Golgotha: The Turning Point of History John Hultink

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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.

The Turning Point of History Golgotha:

“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? 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

that faith gives you passage into the new Paradise of God. I, Jesus, will open the door to Paradise this afternoon. It will happen at that moment when I shout: ‘Mashelem! It is fulfilled’ [John 19:30].

Today, on this first Good Friday, you and all those who believe in Me and My work on this cross will enter Paradise. Even now in a small way, in your sinful flesh, and finally, at the resurrection, when you receive your spiritual bodies, Paradise will be manifested in all its splendour and glory (Rev. 21, 22).

This is an astonishing implication. Have the shadow and the reality of death blanketing the entire universe since the Fall receded? Has the Suffering Servant this day, through His cosmic sacrifice on the cross, performed the great feat of forcing the shadow and the reality of death back all the way to that dreadful day of Adam’s Fall in the Garden? Has Paradise indeed returned? Has the shadow of death in truth receded to that moment in time when Adam was still free to eat from the tree of life, when death was a warning and not a reality?

A REMARKABLE DIALOGUE

A most remarkable dialogue takes place between two people dying alongside each other, each hanging on his respective cross. In a few sentences it captures the weal and woe of the entire human race and of a groaning creation. This dynamic dialogue will forever change the course, the meaning, and the potential of history until the end of time. The promise of God’s permanent return to earth, to a restored Paradise (Rev. 21 and 22), was first made to a criminal hanging beside Jesus on a cross on Golgotha. What an unbelievable transformation!

Earlier in the day these two criminals together heaped insults on Christ (Mark 15:32). The testimony of this godless behaviour is carefully confirmed by Matthew who writes: “In the same way the robbers 1 who were crucified with Christ also heaped insults on Him” (Matt. 27:44). The two were both sons of the Devil. But one of the

two criminals shortly before noon turns like a leaf on a tree. He is transformed from blasphemer to prophet. When later the unconverted criminal again begins to taunt Jesus, the converted criminal rebukes him. After prophetically declaring Jesus to be innocent of any crime, he turns to Jesus and implores and proclaims: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” This man is not inquiring about passage to Heaven for himself. He is prophesying that Christ will inherit His kingdom. Where does this man acquire such cosmos-altering insight into the nature of reality? This is a subject of conflicting views among theologians.

How could this man possibly know that Christ’s death on the cross was not the end of the story? That Jesus would return from the grave? How could this man know that God would exalt Jesus to His right hand? Where did he obtain his insight into the meaning of the words of Mark 9:1? This verse is one of the most-discussed in the whole of Mark’s Gospel. These words had been spoken earlier by Jesus Himself: “There are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Kingdom of God come with power.” Words announcing the beginning of the end of Satan’s reign. Words that would translate into Satan’s expulsion from Heaven, and thereafter into a mighty outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the conversion of thousands. How did this criminal know any of this while hanging on his cross? “This man is not inquiring about passage to Heaven for himself. He is prophesying that Christ will inherit His kingdom.”

The only biblical explanation for this man’s remarkable insight is what Christ once said of Peter: “…this was not revealed to you, Peter, by man but by My Father who is in Heaven” (Matt. 16:18). God enabled this criminal to become a Christian, and having attained that wonderful new status, the Father then deputized this former slave of Satan to speak words of promise, of love, of comfort, and of blessing to His Son on the cross. No one knew better than Jesus that the conversion of this criminal and the promise of a kingdom originated with His Father.

First the request: “Remember me, Jesus...” Ask and it will be given. And then the proclamation: “…when you come into your kingdom.”

The Holy Spirit inspired this converted criminal to petition Jesus to remember him when Jesus received His realm (the cosmos) as King. The definitive receiving of the kingdom of God, not a passage to Heaven, stands at the heart and at the core of this exchange between the criminal and Jesus. This dialogue on the cross changes the dynamic of history. Today, you will enter with Me into Paradise. What an incredible revelation and what an incredible proclamation from one dying man to another. This incredible dialogue marks the turning point in history. It voices the fulfillment of 4,000 years of God’s promises, and represents the prelude to God embracing sinners from every nation on earth.

