Many Mansions

Joh. 14:2-23
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THERE is a beautiful parallelism in John 14:2-232In 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. 3And 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. 4And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. 5Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? 6Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. 7If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. 8Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 9Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? 10Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. 11Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake. 12Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. 13And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. 15If ye love me, keep my commandments. 16And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. 18I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. 19Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. 20At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. 21He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. 22Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? 23Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:2‑23) somewhat obscured in the English Bible, from the fact that the same, word in the original is translated in two different manners; but the expression is used in such a way as to leave no doubt that our blessed Lord intended both a comparison and a contrast.
In speaking to His disciples of His departure He explains that He would be an invisible object of their faith, as was the God they and their fathers had long worshipped. They had never seen this mysterious Being dwelling between the cherubim of glory, yet they believed in Him: just so (says Jesus) “believe in Me.” Then using the figure, suggested probably by the invisibility of Israel’s God―the temple―and employing the very expression He applies even to Herod’s temple, “My Father’s house” (John 2:1616And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise. (John 2:16)), He gives to it a profound and heavenly meaning, with which it was His habit to invest the simplest facts and truths with which He dealt.
“In My Father’s house are many mansions” or “abodes,” He assures them; “if it were not so, I would have told you.” An Israelite’s thought would have been arrested at this “many abodes.” The temple provided but few chambers, and they were sacred to the priestly family and to the Levites (1 Chron. 28:11, 1211Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the inner parlors thereof, and of the place of the mercy seat, 12And the pattern of all that he had by the spirit, of the courts of the house of the Lord, and of all the chambers round about, of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries of the dedicated things: (1 Chronicles 28:11‑12); 2 Chron. 31:1111Then Hezekiah commanded to prepare chambers in the house of the Lord; and they prepared them, (2 Chronicles 31:11); Neh. 13:99Then I commanded, and they cleansed the chambers: and thither brought I again the vessels of the house of God, with the meat offering and the frankincense. (Nehemiah 13:9); Jer. 35:1, 2, 36:10). Here was an assurance of ample space and wonderful nearness to God, to be enjoyed by all who shared this belief in the Saviour during His absence. A blessed view this gives surely of the freedom and communion to exist in the Father’s presence, into which an entrance has been guaranteed by Christ Himself; the very place has been prepared by His going to the cross to meet our judgment, and ascending to glory as our Forerunner.
“My Father and your Father” (John 20:1717Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. (John 20:17)) tells the tale of the place prepared for us―and peculiarly so surely―of being sons before the Father, of whom He is the firstborn (Rom. 8:2929For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. (Romans 8:29)). Into this He will Himself introduce us, for it is not a service to be entrusted even to the archangel. “I will come again, and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.” His love and care would not cease with the preparation of the place, and will withhold nothing of all that joy and glory He has won, which is possible to be communicated to the creature (John 7:22, 2322Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision; (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers;) and ye on the sabbath day circumcise a man. 23If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, that the law of Moses should not be broken; are ye angry at me, because I have made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day? (John 7:22‑23)).
But in verse 23. we find another “abode” or “mansion.” The intermediate verses show that the blank caused by the absence of Christ was to be filled by the presence of the Holy Spirit on earth, the possession of whom by the believer is not as a guest, but as One that abides forever, “dwelling with us” and “in us” (vers. 16, 17)
It is the Spirit who gives the sense of sonship (Gal. 4:66And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. (Galatians 4:6)), and enables us to take the position of obedience and dependence, characterized by keeping Christ’s commandments―which cannot certainly be the law. The enactments and prohibitions of the decalogue have no sense applied to Christ, because they suppose a spring of evil within—a will that needed to be bridled—a lust that demanded a curb. This Christ never had (2 Cor. 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21); 1 Peter 2:2222Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: (1 Peter 2:22); 1 John 3:55And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. (1 John 3:5)).
Acquaintance with these “commandments” is gained by hanging upon the Lord’s “words,” and He who is so conformed to His mind will find a blessed spiritual manifestation of Christ’s presence and favor, incommunicable to another by us, yet really known, felt, and enjoyed. Such a soul becomes an “abode” which the Father and the Son can already inhabit, as He has said, “I will dwell in them and walk in them” (2 Cor. 6:1616And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (2 Corinthians 6:16)). Would that there were “many” of these “mansions” F. L.