The Habitation of God

Part 2 of a six-part series on The Church by Dick York



We saw, in the preceding article, Paul’s description of the Church as the Body of Christ. He said it was the fullness of Him that filleth all in all,1 making our participation in the Church something far more significant than many professing believers might imagine. Paul, in the second chapter of Ephesians, adds another layer of significance as he describes us, the believers, as “fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God.” Not only are we of “the household [family] of God,” but we are described as being the house of God, His dwelling place,
“…built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.” 2

Peter also had that view of the Church. He wrote, “ye also as lively [living] stones, are built up a spiritual house…” 3 Jesus, too, transmitted this view of Himself 4 and, consequently, those who are members of His body. But when these men spoke thus, they were not creating a new analogy, they were articulating what had been God’s view of the Church from eternity.

There was a time in the early history of the Great Commission, when Gentiles were being saved and Jewish believers were demanding that they be circumcised and keep the Mosaic Law. A council was called in Jerusalem to consider the matter. Peter, who had first taken the Gospel to the Gentiles, spoke. Then Paul and Barnabas told what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them.

“And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me: Simeon [Peter] hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His name. And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called.” 5

Had not the apostles referred to this prophecy of Amos in this context, we may not readily have understood its meaning. But since James applied it to the building of the Church, it is evident that the “tabernacle of David” refers to a spiritual building, the one Paul referred to in his epistle to the Ephesians. Let’s look at what occasioned this prophecy.

When the Lord had given King David rest from all his enemies, he sat in his house and contemplated what he should do for the Lord. Addressing Nathan, the prophet, David said, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells within curtains.” 6

David’s plan was to build a house, a temple, for the dwelling place of God. Nathan told him to do all that was in his heart because, obviously, God was with him. But God had a different plan, one that awed David at the time, but which is still being worked out after the passing of centuries. God told David,
“When thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with they fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom (Acts 2:25-36). He shall build an house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: but my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. And thy house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee: thy throne shall be established forever.” 7

As with many of the prophecies of Scripture, this one has both an immediate natural fulfillment, and a future spiritual fulfillment. In the immediate sense it had reference to David’s son Solomon who, in a limited measure, was a foreshadow of Christ. That is evident in the common terms that are used to describe each of these men. They are both referred to as ‘David’s seed’ and as ‘the son of David.’ They are both said to rule on David’s throne. They are both to rule in peace. Even Solomon’s name means ‘peaceful,’ and Jesus is called ‘the Prince of Peace.’

Solomon was David’s seed and proceeded out of his bowels. Solomon built a house for the Lord and, although he committed iniquity, unlike King Saul, God’s mercy did not depart away from him, and his descendants were allowed to continue on his throne.

Then there is the future, spiritual fulfillment of the prophecy. God promised David that He would build him a house. This is not an edifice of wood and stones, but a household, a descendancy. Jesus also proceeded out of David’s bowels as the twenty-eighth generation in a direct line. His kingdom will be established forever. In 2 Samuel 7:14, in the middle of the prophecy, the Lord said, “If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him…” It is noteworthy that He did not say “When he commits iniquity”, but “If.” Solomon was bound to commit iniquity, while Jesus would be without sin. This, then, is not inconsistent in either application.
David’s lineage is described in the Bible as “the House of David.” In Amos 9:11, it is called the “Tabernacle of David,” and is described as fallen. And indeed it had fallen. We know well the amazing history of David, king of Israel. He was not born of a royal line. In fact, he was a sheepherder in the Judean hill country; a fitting role for someone who was to foreshadow the “good Shepherd” who would one day give His life for the sheep.

When God promised David an everlasting kingdom, He reminded him of those days:
“I took thee from the sheepcote, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people, over Israel.”8
God chose David, a faithful shepherd, who, by God’s grace, had delivered his sheep from the mouth of the lion and the bear, to become king over God’s redeemed people, Israel. This would be proven true, even as Jesus, who called himself the “good Shepherd,” rules over His redeemed people, the Church, and will one day return to rule literally on David’s throne. But the immediate natural fulfillment would be a kingdom that would indeed fall.

