Is Jesus Now the Temple and does He have Priests?

by C.E. Ankeny
NKJV

--  Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?”   But He was speaking of the temple of His body.  Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.  (John 2.19-21)

--  Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.  Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.  (Hebrews 9.11-12)

--  Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh,  and having a High Priest over the house of God…  (Hebrews 10.19)

--  Now this is the main point of the things we are saying:  We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.  (Hebrews 8.1-2)

-- Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ….You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.  

(1 Peter 2:5, 9)

-- Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth. To Him who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.  (Revelation 1:5-6)

-- You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; For You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth.  (Revelation 5.10)

Comments:  Jesus is both the High Priest, Sacrifice and the Temple/Tabernacle all at the same time.  And it is said that we – those who believe in Messiah – are being built into a holy temple (Ephesians 2) and actually ARE the Temple, both individually and corporately (2 Cor.6. 11-16, 1 Cor.3.16-17, 6.19).   

         That being so, Jesus then is also Mount Zion and Jerusalem (see Hebrews 12:18-24) because both were used as interchangeable synonyms in the OT (Daniel 9:16) to speak of where YHWH dwelt (see Isaiah 2.3, Micah 4.2, Jeremiah 31.6, Psalm 48), the Temple being the primary thing alluded to because it was the “heart” of Zion.  Hence, all the prophetic Old Covenant references describing the nations in the "latter days" coming, or streaming to them, are referring to Jesus Messiah, and coming to Him and not some geographical piece of land.  Those three -- Temple, Zion and Jerusalem -- were mere types or shadows waiting to be fulfilled in Messiah. 

          Therefore, in the final analysis, I do not believe it is inconsistent nor is it following a man-contrived system to conclude that the nations were, and are now, streaming to Jesus (read Isaiah 2:1-4), and they do that by coming to His Bride, that is, His People / Gathered Ones / Congregation which is the Temple NOW and not in the far distant future.