Immanuel - God With Us - may mean more than we usually think about. For the time Jesus was alive on earth, He became the locus of the dwelling place of God on earth, replacing that function of the tabernacle and the Temple.
And not only that function, but He also replaced the other primary function of the Temple/tabernacle system, the entire system of sacrifices that provided temporary covering.
Jesus became the locus of the dwelling place of God on earth, He became the once-for-all-time sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins, and after His death and resurrection, He gave the gift of the Spirit...to His church. And now the church, the body of believers in whom the Spirit dwells, has become the new temple, the new dwelling place of God on earth.
Yes, you can see God's eternal and divine nature in His creation, out in nature, but that's not where we worship God. We worship God with His people, the church, because that's where the Spirit dwells, and that's where the Spirit operates, with the gifts that He distributes to the people He regenerates. |
