Many Mansions By ELDER JIM TURNER, Jr.   John 14

 In the beginning of the 14th chapter of John, Jesus tells us: “In my Father’s house are many mansions, if it were not true, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there ye may be also.”

In the beginning of this writing, there are at least two points I would like for us to consider, and as always, I would have the readers to understand these are just my thoughts on this subject. I am not by any means, setting myself up as a standard on this or any other Bible subject.

The first point I would like for us to con- sider is: what is a mansion? And the second, is: in what sense was Jesus going to prepare a place for us? From a natural point of view, we think of a mansion as being a place of luxurious living, a place occupied by someone of unlimited financial means. I have thought many times about the language of Jesus in this portion of the scriptures, and I have never thought that He was teaching the disciples that each one of His covenant children would have a large luxurious house to occupy in the glory world. So what is the lesson here? Sometimes an answer to a scriptural question comes to us in a most unusual and unexpected way. I feel that is what happened to me in my studies of this scripture.

I would like to share this experience with our readers. As some of you are aware, I serve as a volunteer chaplain for a local Hospice inpatient facility. On this particular weekend, I was on call, and my wife and I were just about to eat breakfast on Saturday morning when the head nurse on duty called. She told me that a patient had just died, and the family had requested a chaplain, and was I available. I told her that I would be there within the hour, and when I arrived, it was a family from out of state that I had not met previously. I don’t know their religious affiliation, but I did not talk with them but a few minutes, until I realized that they were believers in God and were very anxious to have scripture reading and prayer. One of their requests was that we all join hands around the deceased man’s bed, and that I pray with them there. As I was praying with this family, it hit me like a bolt from the blue, that these bodies are the mansions that Jesus was talking about to His disciples about. Not these old sin-cursed fleshly bodies that eventually die and go the way of all the earth, but the soul and Spirit of our departed families and friends, that will one day, be reunited with these fleshly bodies resurrected and made perfect, sinless bodies, fitted to for ever live in the peaceful presence of God.

Living in a natural mansion here in time could not even come close to comparing with what it will be like to live in a perfect, sinless body in the presence of our Lord. What a wonderful time for every believer to look forward to!! Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:1: “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” There, dear reader, I believe are the mansions that Jesus was referring to in our text. These earthly tabernacles (bodies) will be dis- solved in death, but the soul and Spirit of every believer will immediately appear in the presence of God, beholding His face in peace. The only exception, is for those who are alive and remain when Jesus comes again, and their bodies will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, so says Paul in 1 Corinthians 15.

The second point I would like to consider, is: in what sense was Jesus going to prepare a place for us? We know by the authority of God’s word, that eternal Heaven has always been there, so this preparation Jesus speaks of, must be talking about something else. This scripture in John 14 was leading up to the impending death of Jesus on the cross of Calvary. I submit for your consideration, that this is what He was referring to when He spoke of preparing a place for us.

Until Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection, our entry into that great eternal home was not fully accomplished. Of course, this was accomplished in the mind and purpose of God in eternity past, but it was necessary for it to be fulfilled at the appointed time, by the sacrifice Jesus made of Himself on the cross. “For by one offering He hath perfected forever, them that are sanctified.” Hebrews 10:14. This one offering the Son made to the Father, completed the preparation of that glorious place that awaits us who have been brought to believe in His great name by His free and unmerited grace. Praise His Holy Name!!!

As stated in the beginning of this writing, these are some of my thoughts on this text. Put these thoughts to the test of the scriptures. If they stand, then accept them; if not, just lay them aside.

Yours in humble hope,

Elder Jim Turner, Jr. Little Rock, Arkansas