And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
The verse is the rich man's plea after a life spent pleasing himself with no provision for eternity, fearing his five brothers will follow him to torment and asking Abraham to send Lazarus to his father's house because a messenger from the dead will make them repent. The plea claims he and his brothers had not been adequately warned, though they already had the law and the prophets and sufficient light, and it is the demand for a miracle by those who refuse to act on light already given. Moses and the prophets already give sufficient warning, and those who will not hear Scripture will not be persuaded even if one rises from the dead, for added light cannot convert a heart that persists in disobedience unless it accepts and obeys what it already knows. This life is the time to prepare for eternity, and no further probation is granted after death, so choices made here fix character and destiny and cannot then be undone by a miraculous warning. The warning was fulfilled when the nation entrusted with sacred truth rejected Christ and rejected the evidence of Lazarus raised after four days, with priests and rulers still refusing to believe and plotting to kill both Jesus and Lazarus.
Parable Context and Characters
Luke 16:30 belongs to a parable that contrasts the rich who do not depend on God with the poor who trust in Him and patiently suffer, teaching that their positions will one day be reversed. It stands as a lasting lesson for both rich and poor that earthly circumstances do not determine the final outcome, for the rich man is tormented after death while Lazarus, who feared God and suffered poverty and hardship in life, is comforted. The poor who trust God will be comforted and exalted above people who hold high worldly positions but have not surrendered their lives to God. Lazarus was a friendless, homeless, hungry beggar whose suffering the wealthy man could have relieved, yet the rich man lived for himself while Lazarus remained in want at his gate.
Wealth and human honor do not make a person valuable to God, for God values moral worth and true faith rather than riches acquired or possessed without moral soundness. In the parable the poor man Lazarus is honored while the wealthy man is rejected, showing that misusing what is lent by the Lord places a person below even the poorest sufferer who loves and trusts God. Disciples are therefore not to judge or value people by riches or by the honors others give them. The parable uses the listeners' belief in conscious existence between death and resurrection to teach this lesson about possessions and worth before God. Its conversation between Abraham and the once-rich man is figurative.
The picture was lifted up and set before priests and rulers, scribes and Pharisees as a warning for all who are rich in this world's goods and are not rich toward God to contemplate. It shows a man whose probation is ended, commanded by power he cannot question or resist to quit the premises where he was only a steward. He is reduced from all that money could buy and from purple and fine linen to hopeless poverty and nakedness, without the robe of Christ's righteousness woven in the loom of heaven, because he lived as if all he possessed were his own and neglected the call of God and the claims of the suffering poor. What is highly esteemed among men is abhorrent in the sight of God, for a man brought nothing into the world and can take nothing out of it.
Meaning of the Plea
After a life spent in self-pleasing with no provision for eternity, the rich man sees too late his folly and fears his five brothers will live as he lived and come to the place of torment, so he asks Abraham to send Lazarus to his father's house to testify to them on the ground that if one went to them from the dead they will repent. The reply is that Moses and the prophets already provide sufficient warning, and those who will not hear Scripture will not be persuaded even by someone rising from the dead. The same plea illustrates the condition of the Jewish nation, which had been entrusted with sacred truth but rejected Christ whom God sent to warn them.
The request implies that he and his brothers had not been adequately warned, as if God had not warned him enough. Yet his brothers already had the law and the prophets and sufficient light. The claim that a messenger from the dead would produce repentance is therefore answered by the principle that miraculous evidence does not produce repentance in hearts hardened against light already given, and refusing God's Word makes greater evidence unavailing.
The plea is the demand for some wonderful miracle by those who refuse to be enlightened by Moses and the prophets and to act on the light already given, and if their wish were granted they would not be convinced. It warns against demanding a miracle as further proof when God has already given abundant light and evidence. Every man is given sufficient light and grace for the discharge of the duties required of him, with responsibilities proportionate to opportunities and privileges. If man fails to do what a little light shows to be his duty, greater light would only reveal unfaithfulness and neglect to improve the blessings given rather than change him.
Scripture Sufficient Without Miracles
The rich man's claim was that his brothers would repent if someone went to them from the dead. The decisive answer is that Moses and the prophets already provide sufficient warning and light, and those who will not hear Scripture will not be persuaded even by someone rising from the dead. The plea is a demand for some wonderful miracle and further miraculous proof by those who refuse to be enlightened by Moses and the prophets and to act on the light already given, when God has already given abundant light and evidence. The request implies that he and his brothers had not been adequately warned, though his brothers already had the law and the prophets and sufficient light. The Jewish nation, entrusted with sacred truth, likewise rejected Christ whom God sent to warn them, and rejected the evidence of Lazarus raised from the dead, so the miracle did not lead them to believe.
