The temple of the Holy Spirit is the human body. Perhaps because of the influence of the philosophy of Gnosticism, the religion of Christianity minimizes the significance of the human body. The truth is, the human body is of utmost importance in the Divine plan of salvation.

The reason the human body is of such importance is that it is the eternal temple of God, a part of the great incarnation of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. The goal of our salvation is to have our body resurrected into eternal life and filled with the Presence of the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit.

God is a Spirit. God chose to express Himself, to reveal Himself, in a physical form. The body of God was born through the Virgin Mary. God is now housed in flesh and bone.

This is the supreme mystery.

I am not saying the Father and the Son are the same Person, that the Son of God is the Father. This is not true. There is a Father and there is a Son. The Son has been begotten from the Father and is filled with all the fullness of the Father. Thus God has become incarnate—made flesh.

We cannot penetrate more deeply into the mystery of the Father and the Son because in the spirit realm it is possible for two to be one, while in our finite world it is not possible for two to be one.

God is building a house for Himself of which the Lord Jesus Christ is the chief Cornerstone.

Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. (Ephesians 2:20—NIV)

Part of this great mystery is that in the Father's house there are many rooms, many places in which God and we can live, move, and have our being. Christ went to the cross, and then into Heaven, there to sprinkle His blood before the Father to make an atonement for mankind. Thus He has prepared a place in the Father's house for whoever chooses to become an eternal room in God's house.

The human body is central in the Divine plan. The Word has become flesh. It has been given a physical body. Today that physical body, although now greatly glorified, is at the right hand of God in Heaven.

We come next. We have a body. Our body in the present hour is the temple of the Spirit of God. Through Jesus Christ our born-again inward nature is at the right hand of the Father in Heaven.

But our body is not in Heaven, it is here on the earth. Or perhaps buried in the earth if we are deceased.

If we are living on the earth at the present time, our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. The task of redemption is to prepare our inward nature so when our body is raised in the eternal life of Jesus Christ it may be glorified, and then filled with the Presence of the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit.

Can you see from the above how utterly important the human body is in the plan of salvation, and how important it is that we grow in eternal life in our inward nature so God may be able to clothe us with a body of life in the Day of the Lord?

To be continued.