The Time of Reformation
by Terry Wane Benton
The Book of Hebrews makes the argument that we had, in the past, been using carnal, earthly things in service to God (Hebrews 9:1-11) but would, from the Old Testament perspective, see a “time of reformation” (Hebrews 9:10) in which we would put down the carnal, earthly types and shadow things and reform to a spiritual counterpart. Instead of an earthly High Priest in an earthly tabernacle, we would see a spiritual High Priest in a spiritual tabernacle. That is the major theme of the change (Hebrews 7:10-12) from the old covenant to the new covenant, the change from an earthly nation (physical Israel) to a spiritual nation (spiritual Israel, the church of Christ).
The Old system used the earthly tabernacle, furnishings, and an earthly Levitical priesthood with various animal sacrifices. In the time of reformation with a “change of the Law” we would have a spiritual house, a spiritual priesthood, a heavenly Jerusalem, a Greater High Priest seated in heaven at the right hand of the Father, and the sacrifice of Jesus was “once for all time and all people”. This reformation from the earthly to the heavenly or spiritual was all part of God’s eternal plan for a better covenant with better things.
Now, we have land, but it is not the physical land of Israel; it is better. It is “the heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3), and in this spiritual region, we have “every spiritual blessing” (Ephesians 1:3). This is truly a land flowing with milk and honey. Everything we need is in this spiritual region in Christ. We have our own “Jerusalem,” but it is “Jerusalem above” (Galatians 4:26), not the one on the earth. Thus, our heavenly Jerusalem is far greater than earthly Jerusalem has ever been, even in its finest glory days.
We have our own mountain, but it is not one that you can touch physically. During this time of reformation, you left the earthly things you could touch, and “you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Hebrews 12:18, 22). The contrast is clear! The earthly city was only a shadow form of the heavenly city. All Christians are gathered together in the heavenly places in Christ.
The time of reformation was entered from Pentecost of Acts 2 forward. Converts to Jesus are “translated out of darkness and into the kingdom of God’s dear Son” (Colossians 1:13), which kingdom Jesus said was “not of this world” (John 18:36). Thus, we are not physically born into this kingdom as the Israelite had been physically born into his earthly kingdom. In this time of reformation, we must be “born again” of the water and Spirit (John 3:3-5). That which is flesh is flesh. That which is spirit is spirit. We see this kingdom not with physical eyes but rather “with the eyes of your understanding” (Ephesians 1:18). We see the mountain that cannot be touched and the heavenly Jerusalem with the eyes of our understanding. We see ourselves as part of a spiritual temple (I Peter 2:5-9) and part of a royal and spiritual priesthood, ministering spiritual things in God’s spiritual house, the church. Isaiah 2:1-4 prophesied that this house is “above the mountains” and is not of the same nature as the house of Israel that had to learn to use the tools of war. Our weapons are not carnal (II Corinthians 10:4f). Our military is not earthly, and our armor is not earthly (Ephesians 6:10-18).
We fight spiritual battles with spiritual weapons while wearing spiritual armor. We are in a marvelous “time of reformation.” We see it through the gospel that opens the blind eyes and turns them into eyes of faith and understanding. You can’t point to this kingdom on an earthly map, for it is within those who have correctly learned Jesus, the King of kings.
Heavenly Places in Christ Versus the Old Earthly Places
While Hebrews is a very thorough book explaining many points of change and the supremacy of Christ over Moses, Aaron, and the old covenant system, other books add insight into this spiritual-over-earthly theme. The book of Ephesians is replete with similar contrasts to the old system. While the old Levitical priesthood system was physically still in motion at Jerusalem and those who rejected Jesus were still pretending God was with them and blessing them through their Mosaic law and animal sacrificial system, Matthew records that when Jesus was crucified, the temple veil was split from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51) indicating that God was no longer associated with that system, and all connection to God was now “in Christ” and through His sacrificial provision. While the Jews continued till AD 70 to use the temple and pretend God was with them, the evidence was clear that “every spiritual blessing was in the heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). No spiritual blessing is associated with national Israel. All blessings from God are in His church! We are His only people! National Israel is not God's people any longer! They can have His blessings if they obey Jesus the same as anyone else, but they are not God's nation. The time of reformation has changed that arrangement!
