IF in the Father-house there are many mansions, and if, as King of the kingdom of God, Christ is busy day and night, in putting a place in readiness for each of the redeemed, against the moment of their death, the question rises of itself, whether after our dying, and until the resurrection of the dead, a task awaits us, and whether already now our dead, who went before, are engaged in a work with God.
Many mansions can not merely mean, mansions with room for all God’s elect. This were equally thinkable in one and the selfsame mansion. Even now one finds hotels with room for two thousand and more guests. Only then does that “many mansions” come to its own, when it is taken in the sense, that there is in every mansion a family-life of its own, differing from that in the other mansions. This provides the representation, that the blessed do not spread themselves in endless rows of thousands and tens of thousands, but that group-wise they are put together, by groups have a closer affiliation, and that that closer affiliation makes them form a circle in a mansion of their own.
If only so this “many mansions” comes to its own, this interpretation is strengthened by Jesus’ word, that there He prepares a place for us. This “preparing a place” can not refer to the work of atonement as such, for that was finished. And Jesus does not say: “I have prepared a place for you,” but: “I go to prepare a place for you.” Hence this “preparing a place” is something that Jesus is doing in heaven, and which only began after His Ascension.
Now “preparing a place” suggests, that after dying, every one finds his place ready in one of the many mansions. If it were the destiny of the blessed to be crowded together in endless rows, there could be no mention of “preparing a place.” Then every one’s place would indicate itself, alongside of or behind the last departed.
If on the other hand that place must be ready, and be indicated in one of the different mansions, and if in every one of these mansions the place of one is different from the place of the other, it is plain that this preparing a place is a glorious work of art, to have every one of the blessed there to take his place, and at the moment of his dying to have that place in readiness for him, which suits his disposition, his spiritual talents and his calling.
Such a place indeed for every blessed is but one.
Confusion and mistake is herewith unthinkable.
And that at our entrance into heaven every one of us shall be different from all the rest, follows immediately from what Jesus spake at Patmos, that He will give us a white stone, with a name engraven upon it, which no one knoweth save he who receiveth it.
Thus that name on the white stone must cohere with the place which separately and specially is prepared for every one.
BUT then we must needs go one step further, and conclude from this, that already now all the blessed in heaven, have a work to do for God.
That this shall be so on the new earth under the new heaven, after the youngest day, is nothing strange. On that new earth, in the realm of glory, both an invisible and a visible human life shall flourish, and that this can not consist of eternal emptiness and idleness, needs no further demonstration.
But this is altogether different, when we confine ourselves to the life we shall live from the day of our dying until the last judgment. This period of existence is mostly represented as one of idleness, or of consisting only of praising and giving thanks. But this is not what Scripture reveals unto us.
For in Revelation 7, 15 we read of the blessed, long before the resurrection of the dead, and of them it is said, that “they serve God day and night.” And also in the messages to the seven churches we read, that to him that overcometh Jesus shall give power to shepherd others (2, 26-7), that Jesus will put him on a throne to rule (3, 21), and that Jesus will make him a pillar, to bear the temple of God (3, 12).
Nothing here suggests a condition of idleness and of doing nothing, but strengthens the representation of a being busy and doing much. It will be a work, that goes on “day and night,” and consists in serving, guarding, ruling, up-bearing the kingdom of God.
Also what Jesus says elsewhere, that our dead are “as the angels in heaven” leads to the same representation. The angels indeed do not sit still, but serve God and do battle for His honor, and ceaselessly bring into execution the high command, which from God goes out to them.
THE false representation regarding this owes its origin to an altogether wrong idea of the eternal Sabbath.
When of the Lord our God it is written, that in six days He created heaven and earth and all that therein is, and that then He rested from His labor, it is wrong to understand this as a cessation of the Divine work.
The actual work of Creation ceased, and took an end, but only then began the work of Providence.
Hence, in the face of this false interpretation, we have the positive word of Jesus: “My Father worketh hitherto.”
Thus Sabbath-rest is no putting to sleep the powers of one’s life, but altogether differently, to divert that life-power from a special work, and now direct it in full to one’s real work.
