Growing up in a Baptist church in the country, we used to sing a hymn written by Ira Stamphill titled “Mansion Over The Hilltop.” Reverend Stamphill was inspired by John 14:2, which he, no doubt, read in the King James Version: “In my Father’s house are many mansions.” Having a story about a rich man building a mansion just over the hilltop ringing in his head, Stamphill wrote:
I’m satisfied with just a cottage below / A little silver and a little gold / But in that city where the ransomed will shine / I want a gold one that’s silver lined. [Refrain] I’ve got a mansion just over the hilltop / In that bright land where we’ll never grow old / And some day yonder we will never more wander / But walk on streets that are purest gold.
Elvis even recorded the song on one of his religious albums. That heavenly mansion has been a source of comfort given to families at funerals and the longing of many Christians, particularly in the evangelical South.
My aim is not to disappoint anyone who was looking forward to living in something like the Biltmore Mansion in Asheville, NC, but it is my responsibility to tell what Jesus was actually talking about. Jesus’ imagery here is actually quite complex and requires that we put a few things together.
We must first begin by understanding his Father’s house. What is his Father’s house? “Heaven.” That is not wrong, but it is not the complete picture either. Jesus told us what his Father’s house is at the beginning of his ministry when he cleansed the Temple. He told the moneychangers to “Take these things away! Do not make my Father’s house a house of merchandise!” (Jn 2:16). His Father’s house is the Temple. The Temple is the Father’s earthly palace, the footstool of his throne. The Temple is an image of heaven and connects heaven and earth, but it is the Father’s house.
To add another layer, Jesus then redefines the Temple as his body. Jesus told the Jews that day, “Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” John tells us that he was speaking of the temple of his body (Jn 2:19, 21). Jesus’ body is the Temple, the house of God the Father. John told us this in his introduction when he said that the Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us, revealing his glory (Jn 1:14).
Heaven is a real place just as earth is a real place. The two were separated from the first days of creation, waiting for the earth’s maturity so that they could be reunited. This is realized in Christ’s incarnational work. In his body, he unites heaven and earth, making a new heaven and earth, or a new creation. To be united to Christ, or to abide or dwell in Christ, is to dwell with the Father.
The word translated “mansions” or better “dwelling places” is related to the word that Jesus will later use to speak of abiding in him in chapter 15. The Father’s house is the body of Christ, the new Temple, and the new heavens and earth.
The new creation has been the focus of Jesus ministry and a primary theme of John’s Gospel. John begins his Gospel as if it is a new book of Genesis. Jesus performs seven signs within the first twelve chapters, indicating that he is undoing the effects of sin in order to make a new creation. Jesus is making a new creation in himself, which is the Father’s house, and there are many dwelling places for the disciples in this new creation. Jesus is going to the cross and through the cross to resurrection and ascension to prepare this place for them.
If he goes to prepare this place for them, he will come again to receive them unto himself. Is Jesus speaking about his resurrection or his final second coming? Yes. Jesus will go to death to prepare the place for them, but he will come back for them, freed from the chains of death to receive them and cause them to sit in heavenly places with him. Jesus’ resurrection and eventual ascension are guarantees that he will come again in like fashion to finish the work of new creation and receive us all to himself as the angels told the disciples in Acts 1 and as Paul told the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 4.
When you abide in Christ, whether you are on earth in this life or in heaven after death, you are dwelling in the Father’s house. To be united to the body of Christ is to be in the Father’s house.