The separation from His Father, because of the sin He bore, is what caused Jesus' death. This was not reconciled until His resurrection and not fully until His ascension to bear first fruits to the Father.
So I'm guessing that you take the doctrine that Jesus had to suffer in hell also while he was dead. Regardless Jesus said it is finished at his death. There was no debt to Satan and no punishment or ransom that had to be paid to him for our salvation. Remember that when we sin, even with the help of Satan, our debt is still to God.
John 19:30 hen Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It
isfinished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Let's tackle the first verse... In the original greek, there was no punctuation and was supplied by the translators, based on their knowledge and belief. Let's read the verse with different punctuation to see if it lines up better with another important clue.
Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise.”
This annotation shows the scripture constructed differently and reads in a completely different light.
Well familiar with this most deceptive argument. God does not lie, including deceive. He may veil things though. Your placement of punctuation is not naturally intuitive. There is no need to reiterate that something is written on the day it is written. If I sent this text but was too lazy to put in punctuation, is there any doubt on the meaning.
"What do you say today let's do lunch?"
How stupid would the person that received such a text be to reply with:
"Sure, what day to you want to do lunch?"
But here's the corroborating piece of the puzzle to know which version is correct. After Jesus was risen from the tomb, He told Mary not to touch Him because He hadn't yet ascended to His Father... so he couldn't have said to the thief that Friday he would be with Him in paradise as
Jesus didn't go until three[ how about 40, AHC] days later. To believe the passage as translated is to state that Jesus lied to the thief. The true translation would then be the one that reconciles with His statement to Mary.
You point to a question of in-congruence of scripture but don't resolve all of them, you only use it to dismiss an obvious understanding of a text missing punctuation. Your argument of Mary not being able to touch Jesus on Easter morn because he has not ascended yet is not congruent with Jesus allowing Thomas to touch him before he ascended. I can't say why Jesus would not let Mary touch him that morning, but it is not explained well enough in scripture to refute clear words of Jesus on the cross saying today he would be in Paradise.
I think it would be good to separate the idea of going from earth to heaven from the glorious ascension that Jesus had 40 days after his resurrection. Scripture does tell of those going to heaven without it being described as a glorious ascension that Jesus had.
Heb 11:5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.
Now Elijah went up to heaven without dying, in a dramatic way, but it does not say he ascended in glory to sit at the right hand of God.
2 Kings 2:11 And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
Now consider while on earth Jesus was transfigured and met with two old prophets, one was Moses who did die and the other was Elijah who was taken up to heaven without dying. Have you ever fathomed a thought as the to purpose of this meeting and why it was recorded in scripture. I think we should remember what Jesus said about the "dead".
Matthew 22:32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.”
I believe that this text teaches that while we have ended life on earth, we are still in service of God and his kingdom while our bodies are "dead/sleeping".
Scripture speaks of angels serving and praising God in heaven, but they also come to earth and minister or deliver a message to us. One must believe in spirits being able to go back and forth between heaven and earth. In fact this is Jacob's dream.
Gen 28:12 And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it!
Now look to how scripture describes Jesus ascension to heaven of his resurrected body. It was a glorious event that King David and even Jesus foretold.
Acts 2:33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. 34 For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said,
“‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand
35 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”
John 1:50 Jesus said, “You believe[h] because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” 51 He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”
It is with this same glory that Jesus will return to earth.
Mat 24:30 “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.
This long winded discourse is just to say that the ascension of Jesus was a glorious public event done with his body. This does not refute the statement and possibility of Jesus' spirit going to the Father in Paradise on the day of his death as the two verses of scripture say: “
Father, into your hands I commit my
spirit.” and "today you will be with me in
paradise."
