What did Jesus mean when He said, "I go to prepare a place for you" (John 14:2)?

The first thing that He declares to them, in His grace, is, that if He was going away, it is not to abandon them, but to prepare them a place elsewhere, that is, in His Father's house. There, there was not room for Him alone (perhaps He alluded to the temple?) but abodes for them also; and then He Himself would come for them, so as to have them with Him where He was Himself. He could not dwell with them down here, but they should be with Him; and He would not send to seek them, but He would come Himself to take them to Himself. Precious and tender love that associated His own with Himself, according to the place they had in His heart, and according to the eternal counsels of the love of God. Instead of the kingdom of an earthly Messiah, they would have the eternal and divine glory of the Son of man in heaven, to be like Him, and with Him. Man having entered there, consequent upon redemption, the place was prepared for them. It was not a question of preparing them for the place (that is the subject of chapter 13), but of preparing the place for them. The presence of their Forerunner, where He was going, accomplished it. The blood made peace according to divine righteousness, the water prepared them to enjoy it. The entrance of Christ left nothing to be done that they might enter; only the co-heirs must be gathered, and till then, the Lord remains seated on His Father's throne.

In Hebrews 6:20 we read, "within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus". This passage indicates first, that it was necessary that Jesus should enter heaven before His people, but second, that His presence there is the guarantee that they will be there. This verse in Hebrews is perhaps the best comment on the words of the Lord Jesus which now lie before us: "I go to prepare a place for you". By His sacrifice on the cross, He made ready His people for heaven. By His entering the Father's house before them, He prepares a place there for them. "Without presenting redemption there, and presenting Himself the new man according to the power of that redemption, there is no place prepared in heaven". (Synopsis, J.N.D.)

The Lord, in the fourteenth of John, tells His disciples that He is going away. The way in which He breaks the news is like Himself He produces a void to more than fill it again. "In my Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you to myself; that where I am there ye may be also." And is that place prepared, or is it being got ready? Clearly, the former, I judge. You might say, How? It was prepared, I apprehend, when, as the victorious Son of Man, the Lord stepped up into the Father's house, entering the glory as the head of a new race, a new creation, a new order of things. When, as man, He passed into God's glory righteously, and on the ground of that redemption by which God was glorified, the place was prepared for us, and we prepared for it. The very fact of His thus entering into it, and His being there, is the title of the believer in Him to be where He is. His going there on the ground of redemption gives us title, and fits us, as brought into His new place, to be there. In John 13 He prepares us for the enjoyment of the place, and in John 14 prepares the place for us; His entrance leaves nothing to be done for us to enter, save His coming back to gather in the co-heirs with Himself

(V. 2). Second, for the comfort of our hearts the Lord discloses to us the new home, "In My Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." Not only have we Christ in the glory our unfailing resource, but we have the Father's house as our abiding home. For let us note that the word 'mansions' is really 'abodes' — a home which once it is reached will never more be left — there we shall abide. On earth we have "no continuing city." We are pilgrims and strangers here. Our abiding home is in the Father's house. Moreover in the Father's house there are "many" abodes. On earth there was no room for Christ, and little room for those who are Christ's, but in the Father's house there is room for all that are Christ's — the great and the small. If it were not so He would have told His disciples. He would not have gathered His disciples around Himself, and led them outside this world, were He not leading them into a scene of blessedness well known to Him as the Father's house. To this home the Lord was going. On the cross He prepared His people for the place; His presence in the glory prepares the place for His people. Thus we are lifted above the weakness and failure of all things earthly, carried beyond the changing scenes of time, to enter in spirit a better world, there to find a home prepared in the Father's house.

In chapter 14 He tells them plainly that He was going to the Father. He says, “I go to prepare a place for you.” It was according to the eternal thought of the Father that man should be in that place, but then Christ had to go in first as our Forerunner, His entrance prepared the place. What prepared the place was the entrance of Christ as Man into the presence of the Father in the Father’s house, and He would have us know that that place is ours.

John 14:1-3. We can estimate but imperfectly what it was to have the Father's house presented to the disciples for the first time — for nowhere else is it spoken of. Jewish hopes looked for the manifestation of Christ on earth, but now, instead of that, it is the full revelation of the Father's house to which the Lord directs their hearts. They had believed in God without a manifestation of God; now they were to have Him as the direct object of their faith. Then He says, "I go to prepare a place for you." Redemption having settled every question of our sins — and thus prepared us for the place — His presence there prepares the place for us. He is coming again to receive us to Himself, but, between His going and His coming, He has sent the Holy Ghost that in heart and spirit we may know the Father's house before we get there. The coming is dropped in the rest of the chapter which is the unfolding, all through, of the power of the Spirit.

Two or three points of this familiar scripture may be specially noticed, to enable us more fully to comprehend the character and blessedness of our future home. It is no little proof of our Lord's tenderness that He says to His disciples, "If it were not so, I would have told you." They must have had thoughts concerning the Father's house, and the Lord would have corrected them if they had been in error. "No," He says, "it is even so; there are many mansions; there is room enough for all; not one of My own shall be excluded." And did they ask themselves, in their doubts and fears, why He should depart and leave them alone in a hostile world, surrounded by bitter foes? He now tells them, "I go to prepare a place for you." Until He had presented Himself there in the efficacy of redemption, and had taken His place as man in the glory of God, not one of His saints could enter. To Him in all, things belongs the pre-eminence; and not only so, but until, not by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood, He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption, the place was not prepared. The moment, however, He had entered, and was seated on His Father's throne, all was ready. He thus appeared to the dying Stephen as standing on the right hand of God, because even then, had that guilty nation of the Jews repented, He would have returned to introduce them into all the promised blessing; but rejecting the testimony of the Spirit, even as they had refused and crucified Christ Himself, He resumed, as it were, His seat. But still He could say, "I come quickly," for the very reason that, the place being prepared, there was nothing to prevent — as far as shown us in the Scriptures — His return at any moment to receive His people unto Himself.

Nor was this all. He whose presence here had been the revelation of a place so new to the thoughts of His people, was now going to take His place as man, as the revealed and known centre of all the joy and blessedness and glory of that place. For "I go to prepare a place for you" — Himself the home-link, so intimate and precious, of their and our hearts with the place, as His going there was all the preparation possible or needed, to give us our place there in spirit with Him, till He comes to receive us to Himself. Hence the word never speaks of our going to heaven, but to Christ. The person makes the place, even in natural things, how much more in divine!

Before, however, looking at these points, it may be well to notice that here only in Scripture have we the Father's house set forth. The reason no doubt for its introduction was the fact that Jesus had not long before declared, that the beautiful temple, which the disciples had so long been accustomed to venerate, would soon be reduced to a heap of ruins, a thorough scene of desolation. Jesus said, "There shall not be left one stone upon another which shall not be thrown down." Their hearts, therefore, being made sad with this humiliating announcement, they are comforted by being assured there is another house incorruptible and imperishable, the dwelling -place of perfect, changeless love — the Father's house. If He left them and went to the Father's house, it was large enough for them also, having many mansions or abodes, and He would go and prepare a place for them, and then come and receive them to Himself. For as they had always been with Him on earth, so they should be with Him in glory; "that where I am, ye may be also." Jesus said, "In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again," etc. Thus their hope being gone of enjoyment and blessing in connection with their beautiful temple on earth, another far more attractive and desirable house is presented to them for their eternal abode, where He was going to prepare a place for them.

There was nothing like this in the tabernacle, for the tabernacle symbolizes God's dwelling among a pilgrim people on earth, who had tents rather than any settled dwelling place. The temple pictures the Father's house in heaven. In the temple, however, there could only be a limited number of rooms used by the priests, who were serving in the temple at a given time. But the Lord Jesus says, "In My Father's house are many mansions" (Jn.14:2). Thus the type is only a faint picture of the reality. The Lord is virtually saying there is room for all His redeemed people there. The word for "mansions" is better translated "abodes," permanent dwelling places. All believers will have their place there, for all are priests of God and in glory will function in the full capacity of priests, mainly in offering up spiritual sacrifices to God.