Spiritual Temple Greater than the Earthly Temple
The earthly temple in Jerusalem was a shadow form of the greater spiritual temple we now have in Christ, but now “in Christ” in “the heavenly places” we see with the “eyes of your understanding” (Ephesians 1:18) that the spiritual blessings are not associated with the Jews and their temple but are now wholly in a spiritual domain accessible to all nations at all times. The earthly temple in Jerusalem was far inferior to the spiritual temple we now have in Christ. In this spiritual domain, both Jews and Gentiles have equal access to God’s great blessings (Ephesians 2:11-22). The old earthly temple was a tool for concept building. To formulate spiritual concepts, you need a model, something physical, from which to illustrate the greater spiritual concepts. The earthly temple in Jerusalem served that needed purpose but now was no longer needed. The time of reformation had arrived in Christ, and now “you (Christians from Jew and Gentile background) also are being built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit”(Ephesians 2:22). This is the greater thing God had in mind. Use a richly decorated physical temple to illustrate a greater spiritual temple with greater spiritual riches in Christ. When we see with the eyes of our understanding, we have understood why God started with the earthly and then wanted us to graduate to the spiritual by way of inward spiritual perception. The earthly temple was for concept building. When the time was right, Jesus would build the greater spiritual temple, and we would find great inward, spiritual riches that no man could take from us.
The Foundation of the Temple
The earthly temple in Jerusalem had large foundation stones, but the spiritual temple also had foundation stones. They are not earthly stones in nature, but they are the apostles and prophets aligned with Jesus as the chief cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20). The stones of the spiritual temple build upward from this mighty foundation. Peter says to Christians that we are “living stones” that “build up a spiritual house” (I Peter 2:5-8). So, the “time of reformation” had arrived in Jesus to reform from a physical nation (Israel) with a physical temple in Jerusalem to a spiritual nation with a spiritual temple in a new and greater “heavenly place” in Christ, a “heavenly Jerusalem” (Hebrews 12:22f). We have been in this time of reformation since Pentecost of Acts 2, where “this Jesus you have crucified is now both Lord and Christ“ (Acts 2:36). He has all authority (Lord), and He is the Christ/Messiah/King over this great spiritual kingdom. If you see with the eyes of your understanding that all spiritual blessings are now in Christ, and if you can see that you need to build your life on the proper foundation, you can do as the 3000 on Pentecost and turn your life around and be baptized into union with Jesus where every spiritual blessing can be enjoyed. Can we help you see how important and absolutely essential that is?
In the former time, the time of dealing with Israel for concept building, the earthly nation, earthly places, the earthly temple, etc., all illustrated God’s greater plan to bring about a “time of reformation” (Hebrews 9:10) in which the earthly would be reformed or changed into spiritual counterparts for all the nations (Genesis 12:1-3). God always had in mind blessing all the nations through the coming Seed of Abraham (Jesus). When Jesus finished the job of satisfying the law of righteousness and fulfilling the sacrificial demand of justice and mercy, the new and better covenant could start this time of reformation. Hebrews emphasizes that we now have everything better through Jesus. Read the book of Hebrews and see how many things are “better” and “more excellent” in this time of reformation in Christ.
Our focus for now is that the “time of reformation” is seen clearly in the book of Ephesians. Already, we have seen that every “spiritual blessing” is “in the heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). The heavenly places in Christ are accessible to any heart anywhere. You do not have to go to physical Jerusalem to obtain God’s great blessings of forgiveness and reconciliation. You can enter Christ from any place, a spiritual move from worldly attachment to heavenly connection of heart and spirit, which connection is made in learning Christ Jesus.
Made Us Accepted in the Beloved – Ephesians 1:6
In the old system, you went up to Jerusalem, offered animal sacrifice, and prayed for forgiveness of sins, as you see with the Pharisee and Publican in Luke 18:9-14. One went down from that earthly Jerusalem temple justified. But in this time of reformation, we are made accepted in our heavenly Jerusalem in the heavenly places in Christ. He makes us accepted or justified in Christ. Those who entered this spiritual domain in Christ have the blessing of being able to confess their sins at any time and be forgiven (I John 1:7-9; 2:1-4). Our sacrifice is a one-time-for-all-time sacrifice in Jesus. He does not have to be offered over and over. So, the basis of forgiveness is always available. We have only to spiritually make our appeal for it when we sin. He makes us accepted in the Beloved.
