be built, where he could meet with man. So the house of God is, fundamentally, a place of encounter between man and God. And, when man meets with God, he meets with the purpose of God, the will of God, the authority of God, and with all that God has for man.

If in the Old Covenant men wanted to seek God, they had to go to His house, which first existed as the tabernacle in the desert, and then in Solomon's temple and then in the later temples, until the Lord Jesus Christ's days. In that house, man could meet with God, with all his limitations, because it was a matter of symbols and figures, a shadow of the reality. That, said in a very simple way, was the house of God.

Now, in John 1:1 we find that the Word is the very essence of God. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The original text says that the Word was with God, was face to face with God. He was in a relationship of intimacy with God, of deep communion and understanding with God, in a perfect unity, knowing God and being the perfect image of God.

That was the Word in eternity, before the world was created. He was always with the Father, always met the Father. But the Word which was God, John says, became flesh. Can you see the importance of John's statement? That Word became flesh! That which was with God from eternity, that shared glory with God from eternity, that had known God intimately and perfectly from eternity, and that is the substance and the same essence of God, became flesh.

And when the Scripture says that he became flesh, it says: "And dwelt among us." But the Greek text says more. Literally: the Word "put His tabernacle among us." This takes us immediately to the Old Testament and the tabernacle, the place where God met with man.

But now the tabernacle was not a tent, nor a building; now the temple was Christ's flesh, the Word become flesh. That is the true tabernacle of God. The true temple of God is Jesus Christ's body; it is Jesus Christ's flesh. God made His habitation in that body. The fullness of God descended to inhabit that body.

When men came to Christ, they found God, they found the will and the purpose of God. To meet with Christ meant meeting God face to face. The Old Covenant was no longer the means by which one could draw close to God. Now Christ is the tabernacle of God, inhabiting with men and expressing God Himself.

Those who touched Christ touched God; those who spoke with Christ, spoke with God. What an extraordinary thing: God of heaven, in the Son of God's flesh!

Dear brothers, with regard to Christ, He is the temple, He is the tabernacle of God. In Him all the fullness of the corporate Godhead dwells; he is the perfect expression of God become flesh.

One cannot separate God from Christ, one cannot find God if it is not in Christ, nothing of God can be found if it is not in Christ. We cannot go to the Father if it is not in Christ and through Christ. We cannot find the purpose of God, the mind of God, the thoughts of God if it is not in Jesus Christ. Apart from Christ, we don't know anything about God and we don't have anything to do with God. Everything is in Christ; He is the true temple of God.

Paul's revelation

But there is something else about the temple of God, and that something is what God especially revealed to the apostle Paul. There was, in God's heart, something that still needed to be revealed.

At the beginning, Paul persecuted the church of God. It is interesting what he says at the end of Galatians 1:13: "For ye have heard of my manner of life in time past ...." And remember what he says to Timothy: "But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how men ought to behave themselves." And now he says: "how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and made havoc of it..."

Paul persecuted the church; that was his way to behave when he encountered it. The church itself that would then become the vocation of his life was first that which he persecuted. And he persecuted it beyond measure; he was determined to destroy it. He dragged the saints and tossed them into jail. And why did he do that? Because he didn't know Jesus Christ, and for him the church was simply a sect, or a movement that had distorted the Jewish faith in which he believed.

All that deeply affected Paul's heart, and he considered that it was his duty to persecute the church, to erase the name of Jesus from the face of the earth; because Paul didn't know who Jesus was.

He tells us that in Judaism he was advanced beyond many of his contemporaries, "being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers." What tremendous thing traditions are, brothers! He doesn't refer to his natural fathers, but to his religious ones, to the great men of Judaism, like Gamaliel and others, from whom he received that whole tradition.

Verse 15 says: "But...." How wonderful that there is a "but" here! Because this is a "but" that comes of God. "But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me, even from my mother's womb, and called me through his grace, to reveal his Son in me." This is a strange statement. He doesn't say: "To reveal his Son to me", but: "to reveal his Son in me." To reveal his Son inside me. In the deep of my being, in my interior man, in my spirit, and then, through me.