This two-tiered prophecy is not unlike the present-day experience of the saints of God. We have Jesus’ wonderful promise, “He that believeth on me shall never die.” And although we know that we have that absolutely certain hope, there will be a day when the world will witness the death of our temporal body. In the immediate natural sense we will be dead; but in reality, in the future spiritual sense, we will be absent from this fallen body and present with the Lord, enjoying the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophetic promise.

The kingdom of David was Israel, over which Solomon his son reigned forty years. Because of Solomon’s sin, the house of David began to crumble; the nation was divided into two kingdoms: north and south. After some years, having departed from God, the Northern Kingdom, Israel, went into captivity to the Assyrians. For 125 more years, David’s sons ruled over Judah, but about 595 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon defeated Judah and carried the people into captivity. The tabernacle of David was fallen down. Not only the kingdom crumbled, but the temple, which God had told David that his son Solomon would build––the house where God dwelled in the midst of His people––was destroyed.

When Solomon had finished building the temple, the Lord had appeared to him
And the Lord said unto him, “I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there forever; and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually. And if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded thee, and wilt keep my statutes and my judgments: then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom upon Israel forever, as I promised to David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man upon the throne of Israel.
“But if ye shall at all turn from following me, ye or your children, and will not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods, and worship them: then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house which I have hallowed for my name, will I cast out of thy sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people. And at this house, which is high, everyone that passeth by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, why hath the LORD done thus unto this land and to this house?
“And they shall answer, Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought forth their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have taken hold upon other gods, and have worshipped them and served them: therefore hath the Lord brought upon them all this evil.” 9

The prophet Amos, about 765 B.C., fifty years before the fall of Israel and nearly 175 years before Judah went into captivity, during a time of wonderful prosperity in both kingdoms, prophesied of the fall of David’s natural house and the building of the spiritual one when he said,
“In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen down, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old.” 10

God had raised up Israel to be a people for His name. He walked with them and in them, revealing himself through Israel to the nations. First the tabernacle in the wilderness, and later the Temple in Jerusalem, were pictures of the Church, the place where God dwelt among His people. He had placed His name there. His promise to David looked far beyond the temporal history of Israel or the temple to the Church in the present age.
As has already been mentioned, perhaps we would not have made this connection had not the apostles interpreted Amos’ prophecy for us when they assembled in Jerusalem to settle the issue of how the Law would be applied to the new Gentile believers.

Again we must consider how extremely important is our perception of the Church. From creation it has been the vessel in which God has dwelt and walked. We have discussed already the fact that it is the body in which God reveals Himself and manifests His wisdom to all the principalities and powers.11 And now the apostle Paul has enlarged upon that fact by describing the Church, the Body of Christ with its many members, as a building.

The Church, then, is literally the habitation of God, the house in which God lives. Paul told the Colossian believers that Christ in you is your hope of glory.12 If the Church, therefore, is the habitation of God, and Christ is actually dwelling in it, there is obviously something missing in many professing believers’ appreciation for the implication of such a truth.

This habitation of God, which we in the Church have become, is the tabernacle of David, which was prophesied by God himself when He promised David that He would build a house in which He would abide forever. This, then, is more than a place where we take our children to Sunday school. It is more than something we may choose to attend or not, according to our pleasure. It is not something we can join. If we are living stones, God has built us into the structure of His Church. Because that is of such importance to God, and bestows upon us such awesome privilege and responsibility, perhaps many of us need a greater understanding and appreciation for the word “Church.” If one is not a living stone, and if Christ is not abiding within, there is no way one can join or even understand what the Church is.

God was in Christ.13 God literally inhabited flesh. Jesus Christ, therefore, declared His body a temple. In the Gospel of John, we have this account:
And the Jews Passover was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting. And when He had made a scourge of small cords, He drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables; and said unto them that sold doves, “Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house a house of merchandise.” And His disciples remembered that it is written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.

