Jesus was going to prepare a place for us

JESUS WAS GOING TO PREPARE A PLACE FOR US
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
John 14:2 2My Father's house has many rooms; if that
were not so, would I have told you that I am going
there to prepare a place for you?
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
The Work Of The Ascended Jesus
John 14:2, 3
D. Young
And yet manifestly it is only part of the work. So much is spokenof as needed
to be spokenof here. Jesus tells us that which will best blend with other things
that have to be said at the time. Who canimagine, who can describe, anything
like the total of what Jesus has gone from earthly scenes to do?
I. CONSIDERTHE OCCUPATIONS OF THOSE WHO WERE LEFT. Just
one word gives the suggestionthat these were in the mind of Jesus as he spoke,
and that is the word "mansions." The settled life is thought of rather than the
wandering one. Jesus knew full well what a wandering life his disciples would
have, going into strange and distant countries. They would have to travel as he
himself had never traveled. The more they apprehended the work to which
they had been called, the more they would feelbound to go from land to land,

preaching the gospelwhile life lasted. To men thus constantlyon the move, the
promise of a true resting-place was just the promise they needed.
II. THE FUTURE COMPANIONSHIP OF JESUS AND HIS PEOPLE. To
those who have come into the realknowledge and service of Jesus nothing less
than such a companionship will make happiness; and nothing more is needed.
Jesus needednot to have a place in glory prepared for him; he had but to
resume his old station, and be with his Fatheras he had been before. This is
the greatelement of happiness on earth - not so much where we are as with
whom we are. The most beautiful scenes, the most luxurious surroundings,
count as nothing compared with true harmony in the human beings who are
around us. And just so it must be in the anticipations of a future state. While
Jesus was in the flesh, his presence with his disciples was the chief element in
their happiness; and as they lookedforwardto the future, this was the main
thing desired, that they should be with Jesus. As Paul puts it, "Absent from
the body, present with the Lord."
III. THE PREPARATION OF A COMMON HOPE. Is this to be taken as a
real preparation, or is it only a way of speaking, to impress the promise of
reunion more deeply? Is there now some actual work of the glorified Jesus
going on which amounts to a necessarypreparationfor his glorified people?
Surely it must be so. We are not to go into another state, as pioneers, to cut
our own way. We are not as the Pilgrim Fathers, who had to make their own
houses, and live as best they could till then. It is clearthat a kindly Providence
made the earth ready for the children of men, storing up abundance for all
our temporal need; and in like manner Jesus is making heaven ready. Earth
was made ready for Jesus to come down and live in it, and for him and his
disciples to live togetherin. And when his disciples ascendto a higher state, all
things will be ready then. - Y.

Biblical Illustrator
I will not leave you comfortless, I will come to you.
John 14:18, 19
Not left comfortless
J. Vaughan, M. A.
The word "comfortless"means "bereft." We have adopted the Greek word,
and have gradually limited it to the severestkind of bereavement —
orphanhood. But the promise, starting from one kind of bereavement,
enlarges itself, and takes in all who from any cause wantcomfort. God does
not saythat you shall never be comfortless, but on the contrary, He implies
that you shall be so. Nobody, howeversaintly, could say he was never
comfortless, but he cansay, "I was not left comfortless."And the length of the
comfortless perioddepends upon the faith we have in Christ's coming to us.
I. Let us confine our view to one kind of sorrow — BEREAVEMENT, This
has in it —
1. Change. One you loved, and with whom you were almosthourly in
converse, has passedaway. Everything is changed;nothing looks to us as it
used to look in the sunshine, which seems as if it never would come back
again. It is wonderful how one face gone, one voice silent, alters the whole
world.

2. Separation. Thena gulf opens, which, howeverpersons may talk about it, is
then very wide. The grave is a wall of adamant to you — they may be
conscious ofno distance, but to you, oh, how very far off!
3. Loneliness. No wonderthat the silence is oppressive. No matter how many
you may have around you, or how kind, you are thrown hack into your own
thoughts which circle about one, and that one is gone, and it is a perfect
solitude.
4. Fear:a painful apprehensionof what the future is going to be. "How shall I
live on? What shall I do without that love, that counsel?"
II. FOR THESE FOUR WRETCHEDNESSES, CHRIST IS THE ONLY
ANTIDOTE — "I will come to you." And mark, it is His presence, not His
work, His Cross, His final Advent, but His living presence now.
1. With Him there is no shadow of a turning. It is the same voice which faith
hears, and the same face which faith sees now, whichyou heard and saw in
years long gone by. "I will never leave you." And the awful change which has
passedover everything else only makes it stand out more comfortingly — His
impossibility of change.
2. And with that felt, present, unchangeable Christ, both worlds are one. The
Church in heaven and the Church on earth are the members, and all meet in
that one Head, and in Him they are here. Where then is loneliness? He is a
Brother by me, to whom I can tell everything, and He will answerme. I seem
speaking to them because theyare holding the very same converse within the
veil.
3. The solitude of the soul, where He is, becomes peopledwith the whole host
of heaven. There is no sense of being alone when we realize that we are alone
with Jesus.
4. And so the fear flies away. For what Christ is now, He will be always. And
that presence is the pledge of a reunion. A little while, and it will be He, and
they, and I, and we shall be togetherforever.Conclusion:

1. Reada particular emphasis on the "I," that greatword which God is so
fond of. Whateverit be to you now, this gay world will leave you utterly
"comfortless." Thosewhomtoday you are most fondly cherishing, and the
thought of whose death you dare not admit to your own heart — if you have
none but them, and no Christ in them, you will wake up some morning to such
a cold vacancy, for that one will have gone, and will have left you
"comfortless." Friends will come with their emptinesses, and they will go, and
you will be as comfortless as whenthey came. Only He who could say, "I will
come to you" as none other comes, as He came to Martha and Mary at
Bethany; only He cansay, "I will not leave you comfortless."
2. Readanother emphasis on that "you." "I," Jesus seems to say, "I was left
comfortless, but I will not leave you comfortless:I will come to you.
3. Of all the bereavedin the whole world, there is none so bereft as that man
of whatever happy circle he may be, who cannot look up to heaven, and say,
"My Father." That man is an orphan indeed.
4. There is another. He has known what it is to feel God His Father, but it is
gone Do you say, "It is I?" Then I am sure that at this moment Jesus is saying
it to you — "I will not leave you an orphan," etc. For if there be a thing on the
whole earth which Jesus will not have it is an orphaned heart.
(J. Vaughan, M. A.)
Our Comforter
W. Birch.
I. MAN NEEDS A COMFORTER. I do not now speak ofmen in the bulk, but
in units. Wars, pestilences, strikes, andsocialevils trouble men, but besides
these, eachman in himself has trouble which none but God can soothe.
Perhaps friendless poverty is the soresttrouble of existence. Returning along
the road from Warrington, I heard a groanwhich made my heart shudder.
Stooping to the hedge, I saw a woman and a little child in greatdistress. She
was from Liverpool; her husband had come to Manchesterseeking forwork

and had written saying he had been takenill, and that as he could send no
money, she must trust in God. Without a penny in her pocket, love for her
husband gave her strength to walk to Manchesterwith her child in her arms.
She inquired at his lodgings, but found he had been takento the hospital. She
then by asking at every corner arrived at the Manchesterworkhouse,and
found that her husband was dead, and his remains had been placedin the
grave the day before. Footsore, hungry, and friendless, she was sent away, and
pawned her shawlto keepfrom dying in the street. Then she draggedherself
to the road near Irlam and lay down under a hedge to groanand to die. But in
the cottage ofa poor farm labourer she found help and sympathy which
causedher to live. Did Godnot hear, and hearing, did He not provide
comfort?
II. MEN VERY OFTEN SEEKARTIFICIAL COMFORTERS.After the
greatdeluge, men built the towerof Babel, hoping by that means to receive
comfort in any similar calamity. And in these days men are building towers
which they hope will save them from the deluge of trouble. Many people think
that if they build up a tower of riches they will be happy. But the rich man is
no happier than the poor one. I was once askedto visit a man who was said to
be dying. Standing at his bedside and holding his hand in mine, I said, "Have
you the joy of knowing that your sins are forgiven?" The man lookedand
replied, "Joy! joy! joy!" Taking his hand from mine he pushed it under the
pillow and bringing out a bottle of brandy he held it with his trembling hand,
saying, "This is my joy." Poor, miserable, drunkard! Most people before they
become drunkards have had some sicknessofmind or body preying upon
them; but do not fly from your greattrouble to drink.
III. OUR FATHER HAS PROVIDED A COMFORTER FOR EVERYMAN.
If you seek in the history of the past, what man would you selectto be your
comforter? I ask the philosophers if they would ask for Socratesabove all
others? I ask the deists if they would ask for Thomas Paine or Voltaire? Or
would you ask for John Bunyan, or for Wesleyor Whitefield? If you knew
none better you might. Take the worstman in the world, or an unbeliever,
and ask him, "If you were to selectout of all men one who should be your
bosom friend until you die, upon whom would you fix?" If he told his heart's
truth, he would reply, "Jesus."

1. Jesus our Comforteris with us. My mother died in giving me life, and, of
course, I have not the slightestremembrance of her. The only relic I had was a
little piece of her silk dress, and this I preservedas my dearesttreasure.
Tossedabout, and yearning for a love which was not to be had, I used to sit
alone for hours, and long for, and pray to my mother. You may call it an
insane fancy, but to me it was realand powerful and comforting. And I owe
the success ofmy boyhood to the consciousnessofher belovedpresence. In the
same way, Jesus communes with us. Jesus in Spirit is with you.
2. He comforts —(1) By showing that our Fatherloves us. Deepdown in every
human heart there is the instinct that God loves men. In greatcalamity men
always cry to God.(2) By pointing us to the Cross. Look to the Cross of Jesus,
and see the remedy which shall in time save all the world.(3) By inspiring us
with hope. When a man is castout of society, and swears in is despair, "I will
now do all the evil I can and spite them," if a friend tap him on the shoulder,
saying, "Brother, why despair of yourself? Come with me, and I will hold on
to you until you are a better man," why, such language would be an
inspiration! Jesus is the friend who does this to the despairing souls of men.(4)
When we are heavily burdened. Paul was burdened. He had a "thorn in the
flesh." But did God take it away? No; but He gave him grace to bear it. So
Jesus comforts us when we are burdened by giving us strength to bear it.(5)
He comforts us too by showing us God's purpose. He teaches us that all things
work togetherfor good.
(W. Birch.)
Soul orphanhood
D. Thomas, D. D.
I. CONSISTSIN MORAL SEPARATION FROM GOD.
1. Notlocal, for God is everywhere, and no spirit canflee from His presence.
2. Notphysical; for in God we live and move, etc.

