The Cross Between Heaven And Hell - Message #297

Our materialistic age often disregards life after death. However, the supernatural may tantalize those caught up in the consumerism of our secular society. In either case, people look at the Bible as folklore or myth. They play down the realities of heaven. In either case, people look at the Bible as folklore or myth. The realities of heaven and hell are played down.

That wasn't the case for Jesus Christ though. He talked a lot about both heaven and hell. When Jesus was on the cross, he was hanged between heaven and hell. In one direction was the temple, a picture of God's throne room in heaven. When Jesus died, "the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom" (Matthew 27:51). Christ opened the way into heaven.

In another direction was that awful valley called Gehenna. It was a picture of hell. All the city's garbage was dumped in that place. Fires burned there perpetually. You may remember that Judas Iscariot killed himself after he betrayed Jesus and after he gave the thirty pieces of silver back to chief priests. The chief priests bought a burial plot for Judas in Gehenna with that silver. Jesus said Judas was a reprobate. Hell was his home.

In the meantime, on the cross, "Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, 'Father, into your hands I commit My spirit" (Luke 23:46). While the body of Jesus was placed in the ground, His human spirit went to heaven. On the cross, Jesus was literally between heaven and hell. At death he passed into heaven while Judas slipped into hell. These are real places. Although we might joke about them in the coffee shop, we must realize, they are real destinations.

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