The other figure hanging on the cross, and a party to this brief but cosmos-transforming dialogue, is Christ, Who immediately recognizes the full import of the conversion that this criminal has experienced. And Jesus realizes Who brought this deathbed conversion to pass. It is the wonderful initiative of a loving Father Who thereby lovingly embraces His suffering Son on the cross shortly before He abandons that Son to Hell. The Father has come to the cross and has enabled this sinner to turn in faith to Christ (John 6:44). Christ, in turn, transforms this criminal’s life of sin from “red like scarlet” into a life that is as “white as wool.” Christ will present this murderer on the Great Day of resurrection with a splendid white robe to wear when he attends the great wedding feast of the Lamb. “Ironically, by negating the biblical affirmation of the human person’s unique role in creation, this view eliminates the very rationale for human stewardship and care for the environment.”

But here and now in this remarkable exchange on the cross on a hill called “The Skull,” with death stalking both of them, Christ will reveal to this criminal and to all those who will listen, the true nature of His mission on the cross this day. The Father of Jesus has made this possible by deputizing a terrorist to declare that God’s Son is innocent and that God’s Son will inherit His Kingdom with power. And in its most perfect manifestation the kingdom of God is found in Paradise as Jesus declares from the cross.

The words of Christ’s response are the most profound, the most universal, the most liberating, the most joyous and the most gracious expression of life ever uttered by one Man to a fellow human being. In response to the criminal’s inspired declaration, enabled by His Father, that Christ is about to come into His kingdom, Jesus replies with words that will resonate from that day onward and transform history: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Did Jesus actually intend to say in “Paradise” and not in “Heaven,” as many theologians would later contend? Did Jesus draw a parallel between the coming of His kingdom and the re-establishment of Paradise on earth? The very same Paradise to which Adam and Eve were denied access? In response to the criminal’s prophecy that Jesus is indeed coming into His kingdom, Jesus responds that on this very day the criminal will be with Jesus in Paradise. How is that possible? God blocked access to Paradise with the cherubim and flaming sword. The converted criminal is on his way to the grave, and so is Christ. On what biblical basis can exegetes insist that upon their death, both Christ and the criminal will go to Heaven? Did Jesus not emphatically say to Mary after His resurrection, “Do not hold me for I have not yet ascended to the Father” (John 20:17)? These words must be treated with authority. And so too must the words recorded in Luke 24:51, where we read: “While he was blessing them he left them and was taken up into Heaven.” Jesus went to Heaven forty days after His resurrection.

What then does Christ mean when He tells the criminal that together they will enter Paradise? And not simply enter Paradise, but enter Paradise on this very day. Doesn’t Christ simply mean to say what most study Bibles, commentaries, and sermons say, namely that together He and the converted criminal are going to Heaven that day? No! Christ knows the Scriptures. He knows the difference between Heaven and Paradise. He created both. Paradise was made for mankind and belongs to the earth. After Adam’s Fall the tree of life was not removed from earth. Instead, it was guarded by the cherubim. On the cross, Paradise on earth once again became accessible in a small way to sinful believers. Heaven is home to God

and to the angels. If Christ had meant to convey to the converted criminal that together they were going to Heaven on Good Friday, He would have said so; He knew the word for “Heaven.”

In this world-transforming exchange between these two figures, the criminal makes the incredible declaration that Jesus, though humiliated and hanging helplessly on an instrument of death, will yet be exalted and will yet come into His Kingdom. The exchange between Jesus and the criminal is all the more striking when we reflect on the chilling reality that before day’s end, both will have died. Each will be placed in their respective graves. What then will become of their grand dialogue about Jesus coming into His kingdom and a return to Paradise? This much is certain from Scripture. On this first Good Friday, both Jesus and the criminal went to their respective graves. Christ with a spear thrust in His side, to confirm His death, and the criminal with a pair of broken legs to hasten his.

As far as the disciples and those who loved Jesus are concerned, this was a sad ending to a wonderful story. The disciples, the relatives, and friends derived no comfort from the thought that Jesus and the criminal were now with the Father in Heaven. If that is what they believed, why would they grieve?

