Jesus tells a parable about two men -- how they lived, how they died, and what happened to them after death. Though it is a parable, it is told to make the truth come home vividly and urgently. The rich man had lived heedless of the requirements of God. He was not punished for being rich, but because, in his luxury, he had not given God the glory, nor humbled himself, nor been sympathetic to those in need. The poor man had remained a believer throughout his poverty. He was not saved because he was poor, but because, in his poverty he had kept the faith which had prevented him from growing bitter, perverted or jealous.
According to the parable each dies rather suddenly. Jesus creates the illustration to authenticate His teaching on what happens after a person dies. One of the two things illustrated in the story must happen. The poor man died and was welcomed into a glorious state. The rich man died and was buried. The next thing he knew, he was tormented in hell. He was also aware of the blessing which had fallen to the poor man. Immediately after death we go either to heaven or hell according to whether we died believing in the Saviour or whether we died in our sins.
Jesus shows two more vital things from His story. In it, the rich man is portrayed in hell as asking that the poor man might bring him relief. It is forbidden, on the ground that there is a great gulf fixed no one can pass from hell to heaven after death, or from heaven to hell. The state in which we die, Jesus teaches, is unalterable. No masses, no prayers, can alter our eternal condition; it is too late. Prayers may be offered for us when we are dead, but it will be to no avail; they cannot alter anything. Jesus Himself says so.
Have we been deluding ourselves all these years that the sins of our lives will be put right after we are dead? Only those things which have been repented of before God in this life are pardoned, through the merit of Jesus' redeeming death. Such sins are permanently blotted out.
That being the case, the rich man is suddenly, urgently concerned about the eternal state of his five brothers. He was not concerned before, but now that (too late!) he knows the true state of affairs, he is very concerned for them. He asks if the poor man can bring a message from heaven to warn them urgently. The answer is no, he may not. There is a Man, the Man Christ Jesus, Who came from heaven to warn men. The Bible has been written to bear God's urgent message to men and women to repent. In it, Jesus pleads, 'Come unto Me'. If people do not read it; if their lives are too frenetic, too careless of God to respond, then there is no other way open which God allows for people to enter heaven rather than hell.
Dear reader, pay earnest heed now. While we have life it is not too late to turn to the Saviour. But once that life has fled it becomes too late. Should we lapse into coma or unconsciousness, it will perhaps become too late even before we die.
Make no delay, dear reader!