My Father’s Mansions

Rev. J. Van Haaren (1933-1983)

In our text Christ speaks about His departure. In this context He is not only speaking of His suffering and death but also of His ascension into glory. The disciples, however, do not want to hear about His departure. It causes them great distress. They love Him so intensely, and they cannot be without Him. Why would He want to leave them? Ah, they do not understand the Lord’s purpose. So it is also with God’s children when the Lord begins to withdraw Himself. What a delightful time it is when they may bask in the Lord’s nearness and have tender communion with the Lord Jesus. They would like it to always stay that way, but “It is expedient for you that I go away.” Go away? Oh, that He would remain with them! How hard they seek to hold on to Him, but He goes.

In return they will receive a richer Jesus, but with all the love which they enjoyed, how blind was their eye of faith. They knew so little of His mediatorial work and of the justice of God which demands satisfaction for sin. When He begins to teach them of that fact, then, at times, they have to go through deep ways. They must be cut off from everything, to lose their own ability and to find it only in Him who was made sin for us so that they might find justification before God in Him. When Christ sees their sorrow, He begins to comfort them. “Let not your heart be troubled.” They must not let sorrow take mastery over them; they may face the future with a complete trust. The separation, as it pertains to the body, shall only be for a time, and, in addition to that, it will be for their benefit.

“Ye believe in God, believe also in Me.” Oh, they believed in God, and not just about God, for therein is a vast difference. They were bound to the Lord with heart and soul. They had come to love Him so completely. They had sung of Him, “This God is a God of complete salvation.” Well, says the Lord Jesus, believe also in Me. No, that is not a different faith. It is the same faith, but it is now directed toward Christ and His work. Christ will increase their faith. How much deeper and richer becomes the belief in God when Christ may be consciously embraced. It is as if Christ will say, “When soon the might of darkness will be seen in all of its terribleness, when you can no longer understand it, when you think that all is lost, then believe that I am busy to atone for your sins and to satisfy God’s justice for you. I go to prepare a place for you in My Father’s house where there are many mansions.”

We understand, of course, that what Jesus speaks here is spoken symbolically. With it He signifies heaven, the palace of God’s holiness. Isn’t heaven His throne and the earth His footstool? It is there that He reveals His glory more than in any other place. It is there that there are many mansions. There is room not only for Me but also for you. This does not mean that there are many different rooms there. God’s children will not live separated from each other as they are here below. With these words the Lord means that there will be place for many! There is place for all those who have been born again to a lively hope through the resurrection of Christ from the dead. Are there, then, many? Doesn’t it say that there are but few that will be saved? Isn’t it a little flock? Yes, indeed, the number of the true righteous is small. That has always been the case, and it will likely remain that way. The number of mockers is large, and there are also many “name” Christians, but the number of those who truly fear the Lord is small.

Yet, those few will one day be a multitude which no man can number. The spiritual seed of Abraham shall be as the stars of heaven and as the sand at the seashore. The house of the Father will be full; there are many mansions. Christ calls them mansions to point to the preciousness of the dwelling, for it is not a temporary abode but an eternal residence. There they will, undisturbed, enjoy God’s favor to all eternity. Here below there are only moments that they may receive something of it, but soon they will be with Him eternally. You do not have to be afraid that Christ exaggerates.

No one can come into that house for whom satisfaction has not been obtained and who is not perfectly holy. That is why Christ says, “Igo to prepare a place for you” He is the great Place Preparer. We cannot prepare a placefor ourselves there. God’s people learn to understand that in daily practice. Then, from their side it becomes a hopeless case, but what a wonder: what they cannot do, that He does.

His testimony is sure. “If it were not so, I would have told you.” He does not arouse an idle hope. He deals with them honestly, and He has also always done that. He is the faithful and true witness, in whose mouth is found no guile. What a loving word He therefore has for His disciples, “I go to prepare a place for you.” Would those words not comfort those who may hear it from His own mouth? You cannot comfort yourself with the fact that He prepares a place for His entire Church. It must be applied personally. You, yourself, must hear it from His own mouth, “I go to prepare a place for you.” Have you, personally, ever heard these words?

Does that place still have to be prepared? Do we not read in Scripture that Christ says, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world”? That is certainly true. Since Christ from eternity was with His heart their Mediator, their place in the house of the Father was assured, but this meant that satisfaction had to be made for them. No one can come into that house for whom satisfaction has not been obtained and who is not perfectly holy. That is why Christ says, “I go to prepare a place for you.” He is the great Place Preparer. We cannot prepare a place for ourselves there. God’s people learn to understand that in daily practice. Then, from their side it becomes a hopeless case, but what a wonder: what they cannot do, that He does.

He left the house of His Father to prepare a place for them in that house. He humbled Himself unto death to satisfy God’s justice, but He also arose as the victor over death so that they could share in the fruits of His mediatorial suffering and death. He has, therefore, entered that holy kingdom to appear before God’s countenance for His Church, not with the blood of bulls and of goats but with His own blood. He is also busy there preparing a place; it is where He places His work as a pledge before His Father and says, “Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am.”

Yea, in Him, God is satisfied with His people. So Christ prepares a place for sinners and the ungodly, for in His time He died for the ungodly. He prepares a place for the rebellious so that they may always live with God. He will not rest until He has with Him all those whom He has purchased with the price of His precious blood. He longs for the day when He will have them all with Him according to soul and body. That is why He says, “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.”

The Lord here points to the day of His glorious return. That shall be a terrible day for all those who refused to bow the knee before Him, but it will also be a joyful day for all those who have learned to patiently wait for Him. What a blessed future awaits those who have sought after God and who have learned of that true sorrow after God because of sin. Then the Lord will forever change their sorrow and lamentations into a joyful song; they shall walk eternally in the light of God’s friendly face.

God’s saints can never go forward. Everything is continually taken out of their hands, but God is their refuge and strength.

— Dr. H.F. Kohlbrugge

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