Profound example in Repentant Thief

Kennedy: You mean it's not a matter of good deeds versus bad deeds, a kind of moral bookkeeping?

Lewis: No indeed. Look at the thief on the cross. He made it to paradise even though his life's red ink certainly outweighed the black.

The Sunday before last my pastor ended his morning sermon with the profound example of salvation through faith alone in the Thief on the Cross:

If you died today and were trying to get into heaven, what would you say? If you answer that question in the first person you’re in trouble. If you say, “Because I’ve done this and I’ve done that. . .” The only proper answer is the third person because HE did it.

The great illustration of that is the story preachers love to tell—the Thief on the Cross.

I don’t know about you, but when you get to glory there’s certain people you want to talk to. You know the old song, “The first person I want to see is the Lord.” That’s natural.

I heard a guy ask recently, “Do you think when you get to heaven you’re going to see Billy Graham?” The other guy said, “Absolutely not. Graham’s going to be so far up yonder closer to the throne than I am. I’ll be way in the back and I’m not going to even see him.” That’s another preacher story, but you get the point.

One of the guys I want to check out is that Thief on the Cross. I want to know, "How’d this thing shake out for you?” You know, “You’re cursing the guy out one minute, you’ve never been to a Bible study, you never joined a church, never got baptized, never walked a sanctified life and yet you made it. You made it dude! How did that happen?”

I’m sure that when the angel welcomed that guy into paradise he must have said, “What are you doing here?” “I don’t know.” “What do you mean you don’t know?!” “Well, because I don’t know.”

The boss angel comes over and says, “I’m not really sure why you’re here. Let’s examine this a little bit. Are you really clear about the doctrine of justification by faith? You got that doctrine straight in your mind?”

The poor guy says, “I never heard of that in my life; don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The boss angel asks, “On what basis are you here?” and the thief just looks at him and says, “Because the man on the middle cross said I could come.”

That’s the only answer and that’s why we can rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have received the atonement. The song goes, “His blood, His blood is all my plea. For hallelujah, it ransomed me.”

The man on the middle cross said, “You trust me and you’re in.”

Here is an old post on the Thief on the Cross:

For anyone who wants to teach salvation by works, based upon what you do and accomplish, the thorn in their flesh for time immemorial has always been that dreaded Thief on the Cross who got saved.

He’s nailed, he’s hanging, he can’t do anything. All he did is believe and God saved him because he believed.

He didn’t get baptized, and baptism was in order at that time. He didn’t offer a sacrifice, and sacrifices were in order at that time.   

He just hangs there with no way to do anything. That’s a great position to be in, forced not to be religious. Christ saved him, demonstrating the surety and the place of faith. You see, folks, mark it down: THE ISSUE BEFORE GOD HAS ALWAYS BEEN FAITH.

*****

“Verily I say unto thee, To day thou shalt be with me in paradise,” is the Second Saying of Christ from the Cross, spoken to the thief hanging beside Him who sought salvation.

Notice there are two thieves on the Cross and both of them had mocked Christ and reviled Him to begin with. They don’t both start off with a dividing opinion. Matthew 27:44 says, “The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth.”

When those thieves came to the Cross, they had their own problems. They had their own trial, their own guilt and, hence, their own cross. They weren’t interested in anything and the crowd’s mocking this guy in the middle who’s being quiet, opening not His mouth, just quietly suffering through the agony He’s enduring.

He’s been beaten far more maliciously than these two were and they knew what that meant. He’d been mistreated, and they would have looked at Him and assumed the worse, but they both reviled Him.

They both were against Him, but one of them watched what was going on. The one realized, “There’s something different about this guy next to me.”

If you look at Luke 23, there’s a tremendous confession of faith this one thief makes: [40] But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?
[41] And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.
[42] And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.

This Repentant Thief, as we call him, understood some things. Look at the doctrine he believes. He feared God. He understood there was some retribution to be meted out by the justice of God against man’s sin. He understood there was something in God’s justice you needed to fear.