3. But, morally, the unregenerate are ever distant from Him — alienatedin
sympathy, purpose and pursuit: "without God." The ungodly world is a world
of orphans, without a father's fellowshipand guidance.
II. IS AN EVIL OF STUPENDOUS MAGNITUDE.
1. Orphanism, so far as human parentage is concerned, is a calamity, but this
is a crime. The soul has broken awayfrom its Father, not its Father from it.
2. Orphanism in the one case may have its loss supplied, but not in the other.
Thank God, societyin this age has loving hearts, and good homes for orphans.
But nothing on earth can take the place of God in relation to a soul: such a
soul is benighted, perishing, lost.
III. IS REMOVED BY THE PRESENCEOF CHRIST. He brings the soul
into a loving, blessedfellowshipwith God. The deep cry of humanity is the cry
of an orphan for the Father. The response is the advent of Christ.
(D. Thomas, D. D.)
The absentpresent Christ
A. Maclaren, D. D.
I. THE ABSENT CHRIST IS THE PRESENTCHRIST. "Orphans" is rather
an unusual form in which to represent the relation betweenour Lord and His
disciples. And so, possibly, our versions are accurate in giving the generalidea
of desolation. But, still, it is to be remembered that this whole conservation
begins with "Little children"; and they would be like fatherless and
motherless children in a cold world. And what is to hinder that? One thing
only. "I come to you." Now, what is this "coming"? OurLord says, not "I
will," as a future, but "I come," or, "I am coming," as an immediately
impending, or present, thing. There can be no reference to the final coming,
because it would follow, that, until that period, all that love Him here are to
wander about as orphans; and that can never be.

1. We have here a coming which is but the reverse side of His bodily absence.
This is the heart of the consolationthat, howsoeverthe "foolishsenses"may
have to speak of an absent Christ, we may rejoice in the certainty that He is
with all those that love Him, and all the more because ofthe withdrawal of the
earthly manifestationWhich has servedits purpose. Note the manifest
implication of absolute Divinity. "I come." "I am present with every single
heart." That is equivalent to Omnipresence. I cannotbut think that the
average Christianlife of this day woefully fails in the realization of this great
truth, that we are never alone, but have Jesus Christwith eachof us more
closely, and with more Omnipotence of influence than they had who were
nearestHim upon earth. If we really believed this, how all burdens and cares
would be lightened, how all perplexities would begin to smooth themselves
out, and how sorrows and joys and everything would be changedin their
aspect. A present Christ is the Strength, the Righteousness,the Peace, the Joy,
the Life of every Christian soul.
2. This coming of our Lord is identified with that of His Divine Spirit. He has
been speaking ofsending that "other Comforter," who is no gift waftedto us
as from the other side of a gulf; but by reasonof the unity of the Godhead,
Christ and the Spirit whom He sends are, though separate, so indissolubly
united that where the Spirit is, there is Christ, and where Christ is, there is
the Spirit. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His."
3. This presentChrist is the only Remedy for the orphanhood of the world.
We canunderstand how forlorn and terrified the disciples were, when they
lookedforward to the things that must come to them, without His presence.
Therefore He cheers them with this assurance.(1)And the promise was
fulfilled. How did that dispirited group ever pluck up courage to hold together
after the Crucifixion at all? Why was it that they did not follow the example of
John's disciples, and dissolve and disappear, and say, "The game is up." If it
had not been that He came to them, Christianity would have been one more of
the abortive sects forgottenin Judaism. But, as it is, the whole of the New
Testamentafter Pentecostis aflame with the consciousness ofa present Christ
working amongstHis people.(2)The same convictionyou and I must have, if
the world is not to be a desert and a dreary place for us. If you take away
Christ the elder Brother, who alone reveals the Father, we are all orphans,

who look up into an empty heaven and see nothing there. And is not life a
desolationwithout Him? Hollow joys, roses whose thorns last long after the
petals have dropped, real sorrow, shows andshams, bitternesses and
disappointments — are not these our life, in so far as Christ has been driven
out of it?
II. THE UNSEEN CHRIST IS A SEEN CHRIST.
1. That "yet a little while" covers the whole space up to His ascension:and if
there be any reference to the forty clays, during which, literally, the world
"saw Him no more," but "the apostles saw Him," that reference is only
secondary. These transitoryappearances are not sufficient to bear the weight
of so greata promise as this. The vision, which is the consequence ofthe
coming, is as continuous and permanent as the coming. It is clear, too, that the
word "see" is employed in two different senses. In the former it refers only to
bodily, in the latter to spiritual perception. For a few short hours still, the
ungodly mass of men were to have that outward vision which they had used so
badly, that "they seeing saw not." It was to cease,and they who loved Him
would not miss it when it did. They, too, had but dimly seenHim while He
stoodby them; they would gaze on Him with truer insight when He was
present though absent. So this is what every Christian life may and should be
— the continual sight of a continually presentChrist.
2. Faith is the sight of the soul, and it is far better than the sight of the
senses.(1)It is more direct. My eye does not touch what I look at. Gulfs of
millions of miles lie betweenme and it. But my faith is not only eye, but hand,
and not only beholds but grasps.(2)It is far more clear. Sensesmay deceive;
my faith, built upon His Word, cannot deceive. Its information is far more
certain, more valid. So that there is no need for men to say, "Oh! if we had
only seenHim with our eyes!" You would very likely not have known Him if
you had. There is no reasonfor thinking that the Church has retrogradedin
its privileges because it has to love instead of beholding, and to believe instead
of touching. Sense disturbs, faith alone beholds.(3) "The world seethMe no
more." Why? Becauseit is a world. "Ye see Me." Why Because, andin the
measure, in which you have "turned awayyour eyes from seeing vanity." If
you want the eye of the soul to be opened, you must shut the eye of sense. And

the more we turn awayfrom looking at the dazzling lies which befooland
bewilder us, the more shall we see Him whom to see is to live forever.
III. THE PRESENTAND SEEN CHRIST IS LIFE AND LIFE GIVING.
BecauseHe comes, His life passes into the hearts of the men to whom He
comes, and who gaze upon Him.
1. Mark the majestic "I live" — the timeless present tense, which expresses
unbroken, undying and Divine life. It is all but a quotation of the name
"Jehovah." The depth and sweepof its meaning are given to us by this
Apostle, "the living One," who lived whilst He died, and having died "is alive
for evermore."
2. And this Christ is Lifegiver to all that love Him and trust Him.(1) We live
because He lives. In all sensesthe life of man is derived from the Christ who is
the Agent of creation, and is also the one means by whom any of us can ever
hope to live the better life that consists in union to God.(2)We shall live as
long as He lives, and His being is the guarantee ofthe immortal being of all
who love Him. Anything is possible, rather than that a soul which has drawn a
spiritual life from Christ should ever be rent apart from Him by such a
miserable and external trifle as the mere dissolution of the bodily frame. As
long as Christ lives your life is secure. If the Head has life the members cannot
see corruption. The Church chose forone of its ancientemblems of the
Saviour the pelican, which fed its young, according to the fable, with the blood
from its own breast. So Christ vitalizes us. He in us is our life.
(A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Christians not forgotten by Christ
Christian World.
A tragic story comes from Senegal. Fournatives who had been sent to guard
the Frenchflag on a newly acquired barren island in that region were left
without provisions, and died of starvation. They had a supply of food to last

three months, but the governorhad entirely forgottento send relief to the
guardians of the standard on the lonely rock.
(Christian World.)
Christ in heavenhelps His disciples
J. Gurnall.
Suppose a king's sonshould getout of a besiegedprison and leave his wife and
children behind, whom he loves as his own soul; would the prince, when
arrived at his father's palace, please and delight himself with the splendour of
the court, and forget his family in distress;No; but having their cries and
groans always in his ears, he should come post to his father, and entreat him,
as ever he loved him, that he would send all the forces ofhis kingdom and
raise the siege, andsave his dearrelations from perishing; nor will Christ,
though gone up from the world and ascendedinto His glory, forgetHis
children for a moment that are left behind Him.
(J. Gurnall.)
Comfort for the bereaved
On every Mohammedan tombstone the inscription begins with the words, He
remains. This applies to God, and gives sweetcomfortto the bereaved.
Friends may die, fortune fly away, but God endures. He remains.
Yet a little while, and the world seethMe no more, but ye see Me.
Seeing the living Christ
WeeklyPulpit.
Came in the flesh — that is the outward, material fact. He is here in the Spirit
— that is the inward, spiritual reality.

I. CHRIST'S LITTLE WHILE.
1. His visible appearance onearth was only for a "little while." Yet how much
has been crowdedinto it. Example; teaching;miracle; suffering. All this helps
us to understand His mission, and especiallyto realize to ourselves His abiding
spiritual presence. He is still with us, the very Christ that He was.
2. When Jesus spoke these words there was but a very "little while" left. Only
the death scene, andthe forty days in the Resurrectionbody. But these also
help us to realize the spiritual presence ofChrist, as we can know it; especially
do we getsuggestions fromthe Resurrectiontime.
II. THE WORLD'S BLINDNESS.Whatreport can the "world" give of
Christ? "He was a good Man, an original Teacher, ButHe offended the
religion and societyleaders ofHis day, and they securedHis crucifixion." The
world testifies that He was dead and buried; but the world resists the bare
ideas of His Resurrectionor spiritual life. How little the world knows, orcan
conceive, of the "coming, the indwelling of the Holy Ghost." So Christ is lost
as an actualpower in life.
III. THE DISCIPLES'VISION. "Ye see Me." Thatis, "Ye do constantly see
Me." If they had seenChrist truly while He was here on earth, then they
would find they never lost the sight of Him. Because, during His earthly life,
His realpresence with the disciples had been presence to heart, not to eye.
1. Christ never goes out of disciples'thought or heart.
2. Christ never ceasesto be the disciple's Ruler and Referee.
3. The honour of Christ never ceasesto be the disciple's sole aim.
4. The strength of Christ never ceasesto be the soul's victory. The joy of
Christian life depends on the clearness ofour vision of this ever-present
Christ.
(WeeklyPulpit.)
BecauseI live, ye shall live also.

