REMNANT

However, one can have the right answer and still not understand the subject. Jesus revealed in John 4 that God was not satisfied with temple worship anyway anywhere. In fact, one could make a biblical case that God never desired temple (physical) worship, as seen in Isaiah 66:1, “Heaven is My throne, And earth is My footstool. Where is the house that you will build Me? And where is the place of My rest?” and many other verses indicating God’s dissatisfaction with temple worship, (Hos. 6:6, Micah 6:6-8, Mt. 9:13, Mt. 12:7, Heb. 10:5).

God’s purpose in giving the temple, with its priestly and sacrificial system, seemed to be for our education in typology, just as Jesus used parables, to communicate spiritual things to earthly people. Thus, it was a pattern, (Heb. 8:5), shadow, (Col. 2:17, Heb. 8:5, 10:1), or schoolmaster (Gal. 3:24-25) to bring us to Christ, from the carnal or physical realm of this world to the spiritual realm of heaven and unto God Himself.

Jesus was now ready to reveal to the woman, (Jn. 4:23) the way God was to be worshipped. He began with one of His famous authoritative and divine “Buts...” which, as a conjunction of contradiction, was often employed by the Saviour, under the authority and power of His Lordship, to mark a new and divinely given mandate in the scheme of God. Jesus did this as part and parcel to the New Covenant that He was mediating. “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24).

What does it mean to “worship in spirit and truth?” Let scripture explain scripture.

“Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Cor. 6:19-20).

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12:1).
“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” (1 Peter 2:5).
“But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” (Heb. 13:16).

It is clear from the scriptures that God was preparing to convert His temple from physical to spiritual, from a sanctuary made with hands to the earthly tabernacle of our body. Worship would cease to be physical and external and now be spiritual and internal.

Interestingly enough, Jesus’ discourse on temple worship with the Samaritan woman in John chapter 4, should be understood in the light of John chapter 2, where the apostle had already introduced the temple subject with the cleansing by Jesus, (John 2:16-22). From the outset of His ministry, when he was challenged for his action, Jesus was setting forth the spiritual as greater than the physical. In effect, He was giving the people a riddle: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:19). The Jews could not conceive of such a thing; “will You raise it up in three days?” John admitted that nobody understood this prophecy until after Jesus had resurrected, and they remembered his words and believed. John said, “But He was speaking of the temple of His body” (John 2:21).

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