Miraculous evidence does not produce repentance in hearts hardened against light already given. More light and conviction cannot convert someone who persists in disobedience. The person must accept the light, choose to act on what is known to be right, and cooperate with God's work. Refusing God's Word makes greater evidence unavailing.
Every person is given sufficient light and grace for the duties required of him, with responsibilities proportionate to opportunities and privileges. God gives to everyone sufficient light and grace to do the work given him to do. If a man fails to do what a little light shows to be duty, greater light would only reveal unfaithfulness and neglect to improve blessings given rather than change the heart. Even if the wish for extraordinary evidence were granted, those who reject the light already given would not be convinced. This was confirmed when Christ raised Lazarus, who had been dead four days, giving compelling evidence of divine power, yet priests and rulers still rejected the truth and planned to kill both Jesus and Lazarus, and even sought to kill Lazarus himself.
In directing minds to Moses and the prophets, Jesus directed people to the Old Testament, which at that time was the only part of the Bible in existence. Those Scriptures bear witness of Him, and in them eternal life is found. The appeal for someone to come from the dead does not replace hearing and obeying God's revealed will. Those who hear and choose to do it can know whether its teaching is from God. The parable shows God as the foundation of faith, goodness, and mercy and demonstrates His love, and the blessings of this life and immortal life are offered on condition of hearkening to God and keeping His commandments.
Probation Ends at Death
People decide their eternal destiny in this life while God's grace is offered and probation remains open with opportunity to repent. Wasting those opportunities by choosing self-pleasure and refusing offered grace fixes destiny and cuts the person off from everlasting life. The plea for one to go from the dead to the living brothers does not mean repentance can be secured after death, for no further probation is granted after death. This life is the time to prepare for eternity.
A miraculous warning after death cannot create repentance in one who refused opportunities to change during life. Choices form the character carried into the grave, and at the resurrection he rises with the same desires and passions. In the grave he has no power to choose between good and evil, and the gulf between the righteous and the wicked cannot then be bridged.
The closing scenes portray the last days. Separation from Abraham is the result of character formed in disobedience, unlike Abraham, by ignoring God and the needs of suffering people. Outward religious words do not make a person righteous.
Warning to Israel Fulfilled
In this parable the rich man stands for the Jewish nation, favored with every temporal and spiritual blessing as depositaries of sacred truth and stewards of God's grace, called to impart those blessings to others. They were specially instructed to help decayed brethren, the stranger within their gates, and the poor among them, with promise of blessing according to deeds of love and mercy. Instead of letting God's Spirit shape them and using their gifts to bless and enlighten the world, they failed as God's stewards and their neglect of divine light led the nation to ruin.
Like the rich man they used the Lord's goods for selfish gratification and gave no helping hand to relieve the temporal or spiritual necessities of suffering humanity. Filled with pride as the chosen and favored people, they did not serve or worship God but put their dependence in being children of Abraham, placing their trust in Abraham as if he were God. Having thus divorced themselves from God, they prepared themselves to be weighed in the balances and found wanting.
The nation had been entrusted with sacred truth but rejected Christ, whom God sent to warn them. The rich man's claim that his brothers would repent if someone came to them from the dead is answered by the principle that those who refuse Moses and the prophets will not be persuaded even by a resurrection. So likewise they rejected the evidence of Lazarus raised from the dead, and the miracle did not lead them to believe. Christ's raising of Lazarus, who had been dead four days, gave compelling evidence of His divine power, yet priests and rulers still rejected the truth and planned to kill both Jesus and Lazarus.
The request implies that God had not warned enough, but the brothers already had sufficient light and greater evidence would only expose unfaithfulness rather than change hearts hardened against light already given. The parable was a warning that the Jews would remember and understand when Jerusalem was destroyed, when starvation and suffering of every kind came upon the people. That calamity would show they had brought suffering upon themselves by neglecting to let their God-given light shine forth to the world.
Stewardship and Present Duty
Being rich is no sin when riches have not been gained by injustice, and wealth itself is not sinful. A rich man is not condemned for having riches, but condemnation rests on him if the means entrusted to him is spent in selfishness while others are neglected. Such selfish use proves him an unfaithful steward who was forgetful of obligation to God, who had his good things in this lifetime yet failed to secure the heavenly treasure.
Everything possessed is lent by the Lord and must be used to do good, laying it up beside the throne of God by devoting oneself to seeking eternal riches. The man who hoards his treasure for self cannot take any of it to heaven, for he brought nothing into the world and can take nothing out. Death cannot make poor the one who so uses what is lent him, but misuse of those gifts places a person below even the poorest sufferer who loves and trusts God.