The Lord of Life
Canon Liddon.
This saying is only to be fully understood in the light of the Resurrectionand
Ascension. Christ has taken the measure of death; death was to be no real
interruption of His ever-continuing life. Already He sees the Resurrection
beyond. He treats Death as an already vanquished enemy. Observe:
I. WHAT OUR LORD'S WORDS DO NOT MEAN. They do not mean that
the immortality of the soul of man is dependent upon the work or life of
Christ. Man is an immortal being, just as he is a thinking and feeling being by
the originalterms of his nature. Any of us may see who will considerhow
generallyunlike the spirit or soul of man is to any merely material creature.
1. The soul of man knows itselfto be capable of continuous development.
Howevervigorous a tree or an animal may be, it soonreaches a point at which
it can grow no longer. Its vital force is exhausted; it can do no more. With the
soul, whether as a thinking or feeling power, we can never say that it has
exhausted itself. When a man of science has made a great discovery, or a man
of letters has written a greatbook, or a statesmanhas carrieda series of great
measures we cannotsay — "He has done his all." Undoubtedly, as the body
moves towards decay it inflicts something of its weaknessupon its spiritual
companion. But the soul constantlyresists, asserting its own separate and
vigorous existence. The mind knows that eachnew effort, instead of
exhausting its powers, enlarges them, and that if only the physical conditions
necessaryto continued exertion are not withdrawn, it will go on continuously
making largerand nobler acquirements. So too with the heart, the conscience,
the sense ofduty. One noble actsuggests another:one greatsacrifice for truth
or duty prompts another. "Be not weary in well-doing" is the language ofthe
Eternal Wisdom to the human will.
2. The spirit is conscious ofand values its own existence. This is not the case
with any material living forms, howeverlofty or beautiful. The most
magnificent tree only gives enjoyment to other beings; it never understands
that itself exists;it is not conscious oflosing anything when it is cut down. An
animal feels pleasure and pain, but it feels eachsensationas it comes;it never

puts them together, or takes the measure of its own life, and looks on it as a
whole. The animal lives wholly in the present, practically it has no past, nor
does it look forward. How different with the conscious, self-measuring spirit
of man! Man's spirit lives more in the past and in the future than in the
present, exactly in the degree in which it makes the most of itself. And the
more the spirit makes of its powers and resources, the more earnestly does it
desire prolonged existence. Thus, the best of the heathens longed to exist after
death, that they might continue to make progress in all such goodas they had
begun in this life, in high thoughts and in excellentresolves. And with these
longings they believed that they would then exist after all when this life was
over. The longing was itself a sort of proof that its object was real; for how
was its existence to be explained if all enterprise was to be abruptly broken off
by the shock of death?
3. Unless a spiritual being is immortal, such a being counts for less in the
universe than mere inert matter. For matter has a kind of immortality.
Within the range of our experience, no matter ceases to exist; it only takes
new shapes, first in one being, and then in another. It is possible that the
destruction of the world at the Last Day will be only a re-arrangementof the
sum total of matter which now makes up the visible universe. If man's spirit
naturally perishes, the higher part of his nature therefore is much worse off
than the chemicalingredients of his body. For man's spirit cannotbe resolved
like his body, into form and material; the former perishing while the latter
survives. Man's spirit either exists in its completeness, orit ceasesto exist.
Eachman is himself: he canbecome no other. His memory, his affections, his
way of thinking and feeling, are all his own: they are not transferable. If they
perish, they perish altogether. And therefore it is a reasonable and very strong
presumption that spirit is not, in fact, placed at such disadvantage, and that, if
matter survives the dissolution of organic forms, much more must spirit
survive the dissolution of the material forms with which it has been associated.
These are the kind of considerations by which thoughtful men, living without
the light of revelation, might be led to see the reasonableness, the very high
probability of a future life. This teaching of nature is presupposedby
Christianity, and it is no true service to our Masterto make light of it. At the
same time, it is true that, outside the Jewishrevelation, immortality was not

treated by any large number of men as anything like a certainty. Jesus Christ
assumedit as certainin all that He said with reference to the future life. And
it is the ResurrectionofJesus Christ — which has in this, as in so many other
ways, opened the kingdom of heavento all believers. What has been may be.
And thus the Christian faith has brought "immortality to light." And what a
solemn factis this immortality of ours! A hundred years hence no one of us
will be still in the body: we shall have passedto another sphere of being. But if
the imagination cantake in these vasttracts of time, ten millions years hence
we shall still exist, eachone with his memory, will, and conscious contact,
separate from all other beings in our eternal resting place.
II. WHAT CHRIST'S WORDS DO MEAN. Clearly something is meant by
"Life" which is higher than mere existence;not merely beyond animal
existence, but beyond the mere existence ofa spiritual being. We English use
"life" in the sense ofan existence which has a purpose and makes the most of
itself. And the Greeks had an especialwordto describe the true life of man,
his highestspiritual energy. This is the word employed by our Lord and by St.
Paul. This enrichment and elevation of being is derived from our Lord. He is
the Author of our new life, just as our first parent is the source of our first
and natural existence. Onthis accountSt. Paul calls Him the SecondAdam.
And, in point of fact, He is the parent of a race of spiritual men who push
human life to its highest capacitiesofexcellence. Whenour Lord was upon
earth He communicated His Life to men, by coming in contactwith them.
Men felt the contagionof a presence, the influence of which they could not
measure, a presence from which there radiated a subtle, mysterious energy,
which was gradually taking possessionofthem they knew not exactly how,
and making them begin to live a new and higher life. What that result was
upon four men of very different types of characterwe may gather from the
reports of the Life of Christ which are given us by the evangelists.But at last
He died, and arose and disappearedfrom sight. And it is of this after time that
He says, "Because Ilive, ye shall live also." How does He communicate His life
when the creative stimulus of His visible Presence has beenwithdrawn?
1. By His Spirit. That Divine and Personalforce, wherebythe mind and
nature of the unseen Saviour is poured into the hearts and minds and

characters ofmen, was to be the Lord and Giver of this life to the end of time.
(John 16:14; Romans 8:9; 2 Corinthians 5:17).
2. By the Christian sacraments, the guaranteedpoints of contactwith our
unseen Saviour; for in them we may certainly meet Him and be invigorated by
Him as we toil along the road of our pilgrimage.Conclusion:
1. It is this new life which makes it a blessing to have the prospectbefore us
that we shall individually exist forever.
2. Our immortality is certain. But what sort of immortality is it to be?
(Canon Liddon.)
Life in Christ
C. H. Spurgeon.
I. LIFE. We must not confound this with existence. Before the disciples
believed in Jesus they existed, and altogetherapart from Him as their
spiritual life their existence wouldhave been continued. Life, what is it? We
cannot tell in words. We know it, however, to be a mystery of different
degrees. There is the life of the vegetable. There is a considerable advance
when we come to animal life. Sensation, appetite, instinct, are things to which
plants are dead. Then there is mental life, which introduces us into quite
another realm. To judge, to foresee,to imagine, to invent, to perform moral
acts, are not these functions which the ox hath not? Now, far above this there
is another form of life of which the mere carnal man canform no more idea
than the plant canof the animal, or the animal of the poet. Education cannot
raise man into it, neither can refinement reachit; for at its best, "that which is
born of the flesh is flesh," and to all must the humbling truth be spoken, "Ye
must be born again." It is to be remarkedconcerning our life in Christ, that it
is —
1. The removal of the penalty which fell upon our race for Adam's sin.

2. Spiritual life. Christ works in us through His Holy Spirit, who dwelleth in
us evermore.
3. A life in union with God (Romans 8:6-8). Death as to the body consists in its
separationfrom the soul; the death of the soul lies mainly in the soul's being
separatedfrom its God.
4. This life bears fruit on earth in righteousness and true holiness, and it is
made perfect in the presence ofGod in heaven.
II. LIFE PRESERVED. "Ye shalllive also." Concerning this sentence, note —
1. Its fulness. Whatever is meant by living shall be ours. All the degree of life
which is securedin the covenantof grace, believers shallhave. All your new
nature shall thoroughly, eternally live. Noteven, in part, shall the new man
die. "I am come," saithChrist, "that ye might have life, and have it more
abundantly."
2. Its continuance. During our abode in this body we shall live. And when the
natural death comes, which indeed to us is no longer death, our inner life shall
suffer no hurt whatever;it will not even be suspended for a moment. And in
the awful future, when the judgment comes, the begottenof God shall live.
Onward through eternity, whatever may be the changes whichyet are to be
disclosed, nothing shall affectour God-givenlife.
3. Its universality. Every child of Godshall live. The Lord bestows security
upon the leastof His people as well as upon the greatest. If it had been said,
"Because yourfaith is strong, ye shall live," then weak faith would have
perished; but when it is written, "Because Ilive," the argument is as powerful
in the one case as in the other.
4. Its breadth. See how it overturns all the hopes of the adversary. You shall
not be decoyedby fair temptation, nor be cowedby fierce persecution:
mightier is he that is in you than he which is in the world. Satan will attack
you, and his weapons are deadly, but you shall foil him at all points. If God
should allow you to be sorely tried your spirit shall still maintain its holy life,
and you shall prove it so by blessing and magnifying God, notwithstanding all.
We little dream what may be reserved for us; we may have to climb steeps of

