Subject: An interesting discussion/question |
Bible Note: continuation, Tamara Luke 16:19-26 the story of the beggar Lazarus and the rich sinner who ignored him, passing him by as he sat begging for food at the rich sinners gate. :22 Now the poor man died and was carried away to Abraham's bosom; and the rich man aslo died and was buried. In hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom First point; they both died and were both wide awake, having never fallen asleep accourding to Jesus. Second point; Jesus as God knew better than Solomon in all his wisdom and Job in his misery what actually occurs after death. This is a progression of revelation about death and what happens to one in the Bible, that is if we are going to say that both Solomon and Job had as their intent to say something about the state of folks in death... So of you are going to say that Solomon and Job are really saying something about the state of death, you have to recognize that Jesus as God, who has more authority than they do, is now revealing more about the state of death as progressive revelation. Luke 16:24,25 And he cried out and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in the water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame'. But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus did bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony'. According to Jesus as God, the rich man was awake and suffering in the torment of flames and was thirsty for even a drop of water. According to Jesus as God, Abraham was awake and answering the rich man's request with a proclaimation of judgment. Luke 16: And besides all this, between us there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us. According to Jesus both dead men were in one single place, Hades (verse 23), with two compartments, one was hell the other had to be a type of paradise, separated by an uncrossable chasm. This has to be true because Jesus says in John 3:13 No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven; but He who descended from Heaven; the Son of Man. More about this later, it is important in determing the progression of what Jesus revealed about death in the NT. Luke 23:40,42,43 But the other answered, and rebuking him said, "Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?" And he was saying, "Jesus, remember me when You come in your kingdom!" And He said to him, "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in paradise." The context of this passage in light of subsequent passages drives the meaning in this passage because Jesus was in the grave for three days and did not go up to Paradise until He ascended more than some 40 days later. The context of the passage is that Jesus is being crucified and is on His way to His kingdom in that act. Jesus is about to die and enter into the process of entering His kingdom, the veil of the temple is about to split in two, indicating that Jesus has made a way through to the holy of holies by His death, has entered into His kingdom. When Jesus says, today you shall be with Me in Paradise He is not talking about time, He is talking today He is about to die and go about entering His kingdom and usher the way clear into Paradise for the criminal. We have to look to the reason why Jesus was saying what He was saying to see the true context of those verses. more to come, Tamara |