So when it also says, that there “remaineth a rest for the people of God,” it does not mean, that with death a never-ending worklessness begins, on the contrary, it means, that then trouble, distress, being haunted and exhausted ceases, and that an altogether new condition arises, in which the blessed, liberated from every foreign power that inworked upon their life and drove them on, will now come to the free, unrestrained and rich unfolding of their indwelling powers.
By itself this is not otherwise thinkable.
Our blessed are not dead, but live. And life postulates action. Life without an emanation of strength were absurd.
Of Jesus in His exaltation no one dreams that He sits down doing nothing. We all know, that Jesus not only said: “the Father worketh hitherto,” but that he also added: “and I work.” We can not even think of one redeemed, who did not experience the work of Jesus on his own soul.
Meanwhile we stand confused, when we are asked, wherein that work of the blessed consists.
Scripture itself describes it as a serving, a guarding, a ruling, a bearing, as a pillar bears the temple-roof; but every closer and more definite idea is withheld.
Yet this does not need to make us doubt the truth of the fact itself.
When a domestic sharpens knives and brushes clothes, and the master of the house whom he serves sits all day long quietly at his study-table reading or thinking, it is perfectly natural that that domestic thinks: “I work hard and my master accomplishes nothing.” He has no other idea of work save as manual labor, and that one can work far more exhaustingly, without wearying his muscles, is unintelligible to him.
When on the field of battle the common soldier struggles until he is no more able, and finally sinks down in his blood, while the general on a hill-top sits quietly on his horse, and does nothing save now and then, speak to his adjutant, he who has no understanding of it thinks, that that soldier bore the heat of the day and that that general quietly looked on and did nothing.
So there is already here on earth so heaven-wide a difference between work and work, that he who spends his days in the lower kind of work, can form no idea even, wherein that higher work consists.
And is it then so unnatural, that we, who know no other work than in this earthly economy, can not even form for ourselves a faint representation of what the work of the blessed is?
Yet we know well, that here on earth already the work stands higher and is more exhausting, the less physical, and the more purely invisible of nature it is. And when one knows, that for the blessed until the day of judgment all physical inmingling with labor falls away, and that their work is purely a spiritual work, is it not plain, that such spiritual work is abundant work, even ceaseless work, and work of an higher nature, even though we are not able to explain it?
OF course the group-wise division of the blessed must cohere with this.
On earth the division of the “many mansions” is not like this. Here division proceeds from wedlock and from birth. And in one house together live man and wife and children and domestics, who as regards their work are altogether different.
Grouping according to labor and talents you do not find in the family on earth, but in commerce and industry, with art and science, also with the army.
It is noteworthy, that Scripture never compares the work and the mode of existence of angels with family-life, but always with the army.
They are “heavenly hosts,” they form a “heavenly battle array,” they are called “Mahanaim,” i.e., hosts encamped, and also: Chariots of God, which means chariots of war. Thus altogether images borrowed from the army, which can have no other meaning, than that their division into groups is governed by the work in which they have to serve God.
If now the blessed are as “angels of God in heaven and occupy different mansions,” and if therein a separate place is prepared for every one of them, is it not evident, that their division also and grouping is governed by their task?
“They do not marry,” says Jesus, “and are not given in marriage.” The tie borrowed from family-life, which has its origin in blood, does not exist above. And what other tie would there be, except the tie that lies in the particular work, which they have to perform in the service of their God?
That particular part of God’s work, which is put to their account, hangs exclusively together with their peculiar disposition and their particular talent. And so similar spirits are grouped together, in harmony to make all gifts and talents fit and dovetail in the work which to them as group jointly and commonly is appointed.
Hence a rich order, whereby every one occupies his own place, a place appropriate to his disposition and gifts, and in that place they labor and coöperate with other blessed, who in undivided harmony join themselves to them and adopt them in their own circle.
Even so the difficulty remains, that it is so hard for us to think of a soul, separated from the body, as being busy. For this reason many have spoken of a sleep of the dead. Already in his days Calvin had to oppose such as held this view.
But are not angels pure spirit, and is not the fact that they work evident in all Scripture?
And what ends all, is not the Lord our God Himself pure spirit, and is not He the All-worker, Who never wearies nor grows faint and bears all things by the word of His power?
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