prosperity, slippery and dangerous, but we shall live; we may be called to sink
in the dark waters of adversity, but we shall live. If old age shall be our
portion, and our crownshall be delayed till we have fought a long and weary
battle, yet nevertheless we shall live; or if sudden death should cut short the
time of our trail here, yet we shall have lived in the fulness of that word.
III. THE REASON FOR THE SECURITYOF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE.
"Because Ilive."
1. This is the sole reason. When I first come to Christ, I know I must find all in
Him, for I feel I have nothing of my own; but all my life long I am to
acknowledge the same absolute dependence. Does not the Christian's life
depend upon his prayerfulness? The Christian's spiritual health depends upon
his prayerfulness, but that prayerfulness depends on something else. The
reasonwhy the hands of the clock move may be found first in a certain wheel
which operates upon them, but if you go to the primary cause of all, you reach
the mainspring, or the weight, which is the source of all the motion. "But are
not goodworks essentialto the maintenance of the spiritual life?" Certainly, if
there be no goodworks, we have no evidence of spiritual life. To the tree the
fruit is not the cause of life, but the result of it, and to the life of the Christian,
goodworks bearthe same relationship, they are its outgrowth, not its root.
2. It is a sufficient reason, for —(1) Christ's life is a proof that His work has
accomplishedthe redemption of His people.(2)He is the representative of
those for whom He is the FederalHead. Shall the representative live, and yet
those representeddie?(3) He is the surety for His people, under bonds and
pledges to bring His redeemedsafely home.(4)We who have spiritual life are
one with Christ Jesus. Jesus is the head of the mystical body, they are the
members. What were the head without the body?
3. An abiding reason — which has as much force at one time as another. From
causes variable the effects are variable; but remaining causes produce
permanent effects. Now Jesusalways lives.
4. A most instructive reason. It instructs us to admire —(1) The condescension
of Christ.(2) To be abundantly grateful.(3)To keepup close communion with
Christ.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fellowshipin Christ's life
J. Brown, D. D.
These words strikingly resemble the declarationof our Lord to John in
Patmos (Revelation1:17, 18).
I. THE LIFE OF CHRIST. "I live."
1. Our Lord, as a Divine Person, is possessedofindependent, infinite.
immutable, eternal life; that is, capacityof actionand enjoyment. In Him —
was, is, and ever will be, "the fountain of life" (John 1:4; 1 John 1:2; Psalm
36:9).
2. It is not, however, to this life that reference is made. That is a life in which
none can participate beyond the sacredcircle of Deity. The life is the life
which belongs to the Son, as God-man, Mediator;and it refers to this life in its
state of full development, after His resurrection.
3. He had lived the life of a man in union with God while He was on the earth
— of the God-man, commissionedto give life — and many and striking were
the demonstrations that He gave of His possessionof this life. But, till sin was
expiated, this life could not be fully developed nor displayed. That death in the
flesh, which was the bearing awayof the sins of men, was the procuring cause
of that "quickening in the Spirit" which followed.
4. It is, however, to the new development of life which accompaniedand
followedthe resurrectionthat our Lord refers. "I am alive again," "I have the
keys of hell and of death." His life is royal life — the life of "the King of kings
and Lord of lords" (Psalm21:1-7; Isaiah53:10).
II. THE LIFE OF CHRIST'S PEOPLE. "Ye shall live also."
1. Christ rose as "the first fruits of them that sleepin Him," the first born of
the chosenfamily, their representative and forerunner.

2. Christians are, by faith, so identified with Jesus Christ as to be partakers
with Him of that life on which He entered, when, being raised from the dead,
He sat down forever on the right hand of the Majestyon high. They "reign in
life with Him" — in Him (Romans 5:17; Romans 6:8-11;Ephesians 2:5, 6;
Colossians 3:1-4;Galatians 2:19, 20). This life is —
(1)One of holy activity and enjoyment.
(2)Immortal.
(3)Incomplete now, but destined to be complete at the Resurrection. "We shall
be like Him."
III. THE CONNECTION BETWEENTHE TWO. "Because" —
1. His life proves that He has done all that is necessaryin order to secure life
for them. Had He not succeededin doing this He Himself would not thus have
lived. His resurrection and celestiallife are undoubted proofs that the
sentence adjudging us to death was repealed, and the influence that was
necessaryto make us live was sentforth. So were we not to live, the greatend
for which He died and rose would be frustrated.
2. His life shows that He possessesallthat is necessaryto bestow life on His
people. "The Father hath given to Him to have life in Himself; so that He
quickeneth whom He will." "It has pleasedthe Father, that in Him all fulness
should dwell," that out of His fulness His people may receive, and grace for
grace.Conclusion:
1. This truth is calculatedto sustainand comfort Christians amid all the
sufferings, and anxieties, and sorrows oflife and death. He can"give power to
the faint, and to them that have no powerHe increasethstrength." He can
"strengthenthe things that remain, and are ready to die."
2. When our nearestand dearestare takenfrom us, how consoling to think
the greatGod our Saviour lives! He is still their life, still our life. "BecauseHe
died, we live; because He lives, we live; because He lives" — because He is the
living One — "we shalllive also!" Happy, surely, are the living disciples of the

living Saviour! Happy in prosperity — happy in adversity — happy in life —
happy in death — happy forever!
3. But the Saviour's unending life is full of terror to His enemies because He
ever lives. "BecauseI live, you must perish forever." They would not come to
Him that they might have life.
4. He is still proclaiming, "As I live, I have no pleasure in the death of the
wicked." "Iwill that they would turn — I will that they would live."
(J. Brown, D. D.)
The Christian's life force
L. O. Thompson.
Christ is the basis of —
I. PHYSICAL LIFE. He is the Creator, and the life of Adam and Eve after the
fall depended entirely on the promise of the Redeemer. His advent postulated
the continuance of the race. The birth of the first child was a prelude to the
gospel. It may be that Eve saw in the birth of Cain the fulfilment of the
promise, for she said, "I have borne the seed, a man, the Lord."
II. THE RENEWEDLIFE. The plan of redemption depends upon His
incarnation and atonement. There is no spiritual life on earth apart from
Him. The fact that there are millions of Christians who live by faith in Him
under the dispensationof the Spirit, proves the reality of His life, of its
continuance and power. BecauseHe lives, we live, and our life is hid with
Christ in God.
III. THE RISEN LIFE in glory, to all eternity. BecauseHe continues to live,
His disciples shall continue to live also. "WhenChrist, who is our Life, shall
appear, then shall ye also appearwith Him in glory." Reflections:(1)Apart
from Christ, the Christian can do nothing.(2) The fact that Jesus continues to
live, is the assurance thatall who believe in Him shall not perish, but have
eternal life.(3) How greatwill appearat last the guilt of those who reject

Christ, when they shall learn that even their bodily life has depended upon
Him, and that, being destitute of His Spirit, they are none of His.
(L. O. Thompson.)
The believer's life
John Milne.
"Because Ilive, ye shall live also." Whatlife is it that Christ speaks ofwhen
He here says, "I live?" It is the life which He now has in heaven, and which
beganat the Resurrection. It is different from all other life, higher and better
than any life with which we are acquainted. It is everlasting life; He has done
with death. It is a life of liberty; He has done with servile work, and now
reigns on high. It is a life of glory; He has done with shame, and has a name
that is above every name. It is a life of favour; He is now very near and very
dear to God forever. He never slumbers nor sleeps;He has all power in
heaven and on earth; He is Head over all things to the Church. But what is the
believer's life of which Christ speaks, whenHe says, "Ye shall live also." It is
the same as Christ's own life, of which we have been speaking. It springs out
of His life, and is fed and maintained by it. True, the believer's natural life is
like that of all other men: one of sin, misery, without God, without hope under
wrath, on the way to everlasting woe. It is not worthy of the name of life; it is
properly death. But this natural life loses its power and dominion when we
believe on Christ. It receivedits death-blow on the cross. Hence the apostle
says, "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God;" and the believer
answers, "Iam crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live." At present this
higher life is only in its infancy. It is hindered by its connectionwith the old
life, by the circumstances in which it is placedby its absence from Christ its
Fountain. The life of the believer is the same in nature as Christ's; the same in
duration. It is the same in the reasonfor which it is bestowed. Christ gotit,
because He wrought out the perfect, everlasting righteousness;we get it,
because by faith we have receivedthat righteousness.It is the same in its
origin. It began in Christ, when God wrought in Him by His mighty power, to
raise Him from the dead. It begins in us by the working of the same mighty

power. But what assurance have we that this life of Christ will always
continue to be imparted to His people? This springs from the relation which
He holds to them. He is their Surety, Representative, CovenantHead.
(John Milne.)
The continued life of Christ the ground of our hope
Ray Palmer, D. D.
Christ lives —
I. IN ALL THE STRENGTHAND TENDERNESSOF HIS AFFECTIONS. A
heart which bore the agony, shame, desertion of His disciples must be always
warm towards those whose salvationHe seeks.
II. IS HIS ABILITY TO HELP TO THE UTMOST. "All poweris given unto
Me" (Ephesians 1:20-22). "He ever liveth to make intercession."
III. IN A SPECIALMANNER WITH THE BELIEVER. "I am the Breadof
Life;" "I am the Vine, ye are the branches." The Church is His bride. How
can we famish or die?
IV. TO DESTROYALL POWER THAT IS OPPOSEDTO MAN'S
REDEMPTION.
(Ray Palmer, D. D.)
The living Church
J. Cumming, D. D.
1. The life of the Church of Christ is its most distinctive and glorious
characteristic. Ithas changedits forms, varied its circumstances, alteredits
doctrines, but has maintained in every period of its history its inward life. If
justification is the article of a standing or a falling Church, regeneration, or
life by the Holy Spirit, is the article of a living or a dead Church.

2. This life is communicated, not by anything that is outward, but entirely by
the Holy Spirit of God. The patronage of princes may make a rich or a
renowned Church. Eloquence and orthodoxy may make a convinced or an
enlightened, but they cannot make a living Church.
I. THE EVIDENCES OF THIS LIFE. It is easyto ascertainif a man be dead
or living physically; and it is not difficult to ascertainif a man be living or
dead spiritually.
1. Life is an internal principle originating outward and visible characteristics.
We know not what life is. All that we know is, that there is some principle
within that looks through the. eye, that hears through the ear, that feels
through the touch, that enables me to walk, to speak, and to hold converse
with societyaround me. Now it is so with spiritual life.
2. Life has the powerof assimilation. H a man eats a piece of bread, that bread
is so assimilatedthat it is turned into the energy of his physical system. And
this spiritual life lays hold upon all the elements of nutriment, as these are laid
up in Christ, found in the oracles oftruth, and at the communion table.
3. Life is sensible of pain. A dead man does not feel. What pain is to the body,
sin is to the spiritual life; and just as our nervous systemshrinks from the
very touch or contactofpain, so the soul that is in unison with God shrinks
from sin as its greatestevil, and the immediate source of all misery.
4. Whereverthere is life, we find it has within itself the powerof adaptationto
varied temperature. Man lives at the Pole, as he lives below the Line. And if
there be life in man's soul, that life will adjust itself; will not be conqueredby,
but will conquer its circumstances.Place the Christian in the palace with
Pharaoh, or in the dungeon with Joseph, and he canbreathe the atmosphere
of the one just as he can the other.
5. Life is progressive, andSpiritual life grows in likeness to Christ. Its
progress is illimitable, because the principle itself is infinite.
6. Life is communicative. The proof that a man is no Christian is, that he is no
missionary. Monopoly is a word banished from the religion of heaven. The
Christian cannot see pain he does not wish to alleviate;ignorance he does not