Redemption Through His Blood – Ephesians 1:7
Redemption under the old system involved animal sacrifice, but in this time of reformation, we find that all those animals were foreshadowing the ultimate sacrifice we would have in Jesus. We have been bought at a price, a dear price. God gave His Son, the life-blood of Jesus, to buy us off the slave market of sin and condemnation. We have “forgiveness” of sins in this heavenly place, this spiritual temple in the Lord.
Riches of His Grace – Ephesians 1:7
As the old earthly Jerusalem temple was decked with gold, silver, bronze, and precious stones, those were but physical illustrations of the greater spiritual riches in Christ. So, the riches of His grace decorate our lives, our spiritual temple, and these great riches include the provisions of grace, redemption through His blood, and forgiveness of sins. We are nothing without these great riches provided by His marvelous grace.
The old system gloried in the earthly city and beautifully decorated temple at Jerusalem. In this time of reformation, our glory is in the beauty of Jesus’ marvelous spiritual blessings that decorate our lives, spirits, and hearts united to Him in the heavenly places. The riches that decorated the earthly temple were but shadows of the great spiritual riches in the heavenly places in Christ. God is not as interested in our physical wealth as our spiritual wealth. How rich are you inside? Is the kingdom of Jesus in you and you in His marvelous house? This time of reformation should enrich our minds more than anything in the world! Are you seeing this with the eyes of your understanding?
The kings of Israel sat on earthly thrones in earthly places like Jerusalem, but God wanted the earthly to typify and project the heavenly or spiritual places in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). His plan was to start first with the earthly things so that we could build concepts of the greater and eternal in our minds and spirits. Thus, in the time of reformation that began after Jesus’ death and resurrection, God “seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:20). This position of rule is “far above all principality and power and might and dominion” (Ephesians 1:21). So, our king over all kings is ruling from a greater position and vantage point. Our king is ruling with the “name above all names.” There is no king who ever lived on earth who had a greater kingdom than the kingdom we are able to enjoy in Christ Jesus. He is over everything, and all enemies are “under His feet,” meaning that they cannot rise up to conquer Jesus as enemies rose up to conquer Egyptian, Babylonian, and other earthly kings. All enemies are under His feet. You cannot conquer a spiritual kingdom with carnal weapons of the earth. Our kingdom is “not of this world” (John 18:36), and one cannot put King Jesus under anyone’s feet. In this time of reformation, we have a king seated where no human arrows, spears, catapults, bullets, or bombs can bring Him down in defeat.
The weapons we use are not carnal weapons (II Corinthians 10:4f), and the armor we put on to fight is not material but spiritual (Ephesians 6:1-18). So, Jesus has a spiritual kingdom with a spiritual military with spiritual weapons. Under the old system, before the “time of reformation,” we had Israel as a physical nation, with a physical military, using carnal weapons, but now we have spiritual Israel (the church of Christ) with a spiritual “heavenly Jerusalem,” a spiritual military that does not use carnal weapons, and this is what Isaiah had predicted. Isaiah 2:1-4 predicted the greater house that is “exalted above the hills,” while earthly Jerusalem had been on the hills. The law of the Lord would go forth “from Jerusalem”, but it would gather all peoples into a heavenly Jerusalem. Those who learned from the Lord would beat their swords into plowshares because they would no longer employ the carnal weapons in that time of reformation. They would learn that kind of war no more. A spiritual kingdom fights spiritual battles of the heart and spirit. “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood” (Ephesians 6:10-12). Earthly Israel had to fight those kinds of battles, but spiritual Israel does not fight those kinds of battles. Nor do we use physical instruments of war. I might add here that we do not use physical instruments of music in worship either.
We are in a time of reformation where the carnal tools of the temple service are reformed to spiritual (Hebrews 9:1-11), and the carnal weapons of our spiritual military are powerful weapons that deal with the heart and spirit. Once you understand, see with the eyes of your understanding (Ephesians 1:18), you will see why the church of Christ does not employ the carnal instruments in our good fight of faith nor in our songs that play on the heartstrings. Rather than the carnal things we saw in the old system of earthly Israel, the time of reformation has brought reform from the earthly to the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. If we miss this point, we miss the fact that we have an opportunity right now to be in the Lord’s true spiritual Israel, and we miss the fact that His kingdom is among us now. If we miss this, we miss the opportunity to go to the eternal promised land. Don’t remain blind to the spiritual things Jesus has provided for you in the heavenly places in Him!
