Recently, my wife and I moved to a new home. In over 44 years of marriage, this was our ninth move, but we were in our last place for nearly 14 years. Even though we had moved many times in the past, we had forgotten what a trauma it can be, and what needed to be done. We sold our house in just three days, which in the present climate, was very encouraging, but we didn’t remember all the hard work that was to follow!
We all hope to be moving to an altogether different and permanent home in the not too distant future! In John 14:1-3, Jesus said: “Let not your heart be troubled; you 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. 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 to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”
We know from John 2:16 that the Father’s house is the Temple of God, but in John 14, Jesus is referring to God’s spiritual Temple–the Church of God (compare 1 Peter 2:5; 1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 2 Corinthians 6:16). (See our Q&A this week for a further explanation.) This does not mean that we will go to heaven before or at the time of Christ’s second coming; rather, we have long understood that these mansions or dwelling places represent rulership positions of authority given to the saints here on earth, at Christ’s return (compare Revelation 5:10; 22:12; Luke 19:17, 19).
In our booklet “Is That in the Bible? – The Mysteries of the Book of Revelation!,” on pages 39/40, we state the following: “The Greek word for ‘mansions’ refers to dwelling places. It literally means, ‘dwellings’ (compare the margin of the New King James Bible). The same word is used in John 14:23, where it is translated as ‘home.’ According to the Nelson Study Bible, ‘Everybody has a longing for a permanent, secure place. Such places have already been set aside for all of God’s children.'”
Those of us who remain faithful to the very end will inherit these promises. Then, we will be truly “at home.” While we will “leave” or “put off” our current earthly home–our fleshly bodies (2 Peter 1:13-14)–we will be “clothed with our habitation which is from heaven” (2 Corinthians 5:2). We will receive eternal “spiritual” bodies (2 Corinthians 5:4; 1 Corinthians 15:44). We–converted members of the Church of God, the “body of Christ”–will become Spirit-born members of the God Family. We will have a future where more important issues will occupy our minds and energies.
It will be a time when we won’t have to be concerned about what our neighbors will be like when we move to a new home. Nor will we have to be concerned about schooling, shopping, transport or other issues that can also face us. We will have much greater things to accomplish. The excitement of moving to a temporary home will pale into insignificance by comparison with what the future holds for us–when we will have arrived at our new and permanent home; when we have been redeemed from our physical bodies of death; and when we have received new spiritual glorified bodies of eternal life (compare Romans 7:24; 8:23, 29-30).
All we have to do to make the most important move, any of us will ever make, is to remain faithful to the very end!
