Meditation on the Text of the Week

When Loved Ones Depart, How Then Shall We Live?

In My Father's house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
John 14: 2,3

Our great and undoubted Christian hope is that upon death, we will depart this life and go to be with the Lord Jesus. When our Lord spoke of the many dwelling places in His Father's house, we understand that He was speaking of the extent of the accommodation of heaven—it will host a multitude which no man can number. But we will not always dwell in heaven.

His going to prepare a place for us in the Father's house refers to the completion of His great work of redemption upon the Cross, and of His rising and ascending to, and enthronement at, the right hand of God the Father. The acceptance of His sacrifice for His people, the atonement for their sins, the propitiation or turning away of God's wrath from us, the entrance into heaven as the first born man from the dead—all of these great works are part of His preparing a place for us.

But the heart of our hope is not to be in heaven per se, but that wherever He will be, there we will be also. For the Scriptures tell us that He will not always remain in heaven, in His Father's house, as He is now. This means that we will not always remain there either, for we will be with Him, wherever He is. In this sense, the dwelling places in heaven are temporary “accommodation” until the consummation of all things. It is what the older theologians and doctors called the Intermediate State.

Our great hope is not that we will be in heaven; our great hope is that we will be with our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ wherever He may be. The day will come, at the consummation of all things upon the earth, when the last enemy, death, will be abolished—at that day, He will return to the earth. All that is evil and wrong upon the earth will have been shaken and removed. Then He will come once again to earth—and we will come with Him, that we might be with Him. So we read in the Book of the Revelation:

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His peoples and God Himself shall be among them, and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, nor crying, or pain: the first things have passed away.”
Revelation 21:1—4

When loved ones are taken from us in death, there is a very important sense in which our hope is not that we will one day go to be with them; it is rather that one day they will be returned to us. For we yet remain upon the earth which is being redeemed from sin. We yet remain here working in the Lord's vineyard, re-establishing the Garden of Eden. All who have been taken from us, will one day return to this reemergent Paradise.

When the Lord returns, and the tabernacle of God is established upon the earth; when Jerusalem has come down out of heaven and been consummated here; when all the vestiges and influences of sin have been removed, we will above all be and abide with Him here. We will regather with our loved ones here. And He will be with us.

Thus, each day given to us upon the earth is both precious and holy. For every day we remain is a day to prepare the earth just that little bit more, in the power of His Spirit, for His return. In fact, the Scriptures say, we hasten the day of His coming.

When loved ones are taken from us, how can we continue to express our love for them? By our longing to go and be with them again? Yes, but more than that. We continue to express our love by working for Christ here all the more, all the harder, for in so doing we are preparing the world for His return to us, and therefore, their return to us. This is our undoubted Christian faith. This is our great and abiding hope. This is our call to arms and holy service.