The rich man was a Jew made a steward of God's means, with duty to help just such a case as the beggar at his gate. He knew the command to love the Lord with all heart and soul and might and to love his neighbor as himself, and he was abundantly blessed with knowledge, talents, and opportunity to understand God's word and practice its teachings. He was accountable to return interest to God for what God had lent him by using his gifts for the uplifting of humanity and cooperating with God in mercy. Instead he employed everything selfishly to honor himself, devoting all his powers to pleasure and amusements and to the praise and flattery of friends, lending his own money for interest on his own account, and so engrossed forgot his obligation to God and his responsibility to others.
At death his probation ended, and by irresistible power he was commanded to quit the premises of which he was no longer steward. He who had all that money could buy was reduced from richest purple and finest linen to hopeless poverty and nakedness, because he lived as if all he possessed were his own and neglected the call of God and the claims of the suffering poor. He is never to be covered by the robe of Christ's righteousness woven in the loom of heaven, for he did not possess the riches that would have kept his account right with God.
The rich man was responsible to help Lazarus from his abundance, but lived luxuriously and intemperately with no knowledge of God, refusing to share. His refusal was a grave wrong, showing unfaithfulness to the One who gave his means and entrusted him with blessings. Lazarus represents the suffering believer whom God blesses and commends.
Selfish pleasure and enjoyment are not the sum of happiness, for the rich man in suffering would ultimately have given all he possessed to exchange places with Lazarus who had been poor and covered with sores. Those who use wealth for selfish luxury instead of helping those in need are accountable to God and will face a reckoning for their stewardship. Neglecting the poor while indulging oneself therefore carries serious consequences.
Neglecting sufferers at one's gate brings woe, for the poor and afflicted are likened to Lazarus and the story enjoins the duty to help uplift them. Possessions are entrusted to honor God by blessing others, and neglecting this duty is unfaithful stewardship observed by God and the angels. Those who claim to be sons and daughters of God must not make the same wrong use of what God gave to carry out His purposes, but must lift up a standard against the enemy in the name of the Lord God of Israel and become human channels through which the Saviour's pitying tenderness communicates food and clothing and words fitly spoken to wretched, fallen, hopeless beings.
The verse is the rich man's plea after a life spent pleasing himself with no provision for eternity, fearing his five brothers will follow him to torment and asking Abraham to send Lazarus to his father's house because a messenger from the dead will make them repent. The plea claims he and his brothers had not been adequately warned, though they already had the law and the prophets and sufficient light, and it is the demand for a miracle by those who refuse to act on light already given. Moses and the prophets already give sufficient warning, and those who will not hear Scripture will not be persuaded even if one rises from the dead, for added light cannot convert a heart that persists in disobedience unless it accepts and obeys what it already knows. This life is the time to prepare for eternity, and no further probation is granted after death, so choices made here fix character and destiny and cannot then be undone by a miraculous warning. The warning was fulfilled when the nation entrusted with sacred truth rejected Christ and rejected the evidence of Lazarus raised after four days, with priests and rulers still refusing to believe and plotting to kill both Jesus and Lazarus.
Parable Context and Characters
Luke 16:30 belongs to a parable that contrasts the rich who do not depend on God with the poor who trust in Him and patiently suffer, teaching that their positions will one day be reversed. It stands as a lasting lesson for both rich and poor that earthly circumstances do not determine the final outcome, for the rich man is tormented after death while Lazarus, who feared God and suffered poverty and hardship in life, is comforted. The poor who trust God will be comforted and exalted above people who hold high worldly positions but have not surrendered their lives to God. Lazarus was a friendless, homeless, hungry beggar whose suffering the wealthy man could have relieved, yet the rich man lived for himself while Lazarus remained in want at his gate.
Wealth and human honor do not make a person valuable to God, for God values moral worth and true faith rather than riches acquired or possessed without moral soundness. In the parable the poor man Lazarus is honored while the wealthy man is rejected, showing that misusing what is lent by the Lord places a person below even the poorest sufferer who loves and trusts God. Disciples are therefore not to judge or value people by riches or by the honors others give them. The parable uses the listeners' belief in conscious existence between death and resurrection to teach this lesson about possessions and worth before God. Its conversation between Abraham and the once-rich man is figurative.