wish to enlighten; death in trespassesand sins to which he would not
communicate a portion of his own spiritual life.
II. THERE ARE CERTAIN POINTS TO WHICH THIS LIFE SPECIALLY
REFERS.A Christian is alive —
1. To the presence ofGod. "ThouGod seestme" is the constantfeeling of the
Christian.
2. To the favour of God. "Who will show us any good?" is the question with
the worldling; but the Christian says, "Lift Thou upon us the light of Thy
countenance."
3. To the glory of God. We are prone to think that Christianity is a thing for
the Bible, for the Sunday, for the Church merely. But it is meant to be like the
greatprinciple of gravitationwhich controls the planet and the pebble. When
you transactbusiness you are bound to do it to the glory of God. In your
homes, whether your tables be coveredwith all the luxuries, or merely with
the necessaries oflife, "ye are to do all to the glory of God."
III. THIS LIFE HAS CERTAIN SPECIALCHARACTERISTICS.It is —
1. A holy life. If there be God's life in man's heart, there must be God's
holiness in man's conduct.
2. A happy life. Joyis one of the fruits it bears.
3. A royal life. "He has made us kings and priests unto God." We are "a royal
priesthood."
4. An immortal life. All systems, hierarchies, and empires shall be dissolved;
but the man that has the life of God in his heart has the immortality of God as
his prerogative. Conclusion:The history of the Church that has possessedthis
vital principle has been throughout a very painful but a very triumphant one.
That vitality must be a reality since nothing has been ever able to extinguish
or destroy it. Systems that chime in with the fallen propensities of man have
sunk before rival systems;but Christianity, which rebukes man's pride, which
bridles man's lusts, which rebukes man's sins, has outlived all persecution,
survived all curse, and seems to commence in the nineteenth century, a career

that shall be bounded only by the limits of the population of the globe itself. Is
not this evidence of a Divine presence — of a Divine power? Let me make one
or two inferences.This life is —
1. The true secretand source of ministerial success.
2. The source of all missionaryeffort.
3. The true distinction betweenthe Church and the world.
4. The true safety of the Church.
5. The great want of the Church today.
(J. Cumming, D. D.)
Immortality as taught by the Christ
T. T. Munger.
1. Science maythrow no barrier in the way of belief in immortality; nature
and the heart of man may suggestclearintimations of a future life; human
societymay demand anotherlife to complete the suggestionsand fill up the
lacks ofthis; but, for some reason, all such proof fails to satisfy us. It holds the
mind, but does not minister to the heart.
2. It is noticeable also that the faith of natural evidence awakensno joyful
enthusiasm in masses ofmankind. Plato and Cicero discourse ofimmortality
with a certain degree ofwarmth, but their countrymen getlittle comfort from
it. The reasonis evident. The mere factthat I shall live tomorrow does not
sensibly move me. Something must be joined with existence before it gets
power.
3. We will now considerthe wayin which Christ treatedthe subject.
I. HE ASSUMED THE RECEIVED DOCTRINEAND BUILT UPON IT.
When He entered on His ministry He found certainimperfect or germinal
truths existing in Jewishtheology. He found a doctrine of God, partial in
conception; He perfected it by revealing the Divine Fatherhood. He found a

doctrine of sin and righteousnessturning upon external conduct; He
transferred it to the heart and spirit. He found a doctrine of immortality, held
as mere future existence. His treatment of this doctrine was not so much
corrective as accretive. Hence He never uses any word corresponding to
immortality (which is a mere negation — unmortal), but always speaks oflife.
He never makes a straight assertionof it exceptonce, when the Sadducees
pressedHim with a quibbling argument againstthe resurrection. Elsewhere
He simply assumes it. But an assumption is often the strongestkind of
argument. It implies such conviction in the mind of the speakerthat there is
no need of proof.
II. IN HIS MIND THE INTENSE AND ABSOLUTE CONSCIOUSNESS OF
GOD CARRIES WITH IT IMMORTALITY, AS IT DOES THE WHOLE
BODY OF HIS TRUTH. Within this universe, at its centre, is world around
which all others revolve, the sun of suns, the centre of all systems, whose
potency reaches to the uttermost verge, holding them steadyto their courses.
It is not otherwise in morals. Given the fact of God, and all other truth takes
its place without question. Hence, when there is an overpowering, all-
possessing senseofGod as there was in Christ, truth takes onabsolute forms;
hence it was that He spoke with authority. It was Christ's realizationof the
living God that rendered His conviction of eternal life so absolute. We canbut
notice how grandly Christ reposedupon this factof immortal life. He feels no
need of examining the evidences or balancing proofs. He stands steadily upon
life, life endless by its own Divine nature. Deathwas no leap in the dark to
Him; it was simply a door leading into another mansion of God's greathouse.
It is proper to ask here, "Is it probable that Christ was mistaken? ThatHis
faith in immortality was but an in. tense form of a prevailing superstition?" If
we could find any weaknesselsewherein His teachings, there would be ground
for such questions. But as a moral teacherHe stands at the head,
unimpeachable in the minutest particular. Is it probable that, true in all else,
He was in fault in this one respect? Thata body of truth all interwoven and
suffused with life is basedupon an illusion of life? If one tells me ninety-nine
truths, I will trust him in the hundredth, especiallyif it is involved in those
before. Build me a column perfectin base and body, and I will know if the
capital is true. When the clearesteyes that ever lookedon this world and into

the heavens, and the keenestjudgment that everweighed human life, and the
purest heart that everthrobbed with human sympathy, tells me that man is
immortal, I repose on His teaching in perfect trust. It is reasonto see with the
wise, and to feelwith the good. Still another distinction must be made; we do
not acceptimmortality because Jesus,the wise young Jew, wove it into His
precepts, but because the Christ, the Sonof God and of man — Humanity
revealing Deity — makes it a part of that order of human history best named
as the reconciliationof the world to God.
III. HE DOES NOT THINK OF IT AS A FUTURE, BUT AS A PRESENT
FACT. As time in the Divine mind is an eternalnow, so it seems to have been
with Christ. If the cup of life is full, there is little sense ofpast or future; the
present is enough. When Christ speaks ofeternal life, He does not mean
future endless existence;but fullness or perfection of life. That it will go on
forever is a matter of course, but it is not the important feature of the truth.
IV. And thus we are brought to the fundamental fact that HE CONNECTED
LIFE OR IMMORTALITY WITH CHARACTER. Life, as mere continuance
of being, is not worth thinking about. Of what value is the mere adding of
days to days if they are full of sin? Practically suchlife is death, and so He
names it. There canbe no real and abiding faith in immortality until it
becomes weddedto the spiritual nature. When life begins to be true, it
announces itself as an eternal thing to the mind; as a cagedbird when let loose
into the sky might say, "Now I know that my wings are made to beat the air in
flight;" and no logic could ever persuade the bird that it was not designedto
fly; but when caged, it might have doubted at times, as it beat the bars of its
prison with unavailing stroke, if its wings were made for flight. So it is not
until a man begins to use his soul aright that he knows for what it is made.
When he puts his life into harmony with God's laws;when he begins to pray;
when he clothes himself with the graces of Christian faith and conduct, when
he begins to live unto his spiritual nature, he begins to realize what life is — a
reality that death and time cannot touch. But when his life is made up of the
world, it is not strange that it should seemto himself as liable to perish with
the world. Those who believe have everlasting life. Others may exist, but
existence is not life. Others may continue to exist, but continuance is not
immortality. To lift men out of existence into life was Christ's mission.

V. He not only gave us the true law, BUT WAS HIMSELF A PERFECT
ILLUSTRATION OF IMMORTALITY, and even named Himself by it — the
Life. It is a greatthing for us that this truth has been put into actualfact.
Human nature is crowdedwith hints and omens of it, but prophecy does not
convince till it is fulfilled. And from the Divine side also we getassurancesof
endless life; but in so hard a matter we are like Thomas, who neededthe sight
and touch to assure him. And in Christ we have both — the human omen and
the Divine promise turned into fact. In some of the cathedrals of Europe, on
Christmas eve, two small lights, typifying the Divine and human nature, are
gradually made to approachone another until they meet and blend, forming a
bright flame. Thus, in Christ, we have the light of two worlds thrown upon
human destiny. The whole bearing of Christ towards death, and His treatment
of it, was as one superior to it, and as having no lot nor part in it. He will
indeed bow his head in obedience to the physical laws of the humanity He
shares, but already He enters the gates ofParadise, not alone but leading a
penitent child of humanity by the hand. And in order that we may know He
simply changedworlds, He comes back and shows Himself alive; for He is not
here in the world simply to asserttruth, but to enactit. And still further to
show us how phantasmal death is, He finally departs in all the fullness of life,
simply drawing about Himself the thin drapery of a cloud. Conclusion: A true
and satisfying sense of immortality cannotbe takensecondhand. We cannot
read it in the pages ofa book, whether of nature or inspiration. We cannot
even look upon the man Jesus issuing from the tomb, and draw from thence a
faith that yields peace. There must be fellowship with the Christ of the
Resurrectionbefore we can feel its power; in other words, we must getover
upon the Divine side of life before we canbe assuredof eternal life. "Join
thyself," says , "to the eternal God, and thou wilt be eternal."
(T. T. Munger.)
Living because Christlives
C. H. Spurgeon.

