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JOHN HULTINK JOHN HULTINK is a Niagara-based entrepreneur. He was a student of Evan Runner at Calvin College, and since those days has been heavily invested in the development and spread of Reformational Christian education and publishing. John and his wife Jenny have three children and many grandchildren.
Golgotha:
The Turning Point of History “And he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ And he said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise’” (Luke 23:42-43). A REMARKABLE REVELATION
What happened on Golgotha that first Good Friday? What did Jesus’ descent into Hell and death accomplish? It is a question of momentous importance, yet I contend that the cosmic, historyaltering significance of the revelation disclosed in the dialogue between Jesus and the converted criminal has been trivialized into a few words about going to Heaven when we die. The converted criminal spoke only nine words to Jesus (both in Greek and in English). Yet those few words set the heart ablaze, especially if understood correctly in the context of Christ’s response. In those few words the criminal accomplished two objectives: (i) he made a plea: “Jesus remember me,” and (ii) he made a declaration: “Jesus, you are coming into your kingdom.” The cross is focused on the definitive manifestation of the kingdom of God. Jesus, in this brief dialogue, emphatically declared to the criminal that on this first Good Friday the two of them would enter Paradise. What a momentous declaration! But what does Jesus’ declaration about Paradise purport to say? Today in Paradise with Christ? Is the criminal going to a Paradise like the Garden of Eden? Is the act of crushing Satan’s head promised four thousand years earlier (Gen. 3:15) not understood to be the crowning achievement of God’s plan of deliverance? And is the crushing of Satan’s head not a prerequisite to enable believers to return to Paradise? Will the criminal this very day re-enter Paradise? Is this what Jesus is promising the converted criminal as He hangs alongside him on a cross?
SPRING 2020
The possibility that Paradise could be regained, and that humanity could regain eternal life along with renewed access to the tree of life, certainly was not obvious to most Older Testament believers. Nor was access to the tree of life obvious to most believers who were alive when Jesus walked on the earth. And judging by the study Bibles and commentaries I have read, as well as the sermons I have heard throughout the past sixty years, neither is the reality of Paradise in the here-and-now obvious to believers living today. This lack of awareness of the presence of Paradise in the here-and-now is sanctioned by identifying Paradise with Heaven. Are Paradise and Heaven one and the same thing? A return to Paradise was the gospel message Jesus was conveying to this criminal in response to his declaration that Jesus is coming into His kingdom. Is that not what “coming into your kingdom” represents—the return to Paradise? And was not the criminal declaring that through His work on the cross Jesus was coming into His kingdom? Even if the criminal himself did not understand the full implications of what he was saying? Is this not a biblical truth, that the only place on earth where the Kingdom of God is manifested in all its glory and perfection is in Paradise? In effect, I maintain that Jesus’ declaration on the cross must be understood as follows: Today, you will cross over from a culture of death into a culture of eternal life. Even as your life is slipping away (John 5:24), you may die in the knowledge that the doors to Paradise have once again opened. Through the will of My Father and through the powerful working of the Holy Spirit, you have today come to faith in the only true God and His Son, Jesus Christ, and that faith is eternal life (John 17:3). And Ezra Institute for Contemporary Christianity
