John 14:1-3 – 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.
Jesus is trying to explain eternal realities in words natural humans can understand. This passage is often understood to be trying to describe our eternal dwelling place as mansions being our eternal reward. This may be included in this but this is not the primary message Jesus is trying to bring. On this last night with the disciples Jesus is preparing them for the changes that are coming. The Lord is about to take His place at the right hand of the Father where He will pour out His Spirit on all of us. It is in the Holy Spirit Himself that we find our new dwelling place. The Lord comes to live in us and we begin to live in Him. God Himself is our mansion, He is the place He was going away to prepare for us. Here are some thoughts from the Life in the Spirit Commentary on this passage.
“In verses 2–4, Jesus speaks about the place where he is going. “In his Father’s house are many rooms” has several implications. “Father’s house” could refer to the kingdom of God or to the temple. “Kingdom” does occur in 3:3 and 5, but its reference there is to the present state of being born again. Here “Father’s house” (oikia) seems to refer more centrally to the heavenly dwelling place of God.
“Rooms” translates the word monai. This word is related to the word John uses with some frequency, both in verb and noun forms, to speak of “remaining,” “dwelling,” and “living.” It means literally “living rooms” or “dwelling places.” In 1 Enoch 41:1, “kingdom” equals “dwelling places.” In the Testament of Abraham 20, the patriarchs dwell in monai (cf. John 1:18 and the bosom of Abraham). In John, these “rooms” are in the Father’s “house,” and Jesus is going away to build these.”
To think of these rooms in physical terms is really missing the point. This whole passage is about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that was the result of Jesus being lifted up to the Father’s right hand. We have been given full access to God. All of the passages in the Old Testament about the temple as God’s habitation were just shadows of the reality to come. We have been purchased by His blood, His Spirit has come to live inside of us and as a result we are now in Him. Just as Jesus said, He is in the Father, we are in Him, and He is in us. This is our heavenly mansion.