He understood his own guilt. He understood they were justly condemned. He bore testimony to the sinlessness of Christ. He says we’re getting what we deserve.

That’s a great testimony from a thief right there. I’ve ministered in jails and prisons for years and years and you don’t meet very many ‘guilty’ people in prison. They’ll tell you about how they got a bad judge or a rigged jury, etc.

The thief says, “This man hath done nothing amiss.” He confesses that Christ is God. He says unto Jesus, "Lord." He knows that He’s the Savior, the Messiah. He says, “Remember me.” I mean, he believes that the one who hung on that Cross is God who would also save him.

He wasn’t saying, “Remember me so you can punish me.” He said, “Save me when thou comest into thy kingdom.”

This guy believes in a future life. He knows that death isn’t the end. He believes in the Second Coming. He believes in the kingdom program. He says, “Remember me into THY kingdom,” so he obviously knows who Christ is! This guy’s got a lot better perception about what’s happening there then most theologians do today!

*****

There were two groups in Israel at the time; one who reviled Him and said, “Away with Him, crucify Him,” and another who said, “No, we’re wrong. He’s the Messiah. We better trust Him. Remember us when you come unto your kingdom.”

This is a great lesson here about what was happening in Israel, represented by these two thieves, and the thing that’s dividing them is the Lord Jesus Christ, and their attitude toward Him, and their willingness to do what that Thief on the Cross did, to look by faith to Him and trust.

Christ’s response to this thief in Luke 23:43 is very clear: [43] And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.

You know something, death is not the end of life. He didn’t say, “In the resurrection you’re going to be with me in paradise.” He didn’t say, “You’re going to die and cease to exist, or go to sleep and not know what’s going on and when we’re resurrected you’ll be there.” He said, “TODAY!”

Matthew 12:40 says, [40] For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. When He died he went to the heart of the earth.

In Luke 16, Jesus draws back the jaws of the underworld and says, “There was a certain rich man clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day.” He was like one of the Pharisees; one of the priests, one of the leaders—the royalty in Israel.

And then there was a Beggar. Like the publicans and sinners—the outcast. There’s the two groups in Israel. He again uses two men. The passage says, [20] And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,
[21] And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
[22] And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried

It says the beggar’s name was Lazarus and when he died the angels came and took him to Abraham’s bosom. They took him to paradise, but it’s called Abraham’s bosom because it was a foreshadow of the fulfillment of the covenant God made with Abraham.

I’ve talked to you for years about the fact that the basic promise in the Abrahamic covenant is the promise of eternal life; resurrection life. And when they died they went to a place where they were in paradise, awaiting the day when the fulfillment of that covenant would become reality.

The message is, “Today, you’re going to be a part of the kingdom saints, right there with them all. Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.”

Christ is telling the thief, “Hey, you’re secure man; don’t worry about it. The worst that happens here, there’s still glory coming and you’re secure. You’re there. You’re going to be with me.”

I love that “with me.” Isn’t it wonderful how God fixes it so He’s the one who takes care of His saints? I think of that verse in I Thessalonians all the time: [16] For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first.

He doesn’t sent angels to get you; He Himself comes. I think of that verse in I Timothy: [15] This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Paul’s saying, “HE came to save ME!” He’s the Savior.

“Today, shall thou be with me in paradise.” Some old preacher said, “Wherever the Lord is there’s paradise, so you want to worry about where they went.” I know where they went! They went to Abraham’s bosom, but Christ being there made it paradise of a special kind.

God has placed a lesson about the salvation that was to accompany the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ in just the place where every eye directed to Calvary had to see it: The Thief on the Cross. One thief was saved so that no one need despair. But only one thief was saved so that no one would presume on their salvation.

See, Christ didn’t say to the thief, “No, you don’t understand the program.” He did and Christ gave him the assurance that his faith was all that he had to have to save him. That’s important because there’s a pattern set RIGHT HERE about the place of faith and how salvation is obtained.

Because the thief next to the Lord was trusting Christ and Christ accepted him, the Cross and salvation by faith alone are inseparably linked by the Thief on the Cross.