Jesus tells us in (John 14:2) “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.” This is saying that Jesus went back to heaven to prepare a place for us. I believe he is saying this to us for he is talking to his disciples who are the ones that believe in Him. If we believe in Him we are disciples of Jesus also.
What did Jesus do to prepare a place for us in Heaven?
The first thing that he did was to prepare the way that we can go to heaven. He did this by dying on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. He was buried and after three days He rose from the dead and He lives. We know He lives because He was seen by many witnesses for 40 days. Then they saw Him go up to heaven in a cloud.
What is He doing to prepare our place in Heaven?
The Bible tells us that He became our advocate. He is in Heaven pleading our case with the Father. (1 John 2:1) “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:”
What does an advocate do?
He intercedes; He mediates. Paul uses the word “intercession”. This word means: “The act of interceding; mediation; interposition between parties at variance, with a view to reconciliation; prayer or solicitation to one party in favor of another, sometimes against another.”
I want you to see what Jesus is doing for us right now. (Romans 8:33-34) “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is raised again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.”
Jesus is called the mediator in Hebrews 12:24: “And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.” And also in these other passages: Galatians 3:19, 20; 1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 9:15.
He is doing this at the right hand of the Father. Jesus is at this time reconciling us to God. When Jesus died on the cross, this act reconciled man to God. But Jesus’ effort of reconciling man to God did not stop with His death. It is continuing even to this day. This is what the Bible means when it says (Romans 8:34) “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.”
This reconciliation comes out of God’s grace. You see man being reconciled to God comes about because God wants it to happen. There has not been a man that ever deserved to be reconciled to God. Here is what the Bible says: (Romans 5:10) “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”
A sinner cannot be with God because he is an enemy of God. It is God that must make peace with man. The only way a sinner can be with God is when the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. This is done through faith by the grace of God.
The Bible promises that we will be saved when we confess Jesus as Lord and believe in our hearts that He was raised from the dead. (Romans 10:9) “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
God made a way when there was no way. The way that God made was Christ came to earth and died, then He went back to heaven to prepare a way by becoming our advocate, our mediator so that we can be with Him in heaven.
*Devotional written by Ralph Williams, retired pastor and member of One Hope Mobile.