What now are we to make of Jesus’ claim that He and the criminal entered Paradise that very day? Or is it exegetically warranted to teach that Paradise really is Heaven, as so many study Bibles and commentaries and sermons and books on the subject assert? How often do the hymns we sing claim that we are Heaven-bound? If that is indeed true, we have to confess that on Good Friday Jesus and the converted criminal went to Heaven, biblical evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.

REMARKABLE MISREPRESENTATIONS

Was Jesus simply careless in His choice of words on the cross? Why did He use an uncommon word like “Paradise” if He was in fact referring to Heaven? Jesus employed the word “heaven” on numerous occasions during His ministry. He taught us to pray to His Father in Heaven. He

taught us that God’s will is to be done on earth as it is in Heaven. And if He meant to say that He and the criminal would both be in Heaven that day, why didn’t He just say so? It was a perfect opportunity to reveal to believers that Heaven is their destination upon death. But He didn’t. It is not a trivial consideration. In important respects, equating Heaven and Paradise has closed our eyes to the cosmic significance and wonder of what Christ achieved for the Father and for us on the cross. And it has coloured our understanding of the interim (the time between human death and resurrection). It has also deprived us of the joy of experiencing Paradise in a small but significant way here and now in our sinful flesh. A more biblical understanding will open Scripture and help us come to a better appreciation of the biblical expression “in Christ.” This includes an explanation of what Scripture means when it uses the expression “to fall asleep in Christ.” Scripture places great emphasis on our need to understand what it means when it teaches that the entire creation has its rootedness “in Christ.” “...is it exegetically

warranted to teach that Paradise really is Heaven, as so many study Bibles and commentaries and sermons and books on the subject assert?”

Before we examine what we believe Scripture actually teaches about Jesus’ promise of being in Paradise, let us survey what the various commentaries, study Bibles, books, and sermons have to say.

STUDY BIBLES, COMMENTARIES, SERMONS AND BOOKS

In spite of this biblical emphasis, literature from across the theological spectrum does not follow suit. The majority of study Bibles, commentaries, and sermons teach that we go to Heaven upon death as disembodied souls to carry on life there. Consider just a small sample.

The NIV Study Bible notes: “In the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the OT) the word ‘paradise’ designated a garden (Ge 2:8–10) or forest (Ne 2:8), but in the NT (used only here [Luke 23:43] and in 2 Co 12:4; Rev 2:7) [the word ‘paradise’] refers to the place of bliss and rest between death and resurrection (cf. Lk 16:22; 2 Co 12:2).”

The commentary is certainly correct that the word “paradise” has come to mean a place of bliss between death and resurrection. And in that context the use of the word “paradise” always means “heaven.” Because we interpret the words that Jesus spoke to the criminal about “paradise” as meaning “heaven,” this text has become the key Bible verse that has misled millions of Christians to believe that Heaven is their disembodied destination immediately upon death. To avoid misunderstanding let me state at the outset that the Bible does teach that upon death believers go to be with Christ. But that is a more complex issue. The New RSV Study Bible informs the reader that: “Paradise, originally a royal garden, the Garden of Eden in the Septuagint, and later as here, is a synonym for heaven.” “Because we interpret the words that Jesus spoke to the criminal about “paradise” as meaning “heaven,” this text has become the key Bible verse that has misled millions of Christians.”

But as we have seen, in Scripture, the use of the word “paradise” has nothing to do with Heaven. The Bible carefully distinguishes between Heaven and earth and Paradise. The meaning of Paradise is best understood based on what Scripture teaches about Paradise beginning in Genesis. Paradise is always of the earth. It is the home and the place where Adam, in perfect fellowship with God, was to execute his cultural mandate. And earth is the place we will inhabit at the resurrection.

Consider also the commentary on Luke 23:43 in the ESV Study Bible, which states:

Paradise is another name for Heaven, the dwelling place of God and the eternal home of the righteous (cf. 2 Cor. 12:3; Rev. 2:7). The Septuagint uses the same Greek word to refer to the “garden of Eden” (cf. note on Gen. 2:8–9). Jesus’ words therefore may hint at a restoration of the intimate, personal fellowship with God that existed in Eden before the fall.

