In light of His coming departure, Jesus offered great words of comfort to His disciples, saying, “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2–3). In the King James Version, “dwelling places” is translated “mansions.” The thought of a mansion waiting on the other side delights the heart and inspires the soul. Poets and songwriters have endeared themselves to us by taking up such wondrous themes.
However, there would seem to be quite a difference between a “mansion” and a “dwelling place.” A mansion can be a dwelling place; but a dwelling place is not necessarily a mansion. The word translated “mansions” is from a word that means “to abide, abiding places” (A.T. Robertson). It is “An abiding dwelling (in contrast to our transitory earthly state) that Christ prepares for his people in his Father’s house” (Kittel’s). W.E. Vine adds, “There is nothing in the word to indicate separate compartments in heaven….”
What does all this mean? It means that Jesus’ promise to His disciples in John chapter fourteen did not refer to a literal mansion reserved for us in heaven but has reference to the place where we will abide forever. While we live in this world, our place of abode suffers deterioration and depreciation. But our home in heaven will never grow old or out of style. Our eternal inheritance is “imperishable and undefiled” and will never “fade away” (1 Pet. 1:4). It is an abiding place rather than a temporary place.
The nature of our eternal dwelling is further described by Paul in 1 Corinthians 5:1 as an “earthly tent.” He says, “if our earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (vs. 1). At the resurrection, Jesus will transform our physical bodies into “conformity with the body of His glory” (Ph. 3:21). This body will never again be subjected to any of the pains by which it was afflicted in this life (Rev. 21:4-5). Why not? Because we will live in “the tabernacle of God” (Rev. 21:3).
Separate places of abode—whether a mansion, an apartment, or a room is not the matter under discussion in Christ’s parting remarks to His disciples. He is simply assuring them that they will again be with Him in an abiding place where parting company will never again moisten the eye or tear at the heart-strings.
–Glen Elliott–