Monday, June 29, 2020

Stephen Wood on Transformational Justification being Foreshadowed by the Divine Presence in the Tabernacle and the Temple

Writing in defence of infused righteousness, not merely imputed, Catholic apologist Stephen Wood discussed how there is a foreshadowing of such in the divine presence in the temple and tabernacle during the Old Testament:

 

The Holy of Holies was the special dwelling place of the infinite, awesome, all-powerful Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel. In the inner sanctum, the Creator of the universe would come to dwell and manifest his presence on earth. It was the distinguishing mark of the Israelites that the God of heaven would dwell in their midst.

 

The divine presence indwelling the Holy of Holies was an anticipation of a greater glory to come in the New Covenant. The Church corporately is now the special dwelling place of God in a way more profound than the tabernacle and temple in the Old Testament.

 

St. Paul wrote to the squabbling Christians in Corinth, sternly warning them that dividing the Church was a profane act, one that attempted to destroy the sacred New Covenant temple of God. “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If any one destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and that temple you [plural] are” (1 Cor 3:16-17).

 

St. Paul also said in 2 Corinthians: “For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will live in them and move among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people’” (6:16). All Christians should forever be astounded that the Church is the special dwelling place of God.

 

The final aspect of the indwelling presence of God refers to the individual believer. Those justified are not infused by just an impersonal something, but by the holy presence of the personal God. This is a staggering reality.

 

When a person is justified, the sinful human heart is cleansed, purified, sanctified, and made righteous, thus making our hearts fit for the holy God to indwell. “Infusion” related to justification is when the glorious presence of God himself enters us as we individually become the temples of the living God. This is why St. Augustine said that the justification of the ungodly was a work greater than the creation of heaven and earth.

 

Every Christian should be conscious of the greatness of justification every waking moment. Yet St. Paul had to ask the Corinthian Christians: “do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you?” (1 Cor 6:19).

 

God’s grace in justification doesn’t leave us interiorly sinners. On the contrary, it touches our lives and transforms us in utterly profound ways. Divine grace transforms us into a new creation, a new realty, a new condition, a new temple—the dwelling place for the glorious presence of the Holy God.

 

What could be greater than the gift of God himself in the soul of man as a result of justification? The degree of glory in the justified could not have been foreseen by the most wise and powerful of the celestial hosts. The work of God’s grace in justification dramatically exceeds every category of human and supernatural thought. (Stephen Wood, Grace and Justification: An Evangelical's Guide to Catholic Beliefs [Greenville, S.C.: Family Life Center Publications, 2017], 44-46)

 

Further Reading

 

Response to a Recent Attempt to Defend Imputed Righteousness