Salvation and Grace

I would like to say a few things tonight about 'the thief on the cross,' and how he exemplifies the grace of God that is in Christ, and at the same time how he exemplifies every true believer and follower of Jesus Christ. The truth of the matter is that he was saved by the exact same means as anyone and everyone since that time, who have also been saved. I believe this man, though often mentioned, is also quite overlooked in the overall scope of the Gospel. I believe that he represents everything about the grace that saves, and how it saves; in a very large and close up manner. Let's look at what transpired when Jesus was crucified, and this man as well as another were crucified with him: "And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise" (Lk. 23:39-43). There you have it, the simplicity of God's saving grace, up close and personal, with some really potent emphasis to boot. This man, dying the same slow, agonizing death as Jesus, right beside Jesus in fact; truly from his heart entrusted his eternal destiny to Jesus, believing that Jesus could and would give him eternal life hereafter. Wow! There's really no need for further commentary to be honest, but rather to just sit and digest the overwhelming reality of how simplistic it is to truly have saving faith in Jesus. Oh yeah, that 'potent emphasis' I mentioned a minute ago? In case you missed it, Jesus told this man that he was going to be saved and have eternal life! I would say that is MORE THAN potent emphasis!

So the man believed on Jesus from his heart, and sincerely asked Jesus to save him. Then Jesus clearly showed that saving him was his will and he promised him eternal life. Sounds familiar to me: "But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 3:21-24). It is a matter of undeniable fact that what the thief on the cross did was and is the ONLY thing anyone can do to merit eternal life, because it is all about the "righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ," and it ain't about ANYTHING ELSE! Another famous passage brings the point home even more clearly: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8,9). I say that the thief was so exemplary of God's saving grace because he was in a position where there was nothing that he COULD possibly do other than what he did. The truth is that we are ALL in that same position, whether we realize it or not. All he had space or hope for on that cross beside Jesus was the humility and faith of his heart, and the mercy and grace of Jesus's heart. And therein he had EVERYTHING it took in order for him to be saved unto eternal life, and only Jesus could grant it to him by mercy, or by grace. The only 'works' that he had were stated by him, and that was that he was guilty as charged, and worthy of death. Again that is absolutely all that ANY of us can bring to Jesus, as none of our 'works' are worth a plugged nickel. We are born sinners, and the scripture clearly tells us that "the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:23).

So if we know and acknowledge that we are guilty, and that we are worthy of death, and we sincerely ask Jesus to blot out all of our sins and guiltiness; he is going to take our sins and guiltiness away and give us eternal life instead. This is just simplistic scriptural truth and reality: "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit" (I Pet. 3:18). To add to that we have this memorable verse: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (Jn. 3:16). The thief on the cross also perfectly exemplifies to us the reality that all who are in Christ are also 'crucified with him,' and are accounted by God as actually having been crucified with his Son (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20). The thief was literally crucified with Jesus, suffering the same exact death that he suffered. That is in fact our only hope, meaning to be accounted as having literally been crucified with Jesus, because we were worthy of it; and yet he stepped in and took our place in that terrible death. It is only by simplistic and sincere faith in what Jesus did for us, that we can be literally baptized by him with his Spirit INTO him; and thereby have hope of being found 'not guilty' at the last judgment (Jn. 7:38,39; I Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:27). The scripture clearly says that "as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ," and only by 'putting on Christ' can we be truly identified with him in death, in resurrection, and in eternal life (Gal. 3:27;Rom. 6:3,4; Col. 2:12). It is irrefutably certain that these verses are speaking of the baptism of the holy Ghost, which was first administered by Jesus from heaven on the day of Pentecost; because we are also told that "the Lord is that Spirit" (Acts 2:4; II Cor. 3:17). So being baptized with the holy Ghost into Christ, and putting on Christ, is the divine experience by faith in Jesus whereby we become identified with him in his death, and in his resurrection. Seeing that this is the new testament remission of sins and new birth, it was not available to the thief on the cross, because as the scripture had previously declared; "for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified" (Jn. 7:39; I Cor. 6:11; Tit. 3:5).

Had the Spirit baptism been available to the thief on the cross, he would have most assuredly been "filled with the Holy Ghost, and [would have] begun to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave [him] utterance," as it was with the believers at Pentecost. Like I said, this experience was not available before Jesus went back to heaven, so it is necessary that I tie it into our faith in Jesus now, because Jesus said everyone who believes on him would receive it (Jn. 4:14; Jn. 7:38,39). We may note also that the thief on the cross had not been water baptized, and he was also an overt breaker of the law of God; so he certainly had no merits of that nature on his part. But that is the beauty and the reality of the Gospel, that there simply IS NO MEANS by which we can be just with God, apart from being identified with his Son in the things that HE DID on our behalf. As we have explicitly seen from the scriptures, the one and only means of being identified with Jesus, is doing what the thief on the cross did, and putting all of our eggs in the basket of God's grace toward us because of what his only begotten Son did FOR US! So whether someone gets on board with Christ at the end of their life, or whether they have labored for his Gospel for many years; there is still only one way to be saved, and that way is faith in Jesus Christ himself. The thief on the cross is as saved as the twelve apostles of Christ and Paul put together. How so? Because it all goes back to "the Just One" who came from heaven to pay that greatest of all costs, and about being identified with him therein (Acts 7:52). In fact the thief on the cross is just as saved as everyone who has been saved since him, put together. Again because it simply is not about anyone or any number of anyone, but rather it is ALL ABOUT that "Just One," and about what HE did! I wouldn't be one bit surprised on the day of judgment if that former thief ends up with a far greater reward than one would think, considering he had an end of life conversion and no actual service to the Gospel. I could write a book on the beauty of the example of the thief on the cross, but I'll call it concluded for now. God bless.