The Presence-Centered Kingdom, Part 4: From Temple to Body
From Temple to Body: The Fulfillment of Habitation in Christ
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory.” — John 1:14
The long story of God dwelling among His people reaches its climax in the incarnation.
From Eden’s garden to Moses’ tabernacle, from David’s tent to Solomon’s temple, one theme runs unbroken through Scripture: God longs to dwell with His people. Every altar, every ark, every cloud of glory pointed toward a transcendent and universally defining moment — when the Creator Himself would step down into humanity, take on flesh, and make His home among us.
What had once been symbolized in gold and linen, in tabernacles and temples, now stood embodied in human form. The presence that filled the Holy of Holies now walked dusty Galilean roads. In Jesus, the habitation of God became incarnate.
The Word Tabernacled Among Us
John’s gospel begins in eternity past. “In the beginning was the Word…” (John 1:1). And, in verse 14, he makes the cosmic concrete: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
The Greek verb eskēnōsen translated “dwelt” literally means “to pitch a tent” or “to tabernacle.” John is making a deliberate connection to Moses’ Tabernacle described in Exodus 25. The same God who once filled a tent of meeting had now filled human flesh.
The tabernacle in the wilderness was a shadow of the incarnation. The Shekinah cloud once hovered above the mercy seat; now the same cloud radiated in and through the Son of God. The invisible Presence had become visible. The transcendent One had become fa living being inside of time.
“No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known.” — John 1:18
John described Jesus as “in the bosom of the Father” while walking on the earth. Jesus didn’t simply bring God’s presence; He was the express image of God’s presence (Heb 1:3). The fullness of deity dwelled in Him bodily (Col. 2:9). Every healing, every word of authority, every act of mercy was the manifestation of God’s glory — the same glory that once filled the tabernacle and temple, now walking and breathing among men.
The True Temple
When Jesus stood in the courts of Herod’s temple and declared, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up,” the Jews were indignant (John 2:19–21). But John tells us what Jesus meant: “He was speaking of the temple of His body.”
That statement redefined the entire concept of sacred space. The Temple was now going to be considered human. No longer would the temple be a building, it would be Man. And Jesus was the chief cornerstone of the new, living, Temple (1 Pet 2:4-8). The Presence would no longer be confined to a building in Jerusalem; it would be expressed through human vessels. In Jesus we find a new prototype, the Holy of Holies was not behind a veil but within a Person.
Peter Leithart describes it this way: “In Jesus, the architectural temple becomes biological. The dwelling of God is no longer a house of stone but a house of flesh.”
Every aspect of the old order now found its fulfillment in Him:
The altar — fulfilled in His cross.
The veil — torn by His torn flesh (Matt. 27:51).
The priesthood — embodied in Him mediating the New Covenant (Heb. 7:24–25).
The sacrifice — completed in His once-for-all offering (Heb. 10:10).
The Indwelling Presence
And as glorious as that fulfillment is, there is another towering truth that stands alongside it: Jesus not only modeled being the living tabernacle; He opened the way for us to join Him in it. In John 14, the night before His crucifixion, He told His disciples something astonishing:
“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever… for He dwells with you and will be in you.” — John 14:16–17
The Spirit who had indwelt Jesus would soon dwell within His people. Pentecost would become the next stage in God’s unfolding habitation. Just as the glory filled the tabernacle in Exodus 40, and the temple in 1 Kings 8, the Spirit filled every believer in the upper room in Acts 2. The fire that once burned above the ark now rested on human heads. The Presence that once filled a building now filled believers.
Paul explains this mystery succinctly:
“Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” — 1 Corinthians 3:16
Christ’s body was the first temple of the new creation, and the Church, His corporate body, became its continuation. The divine habitation moved from incarnation (God in one man) to indwelling (God in many people).
A Mobile Sanctuary
In the Old Covenant, Israel’s camp encircled the tabernacle; in the New Covenant, the Church carries the tabernacle within. The Church gathered in Jesus’ name is now a mobile sanctuary. In Christ, the glory of God is now spread worldwide through sons and daughters filled with the Spirit. Samuel Whitfield says, “The Temple has gone viral.”
The Fulfillment of Habitation
The incarnation completes what began in Eden and was prefigured in Israel’s worship.
In Eden, God walked with man.
In the Tabernacle of Moses, He dwelt among man.
In the Tabernacle of David, His presence was restored among man.
In Christ, He came to dwell as man.
And by the Spirit, He now dwells within man.
Every stage intensifies the intimacy of habitation. What Adam lost and Israel foreshadowed, Jesus fulfilled.
The Church, therefore, is not merely a gathering of believers but the living continuation of God’s dwelling on earth. As Paul explains, we are “being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Eph. 2:22).
Conclusion: The Glory in Human Form
When the eternal Word took on flesh, the Presence found its perfect home. Jesus became a convergence point between heaven and earth — the true tent of meeting, the living ark of the covenant, the glory of God was embodied in Christ.
The temple wasn’t the end; it was a prototype. God’s plan was never solely about inhabiting a building, but instead He was showing that He would one day inhabit a human body. And now, through Christ, that same divine habitation continues in and through His people — the Body of Christ, filled with the Spirit, carrying the glory of God into all the earth.
The story of the Presence-centered kingdom has reached a crescendo in Jesus, yet it continues through us and foretells a future day of fullness.
Next in the Series:
Part 5 — The Church: The Presence-Centered People of the Kingdom
How the indwelling Spirit turns the gathered Church into the new sacred zone of God’s glory on earth.