When Luther was in his worsttroubles a friend came in to see him, and he
noticed that he had written upon the wall in big letters the word "Vivit!" He
inquired of Luther what he meant by "vivit?" Luther answered, "Jesus lives;
and if He did not live I would not care to live an hour." Yes, our life is bound
up with that of Jesus. We are calledupon to live of ourselves, that would be
death; but we have life and all things in union with Him.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(2) In my Father’s house are many mansions.—The Greekwordused for
“house” here is slightly different from that used of the material temple on
earth in John 2:16. The exactmeaning will be at once seenfrom a comparison
of 2Corinthians 5:1, the only other passagein the New Testamentwhere it is
used metaphorically. The Jews were accustomedto the thought of heavenas
the habitation of God; and the disciples had been taught to pray, “Our Father,
which art in heaven.” (Comp. Psalm 23:6; Isaiah63:15; Matthew 6:9; Acts
7:49; and especiallyHebrews 9)
The Greek wordfor “mansions” occurs againin the New Testamentonly in
John 14:23, where it is rendered abode.” Wiclif and the Geneva version read
“dwellings.” It is found in the Greek of the Old Testamentonly in 1
Maccabees7:38 (“Suffer them not to continue any longer”—“give them not an
abode”). Our translators here followedthe Vulgate, which has “mansiones
“with the exactmeaning of the Greek, that is; “resting-places,” “dwellings.”
In Elizabethan English the word meant no more than this, and it now means
no more in Frenchor in the Englishof the North. A maison or a manse, is not
necessarilya modern English mansion. It should also be noted that the Greek

word is the substantive answering to the verb which is rendered “dwelleth” in
John 14:10, and “abide” in John 15:4-10. (see Note there).
“Many” is not to be understood, as it often has been, simply or chiefly of
different degrees ofhappiness in heaven. Happiness depends upon the mind
which receives it, and must always exist, therefore, in varying degrees, but this
is not the prominent thought expressedhere, though it may be implied. The
words refer rather to the extent of the Father’s house, in which there should
be abiding-places for all. There would be no risk of that house being
overcrowdedlike the caravanseraiatBethlehem, or like those in which the
Passoverpilgrims, as at this very time, found shelter at Jerusalem. Though
Petercould not follow Him now, he should hereafter(John 13:36);and for all
who shall follow Him there shall be homes.
If it were not so, I would have told you.—These words are not without
difficulty, but the simplest, and probably truest, meaning is obtained by
reading them as our version does. Theybecome then an appealto our Lord’s
perfect candour in dealing with the disciples. He had revealedto them a
Father and a house. That revelation implies a home for all. Were there not
“many mansions” the fulness of His teaching could have had no place. Had
there been limitations He must have markedthem out.
I go to prepare a place for you.—The better MSS. read, “ForI . . ,”
connecting the clause with the earlier part of the verse. He is going awayto
prepare a place for them; and this also proves the existence of the home.
There is to be then no separation;He is to enter within the veil, but it is to be
as Forerunner on our behalf (Hebrews 6:20). “When Thou hadst overcome
the sharpness ofdeath, Thou didst open the kingdom of heavento all
believers.”
MacLaren's Expositions
John

THE FORERUNNER
‘MANY MANSIONS’
John 14:2.
Sorrow needs simple words for its consolation;and simple words are the best
clothing for the largesttruths. These elevenpoor men were crushed and
desolate atthe thought of Christ’s going;they fancied that if He left them they
lost Him. And so, in simple, childlike words, which the weakestcouldgrasp,
and in which the most troubled could find peace, He said to them, after having
encouragedtheir trust in Him, ‘There is plenty of room for you as well as for
Me where I am going; and the frankness of our intercourse in the past might
make you sure that if I were going to leave you I would have told you all about
it. Did I ever hide from you anything that was painful? Did I everallure you
to follow Me by false promises? Should I have kept silence about it if our
separationwas to be eternal?’So, simply, as a mother might hush her babe
upon her breast, He soothes their sorrow. And yet, in the quiet words, so level
to the lowestapprehension, there lie greattruths, far deeperthan we yet have
appreciated, and which will enfold themselves in their majesty and their
greatness througheternity. ‘In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it
were not so, I would have told you.’
I. Now note in these words, first, the ‘Father’s house,’ and its ample room.
There is only one other occasionrecordedin which our Lord used this
expression, and it occurs in this same Gospelnearthe beginning; where in the
narrative of the first cleansing of the Temple we read that He said, ‘Make not
My Father’s house a house of merchandise.’The earlieruse of the words may

help to throw light upon one aspectof this latter employment of it, for there
blend in the image the two ideas of what I may call domestic familiarity, and
of that greatfuture as being the reality of which the earthly Temple was
intended to be the dim prophecy and shadow. Its courts, its many chambers,
its ample porches with room for thronging worshippers, representedin some
poor way the wide sweepand space ofthat higher house; and the sense of
Sonship, which drew the Boy to His Father’s house in the earliesthours of
conscious childhood, speaks here.
Think for a moment of how sweetand familiar the conceptionof heavenas the
Father’s house makes it to us. There is something awful, even to the best and
holiest souls, in the thought of even the glories beyond. The circumstances of
death, which is its portal, our utter unacquaintance with all that lies behind
the veil, the terrible silence and distance which falls upon our dearestones as
they are suckedinto the cloud, all tend to make us feelthat there is much that
is solemn and awful even in the thought of eternal future blessedness. Buthow
it is all softenedwhen we say, ‘My Father’s house.’Mostof us have long since
left behind us the sweetsecurity, the sense ofthe absence ofall responsibility,
the assuranceofdefence and provision, which used to be ours when we lived
as children in a father’s house here. But we may all look forward to the
renewal, in far nobler form, of these early days, when the father’s house
meant the inexpugnable fortress where no evil could befall us, the abundant
home where all wants were supplied, and where the shyestand timidest child
could feel at ease and secure. It is all coming again, brother, and amidst the
august and unimaginable glories of that future the old feeling of being little
children, nestling safe in the Father’s house, will fill our quiet hearts once
more.
And then considerhow the conceptionof that Future as the Father’s house
suggestsanswersto so many of our questions about the relationship of the
inmates to one another. Are they to dwell isolatedin their severalmansions?
Is that the wayin which children in a home dwell with eachother? Surely if

He be the Father, and heaven be His house, the relation of the redeemed to
one another must have in it more than all the sweetfamiliarity and
unrestrained frankness which subsists in the families of earth. A solitary
heaven would be but half a heaven, and would ill correspondwith the hopes
that inevitably spring from the representationof it as ‘my Father’s house.’
But considerfurther that this greatand tender name for heaven has its
deepestmeaning in the conceptionof it as a spiritual state of which the
essentialelements are the loving manifestationand presence of God as Father,
the perfectconsciousnessofsonship, the happy union of all the children in one
greatfamily, and the derivation of all their blessednessfrom their Elder
Brother.
The earthly Temple, to which there is some allusion in this greatmetaphor,
was the place in which the divine glory was manifested to seeking souls,
though in symbol, yet also in reality, and the representationof our text blends
the two ideas of the free, frank intercourse of the home and of the magnificent
revelations of the Holy of holies. Under either aspectofthe phrase, whether
we think of ‘my Father’s house’as temple or as home, it sets before us, as the
main blessednessand glory of heaven, the vision of the Father, the
consciousnessofsonship, and the complete union with Him. There are many
subsidiary and more outward blessednesses andglories which shine dimly
through the haze of metaphors and negations, by which alone a state of which
we have no experience canbe revealedto us; but these are secondary. The
heaven of heaven is the possessionofGod the Fatherthrough the Son in the
expanding spirits of His sons. The sovereignand filial position which Jesus
Christ in His manhood occupies in that higher house, and which He shares
with all those who by Him have receivedthe adoption of sons, is the very heart
and nerve of this greatmetaphor.

But I think we must go a step further than that, and recognisethat in the
image there is inherent the teaching that that glorious future is not merely a
state, but also a place. Localassociations are not to be divorced from the
words; and although we can saybut little about such a matter, yet everything
in the teaching of Scripture points to the thought that howsoevertrue it may
be that the essenceofheavenis condition, yet that also heavenhas a local
habitation, and is a place in the greatuniverse of God. Jesus Christ has at this
moment a human body, glorified. That body, as Scripture teaches us, is
somewhere, andwhere He is there shall also His servant be. In the contextHe
goes onto tell us that ‘He goes to prepare a place for us,’ and though I would
not insist upon the literal interpretation of such words, yet distinctly the drift
of the representationis in the direction of localising, though not of
materialising, the abode of the blessed. So I think we can say, not merely that
what He is that shall also His servants be, but that where He is there shall also
His servants be. And from the representationof my text, though we cannot
fathom all its depths, we can at leastgraspthis, which gives solidity and
reality to our contemplations of the future, that heaven is a place, full of all
sweetsecurityand homelike repose, where God is made known in every heart
and to every consciousnessas a loving Father, and of which all the inhabitants
are knit togetherin the frankestfraternal intercourse, conscious ofthe
Father’s love, and rejoicing in the abundant provisions of His royal House.
And then there is a secondthought to be suggestedfrom these words, and that
is of the ample room in this greathouse. The original purpose of the words of
my text, as I have already reminded you, was simply to soothe the fears of a
handful of disciples.
There was room where Christ went for elevenpoor men. Yes, room enough
for them! but Christ’s prescienteye lookeddown the ages, andsaw all the
unborn millions that would yet be drawn to Him uplifted on the Cross, and
some glow of satisfactionflitted acrossHis sorrow, as He saw from afar the
result of the impending travail of His soul in the multitudes by whom God’s

heavenly house should yet be filled. ‘Many mansions!’ the thought widens out
far beyond our grasp. Perhaps that upper room, like most of the roof-
chambers in Jewishhouses, was opento the skies, and whilst He spoke, the
innumerable lights that blaze in that clearheavenshone down upon them, and
He may have pointed to these. The better Abraham perhaps lookedforth, like
His prototype, on the starry heavens, and saw in the vision of the future those
who through Him should receive the ‘adoption of sons’ and dwell for ever in
the house of the Lord, ‘so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the
sand which is by the seashore innumerable.’
Ah! brethren, if we could only widen our measurement of the walls of the New
Jerusalemto the measurement of that ‘golden rod which the man, that is the
angel,’as John says, applied to it, we should understand how much bigger it is
than any of these poor sects and communities of ours here on earth. If we
would lay to heart, as we ought to do, the deep meaning of that indefinite
‘many’ in my text, it would rebuke our narrowness. There will be a great
many occupants of the mansions in heaven that Christian men here on earth-
the most Catholic of them-will be very much surprised to see there, and
thousands will find their entrance there that never found their entrance into
any communities of so-calledChristians here on earth.
That one word ‘many’ should deepen our confidence in the triumphs of
Christ’s Cross, and it may be used to heighten our own confidence as to our
own poor selves. A chamber in the greatTemple waits for eachof us, and the
question is, Shall we occupyit, or shall we not? The old Rabbis had a tradition
which, like a greatmany of their apparently foolish sayings, covers in
picturesque guise a very deep truth. They said that, however many the
throngs of worshippers who came up to Jerusalemat the passover, the streets
of the city and the courts of the sanctuary were never crowded. And so it is
with that greatcity. There is room for all. There are throngs, but no crowds.
Eachfinds a place in the ample sweepofthe Father’s house, like some of the
greatpalaces that barbaric Easternkings used to build, in whose courts