The Books of Hebrews and Ephesians have shown us the graduation from the carnal or earthly to the heavenly or spiritual. So far, we have seen the contrast between earthly Israel and the reformation into spiritual Israel, the church of Christ. We saw an earthly place on earth where earthly Israel presided, which foreshadowed the “heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). We saw earthly Jerusalem at the center of earthly Israel. Now, in the reformation, we have come to the “heavenly Jerusalem” (Hebrews 12:22f).
We saw the earthly kingdom under the greatest earthly king, David, and now, in the time of reformation, we have the heavenly king, Jesus, the greater antitype of David. We have seen the earthly temple in earthly Jerusalem, and now we are in the time of reformation where we have a spiritual temple (Ephesians 2:19f; I Peter 2:4-9).
In the old system, we have the earthly priests wearing physical white garments, and in the time of reformation, we see that the white garments are white spiritual garments of righteousness in Christ. We saw an earthly military using carnal weapons in earthly Israel, and now we have a spiritual army with spiritual armor (II Corinthians 10:4f; Ephesians 6:10-18). The time of reformation does not use the earthly instruments of war and battle. Therefore, we can hardly neglect to see that neither are we using the animal sacrifices, burning of incense, golden candelabra with literal oil lamps, table of shewbread, and literal altar and ark of the covenant, nor the instruments of music seen in the Old Testament system.
Hebrews 9 called the old “carnal” and “earthly” instruments in an earthly temple or tabernacle, but the “time of reformation” called for a dropping of the earthly for the spiritual things they were typifying. In Ephesians 2:19-22 we see that the time of reformation called for a spiritual temple. If the temple itself is spiritual, then the altar is spiritual, the lighting inside is spiritual, the incense is spiritual, and the shewbread is spiritual. Our source of oil for our spiritual lamps is the Holy Spirit's revealed word. Our light comes from the inward enlightening that the gospel of Jesus brings to our minds and hearts. Our bread is Jesus’ body and blood (John 6). Our incense is prayer and good works. “As Christ’s love” (Ephesians 5:2) is to God a “sweet-smelling aroma,” so too is our “walking in love” (Ephesians 5:2). Thus, the earthly incense on the altar in the temple is not the same incense used in the Old Testament system. Nor are we gathered in an earthly temple made by hands to offer such incense. The old temple and incense were carnal to give visual concepts that God wanted a spiritual relationship of the heart, where we come from any place in the world into a spiritual house, and have a share in Jesus’ sacrifice, and combine our love with His love to make a spiritual “sweet-smelling aroma” to God. The earthly incense is no longer used in this time of reformation because the earthly incense was only illustrating the mixture of love that would make us change from the stench of sinful worldliness to the sweet-smelling aroma of people changed by the love of Christ and projecting that love through good works of service.
We take the fire from the altar of Jesus’ love on the cross, mix it on the spiritual altar of our hearts, and send up an aroma that pleases God. God has no interest in us maintaining the incense of the old system; however, many churches today try to justify it with the Old Testament. They fail to understand that we are in “the time of reformation,” where we do not use a physical temple, have a physical altar, or use the physical mixture of incense that only typifies the better spiritual things in Christ.
If you try to adopt the incense of the Mosaic or Levitical system into the church, you must build the same kind of altar and utilize the same Levitical priesthood. You cannot pick one carnal item and exclude the other carnal items associated with that system. It is all or none (Gal.5:1-4). The time of reformation calls for incense, but it is spiritual, the mixture of Jesus’ love into our hearts and sending out the sweet influence of His love into our actions of love and service. That is the incense God is seeking from us, and the temple we are in as we offer our aroma of love is spiritual, not a temple made by hands.
Are you living in “the time of reformation?” Or are you trying to mix the former carnal system with some of the new? God is not pleased with a mixture! He offers His grace only in the heavenly provisions in Christ. We hope you can see this!
