My Father’s Home

My Father’s Home

[Jesus said,] “Don’t be troubled. You trust God, now trust in me. There are many rooms in my Father’s home, and I am going to prepare a place for you. If this were not so, I would tell you plainly. When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.” –John 14:1-3

Walking out of the athletic club, I ran into an acquaintance who began to tell me about a tennis buddy who had just received a terminal diagnosis. Her friend was struggling with questions about eternity as she came face-to-face with death; yet she was resistant to seeing herself as anything other than worthy of heaven, even though she had no relationship with Jesus and no interest in him. To her it seemed simple—everyone goes to heaven when they die. My friend wondered how to make the truth about heaven understandable to her.

I suggested she ask her friend if anybody who comes to her door is welcome inside her home. Most likely, because it is her house, she determines whom she will invite and who will be welcomed. Jesus described heaven as “my Father’s home,” a place he is preparing for all of God’s family where they will live with him forever. Because heaven is his home, the Father has determined who is invited. Actually, he has opened the invitation wide—offering salvation to anyone who will place his or her faith in him through his Son. And he determines who is welcome—only those who have responded to his invitation by faith. Because heaven is his home, he has the right to determine who will be there with him. And if you have responded to God’s invitation by faith, there is a room in his home prepared for you.

While it is easy for people to believe there is a heaven that God has created for people to live in when they die, most are not willing to accept what the Bible says about who it is being prepared for. The truth is that because heaven is a perfect place, no imperfection is allowed and no imperfect people are allowed. So who could make it, you ask? None of us can enter God’s holy home if we’re counting on our own goodness to get us in. “All have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard” (Romans 3:23). It is only as we exchange our sinfulness for the righteousness of Christ—not by trying to be good enough but solely by faith—that we become fit for a holy heaven.

Jesus, I trust that you are preparing a place just for me, that you will come for me, and that I will always be with you. Thank you for the gift of your righteousness that has made me fit for your holy heaven.

DIGGING DEEPER