QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON LUCA 23:43: TODAY YOU WILL BE WITH ME IN PARADISE

Luke 23:43
Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

If Jesus rose on the third day, and ascended to the Father after forty days, how could he keep that promise?

Jesus is a Person of the divine Trinity, therefore one God with the Father (John 10:30; 16:15) and with his Holy Spirit (Acts 16:6-7; Romans 8:9; Galatians 4:6; 1 Peter 1:10-11). When the fullness of time came, the divine Second Person of the Trinity (Matthew 28:19) hypostatically united to himself a flesh animated by a rational soul, and became man (John 1:14; Galatians 4:4; Philippians 2:6-8) remaining God (John 20:28; Acts 20:28; Colossians 2:9; Titus 2:13; 2 Peter 1:1). Hence in Jesus there are two natures, divine and human, without confusion or change or division or separation. Two natures, divine and human, but only one subject, the divine one. With his human nature Jesus died on the cross and rose on the third day (John 2:19.21.22), and after forty days he ascended to the Father (John 20:17; Acts 1:3). But as a Person of the divine Trinity, Jesus was already with the Father. Therefore Jesus was able to say to the repentant man: “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43), that is, with my divine and omnipresent Person, who, at the same time, is in paradise but also here next to you. Afterwards I will also take my human nature into paradise, that is, the body and soul which have become proper to the divine Second Person of the Holy Trinity. In fact, that day, while the Lord was in the tomb with his body, he descended with his soul into hell to free the souls of the righteous, as the prophets prophesied: “I will deliver this people from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction?” (Hosea 13:14) And also: “As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.” (Zechariah 9:11) And that man could see the glory of the Lord, in paradise, according to the promise that was made to him on the cross.