SERIES! Many Mansions, P3: The Reality of the Promise

“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also." (John 14:1-3, NASB)


So let’s wrap this series up!

So far, we’ve been able to uncover two major ideas; the first being that Jesus isn’t talking about physical mansions for us to room and board in when we get to Heaven. He’s talking about the fact that the Father’s final dwelling place for us is the ultimate home that anyone who believes in God is factored into. We are given a home that has been atoned for by the blood of Jesus– the home God originally intended for us tohave before the fall. 

The second thing we’ve put together over the past two weeks is this: we are destined to dwell in a home that is built in Christ, but here on earth, we have the privilege of being a piece of the temple that God at home in. This temple is made up of humanity past and present. This temple is not a rigid or stuffy house of religion. It is a living and breathing monument of love built on the foundation of the prophets, apostles, and early church and placed on the cornerstone of Christ. 

So we are God’s home on earth, and He is promised to be our eternal home in heaven. But just in case you need further evidence, it’s found in the second half of our key verse for this series. After Jesus tells us that in His Father’s house there are many dwelling places and that He will go to prepare a place for us, He makes us a very strangely-worded promise. In plain English, it doesn’t quite make sense, but in the grand scheme of what God is doing– in fact, what He’s always wanted to do– it means exactly what Jesus says. 

He says this: “And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also” (verse 3, ESV).

I will come again and take you to myself. Yes, He’s alluding to the second coming of Christ foretold in the Book of Revelation, but the way He says it. “Take you to myself” suggests that Jesus is coming back to bring us to a place where he not only inhabits the space but is actually the space itself.

Furthermore, if we skip down to verse 10 of the same chapter, Jesus goes on to say, “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works” (ESV).

Jesus drives home the point that He’s not just making this stuff up. This idea of a dwelling place in the Lord is not some musing or metaphorical device. On the other side of this life, after we’ve shed this human body and stepped into the eternal, we’ll be taken unto Jesus, who has been taken unto God the Father, which is only proven in the original Greek of this verse.

Remember in week one when we dove into the word “moné?” When we turn to the original Greek for the word “dwell” in verse 10, is acutally “menó,” which is the exact same word, but in its verb form. So in verse 2, where Jesus tells us there are many dwelling places– the noun– within His Father’s house, He also tells us that the Father dwells– the verb– within Jesus’ person.

This further proves the intention behind God’s plan for perfect and pure communion with us: the Church and the Lord, the Bride and the Bridegroom. When we die, when Jesus comes again, it will be to take us and to Himself, which is already taken to the Father. When Jesus died, He gave us the ability to be bridged to the Father. He gave us the opportunity to live in the communion that God aimed for in the creation of the universe, except it will be a union that will not afford a separation because our dwelling place will be within the perfection of the Father through Jesus. 

This is what the Lord has wanted since the beginning, but because sin poisoned the landscape, there was always a wedge between us and the Lord. There have been many attempts at removing the wedge and bridging the gap, but none were enough.

The Garden? Failed.

The Tabernacle? Not enough.

Solomon’s Temple? Still not enough. 

But when Jesus died, the veil was torn. The separation was torn. The gap was bridged. Have we been made perfect yet? No, but we have a Savior who can forgive our sins, make us clean, and receive us, though still imperfect, to Himself and unto to Father. The Father Himself is the only vessel perfect enough to foster the communion He’s always yearned for between us. 

He is the only way, the only truth, the only life. He is the only dwelling place vast enough to house us all. The person of the Father is the only mansion magnificent enough to do Him justice and facilitate the union He desires to have with you.