ARE YOU BORN AGAIN?
Luke 16:22 'And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;'
This story clearly teaches that there is life after death. It shows that there is no 'soul sleep' where our souls are awaiting the resurrection of our bodies, but we go into a conscious eternity immediately. It also shows that there are only two destinations possible after death. We either go to a place of torment for the wicked or a place of blessing for the righteous. There is no 'limbo' or 'purgatory' and there is no second chance, illustrating the finality of our eternal destiny once we die.
Abraham's bosom is a symbolic term designating a...
Luke 16:17 'And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.'
The jot was not only one of the smallest letters of the Hebrew alphabet, but also one of the most insignificant, being sometimes deleted at the writer's pleasure. The tittle was only a mark or a point on a line that helped distinguish one letter from another. The tittle corresponds to our period or apostrophe. The point that Jesus is making is that even the tiniest detail of the law would not pass away.
Christ fulfilled every jot and tittle of the law. The law was ordained to life, but no one could keep it. So, God Himself became flesh. He did what no sinful flesh had ever done. He kept the law thereby winning the life of God as the prize...
GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS
Luke 16:16 'The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it.'
The Bible teaches that there are different dispensations or divinely ordered ways of God dealing with mankind throughout the ages. A dispensation is simply a period of time in which God deals with mankind in a certain way.
The Old Testament law was only a temporary dispensation and ruled from the giving of the law (Ex. 20) until the ministry of John the Baptist. When Christ came, He put an end to the law for righteousness (Rom. 10:4). Anyone who advocates the keeping of the law for the purpose of right standing with God is going back to an Old Testament system...
Matthew 17:20 'And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.'
The disciples' unbelief in this instance was not a disbelief in God's power to produce deliverance, but rather a 'natural' kind of unbelief that came from a hardened heart that was more sensitive to what it saw than to what it believed. Jesus said that a very small amount of faith (a 'mustard seed') is sufficient to remove a mountain, if no unbelief is present to hinder it.
Jesus was...
Matthew 17:2 'And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.'
It is interesting to compare Jesus' transfiguration with that of Moses'. Jesus' face shone as the sun and His garment was as white as the light. This certainly exceeded what Moses experienced, and yet Jesus' face did not continue to shine when He came down off of the mountain as Moses' face did. Moses' face reflected the glory of God, but Jesus was the glory of God (Jn. 1:14; Heb. 1:3). Moses put a veil over his face to conceal the glory of God (Ex. 34:29-35) so that the people would not be afraid to come near him.
Jesus' body was His veil that...
