Better All the Way

“A temple is to be built”

I hear some say,

“But the Muslim sacred dome

Is standing in its way.”

 

That dome must be moved

Can’t be there still,

The temple will be there

Believe me it will.

 

It will be the signal

Of Israel’s Messiah’s coming

For which devout Jews

Are currently looking.

 

Sacrifices must restart

So, the temple is a must,

Dispensationalists believe it

And do make a fuss.

 

Israel will be in charge

As nations go up to her,

This will follow the tribulation

To which the Bible refer.

 

Thus, a new temple

And animal sacrifice

Though this in the first place

Did not quite suffice.

 

There’s no temple need

Or for animal sacrifice,

Jesus’ once for all atonement

More than sufficed.

 

 

Why return, I ask,

To the beggarly elements

After the veil in the temple

Was permanently rent?

 

Showcasing for all

A much better way,

Jesus’ once for all sacrifice

Speaks to a better day.

 

A better High Priest

Than any before him,

The only High Priest ever

That can forgive sin.

 

Jesus is our temple

And our sacrifice,

He is also our High Priest

That gave his life.

 

This is borne out

In the book of Hebrews,

Go there I recommend

For a better view.

 

Better than the angels

And of better things,

We are so wonderfully blessed

We’ve a right to sing.

 

A better blessing

And a better hope,

Jesus is a better testament

Please take note.

 

 

A better covenant

Built on better promises,

The heavenly things themselves

With better sacrifices.

 

A better country

With a better resurrection

God providing a better thing

To bring us salvation.

 

Jesus is the mediator

Of this better covenant

That speaks of better things

For the elect remnant.

 

 

Better all the way:

From the Old to the New,

For the Jew and the Gentile:

For me and for you.

 

Better here and now

And still better to come,

Heirs to the kingdom of God

Through Jesus, His Son.

 

 

 

Christ the new temple,

Believers his lively stones,

Built up in Jesus the Christ

As the Spirit tones.

 

Go to Hebrews now

To study the word better

And see how Jesus shines

In this descriptive letter.

 

To God be the glory

And praise to the Son,

Honour to the Holy Spirit:

Three yet one.

 

Stewart Russell © July 12, 2024

 

The Unfolding of a Plan

 

 

The unfolding of a plan

From inception to completion,

The narrative, not the myth,

Of man’s redemption.

 

From Eden’s perfection

To that horrendous fall

But thank God, in His agape love,

That was not all.

 

Thus, came offerings

That were only types:

Of the symbolic and ceremonial

But weren’t quite right.

 

Until Shiloh came

That was to be the Light

Shining out of gross darkness

And blackness of night.

 

From a stone as a pillow

To a pillar of stone,

Angels ascending and descending

Showing God’s throne.

 

From a stone to an altar

With many a stone

Bearing the sacrificial offerings

Whereupon burn.

 

To a crudely looking tent

But heavenly designed

Where man approached God

At an appointed time.

 

 

To tabernacle with man

Though not in fulness

But symbolic of what was to come

In man’s eternal rest.

 

To an impressive edifice

Built by David’s Son,

The third king of mighty Israel,

Who was King Solomon.

 

But this was not all;

These were mainly types

Signifying greater was to come

In the form of the Light.

 

This centre-piece temple

Became the wherewithal

And just like in Eden’s Garden

Denoted another fall.

 

Destroyed then rebuilt

By Nehemiah and Ezra

It later became a sight to behold

When refurbished by Herod.

 

Monumental in significance

It was to the Jews

When in relation to its future

Jesus gave terrible news.

 

It was the Jews ultimate

But to God: part of a plan;

A plan that was steadily unfolding

In the redemption of man.

 

Destruction was coming,

Its time near at hand

And soon very little would remain

Of this temple grand.

 

The unfolding of a plan

From inception to completion,

The narrative, not the myth,

Of man’s redemption.

 

 

From a stone to an altar,

From an altar to a tabernacle:

All bespeaking itinerancy

Before the temple.

 

Then came the temple:

A more permanent stay

But then that was removed

And Jesus is here.

 

And now we, lively stones,

Are built up into him,

Pardon of our transgressions

And relieved of our sin.

 

No longer strangers

From Israel’s Commonwealth

But one in the Lord Christ Jesus

Growing in spiritual health.

 

 

The plan has unfolded;

“It is finished!” said Christ,

He is our temple and we, his,

No more sacrifice.

 

Our bodies are temples

In which Christ dwells,

It’s a wonderful transformation

Of which we can tell.

 

We have come to Mt Zion

Leaving Sinai behind,

Never to return to that mountain

Now or at any time.

 

 

The unfolding of a plan

From inception to completion,

The narrative, not the myth,

Of man’s redemption.

 

Stewart Russell © January 5, 2025

 

God

 

 

God is not a conclusion

Resulting for man’s intrusion,

Neither is He some religious illusion

Out of our confusion.

 

God is not our narrative

Thus, our creation or idol,

Neither is He some three-wish genie

We call on when in trouble.

 

God is not the figment

Of some insane imagination

Or of some mega church apostle

To woo his congregation.

 

 

No creature can cage up God

No matter who or what,

This Universe is not big enough

To build for Him a box.

 

Nothing can contain God

Except a believer’s heart

And such by God’s own initiation

From the very start.

 

For He dares to indwell

The heart of the born-again

Not entrapped like a fairy genie,

But therein to reign.

 

 

A human body, His temple

Unlike the temple of old

Which once designed for His worship

Became an object of gold.

 

A replacement for God,

An idolatrous albatross

By which, all seeming to be gain,

Was eventual loss.

 

Stone cannot contain God

Or the gold of the world,

Only His eternal infallible Truth

Aka, the Living Word.

 

By God’s own allowance

A house was built for God

But for men it became a Babel,

Only not as tall.

 

 

Soon this temple had to go

As Jesus himself predicted

And like an errant unpaying tenant,

Old Israel was evicted.

 

To rubble and to stone

It was razed to the ground

Such that even up to the present,

No Jew is temple bound.

 

There’s news about one

To be rebuilt in the future

But any such endeavor, I dare say,

Misses the bigger picture.

 

God lives not in houses

Or church or edifice grand

But in the hearts of His children

That dare to take a stand.

 

A stand against all wrong

Regardless of the source,

A stand against every injustice

That the lawless enforce.

 

 

God is not the end result

Of some Socratic syllogism,

Neither of logical deductive reasoning

Nor human mechanism.

 

But, the Alpha and Omega

Without beginning or end:

Not the beginning, but the Beginner,

As the Scriptures contend.

 

 

God is our Saviour,

The Saviour of the World,

Indwelling every believer’s heart

That harkens to His Word.

 

Stewart Russell © March 21, 2025