Then answered the Jews and said unto Him, “What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?”
Jesus answered and said unto them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
Then said the Jews, “Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?” But He spake of the temple of His body.14

Jesus stood in the temple Herod had built to replace Solomon’s, which had long ago been destroyed. But this great edifice, which had taken forty-six years to build, was not the prophesied “Tabernacle of David” that Amos had foretold. Jesus’ body was God’s temple. John, in the telling of this incident, makes the connection between the temple of stone and the temple of flesh that it represented, which was the body of Christ.
The message He delivered was clear. The temple was holy. It was His Father’s house. It was a place where God’s purposes were served, not the flesh. The sacrifices of God are not oxen and sheep. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart.15 For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit.16

The apostle Paul saw very clearly that the Church was the tabernacle, the dwelling place of God and, in his writings to the Corinthian believers, endeavored to convey to them the importance of that truth. In his first letter to them, he wrote
“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.“17

As a young believer, I thought that since our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, this verse proved that if a person commits suicide he would not go to heaven. If I saw it that way, there are probably others with the same opinion. However, as time went by and I began to see what the many-membered body of Christ is, and how we are built together, I began to realize a very different message. “Ye” is actually a plural pronoun. Paul is speaking to the Church. “Ye” collectively are the temple of God. As members of it, the believers are being admonished to see what Jesus demonstrated in His anger toward the moneychangers and the livestock salesmen in the temple at Jerusalem. Again, the Church is not something we attend; it is what we are. It is imperative that we see ourselves as the body, the temple, in which God dwells.

The temple, of which defilement Paul decries, is not simply the believer’s personal body, but that of the Church, the body of Christ. How desperately we, individually and collectively, need an enlarged view of the Church that we might see it from God’s perspective. He had it in view from before creation, and purchased it with His own blood. 18

In this same letter, pursuing the subject of our sanctification (being set apart from the world as Christ’s body), Paul wrote,
“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God.

“And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Meats for the belly and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by His own power.

“Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of an harlot? God forbid. What? Know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? For two, saith He, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.

“What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.”19

It is evident that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God; and no doubt many saints may recognize their former selves in the unsavory list that follows that statement by Paul. But “such were some of you” is an affirmation of the newness of life. What we were is not what we are. What we are now is washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit of God.

The statement by Paul that “all things are lawful for me” may be a little startling for some. How can all things be lawful? Paul is among the washed, sanctified and justified just as we are. So what is true of Paul is true of us who are also in the body of Christ. The Law does not apply here as the incentive for righteous behavior. We are delivered from the curse of the Law20 because the Law is not made for a righteous man.21 In the Church, the Body of Christ, which is the habitation of God, there is a different order. The behavior of the saints is not dictated by law, it is led by the Spirit, as Paul instructed the Roman believers, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”22
The “religious” man (as Paul was before he was saved) would not commit fornication or steal because the Law forbids it. Whatever his fleshly desires, he would deem the consequences of pursuing them too great. The “righteous” man (as Paul was after his conversion), on the other hand, not under the Law, would not commit fornication or steal because the Spirit of God would not lead him to do so. In the first case it would be contrary to the Law; in the second case it would be contrary to the Spirit. That’s why Paul said, “all things are lawful unto me but all things are not expedient.”

Now (since you have been made members of Christ) the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord. Before one is a member of Christ, one’s body is for whatever purpose he feels it is for. Many people subscribe to the philosophy “if it feels good, do it.” Many women say, “It’s my body. I will do with it as I please.” But these are not the voices or the philosophy of the saints. We know that our bodies are His body, designed for His purpose, created for His pleasure.23 Therefore,
“What agreement hath the temple of God with Idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” 24
We are the Church, the body of Christ, the Habitation of God through the Spirit.

(Endnotes)
1 Ephesians 1:21,22
2 Ephesians 2: 19-22
3 1 Peter 2:5
4 John 2:19-21
5 Acts 15:13-17
6 2 Sam. 7:2
7 2 Samuel 7:12-16
8 2 Samuel 7:8
9 1 Kings 9:3-9
10 Amos 9:11
11 Ephesians 1:22,23; 3:10
12 Colossians 1:27
13 2 Corinthians 5:19
14 John 2:13-21
15 Psalm 51:17
16 Isaiah 57:15
17 1 Corinthians 3:16,17
18 Acts 20:28
19 1 Corinthians 6:9-20
20 Galatians 3:13
21 1 Timothy 1:9
22 Romans 8:14
23 Revelation 4:11
24 2 Corinthians 6:16