The picture was lifted up and set before priests and rulers, scribes and Pharisees as a warning for all who are rich in this world's goods and are not rich toward God to contemplate. It shows a man whose probation is ended, commanded by power he cannot question or resist to quit the premises where he was only a steward. He is reduced from all that money could buy and from purple and fine linen to hopeless poverty and nakedness, without the robe of Christ's righteousness woven in the loom of heaven, because he lived as if all he possessed were his own and neglected the call of God and the claims of the suffering poor. What is highly esteemed among men is abhorrent in the sight of God, for a man brought nothing into the world and can take nothing out of it.
Meaning of the Plea
After a life spent in self-pleasing with no provision for eternity, the rich man sees too late his folly and fears his five brothers will live as he lived and come to the place of torment, so he asks Abraham to send Lazarus to his father's house to testify to them on the ground that if one went to them from the dead they will repent. The reply is that Moses and the prophets already provide sufficient warning, and those who will not hear Scripture will not be persuaded even by someone rising from the dead. The same plea illustrates the condition of the Jewish nation, which had been entrusted with sacred truth but rejected Christ whom God sent to warn them.
The request implies that he and his brothers had not been adequately warned, as if God had not warned him enough. Yet his brothers already had the law and the prophets and sufficient light. The claim that a messenger from the dead would produce repentance is therefore answered by the principle that miraculous evidence does not produce repentance in hearts hardened against light already given, and refusing God's Word makes greater evidence unavailing.
The plea is the demand for some wonderful miracle by those who refuse to be enlightened by Moses and the prophets and to act on the light already given, and if their wish were granted they would not be convinced. It warns against demanding a miracle as further proof when God has already given abundant light and evidence. Every man is given sufficient light and grace for the discharge of the duties required of him, with responsibilities proportionate to opportunities and privileges. If man fails to do what a little light shows to be his duty, greater light would only reveal unfaithfulness and neglect to improve the blessings given rather than change him.
Scripture Sufficient Without Miracles
The rich man's claim was that his brothers would repent if someone went to them from the dead. The decisive answer is that Moses and the prophets already provide sufficient warning and light, and those who will not hear Scripture will not be persuaded even by someone rising from the dead. The plea is a demand for some wonderful miracle and further miraculous proof by those who refuse to be enlightened by Moses and the prophets and to act on the light already given, when God has already given abundant light and evidence. The request implies that he and his brothers had not been adequately warned, though his brothers already had the law and the prophets and sufficient light. The Jewish nation, entrusted with sacred truth, likewise rejected Christ whom God sent to warn them, and rejected the evidence of Lazarus raised from the dead, so the miracle did not lead them to believe.
Miraculous evidence does not produce repentance in hearts hardened against light already given. More light and conviction cannot convert someone who persists in disobedience. The person must accept the light, choose to act on what is known to be right, and cooperate with God's work. Refusing God's Word makes greater evidence unavailing.
Every person is given sufficient light and grace for the duties required of him, with responsibilities proportionate to opportunities and privileges. God gives to everyone sufficient light and grace to do the work given him to do. If a man fails to do what a little light shows to be duty, greater light would only reveal unfaithfulness and neglect to improve blessings given rather than change the heart. Even if the wish for extraordinary evidence were granted, those who reject the light already given would not be convinced. This was confirmed when Christ raised Lazarus, who had been dead four days, giving compelling evidence of divine power, yet priests and rulers still rejected the truth and planned to kill both Jesus and Lazarus, and even sought to kill Lazarus himself.
In directing minds to Moses and the prophets, Jesus directed people to the Old Testament, which at that time was the only part of the Bible in existence. Those Scriptures bear witness of Him, and in them eternal life is found. The appeal for someone to come from the dead does not replace hearing and obeying God's revealed will. Those who hear and choose to do it can know whether its teaching is from God. The parable shows God as the foundation of faith, goodness, and mercy and demonstrates His love, and the blessings of this life and immortal life are offered on condition of hearkening to God and keeping His commandments.
Probation Ends at Death
People decide their eternal destiny in this life while God's grace is offered and probation remains open with opportunity to repent. Wasting those opportunities by choosing self-pleasure and refusing offered grace fixes destiny and cuts the person off from everlasting life. The plea for one to go from the dead to the living brothers does not mean repentance can be secured after death, for no further probation is granted after death. This life is the time to prepare for eternity.
A miraculous warning after death cannot create repentance in one who refused opportunities to change during life. Choices form the character carried into the grave, and at the resurrection he rises with the same desires and passions. In the grave he has no power to choose between good and evil, and the gulf between the righteous and the wicked cannot then be bridged.
The closing scenes portray the last days. Separation from Abraham is the result of character formed in disobedience, unlike Abraham, by ignoring God and the needs of suffering people. Outward religious words do not make a person righteous.