This “hint,” which in truth should be a blast from a trumpet, sends the reader in a biblical direction. As we will see.

The widely respected Dutch commentary, the Korte Verklaring, also falls in line designating Paradise as Heaven. According to Dr. S. Greijdanus, the criminal went to Heaven with Jesus within hours of the time that they had their conversation on the cross.

John Wesley, in his Explanatory Notes, writes that Paradise is “the place where the souls of the righteous remain from death till the resurrection. As if he had said, I will not only remember thee then, but this very day.”

In his commentary on Luke 23:43, D. L. Moody writes: “In the morning [the criminal] is condemned by men as not fit to live on earth; in the evening he is reckoned good enough for heaven.”

In his sermon entitled: “The Dying Thief in a New Light,” Charles Spurgeon writes: “Still, I think he has the best of it who is converted, and enters heaven the same night… Why is it that our Lord does not emparadise us all?” (Note: I love Spurgeon’s sermons. My contrarian point is that on the cross Christ did emparadise us all— both the living and the dead!)

In the book Home by Elyse Fitzpatrick, a popular Christian author, we read that:

Although we don’t have as many details as we might want, the Bible clearly teaches that at our death we go from earth to Paradise, and then come back to the renewed earth in our resurrected bodies as citizens of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21). 2

In his classic treatment of the subject, Randy Alcorn, in no fewer than 530 pages, introduces a novel understanding of the relationship between “Earth,” “Heaven,” and “Paradise” in his book entitled Heaven. In the book’s Preface, Alcorn writes:

Examining the table of contents will give you a good feel for this book. In part I, “A Theology of Heaven,” I will explain the difference between the present Heaven (where Christians go when they die) and the ultimate, eternal Heaven

(where God will dwell with his people on the New Earth). 3

Derek Prince, in his book War in Heaven, writes in line with what others have been saying that:

Paradeisos (Paradise) is the Greek word for a “garden.” It describes God’s garden in Heaven. Paradise is the ultimate destination of all sinners who have truly repented and who have persevered in the life of faith. 4

Almost everywhere Christians turn for help in understanding Luke 23:43, they are told that “heaven” and “paradise” are one and the same. But the Scriptures teach that this is not so. There can only be negative consequences when we fail to biblically distinguish between Heaven and Paradise. What then of the majestic wonder of Christ regaining Paradise on the cross? What then of the majestic wonder of the worldwide resurrection when Jesus Christ returns in glory?

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HEAVEN, EARTH, AND PARADISE

The confusion resulting from failing to distinguish carefully between Heaven, Earth, and Paradise is enormous. This confusion is the result of Christians being influenced by a pagan worldview and reading into the Bible what is not there. It is also the result of an inadequate biblical cosmology.

How then does Scripture distinguish between Heaven and Earth and Paradise? Each of these entities is the result of a creative act of God. God actually prepared the Garden of Eden for Adam (Gen. 2:15). The Garden of Eden was indeed Paradise on earth, although prior to the Fall the entire earth was Paradise. The entire earth proclaimed God’s glory.

The most amazing thing I have ever heard someone say about Heaven was during my first year in college. I heard it from a professor in philosophy class, H. Evan Runner. Runner taught that any philosopher who fails to acknowledge or understand the relationship between Heaven and earth

will never come to a correct understanding of created reality. God created the world in Christ (Gen. 1; John 1). Without knowing Christ you’ll never understand created reality. You may “know” that the chemical formula for water is H2O. But you won’t know “that all things hold together in Christ” (Col. 1:16). Just imagine what would happen if Christ who, by the powerof His creative Word upholds the entire creation, did not hold all things together? Imagine the chaos that would result in a universe that unfolds, and continues to unfold, like next spring’s tulips, according to the principles of naturalism.

