Building the Temple

It is he who shall build the temple of the LORD and shall bear royal honor.
Zechariah 6:13

Christ Himself is the builder of His spiritual temple, and He has built it on the mountains of His unchangeable affection, His omnipotent grace, and His infallible truthfulness.

But as it was in Solomon's temple, so in this: The materials need to be prepared. There are the cedars of Lebanon, but they are not already framed for the building; they must be cut down and shaped and made into those planks whose fragrant beauty will make glad the courts of the Lord's house in paradise.

There are also rough stones still in the quarry which must be hewn out and squared.

All this is Christ's work. Each individual believer is being prepared and polished and made ready for his place in the temple; but Christ's own hand performs the preparation work.

Affections cannot sanctify, except when they are used by Him to fulfill His purpose. Our prayer and efforts cannot make us ready for heaven, apart from the hand of Jesus, who fashions are hearts correctly.

As in the building of Solomon's temple, where neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard (1 Kings 6:7) because it all arrived perfectly ready for the exact spot it was to occupy, so it is with the temple that Jesus builds; the preparation work is all done on earth. When we reach heaven, there will be no sanctifying us there, no squaring us with affliction, no maturing us with suffering.

No, we must be made ready here--and all that Christ will do He will do now; and when He has done it, we will be ferried by a loving hand across the stream of death and brought to the heavenly Jerusalem, to live as eternal pillars in the temple of our Lord.

--Charles Haddon Spurgeon


Glorya's Note: Is this really true? Does he mean that what we are here when we leave this earth is what we will be there? I thought God would finish working on us --
I can't imagine myself leaving here, even if I live to be 200 years old, spiritually "completed." What do you think?