Warning to Israel Fulfilled
In this parable the rich man stands for the Jewish nation, favored with every temporal and spiritual blessing as depositaries of sacred truth and stewards of God's grace, called to impart those blessings to others. They were specially instructed to help decayed brethren, the stranger within their gates, and the poor among them, with promise of blessing according to deeds of love and mercy. Instead of letting God's Spirit shape them and using their gifts to bless and enlighten the world, they failed as God's stewards and their neglect of divine light led the nation to ruin.
Like the rich man they used the Lord's goods for selfish gratification and gave no helping hand to relieve the temporal or spiritual necessities of suffering humanity. Filled with pride as the chosen and favored people, they did not serve or worship God but put their dependence in being children of Abraham, placing their trust in Abraham as if he were God. Having thus divorced themselves from God, they prepared themselves to be weighed in the balances and found wanting.
The nation had been entrusted with sacred truth but rejected Christ, whom God sent to warn them. The rich man's claim that his brothers would repent if someone came to them from the dead is answered by the principle that those who refuse Moses and the prophets will not be persuaded even by a resurrection. So likewise they rejected the evidence of Lazarus raised from the dead, and the miracle did not lead them to believe. Christ's raising of Lazarus, who had been dead four days, gave compelling evidence of His divine power, yet priests and rulers still rejected the truth and planned to kill both Jesus and Lazarus.
The request implies that God had not warned enough, but the brothers already had sufficient light and greater evidence would only expose unfaithfulness rather than change hearts hardened against light already given. The parable was a warning that the Jews would remember and understand when Jerusalem was destroyed, when starvation and suffering of every kind came upon the people. That calamity would show they had brought suffering upon themselves by neglecting to let their God-given light shine forth to the world.
Stewardship and Present Duty
Being rich is no sin when riches have not been gained by injustice, and wealth itself is not sinful. A rich man is not condemned for having riches, but condemnation rests on him if the means entrusted to him is spent in selfishness while others are neglected. Such selfish use proves him an unfaithful steward who was forgetful of obligation to God, who had his good things in this lifetime yet failed to secure the heavenly treasure.
Everything possessed is lent by the Lord and must be used to do good, laying it up beside the throne of God by devoting oneself to seeking eternal riches. The man who hoards his treasure for self cannot take any of it to heaven, for he brought nothing into the world and can take nothing out. Death cannot make poor the one who so uses what is lent him, but misuse of those gifts places a person below even the poorest sufferer who loves and trusts God.
The rich man was a Jew made a steward of God's means, with duty to help just such a case as the beggar at his gate. He knew the command to love the Lord with all heart and soul and might and to love his neighbor as himself, and he was abundantly blessed with knowledge, talents, and opportunity to understand God's word and practice its teachings. He was accountable to return interest to God for what God had lent him by using his gifts for the uplifting of humanity and cooperating with God in mercy. Instead he employed everything selfishly to honor himself, devoting all his powers to pleasure and amusements and to the praise and flattery of friends, lending his own money for interest on his own account, and so engrossed forgot his obligation to God and his responsibility to others.
At death his probation ended, and by irresistible power he was commanded to quit the premises of which he was no longer steward. He who had all that money could buy was reduced from richest purple and finest linen to hopeless poverty and nakedness, because he lived as if all he possessed were his own and neglected the call of God and the claims of the suffering poor. He is never to be covered by the robe of Christ's righteousness woven in the loom of heaven, for he did not possess the riches that would have kept his account right with God.
The rich man was responsible to help Lazarus from his abundance, but lived luxuriously and intemperately with no knowledge of God, refusing to share. His refusal was a grave wrong, showing unfaithfulness to the One who gave his means and entrusted him with blessings. Lazarus represents the suffering believer whom God blesses and commends.
Selfish pleasure and enjoyment are not the sum of happiness, for the rich man in suffering would ultimately have given all he possessed to exchange places with Lazarus who had been poor and covered with sores. Those who use wealth for selfish luxury instead of helping those in need are accountable to God and will face a reckoning for their stewardship. Neglecting the poor while indulging oneself therefore carries serious consequences.
Neglecting sufferers at one's gate brings woe, for the poor and afflicted are likened to Lazarus and the story enjoins the duty to help uplift them. Possessions are entrusted to honor God by blessing others, and neglecting this duty is unfaithful stewardship observed by God and the angels. Those who claim to be sons and daughters of God must not make the same wrong use of what God gave to carry out His purposes, but must lift up a standard against the enemy in the name of the Lord God of Israel and become human channels through which the Saviour's pitying tenderness communicates food and clothing and words fitly spoken to wretched, fallen, hopeless beings.