THE ASTONISHING COST OF BELIEVING

"The stonecutters quarried and shaped huge blocks of stone--a very expensive job--for the foundation of the temple" (1 Kgs 5:17 TLB).

There is a fascinating connection between this Old Testament description of the construction of Solomon's temple and how God builds a living temple for himself out of believers in Jesus--and the astounding cost for both God and the believer.

First of all, we need to get some sort of handle on the scope or magnitude of what we will be examining here. Otherwise, it will be all too easy to lose the significance of what it means to be a believer in Jesus Christ. We who live in a world that soaks itself in relatives need to be reminded that when dealing with God, we are dealing with something that transcends this world, a Being who is so far above what we are used to dealing with that it takes concerted effort to lift ourselves out of the ordinary way of looking at our lives and to concentrate on seeing the extraordinary. We need to focus on ultimates and supreme issues and absolutes--the highest and deepest and most extreme aspects of reality. In other words, God.

When Solomon contemplated building the temple, he said, "The temple I build must be large and magnificent" (2 Chr. 2:9 NIV). Why must this be so? Again, Solomon answers the question: because it is to be the dwelling place of God himself (2 Chr. 6:2).

Solomon had the right perspective. He was keenly aware that he was not about to embark on just another building project, but the project of his entire life as king of Israel. He was to build a temple for the Supreme Being, God. And therefore, that temple needed to reflect the supreme character of that God. He had the prerequisite humility and awe to undertake this great service to his God. And, of course, he did not just decide to do this on his own; he was chosen by God himself for this purpose:

"I intend, therefore, to build a temple for the Name of the LORD my God, as the LORD told my father David, when he said, `Your son whom I will put on the throne in your place will build the temple for my Name" (1 Kgs. 5:5 NIV).

This is the same order of events that the New Testament gives for how the temple of the new covenant with God is to be built, that is, how we who believe in Jesus are to become that living temple for God. It is not something we choose to do on our own, but God initiates it by calling us to believe in Jesus and chooses us for this purpose. As Jesus himself said:

"You did not choose me, but I chose you" (Jn. 15:16 NIV).

Thus no one can boast that he or she was the one who decided to follow Jesus and thus become a living temple for his worship. That decision, though necessarily made and confirmed by us, had its source of origin in the will of God and his calling to us.

"To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God--children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God" (Jn. 1:12,13 NIV).

Because of this proper attitude which Solomon had towards the building of the temple, the Old Testament temple was indeed a magnificent building, with much precious gold overlaying walls and articles and imposing statues of carved angels and many other touches that gave it an awesome atmosphere and look. Beauty and magnificence were the key characteristics throughout the entire structure. It reflected as well as any human endeavor could the nature of the God it was built to honor.

That temple from the Old Testament, and the tremendous cost and effort that went into it, are a symbol and representation of the even more costly temple of the New Testament: you and me. All believers are described in the New Testament as the temple of God:

"Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?" (1 Cor. 3:16 NIV).

"God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple" (1 Cor. 3:17 NIV).

"Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own" (1 Cor. 6:19 NIV).

Although the Old Testament temple took years to build and was costly in labor and materials, and the finished product was stunning to behold, it was nothing compared to the effort and painstaking, costly work that is put forth to build a suitable temple for God in our present world. Indeed, the building of human temples in which the Holy Spirit can reside is so costly and demanding of both God and man that nothing else can compare with it. Here a just a few examples that illustrate the kind of preparation that is required for us to be the temple of the living God:

Moses: "He fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons. After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai" (Acts 7:29-30 NIV).

Joseph: ". . . sold as a slave. They bruised his feet with shackles, his neck was put in irons, till what he foretold came to pass, till the word of the Lord proved him true" (Ps. 105:17-20 NIV).

Abraham: "When God tested him, (he) offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, 'It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned'" (Heb. 11:17-18 NIV).

This last example illustrates the truth of a previous statement made above, that the cost for constructing a living temple (human beings who believe in Jesus) for God is great beyond measure. For it is not just we who are God's children who must suffer great loss in order to be molded into fit stones for God's temple: God himself suffered the loss of his own Son on the cross so that this work could be accomplished. Firstly, Jesus had to give up the glories of heaven to come down to earth to enable us to be built into a temple for God (Ph. 2:6,7). Secondly, even after arriving upon this earth in human form, Jesus, God in human flesh, was then sent away from his familiar surroundings, just as was Abraham, when Jesus was compelled by the Holy Spirit to be disciplined (trained) in the desert after his baptism by John the Baptist.