armies might encamp, and the chambers of which were counted by the
thousand. And surely in all that ample accommodation, you and I may find
some corner where we, if we will, may lodge for evermore.
I do not dwell upon subsidiary ideas that may be drawn from the expressions.
‘Mansions’ means places of permanent abode, and suggeststhe two thoughts,
so sweetto travellers and toilers in this fleeting, labouring life, of
unchangeablenessand of repose. Some have supposed that the variety in the
attainments of the redeemed, which is reasonable andscriptural, might be
deduced from our text, but that does not seemto be relevant to our Lord’s
purpose.
One other suggestionmay be made without enlarging upon it. There is only
one other occasionin this Gospelin which the word here translated
‘mansions’ is employed, and it is this: ‘We will come and make our abode with
him.’ Our mansion is in God; God’s dwelling-place is in us. So ask yourselves,
Have you a place in that heavenly home? When prodigal children go away
from the father’s house, sometimes a broken-heartedparent will keepthe
boy’s room just as it used to be when he was young and pure, and will hope
and wearythrough long days for him to come back and occupyit again. God
is keeping a room for you in His house; do you see that you fill it.
II. In the next place, note here the sufficiency of Christ’s revelationfor our
needs.
‘If it were not so I would have told you.’ He sets Himself forward in very
august fashionas being the Revealerand Opener of that house for us. There is
a singular tone about all our Lord’s few references to the future-a tone of
decisiveness;not as if He were speaking, as a man might do, that which he had
thought out, or which had come to him, but as if He was speaking ofwhat he

had Himself beheld, ‘We speak that we do know, and testify that we have
seen.’He stands like one on a mountain top, looking down into the valleys
beyond, and telling His comrades in the plain behind Him what He sees. He
speaks ofthat unseenworld always as One who had been in it, and who was
reporting experiences, and not giving forth opinions. His knowledge was the
knowledge ofOne who dwelt with the Father, and left the house in order to
find and bring back His wandering brethren. It was ‘His own calm home, His
habitation from eternity,’ and therefore He could tell us with decisiveness,
with simplicity, with assurance, allwhich we need to know about the
geographyof that unknown land-the plan of that, by us unvisited, house. Very
remarkable, therefore, is it, that with this tone there should be such reticence
in Christ’s references to the future. The text implies the rationale of such
reticence. ‘If it were not so I would have told you.’ I tell you all that you need,
though I tell you a greatdeal less than you sometimes wish.
The gaps in our knowledge ofthe future, seeing that we have such a Revealer
as we have in Christ, are remarkable. But my text suggests this to us-we have
as much as we need. I know, and many of you know, by bitter experience, how
many questions, the answers to which would seemto us to be such a lightening
of our burdens, our desolatedand troubled hearts suggestaboutthat future,
and how vainly we ply heaven with questions and interrogate the unreplying
Oracle. But we know as much as we need. We know that God is there. We
know that it is the Father’s house. We know that Christ is in it. We know that
the dwellers there are a family. We know that sweetsecurityand ample
provision are there; and, for the rest, if we I neededto have heard more, He
would have told us.
‘My knowledge ofthat life is small,
The eye of faith is dim;

But ‘tis enough that Christ knows all;
And I shall be with Him.’
Let the gaps remain. The gaps are part of the revelation, and we know enough
for faith and hope.
May we not widen the application of that thought to other matters than to our
bounded and fragmentary conceptions of a future life? In times like the
present, of doubt and unrest, it is a greatpiece of Christian wisdom to
recognise the limitations of our knowledge andthe sufficiencyof the
fragments that we have. What do we geta revelation for? To solve theological
puzzles and dogmatic difficulties? to inflate us with the pride of quasi-
omniscience? orto present to us God in Christ for faith, for love, for
obedience, for imitation? Surely the latter, and for such purposes we have
enough.
So let us recognise thatour knowledge is very partial. A greatstretch of wall
is blank, and there is not a window in it. If there had been need for one, it
would have been struck out. He has been pleasedto leave many things
obscure, not arbitrarily, so as to try our faith-for the implication of the words
before us is that the relation betweenHim and us binds Him to the utmost
possible frankness, and that all which we need and He can tell us He does tell-
but for high reasons, andbecause of the very conditions of our present
environment, which forbid the more complete and all-round knowledge.
So let us recognise ourlimitations. We know in part, and we are wise if we
affirm in part. Hold by the Central Light, which is Jesus Christ. ‘Many things
did Jesus whichare not written in this book,’and many gaps and deficiencies

from a human point of view exist in the contexture of revelation. ‘But these
are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ,’ for which enough has
been told us, ‘and that, believing, ye may have life in His name.’ If that
purpose be accomplishedin us, God will not have spoken, nor we have heard,
in vain. Let us hold by the Central Light, and then the circumference of
darkness will gradually retreat, and a wider sphere of illumination be ours,
until the day when we enter our mansion in the Father’s house, and then ‘in
Thy Light shall we see light’; and we shall ‘know even as we are known.’
Let your Elder Brother lead you back, dear friend, to the Father’s bosom, and
be sure that if you trust Him and listen to Him, you will know enough on earth
to turn earth into a foretaste of Heaven, and will find at lastyour place in the
Father’s house beside the Brother who has prepared it for you.
BensonCommentary
John 14:2-4. In my Father’s house — From whence I came, whither I am
going, and to which place I am conducting you; are many mansions — or
apartments (he alludes to the palaces ofkings)sufficient to receive the holy
angels, your predecessors in the faith, and all that now believe, or shall
hereafterbelieve, even a greatmultitude, which no man cannumber. Our
Lord means by the expression, different states of felicity in which men shall be
placed, according to their progress in faith and holiness. If it were not so — If
there were no state of felicity hereafter, into which goodmen are to be
receivedat death, I would have told you so, and not have permitted you to
impose upon yourselves by a vain expectationof what shall never exist; much
less would I have said so much as I have done to confirm that expectation:but
as it is in itself a glorious reality, so I am now going, not only to receive my
own reward, but to prepare a place for you there. By passing into the heavens,
as your greatHigh-Priest, through the merit of my sacrifice, andby appearing
in the presence ofGod as your Advocate and Intercessor, I shall procure for
you an entrance into that place, which otherwise would have been inaccessible
to you. And if I then go and prepare a place for you — You may depend upon
it that this preparation shall not be in vain; but that I will certainly act so

consistenta part as to come againand receive you to myself, that where I am
— And shall for ever be; ye — After a short separation;may be also — To
dwell for ever with me, and partake in my felicity. And — Surely I may say in
the general, afterall the instructions I have given you; that whither I go ye
know, &c. — That ye cannotbut know the place to which I am going, and the
way that leads to it; for I have told you both plainly enough.
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
14:1-11 Here are three words, upon any of which stress may be laid. Upon the
word troubled. Be not castdown and disquieted. The word heart. Let your
heart be keptwith full trust in God. The word your. Howeverothers are
overwhelmed with the sorrows ofthis present time, be not you so. Christ's
disciples, more than others, should keeptheir minds quiet, when everything
else is unquiet. Here is the remedy againstthis trouble of mind, Believe. By
believing in Christ as the MediatorbetweenGod and man, we gain comfort.
The happiness of heavenis spokenof as in a father's house. There are many
mansions, for there are many sons to be brought to glory. Mansions are
lasting dwellings. Christ will be the Finisher of that of which he is the Author
or Beginner; if he have prepared the place for us, he will prepare us for it.
Christ is the sinner's Way to the Father and to heaven, in his personas God
manifest in the flesh, in his atoning sacrifice, and as our Advocate. He is the
Truth, as fulfilling all the prophecies of a Saviour; believing which, sinners
come by him the Way. He is the Life, by whose life-giving Spirit the dead in
sin are quickened. Nor can any man draw nigh God as a Father, who is not
quickened by Him as the Life, and taught by Him as the Truth, to come by
Him as the Way. By Christ, as the Way, our prayers go to God, and his
blessings come to us; this is the Way that leads to rest, the goodold Way. He is
the Resurrectionand the Life. All that saw Christ by faith, saw the Fatherin
Him. In the light of Christ's doctrine, they saw God as the Fatherof lights;
and in Christ's miracles, they saw Godas the God of power. The holiness of
God shone in the spotless purity of Christ's life. We are to believe the
revelation of God to man in Christ; for the works of the Redeemershow forth
his ownglory, and God in him.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible

In my Father's house - Mostinterpreters understand this of heaven, as the
specialdwelling-place or palace ofGod; but it may include the universe, as the
abode of the omnipresent God.
Are many mansions - The word rendered "mansions" means either the act of
dwelling in any place (John 14:23, "we will make our abode with him"), or it
means the place where one dwells. It is takenfrom the verb to remain, and
signifies the place where one dwells or remains. It is applied by the Greek
writers to the tents or temporary habitations which soldiers pitch in their
marches. It denotes a dwelling of less permanency than the word house. It is
commonly understood as affirming that in heaven there is ample room to
receive all who will come;that therefore the disciples might be sure that they
would not be excluded. Some have understood it as affirming that there will
be different grades in the joys of heaven; that some of the mansions of the
saints will be nearer to God than others, agreeablyto 1 Corinthians 15:40-41.
But perhaps this passage mayhave a meaning which has not occurredto
interpreters.
Jesus was consoling his disciples, who were affectedwith grief at the idea of
his separation. To comfortthem he addresses themin this language:"The
universe is the dwelling-place of my Father. All is his house. Whether on earth
or in heaven, we are still in his habitation. In that vast abode of God there are
many mansions. The earth is one of them, heaven is another. Whether here or
there, we are still in the house, in one of the mansions of our Father, in one of
the apartments of his vast abode. This we ought continually to feel, and to
rejoice that we are permitted to occupy any part of his dwelling-place. Nor
does it differ much whether we are in this mansion or another. It should not
be a matter of grief when we are called to pass from one part of this vast
habitation of God to another. I am indeed about to leave you, but I am going
only to another part of the vast dwelling-place of God. I shall still be in the
same universal habitation with you; still in the house of the same God; and am
going for an important purpose - to fit up another abode for your eternal
dwelling." If this be the meaning, then there is in the discourse true
consolation. We see that the death of a Christian is not to be dreaded, nor is it
an event over which we should immoderately weep. It is but removing from
one apartment of God's universal dwelling-place to another - one where we

shall still be in his house, and still feel the same interest in all that pertains to
his kingdom. And especiallythe removal of the Saviour from the earth was an
event over which Christians should rejoice, for he is still in the house of God,
and still preparing mansions of restfor His people.
If it were not so ... - I have concealedfrom you no truth. You have been
cherishing this hope of a future abode with God. Had it been ill founded I
would have told you plainly, as I have told you other things. Had any of you
been deceived, as Judas was, I would have made it knownto you, as I did to
him."
I go to prepare a place for you - By his going is meant his death and ascentto
heaven. The figure here is takenfrom one who is on a journey, who goes
before his companions to provide a place to lodge in, and to make the
necessarypreparations for their entertainment. It evidently means that he, by
the work he was yet to perform in heaven, would secure their admission there,
and obtain for them the blessings ofeternal life. That work would consist
mainly in his intercession, Hebrews 10:12-13,Hebrews 10:19-22;Hebrews
7:25-27;Hebrews 4:14, Hebrews 4:16.
That where I am - This language couldbe used by no one who was not then in
the place of which he was speaking, andit is just such language as one would
naturally use who was both God and man - in reference to his human nature,
speaking ofhis going to his Father; and in reference to his divine nature,
speaking as if he was then with God.
Ye may be also - This was language eminently fitted to comfort them. Though
about to leave them, yet he would not always be absent. He would come again
at the day of judgment and gather all his friends to himself, and they should
be ever with him, Hebrews 9:28. So shall all Christians be with him. And so,
when we part with a belovedChristian friend by death, we may feel assured
that the separationwill not be eternal. We shall meet again, and dwell in a
place where there shall be no more separationand no more tears.
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary

