John 2:19-22
‘”Destroy this temple!…; in three days, I will raise it up!” The Jews said: “This temple has been built forty-six years; and will you finish rearing it — in three days?!” But He spoke about the temple of His body. When He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered He had said this…. And they believed the Scripture, and the Word which Jesus had said!’ John 2:19-22.
Even right after Jesus had miraculously turned water into wine, unbelieving Judaists demanded of Him to show them another sign! Calvin comments: “Where they went wrong, was in refusing to admit the calling of Christ — unless He performed a(nother) miracle…. Christ…refused them the sign…. His power would be proved and confirmed by an uncommon sign. For no greater proof of the divine power in Christ could be desired, than His resurrection from the dead…(which) alone was sufficient to shut their mouths…. He spoke…about the glory of His resurrection….
“He shows that all authority over the temple, belongs to Him…. His power is so great in building the true temple of God…. The body of Christ is justly and congruently called a temple…. The body of Christ was the abode of His divinity…. We know that the Son of God so clothed Himself with our nature, that in the flesh (in) which He assumed the eternal majesty of God, dwelt as in His Sanctuary…. In Christ, the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily — so that He truly is God manifested in the flesh.
“‘I will raise it (My temple) up!’ Here Christ claims for Himself the glory of His resurrection…. Christ particularly proclaims His Own divinity… (‘Then the Jews said: “This temple has kept on being built) forty-six years!’ Daniel (9:25)…calls it ‘seven weeks’ — which makes forty-nine years…. Before the last of these weeks had ended (three years later on Calvary), the Temple was complete…. This new building of the Temple, was regarded as if it were the ancient temple always remaining…. They said that the temple was hardly and with the greatest difficulty built by the fathers in forty-six years…. If they had been ready to obey reverently a Prophet sent by God, they would not have rejected so arrogantly what He had said in confirmation of His office….
“‘When therefore He was raised from the dead (, His disciples remembered)’…. The disciples did not understand Christ’s saying (previously). But the teaching which seemed to have vanished uselessly into thin air, later produced fruit…. Though therefore many of our Lord’s actions and sayings are obscure at the time, we must not give up in despair or despise what we do not understand…. ‘They believed the Scripture, and the Word of Christ.’ By comparing the Scripture with the Word of Christ — they were helped to progress in faith!”
Calvin says in his Institutes II:14:5 & III:25:7: “Christ would not have called His body a ‘Temple’, had not the Godhead distinctly dwelt in it…. Christ rose again. Was it by forming for Himself a new body? Nay! He had foretold, ‘Destroy this Temple — and in three days I will raise it up!’ (John 2:19).” Calvin further says in his Psychopannychia: “The words of Christ admit that the body is killed, and testify at the same time that the soul is safe…. He was speaking of the Temple of His body.” Christ would raise up His dead body in three days — and, at the end, ours too!
