Question: Luke 23:4343And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. (Luke 23:43). In “Things to Come” for May, which I send, you will find a very dangerous paper on this text, practically undoing, as far as it goes, its testimony to Christ’s work. If the robber’s spirit did not go that day to Paradise, where did it go? The error opens the door to Purgatory or anything but the truth. O.P.
Answer: It is a bold man who ventures to set aside on this text, not only the Authorized and Revised Versions, but every translation, ancient or modern, hitherto regarded as reliable; and for this to set aside the conviction of the great mass of the godly orthodox, not only in other churches so-called, but in his own English Establishment. For it is mere claptrap and party spirit to attack in particular those he calls Plymouth Brethren, because the O.B. Witness rejected his own “strange doctrine.” His notion is that Paradise “is never used in any other sense than that of an earthly place of beauty and delight.” Never but an earthly place! and this in full view of Rev. 21-22! And he dares to say that for “the intermediate state,” and Paradise as a part of it, “they have not a shred of scripture warrant! nothing but a mixture of Heathen and Jewish Tradition handed down and further corrupted by Pagans and Papists!”
Let us weigh his two arguments. 1. If the Lord had intended to separate “to-day” from the introductory clause, either the particle ὅτι would have been prefixed, as in Mark 14:3030And Jesus saith unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this day, even in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. (Mark 14:30), or the passage would have been differently constructed, as in Luke 9:21, 22; 19:921And he straitly charged them, and commanded them to tell no man that thing; 22Saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day. (Luke 9:21‑22)
9And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. (Luke 19:9). But this is decisively overthrown by the fact that, with the formula of our verse, in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke there is nearly an equal number where ὅτι is omitted as inserted, various readings causing a slight uncertainty. In that of John who uses the twofold “verily,” the ὅτι occurs for about half the cases which omit it. Clearly therefore there is no such rule as is alleged, and the deduction as to its absence in Luke 239Then he questioned with him in many words; but he answered him nothing. (Luke 23:9) is unfounded. There is a similar usage in Hebrew and our own tongue, where “that” is often dropped, instead of being formally expressed.
2. Thirty-eight examples are pointed out in the book of Deuteronomy to justify taking “to-day” with “Verily I say unto thee.” Now not one of these has the smallest analogy with our verse. They are all due to the exceptional nature of Moses’ pathetic charge “this day,” and of Israel about to cross the Jordan which was forbidden him What has that to do with the case before us? The resemblance is only in the word, not the least in the sense or context. It is not “a common Hebrew idiom used to emphasize and mark the solemnity of what was said,” &c. It is the peculiarity of Deuteronomy and owing to the then circumstances. On the contrary the Lord is replying to the earnest prayer of the robber, then repentant and believing: Remember me, when Thou comest in Thy kingdom. The testimony of His enemies in derision had through our Lord’s words and bearing penetrated; but he knew that he would have to wait for the coming in His kingdom. The whole force of the answer of grace and truth is that “To-day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise”; and putting “to-day” in the first place gave it marked emphasis. What case in Deuteronomy ever approaches even a parallel? To talk of such dictionary or concordance work as this settling the question is more than ordinary illusion.
The aim of the enemy is to defraud the departing saint of his joy in looking for immediate entrance into heavenly blessedness with Christ, as the fruit of redemption. The very gospel of God is thus enfeebled and darkened. Meetness for sharing the portion of the saints in light is what the Father confers on His children, delivered from the authority of darkness, and peace made through the blood of Christ’s cross. The worshippers, once purged, have no more conscience of sins. The basis of holiness too is shaken, and the growth of saints hindered. The poor robber’s spirit went just as the martyred Stephen’s: Christ’s blood has the same perfect value for all that are His. Both slept to be with Christ. Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, cried the servant, as the Master said, Father, into Thy hands I commend my Spirit.