2. In my Father's house are many mansions—andso room for all, and a place
for each.
if not, I would have told you—that is, I would tell you so at once;I would not
deceive you.
I go to prepare a place for you—to obtain for you a right to be there, and to
possessyour "place."
Matthew Poole's Commentary
Our Lord’s first argument brought to comfort them, from the place whither
he was going, and the end of his going thither. The place whither he was going
was his
Father’s house, so as they needednot to be troubled for him, he was but going
home; nor was God his Father only, but theirs also, as he afterwards saith, I
go to my Father, and your Father. And here he tells them, that in his Father’s
house there was not only a mansion, that is, an abiding place for him, but for
many others also.
Our days on the earth (saith David, 1 Chronicles 29:15) are as a shadow, and
there is no abiding; but in heaventhere are monai, abiding places. We shall
(saith the apostle, 1 Thessalonians4:17)be ever with the Lord. And the
mansions there are many; there is room enough for all believers. I would not
have deceivedyou; if there had been no place in heaven but for me, I would
have told you of it; but there are many mansions there.
I go to prepare a place for you: the place was prepared of old; those who shall
be saved, were of old ordained unto life. That kingdom was prepared for them
before the foundation of the world; that is, in the counsels and immutable
purpose of God. These mansions for believers in heavenwere to be sprinkled
with blood: the sprinkling of the tabernacle, and all the vesselsofthe ministry,

were typical of it; but the heaven things themselves with better sacrificesthan
these, saith the apostle, Hebrews 9:21,23. Byhis resurrectionfrom the dead,
and becoming the first fruits of those that sleep;by his ascensioninto heaven,
as our forerunner, Hebrews 6:20; by his sitting at the right hand of God, and
making intercessionforus; he prepares for us a place in heaven. And thus he
comforteth his disciples, (as to the want of his bodily presence), as from the
considerationof the place whither he went, so from the end of his going
thither, which was, to do those acts which were necessaryin order to His
disciples’inheriting those blessedmansions which were prepared for them
from before the foundation of the world.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
In my Father's house are many mansions,.... This he says to draw off their
minds from an earthly kingdom to an heavenly one; to point out the place to
them whither he was going, and to support them with the views and hopes of
glory under all their troubles. By his "Father's house" is meant heaven; see 2
Corinthians 5:1; which is of his Father's building, where he has, and will have
all his family. This Christ says partly to reconcile the minds of his disciples to
his departure from them, and partly to strengthen their hope of following him
thither; since it was his Father's, and their Father's house whither he was
going, and in which "are many mansions";abiding or dwelling places;
mansions of love, peace, joy, and rest, which always remain: and there are
"many" of them, which does not design different degrees ofglory; for since
the saints are all loved with the same love, bought with the same price,
justified with the same righteousness,and are equally the sons of God, their
glory will be the same. But, it denotes fulness and sufficiency of room for all
his people;for the many ordained to eternal life, for whom Christ gave his life
a ransom, and whose blood is shed for the remission of their sins, whose sins
he bore, and whom he justifies by his knowledge;who receive him by faith,
and are the many sons he will bring to glory. And this is said for the comfort
of the disciples who might be assuredfrom hence, that there would be room
not only for himself and Peter, whom he had promised should follow him
hereafter, but for them all. Very agreeable to this way of speaking are many
things in the Jewishwritings:

"says R. Isaack (o), how many , "mansions upon mansions", are there for the
righteous in that world? and the uppermost mansion of them all is the love of
their Lord.''
Moreover, they say (p), that
"in the world to come every righteous man shall have "a mansion", to
himself.''
Sometimes they (q) speak of "sevenmansions" (a number of perfection)being
prepared for the righteous in the other world, though entirely ignorant of the
person by whom these mansions are prepared: who here says,
if it were not so, I, would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. This
expresses the certainty of it, that his Father had a house, and in it were many
mansions, room enough for all his people, or he would have informed them
otherwise, who must needs know the truth of these things, since he came from
thence; and who never deceives with vain hopes of glory; and whatever he
says is truth, and to be depended on; everything he here delivers; both what
he said before, and also what follows:"I go to prepare a place for you";
heaven is a kingdom prepared by the Father for his saints, from the
foundation of the world; and again, by the presence and intercessionof
Christ, who is gone before, and is as a forerunner entered into it, and has took
possessionofit in the name of his people; and by his own appearance there for
them with his blood, righteousness, and sacrifice, he is, as it were, fitting up
these mansions for their reception, whilst they are by his Spirit and grace
fitting and preparing for the enjoyment of them.
(o) Zohar in Deut. fol. 113. 1.((p) Praefatad Sepher Raziel, fol. 2. 1. Nishmat
Chayim, fol. 26. 2. & 27. 1.((q) T. Bab. Bava Bathra, fol. 75. 1. Nishmat
Chayim, fol. 32. 2. Midrash Tillim in Galatin. l. 12. c. 6.
Geneva Study Bible
In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, {a} I would have
told you. I go to {b} prepare a place for you.

(a) That is, if it were not as I am telling you, that is, unless there was room
enough not only for me, but also for you in my Father's house, I would not
deceive you in this way with a vain hope, but I would have plainly told you so.
(b) This whole speechis an allegory, by which the Lord comforts his own,
declaring to them his departure into heaven;and he departs not to reign there
alone, but to go before and prepare a place for them.
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Meyer's NT Commentary
John 14:2-3 serve to arouse the πιστεύειν demanded in John 14:1, to which a
prospectso blessedlies open. In the house of my Fatherare many places of
sojourn, many shall find their abiding-place (μονή only here and in John
14:23 in the N. T.; frequent in the classics, comp. also 1Ma 7:38), so that such
therefore is not wanting to you also;but if this were not the case Iwould have
told you (“ademissemvobis spem inanem,” Grotius). After εἶπον ἂν ὑμῖν a full
stop must be placed, and with ὅτι (see criticalnotes)πορεύομαι a new sentence
begins. So, first Valla, then Beza, Calvin, Casaubon, Aretius, Grotius, Jansen,
and many others, including Kuinoel, Lücke, Tholuck, Olshausen, B. Crusius,
De Wette,[140]Maier, Hengstenberg, Godet, Lachmann, Tischendorf. But the
Fathers of the church, Erasmus, Luther, Castalio, Wolf, Maldonatus, Bengel,
and many others, including Hofmann, Schriftbew. II. 2, p. 464, and Ebrard,
refer εἶπον ἂν ὑμῖν to what follows:if it were not so, then I would have said to
you: I go, etc. Against this John 14:3 is decisive, according to which Jesus
actually says that He is going away, and is preparing a place.[141]Others take
it as a question, where, however, we are not, on accountof the aorist εἶπον, to
explain: would I indeed say to you: I go, etc. (Mosheim, Ernesti, Beck in the
Stud. u. Krit. 1831, p. 130 ff.)? but: would I indeed have said to you, etc.? In
this way there would neither be intended an earliersaying not preserved in
the Gospel(Ewald),[142]possiblywith the stamp of a gloss onit (Weizsäcker),
or a reference to the earlier sayings regarding the passageinto the heavenly
world (Lange). But for the latter explanation the saying in the present passage
is too definite and peculiar; while the former amounts simply to an hypothesis
which is neither necessarynor capable of support on other grounds.

The ΟἸΚΊΑ ΤΟῦ ΠΑΤΡΌς is not heavengenerally, but the peculiar dwelling-
place of the divine δόξα in heaven, the place of His glorious throne (Psalm2:4;
Psalm33:13-14;Isaiah63:15, et al.), viewed, after the analogyof the temple in
Jerusalem, this earthly οἶκος τοῦ πατρός (John 2:16), as a heavenly sanctuary
(Isaiah 57:15). Comp. Hebrews 9
ΠΟΛΛΑΊ]ἹΚΑΝΑῚ ΔΈΞΑΣΘΑΙ ΚΑῚ ὙΜᾶς, Euth. Zigabenus. The
conceptionof different degrees ofblessedness(Augustine and severalothers)
lies entirely remote from the meaning here; for many the house of God is
destined and established, and that already ἀπὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου, Matthew
25:34.
ὍΤΙ ΠΟΡΕΎΟΜΑΙ, Κ.Τ.Λ.]for I go, etc., assigns the reasonof the
assurance:ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ … πολλαί εἰσιν, so that ΕἸ ΔῈ ΜῊ, ΕἾΠΟΝ ἊΝ
ὙΜῖΝ is to be regarded as logicallyinserted. The ΠΟΡΕΎΟΜΑΙ
ἙΤΟΙΜΆΣΑΙ, Κ.Τ.Λ., however, is an actualproof of the existence of the
ΜΟΝΑῚ ΠΟΛΛΑΊ in the heavenly house of God (not of the ΕἾΠΟΝ ἊΝ
ὙΜῖΝ, as Luthardt thinks, placing only a colonafter ὙΜῖΝ), because
otherwise Jesus couldnot go awaywith the designof getting prepared for
them in those ΜΟΝΑΊ a place on which they are thereafterto enter, a place
for them. This ἙΤΟΙΜΆΖΕΙΝ ΤΌΠΟΝ presupposes ΜΟΝᾺς ΠΟΛΛΆς, in
which the dwelling-place to be provided must exist. The idea is, further (comp.
the idea of the ΠΡΌΔΡΟΜΟς, Hebrews 6:20), that He having attained by His
death to the fellowship of the divine ΔΌΞΑ, purposes to prepare the wayfor
their future ΣΥΝΔΟΞΑΣΘῆΝΑΙwith God (comp. John 17:24); but “therefore
He speaks with them in the simplest possible, as it were, childlike fashion,
according to their thoughts, as is necessaryto attractand allure simple
people,” Luther.

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