The Repentant Thief

“And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise.”  Luke 23:43

As stated in a previous blog, Jesus was hung on a cross between two men who were being executed as thieves.  The choice of either the Jews or the Romans to place Jesus among those who were criminals was, in effect, to treat Jesus as if He, too, was a criminal.  The Jews did not crucify people.  Their usual method of execution was by stoning.  Crucifixion was the method of the Roman government to execute those guilty of crimes.  Thus why would the order of the three being crucified that day matter to the Romans?  It could have been the Jews who clamored for Jesus’ death who chose the middle cross location in order to shame Jesus even further.  Regardless of who made the choice, Jesus used it to bring glory to His Father and to receive one of the thieves into God’s kingdom.  The politicians say that they never let a crisis go to waste, and neither did Jesus.  However, His motive was to help people, not hurt them or take advantage of them.

From Matthew 27:39-44 and Mark 15:29-32, we find that both of these thieves were joining in with the crowd below who was mocking and verbally abusing Jesus.  However, I can picture one of the thieves as he watched Jesus issue a request to His Father to forgive the people who were jeering and shouting insults and curses, begin to quiet down and stop his nasty remarks.  He also would have noticed that in spite of the painful torture that Jesus was experiencing, Jesus did not complain or issue threats to His accusers.  This thief was having a change of heart.  The Holy Spirit was bringing conviction upon him.  He probably began to think back on his life and all the wrong things that he had done.  I suppose he had never had any teaching from God’s law.  I don’t know if he was a Jew or a Gentile.  He reminds me of folks who have lived a rather raunchy lifestyle, but then someone tells them about Jesus and how they can be free of the guilt of their sins, and they are gloriously saved:  from the gutter to glory.  Most folks that I know who came to Christ were rather “good” people, but “good” people also need a Savior.

The thief who hung on the opposite side of Jesus made a sarcastic remark to Jesus.  He said, “If You are Christ, save Yourself and us.”  He was not acknowledging Jesus as Christ.  I think that he just wanted out of his miserable situation, but I doubt that he truly believed that Jesus could help him.  Otherwise, he would have been repentant and humble as the other thief who saw the tender look in Jesus’ eyes as He gazed out over so many who hated Him.  This other thief began to feel the love and compassion as Jesus hung without blaming anyone for His condition.  He spoke up to the hostile thief, asking, “Do you not fear God, seeing that you are under the same condemnation?”  He then admitted that the two of them were justly being punished for their sins, but Jesus had done nothing to deserve punishment.  He then asked Jesus to remember him when He returned to His kingdom.

The repentant thief did not pray what we call the standard “sinner’s prayer” verbally nor was he baptized.  However, he did acknowledge his sinful condition and believe that Jesus was the Son of God who was able to save him.  Isn’t that what God requires for saving faith–a confession of our sin and an acknowledgement that Jesus is the Son of God to the extent that we trust Him explicitly for all eternity?  Jesus was fully aware of the man’s honest admission because Jesus could see into the man’s heart, thus Jesus forgave him and promised that he would have an eternal home in heaven.  It was obvious that he would not be able to be baptized as all believers in Christ are required to be in order to be obedient to the Lord.  There are cases where baptism by emersion is not feasible, as in the case of a very ill, bedridden person or anyone unable to go into the baptismal waters, but everyone else should be baptized as soon as they can after being born again.  Baptism illustrates the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, and is symbolic of the regeneration of a person from a lost sinner to a believer in Christ.

These two thieves represent the two kinds of people in the world–those who are saved because they have repented and trusted Christ and those who are lost because they have rejected Him.  There is no other option.

Tomorrow:  “My, God, My God”