What happened on the day when God intervened in this man's life and revealed his Son in him? Dear brothers, when God reveals his Son in us, all things change. All that we have built is demolished, all that we intended in our heart comes crashing down. Revelation of Jesus Christ kills the natural man, it kills what comes from the man according to the flesh, and gives life to what comes from God according to the Spirit.

Acts 9 shows us that Paul went on route to Damascus persecuting the disciples; but while he went along with his own plans, with the whole burden of Judaism on his shoulders, suddenly, a splendorous light from heaven surrounded him, "...and he fell upon the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest."

Notice that Paul was persecuting the church. As he understood it, he was not persecuting Jesus directly. In fact, for Paul, Jesus was dead. He persecuted Jesus' disciples, his church. But suddenly, on route to Damascus, Jesus, the Lord Himself, alive and resurrected from among the dead, appeared in all his glory and told him: "Saul, why do you persecute me?"

Here is something extraordinary, because this is the starting point of Paul's life as an apostle, and of the special burden that he received from the Lord. What Paul had was a heavenly vision which from that day on dominated the whole course of his life. This vision trapped Paul and it impelled him onward, until the last day of his life, until surrendering his life for love of Jesus Christ.

But there is something else. He didn't understand the complete meaning of the vision immediately. It took him many years of his life to understand the vision that he had received. Notice what the apostle Paul saw. He saw Jesus Christ. But something else: that which the Lord told him and which the Lord revealed to him that day. He told him: "Saul, why do you persecute me?"

Paul must have been perplexed. He was not persecuting the Lord. How was he able to persecute the Lord, if he was dead? And if he was living in the heavens, how could he be persecuting somebody up there? Impossible. But he was asked: "why do you persecute me?" So, Christ's revelation begins here in Paul. And, what is that revelation? That revelation is the church, the house of God.

Paul not only saw Jesus Christ that day; he also saw what Jesus Christ's church really is. That day he saw that the church is not a human organization, it is not a grouping or association with ends religious, it is not a group of people following a man; it is not something that can be compared with something of this world. That day he saw that the church is Jesus Christ; because when he touched the church, he touched Christ, and when he touched the members of Christ's body, he touched Christ. Then he understood that the church is one with Christ, and that Christ lives and is in the church. Blessed is the name of the Lord!

I know, brothers that I am repeating things which you know; I am not saying something new. But the important thing is not to know things, but what we do with the things that we know. Are we consequent with what we know? What good does it do to know what the church is, if we don't walk in a manner worthy of that knowledge? Paul tells Timothy: "But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God."

Of course Timothy knew what the house of God was; but it simply was not enough to know it. Because we can be filled with theoretical knowledge of heavenly things, and not live the reality of what they are. The apostle Paul saw the church in Christ, and from that day he lived for that vision.

Ah, this is something very difficult, because it is a revelation. Men always tend to make the church something smaller than what it truly is. Paul faced that problem. He was a Jew. The Jews had a hope about the Messiah, they had an entire series of ideas about what the Messiah would be when he came. But when He finally came, He didn't fit into their cannons and their molds. All their tradition fell apart faced with Jesus Christ; all that they believed was falsified when Jesus Christ came. They were full of ideas, but none of those ideas corresponded to reality.

This is our problem, and for that reason Paul writes to Timothy, because just like the Jews with their traditions, concepts and ideas, we are also in danger of turning the church into something smaller than what it is; to transform it into something merely human. We are always in danger of reducing the church. That is our natural tendency. Let me explain myself: The Jews had a ritual, a synagogue, a series of forms and established ways, and they believed that these were the essence of everything. But Christ didn't fit into that.

Now, when Paul saw the church, he saw it as the expression of Jesus Christ. That was his vision of the church. He didn't come to the church like some of us, in a meeting of brothers who sing and praise the Lord. Then you say: "Ah, this is the church: The form in which they meet together and sing and adore." But that is not the church. At most, it can be an expression of the church.

