Renewed Religion
Temple, Priest, and Sacrifice
The Old Testament talks of the need for a temple, priests, and sacrifices. As Christians, we understand that Jesus came and stopped the need for all that, right? Not quite! The answer is a lot more complicated about that. God has created a new temple, a new priesthood, and new sacrifices through Christ in us.
The Old Symbols
The Old Testament tells us the story of the people of Israel. God decides that these people are His people, and He constantly cared for them. One of the ways that He did this is by giving them instruction on how to worship Him. If they properly followed the rules God gave them, He promised that He would be their God and they His people. He would dwell with them, forgive their sins, and bless them.
Three things were put in place for this: the temple, the priesthood, and the system of sacrifices. The temple was the place where the people of God would connect with Him. People could offer their prayers, worship God, be declared clean, have sacrifices offered for them and have the assurance that God was listening. In addition to this, God Himself actually dwelt in a special part of the temple called the Holy of Holies. To run this operation, God set up priests who would be His agents. They would burn incense to lift the prayers to God, sacrifice the animals, and determine whether someone (or thing) was clean. There was one priest who had a very special role — the high priest — who would enter the Holy of Holies once a year to atone all the sins that year. The system of sacrifices was the only way the people could be made clean and forgiven of their sins. Depending on the time of year, the type of ceremony being performed, or the severity of the sin, different animals were sacrificed to God.
This was not a permanent gift. The priesthood became corrupt, and the people stopped caring about God. Because of this, God did something unforeseen — He took away His gifts.
Malachi 1.10 — Oh, that someone among you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hands.
Malachi 2.1–3 — And now, O priests, this command is for you. If you will not listen, if you will not lay it to heart to give glory to my name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse on you, and I will curse your blessings; indeed, I have already cursed them because you do not lay it to heart. I will rebuke your offspring and spread dung on your faces, the dung of your offerings, and I will put you out of my presence.
Malachi 2.13 — And this you do as well: You cover the Lord’s altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favour at your hand.
The whole system of temple, priest, and sacrifices became fraudulent. In 70AD, it all came to an end when the temple itself was destroyed during the destruction of Jerusalem. Since that time, no temple of YHWH has been rebuilt, no priests exist, and no sacrifices can be offered.
It would seem that God will not dwell with His people, that He can no longer be worshipped, and that He will no longer forgive sins. This is not God’s final word in the Old Testament. Instead, He provides a note of hope that one day He will renew the priesthood and that sacrifices will be offered once again.
Malachi 3.1–4 — See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight — indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like washers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the descendants of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, until they present offerings to the Lord in righteousness. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord, as in the days of old and as in former years.
Not only will there be new priests and sacrifices so that the people could be forgiven of their sins, God also promises that one day the temple will be rebuilt (Ezekiel 40–48), and He will dwell with His people again.
Ezekiel 43.4–7a, 9b — As the glory of the Lord entered the temple by the gate facing east, the spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. While the man was standing beside me, I heard someone speaking to me out of the temple. He said to me: “Mortal, this is the place of my throne and the place for the soles of my feet, where I will reside among the people of Israel forever… and I will live among them forever.”
The New Symbol
God has fulfilled these promises despite the fact that we cannot go to a temple where God dwells. In the opening to the gospel of Mark, we are told that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of this promise. Mark quotes the prophecy in Malachi and identifies Jesus as the Lord who has come back to His people. Throughout the New Testament, we see that Christ is the new temple, the new high priest, and the new sacrifice. John 1.14 tells us that God became flesh as Jesus and lived (or tabernacled — the original temple!) among us. Christ Himself calls Himself the temple in the gospels.
John 2.18–22 — The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
The epistle to the Hebrews is instrumental in our understanding how Christ fulfills the Old Testament promises of new temple, priest, and sacrifice. I seriously suggest a careful reading of Hebrews 7–10 to see how the shadows of the Old Testament are fulfilled in Christ who has come, but as a taste here are some excerpts of Hebrews.
Hebrews 4.14 — Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.
Hebrews 7.20–22 — This was confirmed with an oath, for others have become priests without an oath, but this one became a priest with an oath because of the one who said to him, “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever’ ” accordingly Jesus has also become the guarantor of a better covenant.
Hebrews 9.11–12 — But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation), he entered once for all into the holy place, not with the blood of goats and calves but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption.
Christ entered the greater tabernacle as a perfect priest to offer Himself as a perfect sacrifice for the eternal redemption of our sins. As the perfect high priest who cannot die, He forever intercedes for us with the Father. We can trust that God will forgive our sins as Christ offered Himself through the Spirit to the Father. All three persons of the Trinity work as one for our sake because of their love for us.
The Extension
We can see that God’s promise was never about rebuilding the system in the Old Testament, but to renew it in Christ. There will not be a new temple in the future because it is already here. So is Christ the only new temple, priest, and sacrifice? No, we who believe in Him also are because we are united to Him. We learn in 1 Corinthians 6.19–20 that we are temples of the living God because God dwells in us: Father, Son, and Spirit. 1 Peter 2.4–5, 9–10 and Revelation 5.10 tells us that we are a new priesthood. Romans 12.1 and 1 Peter 2.5 tells us we are living and spiritual sacrifices to God.
So what does this all mean to us? This is aptly summarized by James’ understanding of what true religion is.
James 1.27 — Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
We are called as new temples, the place where God dwells, to bring restoration to the world. We are called as new priests to purify the world by our love by bringing justice to those who are suffering. We are called as living sacrifices to obey the commands of God with a pure heart.
1 John 3.16–17, 23–24— We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us — and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers and sisters. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?… And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. All who obey his commandments abide in him, and he abides in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit that he has given us.
When Christ tells us that our love is how they will know we are His disciples (John 13.34–35), it is a fulfillment of the meaning of Malachi 3.17–18. If we are truly God’s temple, God’s priest, and God’s sacrifice, we will love others sacrificially.
We can go beyond this study to see how Christ, and us by extension, is renewed Israel, brings a new covenant, and the Spirit operates as a new Law, but this is already too long!
Conclusions
We can see that the promises of a new temple, new priests, and new sacrifices in the Old Testament are fulfilled by Christ and those who follow Him. We are called as God’s agents in the world to love those around us, specifically those who are oppressed. One day, when Christ returns, there will be a full restoration of the universe from sin and God will dwell with all of humanity fully. The beautiful vision of Revelation 21 ought to transform how we see ourselves and others.