Imagine the catastrophe if H 2 O did not hold together. What if H2O became just H (hydrogen) and just O (oxygen)? All water would disappear from the earth. In water’s place, only gasses would remain. No rivers, no lakes, and no oceans. No flowers. No animals. No people. No creation! Christ holds H 2 O together by the power of His will (Rev. 4:11). And if He likes, He can turn H 2 O into a premium wine. One of the reasons some Christian academics are calling themselves “theistic evolutionists” is that these scholars have no biblical grasp of, or belief in, the relationship between Heaven and earth. According to them, Jesus Christ plays no credible role in creation. but according to Scripture, Christ rules and upholds the universe from Heaven. He is the Alpha and the Omega. That is, He encompasses the entire alphabet of creation and history. He is the Beginning and End. The first Adam could have shared in that wonderful rule as head of creation under Christ if he had not succumbed to the wiles of Satan. The Bible clearly teaches that all things cohere in Him. It is essential, as Christians, to integrate biblical revelation with our empirical knowledge. Empirical knowledge provides us with the insight on how to build an airplane, but it provides no insight into the relationship between Heaven and earth. It is blind to recognizing Christ as the Creator and Sustainer and Redeemer of the universe. “Almost everywhere Christians turn for help in understanding Luke 23:43, they are told that “heaven” and “paradise” are one and the same. But the Scriptures teach that this is not so.”

Andre Troost (1916–2008), Willem Ouweneel (b. 1944), and Danie F.M. Strauss (b. 1946) acknowledge the relevance of Scripture for coming to grips with the world of academia. They have come to understand the importance of the biblical ground motive (the pillars) of what Scripture teaches about Creation, Fall, and Redemption, and that these foundational truths form the basis of a Christian philosophy and theology that will help to propel all of our understanding.

My one goal in this article is to articulate a biblical understanding of the exchange that took place between Christ and the criminal at Golgotha. Such an understanding will contribute to experiencing the joy of going to be with Christ at the time of our death rather than embracing a pagan belief in our soul’s migration to Heaven, about which Scripture says nothing. And our understanding of the biblical teachings of Christ’s role in the creation of Heaven, earth, and Paradise is important in that context. THE PARADISAL NATURE OF GOLGOTHA “Adam’s sin resulted in ... lost control over creation, resulting in misery and pain and sorrow and death, as well as a sinful tendency to wrongfully blame God.”

Heaven and earth and Paradise are a unity. They are all created by Christ; they are all related. Adam’s sin in the garden went a long way toward destroying that unity. Adam’s sin resulted in the loss of a faith that was larger than a mustard seed. Thereby he lost control over creation, resulting in misery and pain and sorrow and death, as well as a sinful tendency to wrongfully blame God. Golgotha happened to wipe away that misery. Golgotha happened to restore Paradise. We, who in the flesh stand to one extent or another in Satan’s service, are the problem. God in Jesus Christ is the answer. Christ is here on Golgotha today to restore the unity and the harmony of His Father’s creation. On the cross, as the noontime darkness of God’s terrifying abandonment approaches, Christ tells a criminal that this very day he will be with Him in Paradise. This cosmos-transforming declaration of Jesus Christ may not be trivialized. The ekklesia, by and large, has mistakenly understood the essence of that cosmic event to mean that when we die we go to Heaven as disembodied souls, who somehow resume their earthly ex-

istence there. This trivializes the paradisal nature of Golgotha, and neutralizes the resurrection.

THE FATHER WEIGHS IN ON GOLGOTHA

The witness of Scripture to the reality of what Christ achieved on the cross is overwhelming. The powerful testimony that the Father gives at the cross confirms that Paradise has indeed returned. It is at the Father’s request that Jesus goes to Golgotha to pay the ransom for the sin of the world. It is the Father who arranges that Jesus is accompanied by two high-profile criminals, probably associates of the terrorist, Barabbas. It is the Father who inspires both Matthew and Mark to record that upon their arrival on the cross, these two criminals stand in the service of Satan. Then, close to noon and just prior to abandoning Jesus to Hell, the Father publicly transforms one of the two criminals. The Father proceeds to deputize this former antagonist who is then inspired to proclaim that Jesus is innocent. Jesus is on the cross at the Father’s behest, but not for His own sin. The criminal does not yet know it, but Christ knows that the criminal’s prophecy will find its fulfillment in a few hours. That is, when He emerges from Hell (that is, when the punishment of abandonment by His Father is over). That separation ends forever that afternoon, when Jesus shouts: ‘Mashelem!It is fulfilled!’

