Exciting News…The Third Temple Is Being Built!

We live in a time where people are eagerly awaiting the building of the third temple in Jerusalem.

The first two temples of law were built in Jerusalem then destroyed.

Solomon built the first temple from around 966 BC to 957 BC.

It was was destroyed by Babylon around 586 BC.

The second temple was built by Zerubbabel from around 538 BC to 516 BC.

It was refurbished by King Herod beginning in 37 BC.

In 70 AD, the Second Temple was destroyed by Rome.

The first two temples were physical temples of law constructed by human hands.

However, the third temple is a spiritual temple of grace constructed by Jesus, with Jesus as the Cornerstone.

This third temple, this spiritual temple, started with the physical resurrection of Jesus.

Jesus told the Jewish leaders (John 2:18-21),

On account of this [Jesus turning over tables in the temple], the Jews demanded, “What sign can You show us to prove Your authority to do these things?”

Jesus answered, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again.”

“This temple took forty-six years to build,” the Jews replied, “and You are going to raise it up in three days?”

But Jesus was speaking about the temple of His body. After He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this. Then they believed the Scripture [Psalm 16:8-11, see also Acts 2:24-35] and the word that Jesus had spoken.

In the verses above, Jesus spoke that his body would be destroyed but would be raised again.

His physical resurrection would be the beginning of a spiritual temple...a spiritual temple of grace.

Jesus would be the cornerstone of this temple, the temple where the Spirit of God would and now dwells within believers, enabling us to have direct access to God and to know him personally as our loving Father (see Ephesians 3:12 and Galatians 4:4-6).

Paul writes about this spiritual temple in Ephesians 2:19-22.

Therefore you [Gentiles] are no longer strangers and foreigners [to God and the promises he made to Israel - see Ephesians 3:1-6], but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household [the spiritual temple, family of grace], built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone. In Him the whole building is fitted together [Jews and Gentiles who believe in Jesus] and grows into a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being built together [Gentiles and Jews] into a dwelling place for God in His Spirit.

Those who believe in Jesus, both Jews and Gentiles, become spiritual stones who are placed in the spiritual temple of God.

God dwells in each individual believer, but also he dwells collectively in all believers as they are assembled together to construct his temple all over the world.

This temple is a spiritual temple of grace because those who make up this temple are those who believe, having been saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:6-9).

In Ephesians, Paul defined grace as the riches and kindness of God through Jesus to humanity to save us.

Grace is what God has done for us through Jesus to forgive our sins through his death, make us holy and blameless through his blood, placing us into God’s family as loved sons and daughters of the Father (Ephesians 1:3-8).

Through faith in Jesus, we receive his grace.

Through faith in Jesus, we are made alive with Christ and are seated with him in heaven (Ephesians 2:1-9).

When we place our faith in Jesus, we become living, precious stones of grace that are assembled together to form God’s third temple.

Peter wrote about this temple in 1 Peter 2:5.

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house…

The New Living Translation states is this way:

And you are living stones that God is building into his spiritual temple.

This temple is much different than the first two temples.

The first two temples were temples of law built by human hands.

The third temple is a temple of grace built by Jesus…his finished work on the cross, his resurrection, his ascension, and his indwelling presence in believers.

This third temple is being built right now…all over the world!

It never stops being built.

It grows throughout the world as more and more people hear the good news about God’s grace and place their faith in Jesus.

Now, that’s exciting!