Where does God live?

Where is God? This is a question many ask. And with that, they ask about the presence of God on earth. By what can I see that He is there, where does He work, where does He dwell on earth? To this I want to seek an answer, primarily from the New Testament.

Jesus Christ as God's tabernacle
In John 1:14 we read the following: ‘The Word became man and dwelt with us, full of goodness and truth, and we have seen his greatness, the greatness of the only Son of the Father. The Incarnate Word has dwelt with us. Actually it says, ’and it has pitched His tent among us‘ or tabernacled among us (eskēnōsen). Because the verb skēnoō reminds us of God's dwelling among Israel in the ‘tent of meeting’ (cf. Ex. 25:8,9; 29:46). Because the Word was among us, we have God's ‘greatness’(Gr. doxa) seen. Doxa is the Greek translation of the Hebrew kābōd, which refers to the mighty manifestation of God's being (cf. Ex.40:34,35; 1Kon.8:10,11; Ps.102:16,17, cf. Rev.15:8; 21:11,23). Thus skenoo, tabernacles, speaks of the presence of the Eternal in the person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ as God's Wisdom
John also conveys the same message by describing the Word who became man, Jesus, with the characteristics of the personified Wisdom from the books of Job and Proverbs.2 This Wisdom speaks with divine authority and is above history. In monotheistic Judaism, this Wisdom in person is a description of God Himself. John's message is therefore unequivocally this: In Jesus, God himself is present on earth. Right from the very first chapter of the Gospel to John, we find several characteristics of the personified Wisdom.

1. Before the world existed, Wisdom dwelt with God. (Spr.8:27-30; cf. John 1:4,9)
2. Wisdom is present in the peoples' world. (Spr.8:15-16; cf. John 1:4,9)
3. Wisdom descends to earth (Spr.1:20-21; 8:1-5; cf. John 1:9,14)
4. The Wisdom is hidden (Job 28:13, 21; cf. John 1:10).
5. Wisdom is rejected. (Spr.1:24, 31-32; 8:36; cf. John 1:11)
6. Wisdom is accepted by a few (Spr.1:33; 8:17,21,32-35; cf. John 1:12)

A broad consensus has emerged in recent decades (at least in the English-speaking world) to place the Christology in the Gospel according to John against the background of Jewish wisdom teachings. Since Wisdom as a person in monotheistic Judaism is a description of God himself, Jesus when described in terms of God's Wisdom is therefore God himself (cf. John 1:1-2). We see the contours of the doctrine of trinity emerging in the Gospel after John.

The confession that Jesus is God is not a later development in the early church, but is already present in the Gospel according to John. Nor is the doctrine of the incarnation, of the incarnation of God, a later mythical development within Christology, but belongs to the heart of the message of the New Testament. Jesus Christ is the Incarnate Word, the Savior, who gives himself for the salvation of the world.

Church as Temple of God
The second place where God is present and working on earth is in the Christian church. This comes up more than once in Paul's letters. For example, in 1 Cor. 3:16 he says ‘Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in your midst? In this section, Paul speaks of the church as a structure to be built on. And then he asks the Corinthians the penetrating question, ’Do you not know that you are God's temple? Notice that Paul is not speaking here of the individual believer (‘you’), but of the local congregation (‘you’), which as a whole is the temple of God (cf. 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:21v.). And in 2 Cor. 6:16 Paul says, ‘We are the temple of the living God, as God has said, ’I will dwell with them and dwell in their midst; I will be their God and they my people.‘ (cf. 1 Cor. 3:16). Believers together constitute the temple of God.

The claim that believers are the temple of God is argued by Paul with a quotation from the OT, which he introduces with ‘as God has said,’ namely in Lev. 26:12. Thus, believers who belong to the church of Christ are the dwelling and abode of God and are called ‘the temple of the living God. Paul returns to this in the letter to the Ephesians. We read in Eph. 2:21-22, ’From him the whole building grows, stone by stone, into a temple dedicated to him, the Lord, in whom you also are built up together into a place where God dwells by his Spirit. Paul uses a double imagery of building and growing (cf. Eph. 3:17). The image of the building being ‘joined together’ is complemented by the image of a body, which ‘grows’ (Eph.4:15-16). This joining and growth is only possible from the union, the relationship with Jesus Christ. The end goal of this building process is a temple‘, namely, the dwelling place of God. He dwells in the church ’by His Spirit. Already here and now the church is called God's temple, as we also saw in the letter to the Corinthians. But here in Ephesians it becomes clear that the building process is not yet complete. The one church of God, consisting of Jews and Gentiles, is not yet finished and not yet perfect. This ’temple of God‘ will not be completed until the day Jesus Christ returns.

Church as body of Christ
A second image Paul uses is the church as the ‘body of Christ. Paul teaches that the church is not merely a social organization or association, but an organism, comparable to a human body (Rom. 12:4; 1 Cor. 12:12v.). He says, ’A body is a unit composed of many parts; in spite of their multiplicity, all those parts together form one body. So it is with the body of Christ. (1 Cor. 12:12). He sees the church of Jesus Christ on earth as a body, in which the Holy Spirit dwells. The church is the dwelling place of God's Spirit on earth. Just as a human body is held together and is alive by the Spirit, so the body of Christ is held together by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13). The image not only speaks of the dwelling place of God's Spirit, but also says something about what that dwelling place looks like. It talks about unity and diversity. The unity of the church consists in the one Holy Spirit, who causes the various members, each with their own function, to live and work together in harmony. He compares the church not only with a body (1 Cor. 12:12-16), but says ‘you are the body of Christ, and each of you is part of it’ (1 Cor. 12:27). This goes beyond mutual relationships. Believers together form mouth and hands of Jesus Christ. Through His church, Jesus Christ works in this world. The church of Christ is the dwelling place of God's Spirit on earth.