It is important to remember that before Jesus shouts this exclamation of His victory over death and Hell and Satan, He declares: “I am thirsty.” Jesus is about to announce salvation for the world. Paradise is once again a reality. Jesus desires the strength to be heard clearly.

Jesus requests a drink. Not any old drink. Christ’s blood was about to be identified as the blood of the Lamb of God. Note carefully how this request for a drink is recorded by the apostle John. Jesus requests a drink, and the soldiers comply. They soak a sponge in wine vinegar and then put it on a stalk of the hyssop plant. Note how the Father looks after all the details. During their deliverance from Egypt, Israel is instructed to take a bunch of hyssop, dip it into the lamb’s blood and put some of the blood on both sides of the door frame. For Israel it was the hyssop branches, for

Christ it is the hyssop stalk. The parallel between Israel’s Passover and what is transpiring on the cross is unmistakable. Israel, if obedient, was on its way from slavery to a land of milk and honey under God’s gracious rule. Christ was about to announce with power that the entrance to Paradise was once again accessible under His Father’s gracious rule.

THE FATHER’S ACTIONS AT THE CROSS CONFIRM OUR RETURN TO PARADISE

How do we know many of the commentators are mistaken and access to Paradise is regained after Jesus dies on Golgotha? The reason we can be so certain that the cross is focused on reclaiming Paradise is the Father’s response to the claim His Son shouts from the cross: Mashelem! It is fulfilled. The Father concurs. The Father’s response then confirms the paradisal nature of the work Jesus has just completed, in a most dramatic and obvious manner. The Father employs the forces of nature to make the announcement of His Son’s victory over death. The announcement is made with great fanfare. Jesus’ declaration: “It is fulfilled!” communicates to believers of every generation that the requirements to set the sinner free have been fully met by His sacrifice on the cross. And the Father confirms that this is indeed the case by what happens next.

Jesus is no sooner dead than the Father acts. The Father’s response to Jesus’ death is nothing short of amazing in its execution. One translation states “at that moment” and another writes “Behold.” There is no time-lapse between the moment of Jesus’ death and the Father’s response to that death. In the next breath God commands the forces of nature–which are His servants and His to command–to respond to what has just transpired on the cross. There is an earthquake (Matt. 27:51). Not a minor undertaking. Not easily ignored. The earth shakes. The rocks split. The Father is in effect heralding to the world: I am delighted with My Son. As a result of the work He fulfilled on the cross, this day Satan stands condemned. My Son did not falter in His assignment. My Son looked death in the face and conquered. He destroyed the power of the kingdom of Satan. He crushed the head of the father of lies. My Son

has set the prisoners free. He has come into His kingdom of righteousness. Observe carefully, all you people, as I give you two unmistakeable signs that the work My Son has performed on the cross this day is of a paradisal nature. Did He not promise the criminal on the cross this very day that they together would experience the return of Paradise? The return of intimate, unencumbered personal fellowship with Me this day.

Yes, Satan stands condemned! Charles Wesley has carefully articulated in moving words the newness of life achieved:

No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in him, is mine! Alive in him, my living Head, and clothed in righteousness divine. Bold I approach the eternal throne, And claim the crown, through Christ, my own. Amazing love! How can it be That thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

Because of Golgotha you may again lay claim to the crown of life. Because of Golgotha you may now claim an eternal interest in your Saviour’s blood.

Life reigns. Even in your cancerous bodies. And, yes, even as you pray and fight to rid yourself of a growing dementia. And battle with divorce. Jesus must remain in Heaven until the time comes for God to fully restore everything (Acts 3:17). That time will come. But when He comes, He will come in great power and great glory. At that time of His return, God will finally ban Satan from the earth. Death has been conquered. Eternal life awaits. The gate to Paradise is open once again. It was opened at the price of Jesus’ life.

“The reason we can be so certain that the cross is focused on reclaiming Paradise is the Father’s response to the claim His Son shouts from the cross.”

