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January 5 - March 27, 2024
Jesus goes on to quote Isaiah 56:7, a prophecy that the temple would become a rallying point for the nations (Isaiah 56:3-8). Ironically, the temple, a house intended to bless all the nations, was used to prevent the nations from worship.
The Jewish leaders, representing the nation, are anti-priests.
It reads, “No man of another nation is to enter within the barrier and enclosure around the temple. Whoever is caught will have himself to blame for his death which follows.”2
When Jesus heals the blind, the lame, and the mute, he signals the in-breaking of the new creation and the extermination of sin’s desecration.
Though these healings were not physically permanent, they were symbolic expressions of the in-breaking kingdom of the new creation and pointed to consummate physical healing in the eternal, new creation.
A cardinal aspect of Jesus’ mission in his priestly office is therefore the eradication of the effects of the fall on the entire created order. For
Sin had to be dealt with before the worshiper could enjoy fellowship with the Lord.
Christ is both sacrifice and high priest (Hebrews 7:27; 9:12). He offered up himself!
This mountain is ground zero, a spiritual Eden of sorts. The disciples must descend the mountain and bring God’s glory to the nations.
A PROPHET IS SOMEONE who hears God’s voice, speaks on his behalf, and embodies divine truth.
Yet Jesus is also portrayed as speaking as God himself. He’s not only the voice of God on earth, he is God!
Jesus, in his temptation, initially and decisively vanquishes Satan and “crushes his head,” thus fulfilling Genesis 1:28 and 3:15, as well as Psalm 91:13!
‘The first man Adam became a living being’; the last Adam, a life-giving Spirit. The
For Adam and Eve to inhabit the new creation that housed the glory of God, they and the earth needed to be transformed into a glorified state. Such is the nature of God’s glorious presence. It demands that all of creation be brought to a completely glorified existence.
All of humanity is in the image of either the first Adam or the last Adam. There is no in-between. Fundamentally, what it means to be part of the true people of God, true humanity, and true Israel is to inherit the perfected image of the last Adam. The restored image of God is the distinguishing mark of being a son or daughter of God, trumping all forms of ethnicity.
His rule is paradoxically not marked by political strength but by suffering and death. On the cross, at the moment of defeat and shame, Jesus is exalted and reigns supreme over the far reaches of the universe.
The cosmic rule of Christ flows and extends through his followers on the earth. The
As God fashioned and commissioned Adam in the garden and the nation of Israel at Sinai, so too Jesus fashions and commissions true Israel on a mountain.
Genuine subjugation of evil can only be achieved through the message of Christ’s saving work.
Acts 1:8 is a fitting summary of the book of Acts—through the proclamation of the gospel, God’s glory will be taken to the far corners of the known world in fulfillment of Genesis 1:28.
The Jews longed for the coming Messiah, would who deliver them from Rome’s oppression, but what they failed to realize was the extent of sin’s oppression in their own lives. As the book of Acts unfolds, we learn how the gospel conquers, defeats, and subdues sin in the lives of all humanity.
Every Old Testament believer operated as a king, priest, and prophet at some level within the Israelite community. For example, each righteous Israelite executed their office as king when they ruled over sin in their personal lives, as priest when they removed all instances of defilement from their home, and as prophet when they embodied God’s law and shared it with their families and others.
So the church functions as a united, corporate Adam that rules over the onslaught of hostility from the unbelieving world.
Believers do so not with physical might but, ironically and paradoxically, through suffering. We overcome the world spiritually by being overcome physically. The church also functions both as a corporate priest to the world by sharing the gospel and mediating God’s glory to the nations and as a corporate prophet by faithfully obeying God’s Word and embodying it to their neighbors.
Thus at the beginning of Romans Paul underscores Jesus’ victory over sin and the devil, and at the end of Romans he highlights the church’s victory over wickedness and the powers of evil. The victory Jesus initially achieved at the cross and resurrection fulfilled the great promise of Genesis 3:15 and continues to be fulfilled in the church.
Do our lives testify to the reconciliation that takes place in Christ? If we have been truly reconciled to God through Christ, then our relationships with one another will inevitably follow suit.
