22 Ways Christians Think Differently on life - No. 12: the Ultimate Solution to the Ultimate Problem of All Men

A while ago I planted in a small space in front of my house six water melon seeds. At first my wife doubted whether or not she should be able to see water melon growing up. She kept watering. Then lo and behold. Three water melons are growing, one of which is  as big as a soccer ball. She looks forward to eating it on her birthday which is due in two days!

This small gardening experience and the reading of John's gospel 14 inspired me with the hope in Jesus, that is, the vision to restore the Perfect Garden of delight in Jesus. 

Now this: All the problems suffered or to be suffered by all men of all generations are traceable to one ultimate cause, that is, doubting the love God has for his children. Jesus came to solve this problem. We can find the solution in the answers to the 8 questions in John 14. 

Q 1 - In v. 2a, Jesus says, "In my Father's house are many mansions." Are the 'mansions' mentioned here really 'mansions' like the ones in the Beverly Hills?

** Yes, but better than the mansions we see them now in the nice neighborhood like Bell Air or Beverly Hills, for as Daniel 7 and Revelation 21 say, in a due course of time God will make everything new for his children. 

Q 2 - In v. 2b Jesus says, "I go and prepare a place for you."

What is the 'place'?

** Again, place is place just like everyone in a city occupies one place or another. For example I live at a house in Downey California. On physical death the mode of one's existence will change, but upon Jesus' coming again, he or she will receive a new resurrected body. Anyways whether one is in an interim state or in a final state (resurrected body), one is in need of place. Even the 'information' such as an e-file containing a picture or document needs a place for storage. I know what you might be thinking: "Well, when I die, my body turns to dust, but where does my soul go? Where is it kept?" Well, God's storage system is way better than the way modern technology provides. Just as there are tons of cloud services, so also God has his own storage system up and running. Read Rev 20:12; Daniel 7:10.

Q 3 - In v. 3, Jesus says, "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you onto myself, that where I am, there you may be also." " Did he come already? Or is this promise still pending?

** Not yet, for this promise is still pending. As Peter said to God thousand years are like a few days.

Q 4 - In v. 10 Jesus says, "I am in my Father", and yet in v. 12 he says, "I go onto my Father." If he is in the Father, why does he say, "I go onto my Father?"

** This simply means Jesus is going to physically die on a tree, only to rise again, so he would no longer be in a physical body in a physical world, for as he is, He is with the Father, and will come back to this planet earth sooner than later just as the disciples had seen him going up to heaven.

Q 5 - In vs. 13-14 Jesus says in effect that if one prays for anything in Jesus' name, Jesus will do it, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. Why is this 'why'? [In other words what is the big deal in the Father being glorified?]

 ** In Hebrew concept, 'father' is the 'originator' (or simply the 'source' of life) of family. In the U.S. and all other parts of the world, father's problem is the source of all problems like the problem of broken families. In a way all people of all generations originated from one person Adam who then got into the problem and became the originator of problems, by first doubting the kind of love God has for him (and Eve who came from Adam who came from God the Father). Jesus came to correct the error, that is, obeying the Father's command - even the command to die for our sins on a tree, so all who put trust in this love would be restored back to the Father who is the source of life. 

Q 6 - In v. 23, Jesus says, "If a man loves me, he will keep my words, and my Father will love him." John Lennon once said, "How can I give love when I don't know what it is I'm giving?

How can I give love when I just don't know how to give?
How can I give love when love is something I ain't never had?
Oh no, oh no." What is your response to Jesus' call to love him?"

** Jesus came to address the questions John Lennon was asking, that is, to give love, how to give it, so his believers would have this love for good. Once Jesus said to his disciples, "Love one another as I have loved you." So Jesus showed them and gave them the kind of love we ought to give. But this is not all; he came to show us even how we ought to love God the Father. See the answer to the Q 8. 

Q 7 -  In v. 28 Jesus says, "My Father is greater than I." How then can Jesus be coequal with "God"? In v. 30 Jesus says, "...the prince of this world...has nothing in me." [KJV] Why does "he has nothing in me" mean? 

** NIV translates it to mean, "He has no hold on me", but I like KJV which means in effect that Jesus obeys God's will for him to die on a tree on his own, not as a victim to the Devil doing in to Jesus. 

Q 8 - In v. 31, Jesus says in effect that he goes to the cross to show us how we should love the Father as Jesus does. Yet, the Apostle Paul says, "God demonstrates his own love in own love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us." Romans 5:8 Is John 14:13-14 contradicting what Paul says?

** What John says is like "Water melon grows as the sun shines on it and as the gardener waters it." Christ died on a tree for our sins and rose again, so that as one is in the Lord he is like the water melon plant growing in the Garden of Eden where all environments for the water melon to thrive, bearing lots of water melons.