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Christ’s Object Lessons
“Remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom,” he said. (
Luke
23:42
.) And at once the response came, Verily I say unto thee today
(as I hang on the cross in humiliation and suffering), thou shalt be with
Me in Paradise. But the rich man prayed to Abraham, and his petition
was not granted. Christ alone is exalted to be “a Prince and a Saviour,
for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.”
Acts 5:31
.
“Neither is there salvation in any other.”
Acts 4:12
.
The rich man had spent his life in self-pleasing, and too late he
saw that he had made no provision for eternity. He realized his folly,
and thought of his brothers, who would go on as he had gone, living to
please themselves. Then he made the request, “I pray thee therefore,
father, that thou wouldest send him [Lazarus] to my father’s house; for
I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come
into this place of torment.” But “Abraham saith unto him, They have
Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father
Abraham; but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither
will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.”
When the rich man solicited additional evidence for his brothers,
he was plainly told that should this evidence be given, they would not
be persuaded. His request cast a reflection on God. It was as if the rich
man had said, If you had more thoroughly warned me, I should not
now be here. Abraham in his answer to this request is represented as
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saying, Your brothers have been sufficiently warned. Light has been
given them, but they would not see; truth has been presented to them,
but they would not hear.
“If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be
persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” These words were proved
true in the history of the Jewish nation. Christ’s last and crowning
miracle was the raising of Lazarus of Bethany, after he had been
dead four days. The Jews were given this wonderful evidence of the
Saviour’s divinity, but they rejected it. Lazarus rose from the dead and
bore his testimony before them, but they hardened their hearts against
all evidence, and even sought to take his life. (
John 12:9-11
).
The law and the prophets are God’s appointed agencies for the
salvation of men. Christ said, Let them give heed to these evidences.
If they do not listen to the voice of God in His word, the testimony of
a witness raised from the dead would not be heeded.