Text for study:
John 14:1-6 1 “’Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And 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. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.’ 5 Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way? 6 Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’”
A “metaphor” may be basically defined as “a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them.” To put it another way, when we portray a person, place, thing, or an action as being something else, even though it is not actually that “something else,” we are speaking metaphorically.
Scripture gives us many different metaphors for the one true people of God, the church (which means “assembly”). For example, there are the metaphors of the “flock” of “sheep” (John 10:16), the elect “branches” in the “olive tree” (Romans 11:16-26), the “bride” who is “the Lamb’s wife,” who is also the “heavenly” “city,” the “new Jerusalem” (Ephesians 5:31-32; 2 Corinthians 11:12; Hebrews 11:8-16; Revelation 19:7-8; Revelation 21:2, 9-27), “a chosen race,” “a royal priesthood,” “a holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9), “God’s field” (1 Corinthians 3:9), and the “body” of Christ (Romans 12:4-5; 1 Corinthians 10:17; 1 Corinthians 12:12, 27; Ephesians 4:11-16; Ephesians 5:23, 30; Colossians 1:24). There are others as well. In our present study, our focus will be on the word “dwell,” along with the Biblical metaphors of the “house” (which can also mean “household” or “family”), the “temple,” and the “building” (The metaphors of “bodily” and “heavenly” will also come into play). From these, we should be able to see that we ourselves are the “many mansions” in the “Father’s house,” the true people of God, the elect of Israel and the Gentiles, in whom God through Christ by the Spirit dwells, and we in Him.
In this study, I am using the NKJV, but the same things are expressed in the various other Bible translations. So, let’s first take note of the following passages, with emphasis on the words in bold print:
Matthew 16:18 “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” (By the way, do you really think the “gates,” the “authorities,” of hell would really be concerned with “prevailing against” a literal material “building”?)
John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (“here, “dwelt” can mean “tabernacle” or “pithed His tent”)
John 2:19-22 19 “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ 20 Then the Jews said, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?’ 21 But He was speaking of the temple of His body. 22 Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said.”
Ephesians 2:19-22 19 “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”
Ephesians 3:14-19 14 “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
1 Corinthians 3:9 “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.”
1 Corinthians 3:16 “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
1 Corinthians 6:19 “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?”
2 Corinthians 6:16 “And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’” (Note this in the Old Testament in Leviticus 26:11-12, which says 11 “I will set My tabernacle among you, and My soul shall not abhor you. 12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.”)
1 Timothy 3:14-15 14 “These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly; 15 but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”
Hebrews 3:1-6 1 “Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, 2 who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His house. 3 For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house. 4 For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God. 5 And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, 6 but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.”
1 Peter 2:4-5 4 “Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”
Colossians 2:9-10 9 “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.”
What we see from these passages is that the metaphors consistently represent spiritually alive people as a spiritual “temple,” a spiritual “building,” a spiritual “household” (or “family”), and thus a spiritual “house,” all in whom God “dwells,” through Christ, by the Spirit.
Now, were there any “mansions,” any “rooms,” any “living stones” who lived under the Old Covenant, who have their “place” in the “Father’s house” along with those of us who live under the New Covenant? Yes! As an example, Isaiah 29:22 says “Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: ‘Jacob shall not now be ashamed, nor shall his face now grow pale.” Take note that the “Lord” “redeemed Abraham.” As the writer speaks of Abraham, and many others who were saved and “redeemed” while living under the Old Covenant, he says “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Hebrews 11:13). And then later, in Hebrews 11:39-40, he would say 39 “And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, 40 God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.” The “us” refers to those who have lived, and do live at present, under the New Covenant. Note then that God’s “purpose was that only in company with us would they be made perfect” (Hebrews 11:40 GNT). My point here is that “they,” like “us,” have been “redeemed,” and “they,” like “us,” are also “many mansions.” The question would be how is this possible for them when Christ had not come during their lifetime? Note the following 2 passages:
Hebrews 9:15 “And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.”
Romans 3:21-26 (NLT) 21 “But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. 22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. 23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in His grace, freely makes us right in His sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when He freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed His life, shedding His blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when He held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, 26 for He was looking ahead and including them in what He would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate His righteousness, for He himself is fair and just, and He makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in Jesus.”
There is a familiar passage that we all have heard various explanations of. However, what the writer tells us throughout the chapter about all of the people provides the best help to understand what he means when he says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). “Living stones,” “mansions” (like Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Ruth, David, etc.), were “redeemed” and being gathered under the Old Covenant prior to the actual and necessary “preparation” on Christ’s part for each individual “mansion” to be “built” into its “place” in the “Father’s house.”
So with all of this in mind, including all of the other passages we looked at, at this point it should be clear that the “many mansions” in the “Father’s house” actually refer to us, all of the true people of God themselves, the “living stones,” the “mansions.” And this with, as Paul says to us, “Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”
In John 14:2 Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you.” The necessary “preparations” have already been made by Christ for every elect individual, under the Old and New Covenants, to be a “mansion,” a “room,” ready to be “built” in its specific “place” in the “Father’s house.” Thus, the great spiritual truth of John 14:1-3 is inseparably linked to what Jesus says in John 14:23, which is “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” The “preparation” necessary for Jesus and the Father to “come to” all of us, and “make [Their] home with [us]” is complete because “Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Hebrews 9:24). And “with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:12). As the writer tells us, all that was necessary to “prepare a place” for us as the “many mansions” was completed by Christ “when He had by Himself purged our sins,” and “sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3). Conclusion: “Preparation” for individual “mansion” “placement,” complete!
Therefore, after His “preparation” was complete, the building began, with the entire building itself to be completed upon His return at His Second Coming. Now, some may still not be sold on all of this yet, especially concerning Christ’s statement in John 14:3 that He would “come again.” Many will still insist that He is “coming again” in the future, and will indeed give each of us our own individual material “mansion” to live in. Well brothers and sisters, believe it or not, there is nothing wrong with desiring the material aspect of a “mansion,” and thus the material aspect of the “Father’s house.” What is important is that we know what that material aspect is. These are among the things we will look at in Part 2 of our study.
For now, my beloved “fellow-mansions” of the “Father’s house,” I will grant that for most Christians who still believe in a future actual material “house” in heaven, the error of this belief is probably not intentional, or may not even be realized as such. Nevertheless, the following thoughts are what I would like to close out Part 1 of our study with:
The popular longstanding interpretation of the “Father’s house” in John 14 is, in essence, so man-centered that far too many Christians fail to see the greater Divine purpose of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit making a spiritual “house” for Themselves to “dwell in.” Many of us are so fixed on a “mansion” for ourselves that we don’t see that we ourselves are the “mansions,” the many rooms for God to dwell in by the Spirit. As we read earlier: “And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM. I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.’” The “many mansions” in the “Father’s house” are the “many” people who are “in Christ”!
(To be continued)
All things according to God 