Indwelling Image In The New Temple

From eternity past to future everlasting
Your love and glory know no bound
World's contrast with its shadow casting
Hides a place where a treasure is found

You did once dwell in temple made of stone
Giving hope to hardness of human heart
That humble temples of lowly flesh and bone
May also see light that makes darkness depart

Though overwhelming to human sight
And so often willfully deflected
Glory of your wisdom found a way
For something of your infinite light
To still be in us reflected
In these dusty jars of clay

You put your image and likeness in us
Then yourself took on a human nature
Bringing us to life of participation
Enduring the pain to bring peace thus
You embraced the plight of creature
Bringing to the impure its purification

The old temple had no image or likeness
Of that to which nothing could compare
But as you embodied your blinding brightness
You made yourself the image we could share

The perfection of image in Christ was needed
Fulfilling the prophecies foretelling
Conforming in likeness the ones who heeded
Making for the divine presence a dwelling

Brief explanation of the poem.

From eternity past to future everlasting
Your love and glory know no bound
World's contrast with its shadow casting
Hides a place where a treasure is found

Contrast between the perfection of God and the imperfection of the fallen world. Shadow hiding a place where a treasure can be found is a hint about how God would act on behalf of his creation by becoming part of it, bringing the treasure of his eternal boundless glory into the created realm.

You did once dwell in temple made of stone
Giving hope to hardness of human heart
That humble temples of lowly flesh and bone
May also see light that makes darkness depart

A temple being made of stones and containing God's presence gives hope that even the hardness of the human heart can be redeemed. (Ezekiel 36:26)

(At this point the rhyme structure changes from ABAB to ABCABC)

Though overwhelming to human sight
And so often willfully deflected
Glory of your wisdom found a way
For something of your infinite light
To still be in us reflected
In these dusty jars of clay

God's holy presence is overwhelming to the fallen man. This presents a problem for the wish that God would be present in us. However, God had a way to resolve this problem.

You put your image and likeness in us
Then yourself took on a human nature
Bringing us to life of participation
Enduring the pain to bring peace thus
You embraced the plight of creature
Bringing to the impure its purification

We were created in God's image. In some sense that indicates that we are made for God's presence. But the image of God in us was broken in the fall to sin. When God became man as Jesus, God took on a human nature and himself bore the image of God without the fragmentation of the image that we have as fallen creatures.

We participate in Christ as the new Adam both in his death on our behalf and in his righteous life. By his atoning death Christ "purified our temples" to be fit for the presence of God to indwell.

(Rhyme structure change from ABCABC back to ABAB.)

The old temple had no image or likeness
Of that to which nothing could compare
But as you embodied your blinding brightness
You made yourself the image we could share

Unlike pagan temples, there was no statue or a graven image of God in the temple in Jerusalem. Nothing could adequately image the holy and perfect God. Even the image of God within humans was broken due to sin. But Christ as the sinless man was a perfect bearer of God's image.

The perfection of image in Christ was needed
Fulfilling the prophecies foretelling
Conforming in likeness the ones who heeded
Making for the divine presence a dwelling

We are to conform to the image of the Son (Romans 8:29). When we reflect Christ's presence in us, we are reflecting the presence of God in us the way it is meant to be.

Your poetry?

It's lovely. 'I will put a new spirit within you. I will put my spirit within you.' Amen.

Thanks! Yes, I wrote it (if that's what you're asking).

Can you see all of that playing out in Adam?

I guess I'm not sure as to what exactly you mean by the question, so it's hard to answer. Parts of the poem allude to Adam (both indirectly to the first Adam in the garden and also more directly to Christ as the second Adam).

The poem is really good and the explanation is very worth reading even by itself without reference to the poem. Good work!