Last week we learned from the Scriptures that sin is death, and that just as there is no righteousness apart from Christ, so there is no life apart from Him. To claim the possession of life, even for a single moment, other than that of Christ, is to claim to be sinless in one's self,--that one's own ways are perfect,--in short, that one is God.
No Immortality for Sinners
This makes it apparent that there is no immortality for any sinner. Christ came "to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself," (Hebrews 9:26) and to say that sin will not be completely put away, out of the universe, is to say that the object of His coming to earth has failed, that His sacrifice of himself is insufficient.
If the monstrous and diabolical doctrine of an ever-burning hell were true, where lost sinners are condemned to perpetual and never-ending tortures which only the ingenuity of a devil could invent, and the constantly multiplying blasphemies of the victims only augment the sentence to be executed upon them, that would not simply be a blot on God's universe, but would be a standing witness to the weakness of His Government, and the failure of His attempt to purge His kingdom of rebellion.
No ranting infidel ever conceived so positive a denial of the atonement as is the doctrine of hell, which is so jealously cherished by so many professed Christians. The Gospel demands the utter extinction of sin, not merely from some of the inhabitants of the earth, but from the earth itself, and from every part of God's creation, so that God can say, "Behold, I make all things new;" (Revelation 21:5) and this means that every creature who will not allow sin to be taken away from him must be taken away and destroyed with it. In the Gospel, "The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it iswritten, The just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man." (Romans 1:17-18)
Where Only Eternity Can Be Spent
Evidence might be multiplied, but this is sufficient to show that so far as the time after the Judgment is concerned, the wicked must cease to be. "For the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen; as you have done, it shall be done unto you; their reward shall return upon their own head. For as you have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been." (Obadiah 15-16)
In mission halls we often see the question, "Where will you spend eternity?"
But there is only one place where it can be spent, and that is in the bosom of God. He only is "our dwelling place in all generations." (Psalm 90:1) "Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright; for the end of that man is peace." (Psalm 37:37)
The word "end" here is from the Hebrew word meaning future, after time. The future of the upright shall be peace. But the next verse continues: "But the transgressors shall be destroyed together; the future of the wicked shall be cut off." (Psalm 37:38)
It is only to the righteous, that God gives a future, and He gives it to them because they abide in Him, who is "from everlasting to everlasting." (Psalm 90:2)
Death is Separation from God
Jesus said to the unbelieving Jews, "I go away and you shall seek me, and shall die in your sins; whither I go you cannot come." (John 8:21)
A little while afterwards He said to His believing disciples: "Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You shall seek me; and as I said unto the Jews, whither I go, you cannot come; so now I say to you." (John 13:33)
Death is separation from God; the withdrawal of His life; but although we should all die, and become "as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again, ... yet does He devise means, that His banished be not expelled from Him." (2 Samuel 14:14)
What are the means that He has devised? Jesus has told us, in the words of comfort which He spoke to the disciples, who were sorrowing because He had told them that He was going away from them and that they could not go with Him. "Let not your hearts be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in me. 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. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there you may be also." (John 14:1-3)
This assurance is repeated by the Spirit through the Apostle Paul, in writing to those who were sorrowing for dead friends. "This we say unto you by the Word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not go before them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." (1 Thessalonians 4:15-18)
From these texts we see that death does not take us to be with the Lord, but that His coming and the resurrection is the only means by which we can be with Him. Job said, "If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. You shall call, and I will answer You; You will have a desire to the work of your hands." (Job 14:14-15) "If I wait, the grave is my house; I have made my bed in the darkness. I have said to corruption, You are my father." (Job 17:13-14)
This testimony concerning waiting in the grave, in corruption, till the Lord calls and the change comes, exactly coincides with that by the Apostle Paul: "Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." (1 Corinthians 15:51-53)
Death is Not Conscious Existence
It is evident that there is no being present with the Lord between death and the resurrection, even for the righteous; let us then consider the necessary condition of the dead during that interval. This ought not to call for any consideration, and it would not if pagan philosophy and papal theology had not put darkness for light, and light for darkness, and robbed plain words of their meaning.
Death is the opposite of life; it is opposed to life in every particular. Think of all the characteristics of life, all the signs that indicate it, and you have the statement of what death is. To speak of consciousness in death is a contradiction of terms, as much so as to speak of alert wakefulness in deep sleep. There may be life without consciousness, but there can be no consciousness without life.
When it is said that a man is conscious, it is not necessary to say that he is alive. So to say that a man has a conscious existence between death and the resurrection, is equivalent to saying that between death and the resurrection he is not dead. In short, to talk about conscious existence in death is nonsense. There can be no possible contradiction of terms that has less meaning.
Christ's Coming in His Kingdom
Within three days of His crucifixion, Jesus said to His disciples: "When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: And before Him shall be gathered all the nations." (Matthew 25:31-32)
That time has not yet come. We still look for the second coming of Christ "with power and great glory," (Matthew 24:30) when He returns, "having received the kingdom;" (Luke 19:15) because now He has gone "into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return." (Luke 19:12)
It was not until the day of Pentecost, however, fifty days after the resurrection, that the disciples grasped the correct idea of the kingdom of Christ. When He was betrayed, and they saw that He suffered himself to be bound and led away by a hand of armed men, "They all forsook Him, and fled." (Mark 14:50)
Even after they had heard of His resurrection, they did not believe it, and thought that all hope of His ever having a kingdom was destroyed, saying mournfully: "We trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel." (Luke 24:21)
The Crucified Thief's Request
Is it any wonder, then, that one strong expression of faith, breaking forth like a gleam of light amid this darkness of unbelief, should have a prominent place in the sacred narrative.