The ruin and destruction, the cancer, the drownings and divorce are man’s doings, not God’s. God gave mankind a beautiful garden and, in many respects, mankind turned it into a garbage dump. Think of the wonder behind the technology of the Internet. And then think of how Satan has turned it into an instrument of pornographic destruction.

You must be patient. History must run its course. The number of children the Father is calling to Himself is not yet complete. The victorious Son will return. Then the cancer and the dementia and the divorce and the drownings will come to an end. Never again will anything be cursed. Meanwhile, we have been given yet another sign of the return of Paradise. Christ has ascended to Heaven and is seated at the Father’s right hand from where He holds your life in His hands. When He arrived in Heaven with the scars of the cross on His body, Michael the archangel threw Satan and his minions out of Heaven. No more accusations against those whom the Father loves. Ten days after the ascension God gave yet another sign of Paradise: the sending of God the Holy Spirit to live in your hearts. He will guide you in all things. “Be faithful to the end. To all those who overcome [the evil one] I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in Paradise of God” (Rev. 2:7). “The Father is in effect heralding to the world: My Son looked death in the face and conquered.”

This exhortation remains true in our day. When Satan, the great dragon, saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child… Then from his mouth the dragon spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring – those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus (Rev. 12:14-17). Remember what Jesus said when He was on earth: a disciple is not greater than his Master. They persecuted Me, they will persecute you also. You must endure to the end.

And again, remember the warning in the closing words of Revelation 13:

The beast also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, so that they would not

buy and sell unless they had the mark, which is the number of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of man. That number is 666. It is the number of man without God.

Now, what about these verses? Christians are already being “numbered” in China, in India, and in many Muslim countries. They are dying as martyrs. And what about AIDS and the deadly coronavirus and the little boy who drowned in his parents’ pool? Is this Paradise? We don’t have all the answers. Neither did Job. But Jesus has since gone to Golgotha. And God is sovereign.

Reflect on this: Jesus died on the cross. Tradition teaches us that all the disciples save one died a martyr’s death. My namesake, my dear little grandson, John Christian, died when he was only 6 months old. He never lived to experience whatever beauty life on earth by God’s grace may still have to offer us. In light of this can we really call this Paradise?

Yes, we can! Why? Because we still live in a sinful world. Life on a broken planet is more tolerable for some than it is for others. But God will test no one beyond their endurance. God is gracious and God is good. Satan may be conducting himself like a roaring lion knowing his time is short. Nevertheless, God is in control. Dying is not the worst fate than can overtake us if we die in Christ Jesus. I will see my grandson again. And he will see me. On a renewed earth. We are the ones who opened Pandora’s box when, in Adam, we joined Satan in his rebellion against God. A rebellion Jesus quelled on the cross.

After the storm comes the sunshine. To those who are victorious, who remain faithful to the end, an eternity of bliss lived in a life of glory beyond measure awaits them in Paradise (Rev. 2:7). Thank you, Jesus, for going to Golgotha. Paradise on earth? Yes, as it breaks through the clouds in shadow form. The curtain is torn. Many dead have been resurrected. Satan has been thrown out of Heaven. The Holy Spirit has come to earth. Yes, Paradise is breaking through.

“Then I heard a voice from Heaven say, ‘Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. ‘Yes’ says the Spirit, ‘they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them’” (Rev. 14:13). Why Golgotha? So that Christians can go to Heaven? Or so that Jesus could reclaim the cosmos for His Father and for the believers?

1 Plural; the word for “robber” in the original Greek can mean “terrorist.” In any event, the criminals were crucified for committing a capital offense, not some petty theft. In all likelihood they were compatriots of Barabbas, who had been condemned to be crucified with them. But Christ took his place. 2 Elyse Fitzpatrick, Home: How Heaven and the New Earth Satisfy Our Deepest Longings (Ada, MI: Bethany House, 2016). 3 Randy Alcorn, Heaven (Carol Stream, IL: Tyn- dale House, 2004). 4 Derek Prince, War in Heaven: God’s Epic Battle with Evil (Grand Rapids: Chosen Books, 2003), 13.