So Phil. 1:2323For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: (Philippians 1:23) lays down departure and being with Christ as being very much better than remaining here, even though exulting with joy unspeakable and full of glory. It is not of God to let the hope of glory lessen this, because it would dishonor Christ and His work. If we fall asleep, we go to be with Christ; and where is He? He is not only in heaven, but in its brightest part. As Adam’s Paradise was the brightest spot on earth, so this so-called Paradise; it is the Father’s house in John 1423Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. (John 14:23). They are both figures, but figures of divine truth. To literalize either is folly. It is the blessed scene on high where God in love glorified His Son on accomplishing His work on the cross; and there the saints are with Him, they, it is true, waiting for the redemption of their bodies when He comes. But no joy or glory on earth will equal that which they will there have, then in their best form of being with Him, that they may behold His glory, entirely above the world, as He was loved by the Father before it was founded. This is far above the kingdom which the world will see “in that day.”
2 Cor. 5 tells us no less clearly of the condition of the Christian’s soul after his death. “Now he that wrought us for this very thing (i.e., to be swallowed up of life) [is] God who gave us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore being always of good courage, and knowing that, while at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord (for we walk by faith, not by sight), we are indeed of good courage, and well-pleased to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.” This is not as Jews or Tradition-mongers conceived. But it is “the intermediate state,” the state between death and resurrection. It is a human term like the Trinity, and the thing in both cases, if not the word, is a clear truth of God. How unwise and unworthy to cavil at the expression! Why should any object, unless the sleep of souls or some worse error be held which jars with the truth? But if they live to God, after death and before resurrection, what is this but “the intermediate state” which the paper treats with unbelief and contempt. Is there a single sound Anglican who excuses him?
Then comes 2 Cor. 12 which explodes his delusion as to Paradise. For the apostle in verse 2 alludes to his rapture to “third heaven,” before he speaks of Paradise (ver. 4). Surely this is a supplied help to bind them together. It is no question, as he absurdly supposes, of “Paul caught away to that blessed time when this earth restored shall become again the paradise of God” (a sentence bristling with evident error), but of Paul caught up to third heaven and Paradise then. There Christ’s Spirit went after death; there is He glorified now; there go spirits of departed saints, as the robber’s did, and Stephen’s, and whither we go if we depart this life.
But Rev. 2:77He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. (Revelation 2:7) completes our knowledge; for there shall we when glorified eat of the tree of life in the Paradise of God. The lost paradise of man is not restored. Grace always gives a better thing than what was lost; and the new and heavenly scene of glory is rightly distinguished as the Paradise of God. Rightly is its future aspect symbolized in Rev. 21:9-22:59And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. 10And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 11Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; 12And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: 13On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates. 14And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 15And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. 16And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. 17And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel. 18And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. 19And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; 20The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. 21And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. 22And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. 23And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. 24And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. 25And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. 26And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. 27And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. 1And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: 4And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. 5And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 21:9‑22:5). Think of imagining that the holy Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, is the earthly capital of Israel! Righteousness reigns in the Jewish city.; and the nation and kingdom that will not serve it, as Isa. 609Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold with them, unto the name of the Lord thy God, and to the Holy One of Israel, because he hath glorified thee. (Isaiah 60:9) tells us, shall perish. But the heavenly city will be characterized by grace; and if the unfailing fruits of the tree of life in figure refresh the glorified, its leaves are for the healing, not wasting, of the nations. For that day will look on all things put under Christ’s headship, the glorified on high and reigning with Christ, Israel and the nations on the earth reigned over and blessed under the King of kings and Lord of lords, when we shall reign with Him. It is the Father’s kingdom for all above; and the Son of man’s kingdom for the long rebellious earth, cleared by judgments, before righteousness reigns here below, when His will is done on earth as in heaven.
Alas! the writer so profoundly judaizes that he denies the heavenly Paradise of God as a falsehood, and will have it as the restoration of the paradise of Gen. 2 on earth. It is to renounce the Christian hope, and to mistake the Jewish one; for the words restrain glory to their land and holy mountain, instead of the vague dream of “this earth” becoming again the Paradise of God. It was never so.
The still worse improprieties near the beginning and at the end we can leave in silence and shame.