This poor Jew, condemned as a malefactor at the same time that Jesus was, saw the rejection of Jesus, and all the despiteful usage to which He was subjected. All this had been foretold in prophecy, but none of those whose business it was to teach the Scriptures, not even those who had been with Jesus, saw in it the fulfillment of God's word, and the proof that Jesus was the Christ.
But to the heart of this poor outcast criminal the Holy Spirit spoke. The patience of Jesus when He was beaten and spit upon, His meekness under the grossest insult, His gentle, fervent prayer that His murderers might be forgiven, all revealed the presence of the King, and he cried out, "Lord, remember me when You come into your kingdom!" (Luke 23:43)
What Christ Promised
Greater faith than this is rarely seen. He did not believe that this was the end of all; his faith grew out of that which discouraged more favored ones.
But what was it that he asked for? To be remembered at the second coming of Christ, when He shall come in His glory, sitting on the throne of His glory. And his faith was not in vain; hanging on the cross, which was for the time being His throne, the outcast King said, according to the reading in our version: "Verily I say unto You, Today shall you be with me in Paradise." (Luke 23:43)
Did the thief go to be with Jesus in Paradise that day? Assuredly not; for Jesus himself did not go there. The tree of life, before the throne of God, "is in the midst of the Paradise of God," (Revelation 2:7; 22:1-2) so that whoever goes to Paradise goes into the presence of God. Yet the third day after the crucifixion, after Jesus had risen from the dead, He said to Mary: "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." (John 20:17)
Later in that same day He allowed the disciples to touch Him, showing that in the meantime He had ascended to heaven, and received from the Father the assurance that His sacrifice was accepted, and had returned.
Did Jesus disappoint the penitent thief? Not by any means, for he did not ask to be received into heaven that day, neither did Jesus promise that he should be with Him that day. What Jesus did assure him was that he certainly should yet be with Him in Paradise, and we may be sure that this promise will he fulfilled at the very time to which the thief looked forward, namely at the coming of Christ in glory.
I hear you say, "But the text says that Jesus told him that he should be with Him that day."
To this I reply that Jesus cannot deny himself; and when He says that He did not go to Paradise that day, we are bound to believe Him; and the more so, that it is contrary to nature and the Scripture for anybody to enter Paradise at death.
These words of Jesus to the thief are the stronghold of the doctrine that men go to heaven at death; yet the whole argument hangs on the punctuation, which is not a matter of inspiration, and is of comparatively recent date. In the Greek text, as written, there was no punctuation whatever and when it was inserted it was according to men's idea of the sense. Believing the pagan doctrine that there is really no death, those who put the marks into the text of the Bible; inserted a comma between "you" and "today," so as to make it seem to agree with their notion.
They did this, without doubt, in all sincerity, supposing that Jesus meant to tell the thief that he should meet Him in Paradise that day. But if they had known the truth, they would rather have inserted it after "today," thus making the sentence harmonize with all the circumstances in the case.
Again you say, "But in that case it would make the words of Jesus a question, and not a promise; thus: Verily I say unto you today, Shall you be with me in Paradise? and that would be nonsense."
I must remind you that in the Greek, as in other ancient languages, the subject of a verb, when it is a personal pronoun, is not usually expressed, but is indicated by the form of the verb. Jesus did not ask a question, but made a direct, emphatic statement, thus: "Verily I say unto you today, You shall be with me in Paradise."
When? At the very time that the thief asked to be remembered when Christ comes into His kingdom. This does not change a single letter of the text, and makes the Scriptures perfectly harmonious.
Do you ask why it was necessary for Jesus to use the adverb "today"? The answer is obvious, when we consider the situation. The priests were mocking and reviling Him. They taunted Him, saying, "If You be the Christ, come down from the cross, ... and we will believe on You;" (Matthew 27:40,42) "He saved others, himself He cannot save." (Mark 15:31)
The other thief joined in the railing and said, "If You be the Christ, save yourself and us." (Luke 23:39)
There was "none so poor to do Him reverence;"--William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 3, Scene 2. everything seemed to indicate that He was an imposter, or at least self-deceived. It looked as though God himself had forsaken Jesus, yet He was not cast down, and did not lose faith in His mission. His sublime faith answered to that of the suppliant, and He declared, "Verily I say unto you today, even today, in spite of the seemingly hopeless outlook, you shall have your request, you shall be with me in Paradise."
If He had meant what people commonly suppose He meant, He would have said, "You shall be with me in Paradise today;" but He did not mean that, and so did not say that.
Let us contemplate this wondrous assurance. It is a sad fact that it has been so perverted, and that people do not derive the comfort from it that it was designed to convey to us.
Since Jesus, even when He hung on the arose, despised and disowned, could so confidently assure a penitent sinner that he should be saved, what surpassing confidence we may have, when we come to Him as He is "highly exalted," sitting at "the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens." (Hebrews 8:1)
We know beyond the shadow of the possibility of a doubt, that He will not cast out the poorest and most despised who comes to Him, and that: "He is able to save them to the uttermost, who come unto God by Him." (Hebrews 7:25)
Next week, God willing, we shall consider one or both of the other texts referred to in the question last week. While on this subject, we shall also give some attention to the subject of Spiritualism.--Present Truth, March 14, 1901.