The Gospel - The Means of Grace XIX

Saved From Hell By Faith

"Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him 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. 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." (Luke 16: 27-30)

The rich man, in this story, is in that place in Hades where the wicked dead went prior to the resurrection of Christ. It is the place of suffering, a prison for wicked spirits. (See I Peter 3: 19) It is the place where he went after he was "dead and buried." Does the rich man rue the event? Certainly. Does he realize why he is there? Certainly. Does he know that he could have been saved and gone to the place where Lazarus is? Certainly. Does he know the way of salvation, how he may have been saved? Certainly. What is that way? He knows that "repentance" at the preaching of the gospel was the way. "If Lazarus preaches to them, and if they repent, then they will not come to this place." That is the reasoning of the rich man. Was he correct? Certainly. The scriptures promise salvation to all who believe and repent. "Repent ye, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out." (Acts 3: 19) "Repentance" is "unto life." (Acts 11: 18) The message of the gospel is - "repent or perish." (See Luke 13: 3, 5; II Peter 3: 9)

If the rich man is correct, then both the preaching the gospel and repentance are necessary for being saved from Hell's torments. Further, Abraham, who speaks for God and truth, does not correct the rich man, but confirms his understanding, by saying "they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them." They have the word available to them, testified Abraham. They have opportunity to repent, he argued. Implied in this testimony of Abraham is agreement that repentance would prevent one's going to the place of the rich man. Abraham does not say - "you have it all wrong! Preaching and repentance have nothing to do with men escaping Hell's torments!" These would been his remarks had Abraham believed Hardshell teachings.

The Hardshells realize the implications of this conversation and how it uproots Hardshell notions about salvation and faith, about being eternally saved from Hell and damnation. That is why many of them have begun to reinterpret the story of the rich man and Lazarus to make it deal with something other than with where people go when they die. Some of them even make it a "test of fellowship," excluding any who believe the traditional view.

"Let them hear Moses and the prophets," said Jesus. "Let them receive the testimony given by them," and let them repent upon hearing it, and so escape the place of torments. These words of Jesus uphold the gospel means position, and teach that all the unbelieving and unrepentant will go to the place of torment when they die.

"Let them hear Moses and the prophets"! And why? First, because Moses and the prophets "testified" of Christ.

"And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself." (Luke 24: 47)

"Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." (John 1: 45)

"For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me." (John 5: 46)

This is why Christ condemned the hypocrites, who professed allegiance to the "scriptures" (old testament) and yet who rejected him. "Search the scriptures," exhorted Jesus, for "they are they which testify of me." (John 8: 39) They testify of the way of salvation. An example of this in the old testament are these words:

"Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David." (Isa. 55: 3)

This is what the rich man understood to be the way of salvation, and which Abraham confirmed to him. The rich man's brothers, if they would be saved, must needs "hear" (heed) that message if they are to "live" and escape the torments of Hades.

When I was a Hardshell I nevertheless believed that the story of the rich man and Lazarus taught what happened to people when the die. This was the view of the first Hardshells. It was the view presented by the great Hardshell debater and apologist, Elder John R. Daily, in his debate with the Universalists and No-Hellers. So, how did I deal with it? How did I reconcile it with my "no-means" and "no-faith" view of salvation? I did not do as most of today's Hardshells and "spiritualize" the story, making it teach that the "hell" was a temporary punishment, and that the torments were for those Jews who were "cut off" from kingdom (church). What I reasoned, in my own mind, was that Abraham simply did not want to correct the rich man, but answered him according to his own false scheme, that scheme which says that hearing and believing the gospel is unnecessary for salvation from eternal torment. But, I now see that such reasoning was simply a way of trying to "get around" the clear implications of the story and dialogue that occurred between the rich man and Lazarus.

On the dialogue between Abraham and the rich man, Dr. Gill wrote:

"let them hear them; for they testified concerning Christ, and concerning the sins of the Jews, and the calamities, both temporal and eternal, that should come upon them; and which, testimony was sufficient to leave them without excuse: and indeed, the word of God, read, explained, and heard, is the ordinary means of conversion, or of bringing men to faith and repentance." (Commentary)

Also, in commenting upon I Peter 4: 6, Gill wrote:

"...yet repenting and believing, upon Noah's preaching to them, they live in their spirits in eternal life, according to the free mercy and grace of God..."

"live according to God in the Spirit; while they were here on earth, the Gospel preached to them had such an effect upon them, as to cause them to live spiritually, to live by faith on Christ, to live a life of holiness from him, and communion with him, and to live according to the will of God, in righteousness and true holiness..."

This is the old Baptist position, one that realizes that faith and repentance are necessary conditions for being saved from Hell and damnation.