"At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him" (Mk. 1:12,13 NIV).

"In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers" (Heb. 12:10,11 NIV).

Yes, in Jesus, the Son of God, we find the perfect example and forerunner of who we are to be like in the strenuous and exacting discipline that God requires of those who are to be used as living stones in building a temple for the living God. "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus" (Ph. 2:5 NIV).

Why is our attitude to be the same as that of our Lord Jesus? Because we are meant to be like him, so that he can live in us through his Holy Spirit:

"In him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit" (Eph. 2.22 NIV).

"Written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts" (2 Cor. 3:3 NIV).

What are some of the demanding challenges which must be met by we who would be living stones in God's temple? We have already seen that Joseph had to be falsely imprisoned, enduring physical and emotional hardships of such a depressing place. Moses had to flee for his life from a rich, kingly way of living to being a shepherd for forty years in a rough wilderness. And Abraham was told to give up his only son.

Yes, even human life is not held back from God's demands for us to be built into his living temple. In fact, it is human life itself, specifically ours, that is the key requirement. Nothing is held back. And, since, as was noted earlier, the temple which Solomon built, is a pattern for the ultimate temple of God, that is, human beings who submit to him as their God--it is required that the highest sacrifice of all, human life, be given for this highest honor of being a temple for God himself.

Now, this should not mistakenly be understood to mean that actual human sacrifice should be done. Abraham was told to sacrifice his son to God, but God himself stopped Abraham from carrying out that command. God both gave the command and stopped it from actually being carried out. It is the same with us. We are commanded by God to give all that we have and are to be used by him in his molding us and building us into his holy temple. Nothing less would be worthy of Him who is the ultimate goal in life. But that sacrifice is not literal, as some of the world's depraved religions have supposed. Literal human sacrifice is not in line with the character of the true God who is love.

No, the sacrifice which God requires is of our heart or soul, not of our body, although that may come about if it is his will that we die for his name. But then that would be by his hand and the working of his circumstances, and not by our own hand or at the hands of a religion in the culture of this world. For Scripture says, "You must not live according to the customs of the nations I am going to drive out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them" (Lev. 20:23 NIV).

God rightly abhors the abhorrent practices of the false religions of the nations and its cultures and customs, and those who would be temples for him must not follow the depraved notions and practices of a world that sees death as fitting for their dead god. Rather, those who belong to the living God are to be living temples, not dead bodies burned to a dead god.

It was said that Abraham obeyed God and took his son out into the wilderness, prepared to offer him as a sacrifice. He was willing to offer to God that which was of ultimate preciousness to himself. He is to be our model and example, just as Jesus is. We are to look to the example of Abraham.

"Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the Lord: Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn; look to Abraham" (Is. 51:2 NIV).

Look to Abraham and to Jesus for the right attitude which we are to have in order to fulfill our destiny to be living temples for the living God. We are to surrender all that we hold dear, even our very lives, to this end.

"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me" (Mt. 10:37 NIV).

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple" (Lk. 14:26 NIV).

That is the cost for being built into a living temple for the living God: We must overcome the natural inclination to cling to our love for family and self. Only when this is done, when we overcome even our own natural instincts for self preservation, can we become something even higher: a part of the temple of God.

"Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God" (Rev. 3:12 NIV).

But how does one do this? How in the world can a person overcome the strong, natural desire to cling to one's own life? It cannot be down "in the world", that is, by any human effort. It cannot be done by any natural means, only by supernatural power available in Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.

Three Scripture passages, show the simple yet profound way in which we become true believers in Christ and thus part of the temple of God that honors him and his name:

1. We must overcome our innate, natural inclination to cling to our own life by allowing the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God, to cleanse us of such obstacles in the human nature. We must die to self so that we can live for God.

"They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death" (Rev. 12:11 NIV).

2. It is through hearing the proclamation of the good news of the gospel, that this can be accomplished in us through surrendering to Jesus as Lord and Savior.

"So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom. 10:17 KJV).

3. We must both live out this new birth within us by deed and word.

"That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Rom. 10:9 NIV).

Saved to be a living temple for the living God.