Revelation 21:22 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

And I saw no temple therein... — Rather, And temple I saw not in it, for the Lord God the Almighty is her temple, and the Lamb. In Ezekiel’s vision the vast and splendid proportions of the Temple formed a conspicuous part: its gigantic proportions declared it to be figurative (Ezekiel 48:8-20); but the present vision passes on to a higher state of things. “I saw no temple:” Ezekiel’s vision declared that the literal temple would be replaced by a far more glorious spiritual temple. The age of the Christian Church succeeds the age of the Jewish temple-worship; the age of the Church triumphing will succeed the age of the Church toiling; and there the external organisations, helps, and instrumentalities required for the edifying of the body of Christ will no longer be needed. Tongues, prophecies, knowledge, may pass away (1 Corinthians 13:9; Ephesians 4:11-13); churches will disappear, absorbed in the one glorious Church; ministries, missionary organisations, helps, governments, may cease. There God is all. The Lord is there — the temple, the sanctuary, the dwelling-place of His people. (Comp. Ezekiel 48:35.) Every merely local aspect of worship is at an end (John 4:21-24).