But, essentially, what is the church? The church is the expression of Jesus Christ; the church is Christ's body. And what does this mean? That if Christ is the temple of God; and, then, if Christ is in us, then the church is also the temple of God. But it is not so beyond the measure that Jesus Christ dwells in the church. In other words, the church is the temple of God in the measure that it expresses Jesus Christ.

We can call church many things, but the only thing that church can be called from the point of view of God is what comes from Christ. And when Paul saw the church, he saw it as Christ's body. He didn't only see Christ, but rather he saw the building that is constructed upon Christ, stone upon stone, until reaching a height, a dimension and an incommensurable expression.

Dear brothers, which is the full size of Christ? How much of Christ is there? Up to where does Jesus Christ reach? Where does he begin and where does he end? Don't you know? Then, nor can you say where the church begins and ends, because the church is Jesus Christ; it is as big as Jesus Christ. It reaches where Jesus Christ fills. That is the mystery of God: that he doesn't only have Christ as his temple, but rather Christ also has the church as his body and as his temple. And that God is not only living in Christ, but also in the church, by means of Jesus Christ. That, brothers, speaks to us of the greatness of the church as the body of Christ.

The size of the city

The apostle John describes the New Jerusalem which is the final expression of the church. With independence of the literal interpretations of this passage, I wanted us to consider a spiritual interpretation. There is a very interesting thing in chapter 21 of Revelation, when the apostle sees the church as the New Jerusalem that descends from Heaven, with the glory of God, like a beautiful stone.

Verses 15 and 16 tell us that the angel showed him the New Jerusalem and gave him a measuring reed so that he could measure the city: "And the city lieth foursquare, and the length thereof is as great as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs: the length and the breadth and the height thereof are equal." A furlong is 180 meters. Twelve thousand furlongs are 2.160 kilometers, more or less the distance between Santiago and Arica.

Imagine a city that begins in Santiago, and continues up to Arica, turns in square until the coast of Brazil, descends level with Santiago and closes the square. What city can have that size? We live in a time in which ascend to the heights in an airplane, and look at the earth from there. Then, we could observe a city of that size. But in the Apostle John's time, that was impossible. Nobody had been able to conceive a city of that size. Israel itself, didn't even measure a fifth of the length of this city.

So, what does the word of the Lord, with such measurements and proportions mean? Because, it then says that the wall has the same height, that is to say, it also measures 2.160 kilometers high. Mount Everest, the highest on the earth, is 8 kilometers high. But, just think, 2.160 kilometers high! We might say that you could lift your eyes up and never see the top of the walls of the city. Why does the Scripture say this? Because it is showing us that the church, just as God conceived it, is bigger than all that we can think or imagine, because it is Christ's full expression.

How big our Lord Jesus Christ is, and how big the city that expresses Him is, because it is the perfect expression of His glory, of His person, of His nature and of His character! The complete city is made of Christ. Each stone has been carved in Christ's quarry, and each detail of the city has arisen from Him by the work of the Holy Spirit. It is the perfect expression of Christ, and for that reason it has an inconceivable dimension for us.

The apostle John wrote with the intention of showing us this, the same thing that Paul did when he said: "Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness." The mystery of godliness consists in that God was made flesh, and that leads us to the church. But, why did the apostle John tell us the same? For the same reason that led Paul to warn Timothy, because our greatest danger is to reduce the church to something smaller than what it truly is.

Dear brothers, there is a great danger in "localizing" the church, and to believe that the church can be reduced, for practical ends, only to the specific locality. No, brothers, it is the other way around: the locality has to express what the church is in Christ, but the church cannot be reduced to the locality. We cannot think that the church is as small as the group that we make up, because that is to reduce Christ.

Necessity to enlarge the vision

How many are willing to allow the Lord to enlarge their vision? How many want to obey the Word and not simply know it? It is useless to know something without obeying it. It is necessary to obey it. As Paul says: "I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision." Can we obey?

May the Lord enlarge our vision, enlarge the measure of our understanding, enlarge our heart, our spirit, to understand. As it says in Isaiah: "Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations; spare not: lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes."