heaven | Steve's Bible Meditations

“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” The Greek word for “home” (monē meaning dwelling place) used in this verse is the same word used for for “many rooms” in vs. 2 of this chapter: “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” In vs. 2 Jesus gives the assurance that each of His followers has an eternal dwelling place with Him and He is going there to prepare it. In vs. 23 Jesus and the Father come to dwell (by the Holy Spirit) with those who love Him and keep His word so that His followers can prepare for their eternal dwelling place: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you” (vs. 15-16). Jesus gives us an assurance for this life that there is an assurance of eternal life with Him. The Holy Spirit (and Father and Son) dwell with us to help prepare us for our eternal life with Them. In other words, you will dwell with God then because He dwells with you now so that you will be prepared to live eternally in the place Jesus has prepared for you!

“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” Although resurrection is a future event, those who have been redeemed by Christ have died to their own self and have taken on a new identity in Christ. This new identity is now “hidden with Christ in God.” “Hidden” in this context means to protect, preserve, or keep secure in the sense that one might hide something valuable to keep it safe. Thus, the individual identities of the redeemed of Christ are safe with Him. Jesus guards our identity; He knows who each of His redeemed are and He is saving a place for each of us in heaven. The place we call heaven is an assurance that our new identity in Christ is sustained by God so we may obtain full possession of it when we are resurrected. So resurrection life is at work in you now! We live life in the present as those who are on their way to heaven. As each day passes our lives grow more blessed as we draw nearer to the One Who is the source of our new life and new identity. Therefore, you should “set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth” (vs. 2).