“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told 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. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not the whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father (Who is in Heaven) but by me.”
— John 14: 1-6
I’ve heard all my life that when a person puts their faith and trust in Jesus Christ and gets saved God puts a crew of angels to work on building them a mansion in Heaven. Of course there is no proof text for this.
People take the word “prepare” to mean that when Jesus went back to the Father in Heaven He began to construct those mansions. But if the earthly site of Solomon’s Temple was so sacred that no noise of construction was allowed there (1 Kings 6: 7) then certainly in Heaven where God actually dwells there is no noise of construction.
When God showed John the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21, He showed him a completed city not a city under construction. And why couldn’t God, Who spoke this universe into existence, speak and bring into existence the New Jerusalem?
That is what I believe He did.
The preparedness Jesus spoke of going to perform was not that of a mansion to live in but of going to Calvary and dying for our sins and preparing a way to God the Father in Heaven through faith in Him.
Jesus is the only way for men to come to God in Heaven. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, “Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
(Ephesians 2: 9)
And early Christianity was called the “way.”
(Acts 8: 2; 19: 23)
Jesus is the source of truth about God.
Jesus is the perfect revelation of God. (Colossians 1: 15; Hebrews 1: 3) Jesus said:
“He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”
— John 14: 9
Jesus is the only author of life in God. And this “eternal life” is a gift to all who believe on His name.
(Romans 6: 23)
James H. Cagle is a Ray City resident who pastored several churches for a total of 11 years. Email him at pastorjameshcagle@ yahoo.com.