If, though, our lives are characterized by strife and fracture, then we have little assurance that we have been reconciled to God.
The true Israel of God comprises all the nations. All those who enjoy a restored image of God can be sure that they are counted among the 144,000.
Believers primarily rule through their faithfulness to Christ and the gospel.
Moreover, God poured out his wrath with great finality on the nation of Israel when they crucified Christ (1 Thessalonians 2:16), so the theocratic nation of Israel has come to an end.
True Israel is composed of a remnant of Christian Gentiles and a remnant of Christian Jews.
We should be mindful of living in excess and consuming more than we need. And recycling waste, though it may seem insignificant in the broad scheme of things, is indicative of one’s broader outlook on their relationship with the created order.
Anthony Hoekema is therefore right to claim, “The renewal of the image means . . . that man is now enabled properly to rule over and care for God’s creation. That is to say, he is now empowered to exercise dominion over the earth and over nature in a responsible, obedient, and unselfish way.”
While God certainly dwelt with Adam and Eve and with the Israelites in the temple, God dwells with new covenant believers in a far more intimate way.
A chief aspect of Jesus’ ministry was to show that he functions as the new temple of God. The physical temple in Jerusalem, as attractive as it was in the ancient world, with its unrivaled beauty, was incapable of housing God’s glory in its fullness and was powerless in providing complete atonement for sin.
The church is the restored people of God, the eschatological true Israel.
Each believer must embrace their identity as being in God’s image and execute their office as a priest. Our priestly status is an immense privilege yet a terrifying responsibility. Unclean and wicked behavior has no business in the holy sanctuary of the church.
In the same way, all believers are end-time priests who must preserve the holiness of God’s temple by guarding their hearts from sin and wickedness. Are our hearts filled with lust and sexual impurity? Or are they committed to Christ and our spouses?
Peter continues his train of thought by labeling the church as a “holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices” (1 Peter 2:5). Notice how Peter claims that the church enjoys two distinct realities: the church as a temple and the church as a corporate priest.
Pay careful attention to Peter’s wording here: “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,” whereas Exodus 19:5-6 states, “Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. . . . You will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Exodus 19:5-6 is conditional, while 1 Peter 2:9 is a statement of reality.
“The Christian church is not primarily a social organization but the new temple where the transformed lives of believers are offered as sacrifice to the glory of God.”
As priests the church should consciously view itself as the means by which God will fill the earth with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. (Habakkuk 2:14)
A prophet is someone who hears God’s word, speaks on behalf of him to his people, and embodies his truth.
The success of Jesus as the perfect prophet created a new humanity, the eschatological Israel, to embody God’s law and communicate it to others.
The disciples will function as the mouthpiece of God to the world and especially to their adversaries. The disciples of Jesus will be successful in reaching the nations, yet their success comes with a steep price tag—rejection by their own Jewish community and the empire.
These Israelites who gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate Pentecost now function as prophets by bearing witness to Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension to the heavenly throne to reign as cosmic king (see Acts 1:8).
The regathered people of Israel will faithfully testify to the risen Lord, beginning in Jerusalem, and will then fan out to the “ends of the earth.”
Simply put, the mystery comprises how Gentiles become true Israelites without taking on the external markers of the old covenant.
When we as Christians behave in this divisive manner, we are prophetically declaring to the demons that they still hold sway and that the gospel of unity makes little or no difference in our daily lives. But when Christians maintain unity at home, within our congregations, and out in the community, we are trumpeting the gospel and declaring to the angels that our lives are emblematic of the new age.
The true church images God on earth. As kings, the church imitates Christ by spiritually ruling over the world by becoming physically overcome by it (e.g., Revelation 2:7; 5:5; 11:7; 12:11). As priests, the church is depicted as a lampstand that enjoys God’s glory and radiates it to a hostile world (Revelation 2:1, 5; cf. 11:4). And as prophets, the church bears witness to God’s truth at all costs, just as Christ bore witness (Revelation 1:2, 5, 9; 6:9; 11:3; 12:11).
