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The Daily Word of Righteousness
One With God, #5
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. (John 14:3—NIV)
In order for Christ to move from outside His disciples to inside His disciples He had to make an atonement for sin. Otherwise God could not have received us into Himself. Christ prepared a place for us in Himself by means of His atoning blood.
Again, the New International Version, reflecting our tradition of Christ going to Heaven, translates the verse above as though Christ will go to Heaven and then will return that He may take us back to Heaven with Himself. This is not the case.
The King James and New American Standard versions are clearer.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:2—King James Version)
As we carefully study John 14:1-23 we see that the coming mentioned here is not the great historical return of Jesus Christ in the clouds of glory but is a personal coming to His disciples. This is taking place today.
The idea of John 14:3 is that Christ will go to the cross, then to Heaven to appear in the Presence of God for us, and then will return to us personally and receive us to Himself. Where Jesus is, is in the Person of the Father. Jesus comes to us personally that He might receive us in such a manner that we are able to dwell with Him in the Person of the Father.
In other words, Jesus came from God in order to bring us to God—that where He always is, there we may be also.
Just our passing into the spirit realm accomplishes nothing for Christ or God and not much for ourselves. There is benefit for us in entering the holy area of the spirit realm, but this benefit is not to be compared with the incomprehensible benefit of being received into the Persons of Jesus Christ and the Father!
It is one matter to visit Heaven. It is quite another matter to be received into the very Person of Christ and God!
We looked forward to visiting England. It would have been far more enjoyable if we had been invited to visit with the Queen.
But to enter the Person of the greatest of all Kings is so much greater than anything else as to be quite beyond our ability to imagine. Do you agree with me in this?
I am looking forward to going to Heaven, just as does every Christian. But this is not my goal. My goal is to be forever with Christ where He is—that is, in the Presence of the Consuming Fire of Israel. Is this true of you also?
You know the way to the place where I am going. (John 14:4—NIV)
I am at a loss to understand why the Lord says things like this. None of the disciples knew what Jesus was talking about. We still don't today, apparently.
Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" (John 14:5—NIV)
To be continued.