How did he do this? Through sending Jesus to succeed where Adam, the Israelites, and all of us have failed. Here is a summary of Romans 5:

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1 Review from Last Week God s purpose in creation was to create a people for His presence. As a result of Adam and Eve s sin, mankind was banished from Eden, the place of God s presence. God s mission for Adam and Eve was to reproduce people in God s image (rule as his representatives, reflecting His character and will), so that the whole earth would be filled with God s glorious presence. Adam failed in his mission, but that did not mean that God s purpose was thwarted. God s presence, mediated through the tabernacle, led Israel into their promised land. Unfortunately, like Adam, Israel fails to obey in her Eden and experienced exile from God s presence, just like Adam. Isaiah 3:8 For Jerusalem has stumbled and Judah has fallen, because their speech and their actions are against the Lord, to rebel against His glorious presence. But God s purpose and promise to Abraham is not dead, it cannot die! Throughout the OT, God s promises have been pointing forward to Christ as the one who will fulfill God s purpose and plan to redeem mankind from his sin so that God s original purpose in Eden might be accomplished. In the person of Jesus, God was going to draw near like He had never drawn near before and remove the curse of Adam s sin from among us and reconcile us to Him so we might live in His presence! How did he do this? Through sending Jesus to succeed where Adam, the Israelites, and all of us have failed. Here is a summary of Romans 5: 1

2 Adam s sin led to condemnation leading to death. Jesus righteousness leads to justification leading to life. 1 Peter 3:8 - For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. Why was Jesus the only one qualified to be our substitute, bearing our punishment in our place? Because he was the only sinless one. Why did Jesus suffer the penalty for our sins? To free us from condemnation? Yes.so that he might bring you to God! The hope of salvation is more about who you get to be with than where you get to go! Salvation is not just about a transaction whereby our sins are forgiven, we escape God s judgment, and get to go to a beautiful place called heaven. None of those realities requires a relationship with God. But salvation is all about living in God s presence. So God s first temple was the garden of Eden. Then God s presence was experienced in the Tabernacle and then in the Temple. Finally, the temple and all of its sacrifices became obsolete when Jesus, the true temple came to earth and gave his life as the once-for-all sacrifice. Jesus has ascended to the right hand of the Father but he did not remove His presence. His presence remains with us in the third person of the Trinity The Holy Spirit. The ability of the Christian to live in God s presence is due to the reality that the Holy Spirit dwells within the believer Jesus said it is to your advantage that I go away. What? How could Jesus leaving ever be to someone s advantage? Because when Jesus righteousness is applied to your life through faith, you now become a fit temple for the Holy Spirit to dwell in your life. 2

3 While we are waiting for heaven; while we are waiting for God to gather all His rescued people to the paradise pictured in Revelation 21 & 22, God has chosen to make us His temple. In the NT God s people are now His temple. There are two important aspects to the statement that God s people are His temple. A. Individual Christians are temples of the H.S. 1 Corinthians 6:19,20 Don t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. These words were written as an explanation as to why Christians shouldn t be involved in sexually immoral behavior. Specifically, Paul was addressing a situation where men in the church were using the services of prostitutes. Prostitution was an acceptable business in Corinth so these new Christians needed some teaching to explain why it was now morally unacceptable. Whenever I find myself disappointed with the sins in the modern church all I need to do is read 1 Corinthians and I feel much better. In this one letter Paul has to deal with prostitution, incest, Christians suing one another. It was full of arguing & jealousy. Some were worshipping idols and the rich were dishonoring the poor. Makes us sound pretty holy! What is the application for us today? As temples of the Holy Spirit we now belong to God. He purchased us at the price of His own blood. This means we can t compartmentalize our lives. We can t conduct ourselves one way in church and another outside. We carry God s presence with 3

4 us wherever we go. It means our faith is not a private thing but a public thing. It should impact the way we talk, what we entertain our minds with, what we to with our bodies and what we do to our bodies. The fact that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit means that the work we put our hands to ought to bring glory to God. Illustration: Aaron and Ayiana Porter There is one more point of application I need to make. If we are temples of the Holy Spirit, we need to be careful about what we say about ourselves. If you make self-loathing comments, belittling yourself by calling yourself a loser or a failure, or if you despise yourself because you don t look like the airbrushed models or haven t achieved the business or vocational success of your peers, you are dishonoring the Spirit of God that dwells in you. We are temples of the Holy Spirit. We need to live like it, talk like it, walk like it, work like it, and love like it. There is a second aspect to this reality that God s people are the temple of the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 Don t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God s temple is holy, and you are that temple. These verses have often been misinterpreted to be speaking about the individual. Our more literal translations read, Do you not know that you are God s temple What the English doesn t indicate is that the word you is plural. That is why the NLT reads, all of you together. 4

5 Paul s strong statement, God will destroy anyone who destroys this temple. For God s temple is holy, and you are that temple is not referring to abusing your physical body. He was referring to the jealousy and strife that existed among these Christians. They were destroying one another. Peter describes the church, the gathered people of God this way: you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house. I am one stone in God s temple. The Holy Spirit is in my stone, but when He is in 300 stones bonded together that magnifies His presence even more. God sent His Spirit to dwell in individual Christians who he intended to dwell together in community in order to magnify His presence to an even greater extant than we could by ourselves. The main reason why God has chosen to build a corporate temple out of His individual temples is so that His love & righteousness could be evident. God s temple is a place where His glory is revealed and God s glory is revealed when His people love one another. I am going to drop something a little heavy on you now. God is a corporate being, is He not? The scripture reveals that God is a Trinitarian God. No one here can understand it. If they tell you they do, they are lying. But God s Trinitarian nature is critical to Him being truly God. Is God self-sufficient? Does God need anything outside of Himself to be who He is? NO! Is love an essential attribute of God? YES! If God did not exist in three persons He would have needed something or someone outside of himself to be loving! He wouldn t be selfsufficient! But He is because we know that love has existed among the members of the trinity from all eternity! 5

6 The balance of unity and diversity in the Trinity gives a model for human social life, because it implies that both individuality and relationship exist within the Godhead itself. Nancy Pearcey in Total Truth You (sing.) have been created for His presence. You (plural) have been created for His presence. I have been created for His presence. We have been created for His presence. You and I need to experience God s presence in private communion with Him but also in corporate communion with Him. We need to worship together and to pray together. Todays Challenge: Last week I challenged you to take time everyday to spend time with God. Today my challenge is two-fold. 1. You need to make corporate worship a priority. We need to gather together for worship. 2. You need some prayer partners. People that you pray with and for. There is something powerful when God s people pray together! 6