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The Daily Word of Righteousness
One With God, #3
This is what the LORD says: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be?" (Isaiah 66:1—NIV)
My wife, Audrey, and I went to England for a brief visit a few years back. But the Queen had not invited us to Buckingham Palace. There is a vast difference between going to England, as to a place, for a visit; and being invited to see the Queen.
If we would understand John 14:2, and consequently John 14:2-23, we must think about three expressions in this verse.
First, "In my Father's house."
The Father's house is not Heaven.
The above (Isaiah 66:1) is one of the verses that stood out when God began to speak to me about His desire to have a house.
Heaven is not God's house, it is God's throne. This is strikingly clear in the above verse in that God has a throne but is seeking a house and a resting place. Can you see this?
This verse is repeated by the first martyr.
Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be? (Acts 7:49—NIV)
Since the Holy Spirit spoke these words to the Sanhedrin just before the death of the first Christian martyr, we conclude that God is still seeking a house and a resting place.
What is this house, this resting place?
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. (Ephesians 2:19-22—NIV)
It is the holy city, the new Jerusalem.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God." (Revelation 21:3—NIV)
It is the Body of Christ.
When you ascended on high, you led captives in your train; you received gifts from men, even from the rebellious—that you, O LORD God, might dwell there. (Psalms 68:18—NIV)
Compare:
But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men." (Ephesians 4:7,8—NIV)
God gave the ministries and gifts of the Spirit so every member of the Church might come to the unity of the faith, to the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the stature of the fullness of Christ. The purpose of creating the perfect Body of Christ is, according to Psalms 68:18 (above), that God might have a dwelling place.
So the first expression of John 14:2, "in my Father's house," is not referring to Heaven at all but to Christ—Head and Body.
To be continued.