The Father is a Person. Heaven is a place. It is of the greatest practical importance to us Christians that we understand we are on a journey toward God as a Person, not primarily toward Heaven as a place. We will go to Heaven when we die, and rest and serve Christ there until the Day of resurrection. But residence in Heaven is not the goal of the Christian redemption.

The Father is our Goal. The Father, not Heaven, is our eternal Home. There is an important difference between these two goals.

If the Father and Heaven were to be treated synonymously (and they are not at all synonymous—God is just as much the God of the whole earth as He is the God of Heaven), then at least once in John, Chapters 14-17 the Lord Jesus should have stated that He was returning to Heaven.

But notice:

. . . that he should depart out of the world unto the Father, . . . . (John 13:1)

Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God; (John 13:3)

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)

At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. (John 14:20)

. . . I go unto the Father. (John 14:28)

. . . I go to the Father. (John 16:16)

I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. (John 16:28)

. . . and I come to thee.... (John 17:11)

And now come I to thee; . . . . (John 17:13)

We cannot find an exception to this. Jesus was not speaking concerning Heaven or our going to Heaven. The context of the "many mansions" is not Heaven.

When we make Heaven the goal of our discipleship, in place of the Father, the nature of redemption becomes confused—an aimless wandering while we wait to die so we can leave the earth (which actually is our inheritance) and flee to the spirit realm.

God Himself in Christ is our Goal. Nothing else! The demands Christ makes on us are to prepare us to dwell in the Person of God.

The first key to our understanding is that Christ was returning to the Father and that He is bringing us to the Father through Himself. Christ is the Way to the Father. No one comes to the Father except through Jesus, that is, except through trusting and abiding in Jesus and Jesus in him.

The second key to our understanding has to do with the Father's house.

Because of our self-centeredness we have come to regard John 14:2 as a discussion of houses (mansions) that Jesus is building for us. John 14:2 is not a discussion of the believer's house but of God's house. One of the central purposes of the Christian redemption is the building of a dwelling place for God.

What does the Scripture have to say about the Father's house? What is God's house?

To be continued.