It was no accident that the Lord of glory was crucified between two thieves. There are no accidents in a world ruled by God. Certainly there can be no accident on that day and with that event which lies at the center of world history. No. God was in charge. From eternity He had decreed when and where and how and with who His Son would die. Nothing was left to chance or the whim and fancy of man. All that God had eternally decided came to pass exactly as He had ordained, and nothing happened except that which He had eternally purposed. Everything man did, God’s "power and will had decided beforehand should happen" (Acts 4:28).
Our Lord was crucified with two thieves in order to demonstrate, as the Lord’s Supper reminds us, the full extent of His humiliation. At His birth He was surrounded by the animals of the stable and placed in a manger. Now, at His death, He is numbered with criminals. As the early Christian song tells us, He "made himself nothing" and "humbled himself" (Phil 2:7, 8).
Our Lord — though sinless, holy, and perfect — was crucified between two criminals, He was "numbered with the transgressors" (Is 53:12).
Jesus hung between the two thieves. God used those two men to dramatize the only two possible responses to the Christ: belief and unbelief, acceptance and rejection, repentance and impenitence.
A very important lesson we learn at the cross concerns the sovereign grace of God. The two criminals were crucified together. They were equally near to Christ. Both of them saw and heard all that happened those six hours Jesus hung on the cross. Both were wicked, both were dying, both urgently needed forgiveness. Yet, one of them died in his sins; he died as he had lived — hardened and impenitent. While the other, he repented of his wickedness, believed in Jesus, called on Him for mercy, and went to Paradise. Only the sovereign grace of God can account for this difference in response.
Don’t we see exactly the same thing happening today? Under exactly the same circumstances and conditions, one is melted and another remains unmoved. Under the same sermon one man will listen with indifference, while another will have his eyes opened to see his need and his will moved to seek God’s offer of mercy. To one the Gospel is revealed, to another it is "hidden."
In the salvation of the dying thief we have a clear picture of victorious grace. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith," says the Apostle Paul (Eph 2:8). God is the God of all grace and salvation is entirely by His grace from beginning to end.
Grace begins, grace continues, and grace consummates our salvation.
Salvation by grace — sovereign, irresistible, free grace — is nowhere illustrated in Scripture as well as in the case of the forgiven thief on the cross. Consider that this thief had no "good works," no high standard of morality, and no self-righteousness before his conversion. Rather, he was a vile and wicked man; he respected neither the law of God nor the law of man. There is no way that either he or anyone else could say that he had earned his salvation. And, after his conversion, this thief had no life of service, no grateful response, no fruits of salvation — for his conversion took place just before his death. Yet, he was still saved. In other words, his salvation was by sovereign grace. And that too is the message of the Lord’s Supper.
I am always comforted when I think of that thief. He is proof-positive that I don’t have to reach a certain standard or level of holiness before God will accept me as His child. That thief is proof-positive that I don’t have to get my wayward life under control in order to claim the promises of God for myself. That thief is proof-positive that salvation is not conditional upon a life of good works. That thief reminds us that salvation is totally by grace; that it is free, unmerited, unearned, and totally dependent upon God and His mercy.
God designed to save the thief under the most unfavorable of circumstances to show that it is only by sovereign grace that the thief is saved. God shows us that salvation is only of the Lord.
To get to the heart of the word salvation we must also realize that the penitent thief is a symbol or representative of sinners everywhere.
The thief on the cross is not only a sinner; he is also a converted sinner. He rebuked the other thief for his mockery of the Lord Jesus: "Don’t you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong" (vs. 40, 41). We see that the thief repents of his sin and evil. He acknowledges his guilt and the judgment of God upon his sin.
That’s not all. We also see him turning in faith toward Christ: "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." The thief, by grace, somehow recognized Jesus as the Messiah, as the Son of David, Who someday would rule over the Kingdom of God to be established here on earth. "Remember me," says the thief. He is asking the Lord to not forget or ignore him, to be mindful of him, to give him a place in the Kingdom. The thief is placing his fate in the hands of Jesus.
The Lord wants us all to recognize ourselves in that penitent sinner hanging there on the cross beside Jesus. He wants us to recognize our sin and the wrath of God on it. He wants us to repent of that sin and turn to Jesus in faith. He wants us all to cry out, "Jesus, remember me ..."
The crosses were only a few feet apart so the Lord immediately heard the cry of the penitent thief. What was the Lord’s response to the robber’s cry?
He could have said "You deserve your fate: you are a wicked criminal and your reward is death." Or, He might have replied, "Too late: you should have come to Me sooner."
Do you remember the promise of Christ: "whoever comes to me I will never drive away" (John 6:37)? We see the truth of that promise here.
Jesus answered the thief, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."
Jesus gives the thief far more than he asks for. The thief asked for a place in the Kingdom; Jesus tells him he will enter paradise. The thief was asking about the future; Jesus speaks of the present — "today." The thief asks Jesus to remember him; Jesus says, "you will be with me."
I urge you, to turn to Jesus right now in repentance and faith. Yes, you can wait until later. Like the thief, you can be saved at death’s door. Yet, none of us ever knows when or how he will die — so it is best to turn to Jesus right now.
We also see here the power of Christ the Savior. The Lord Jesus is no feeble Savior. When the thief cried out, "Jesus, remember me," the Savior was in agony upon the cross. Yet even then, even there, He had the power to redeem from death and to open the gates of Paradise. This tells us to never doubt the ability of our Savior to save. If a dying Savior could save how much more a Savior Who rose in triumph from the tomb, never more to die!
This is made more amazing when you consider that this man had none of the advantages the disciples had. As far as we know, he never heard Jesus teaching by the seashore, he never saw Jesus heal the sick or raise the dead, he knew nothing of Jesus’ great parables, and he never saw any of his miracles. This man missed all the outward signs of Jesus’ kingship. Yet he believed.
When you put the totality of his words together, you can clearly see how great this man’s faith really is:
“This man has done nothing wrong”—Faith in the Person of Christ
(verse 41)
“Jesus, remember me”—Faith in the Power of Christ
“Jesus, remember me”—Faith in the Mercy of Christ
“When you come into your kingdom”—Faith in the Kingdom of Christ
The dying thief didn’t know all the right words to say, but what he said was good enough because he said it to the right person. When he said, “Jesus, remember me,” he didn’t know all that he was asking; before sundown he received far more than he expected.
This thief on the cross was dying for his sins—a guilty man justly punished. He cried out to Jesus, and at the very last second he was saved.
How do we know this thief was saved? We know he was saved by the answer Jesus gave in verse 43:
“I assure you: Today you will be with Me in paradise.”
In the original Greek text, the word today is the first word in the phrase. Whatever or wherever “paradise” is, Jesus told this thief that he was going there that very day. Jesus did not say, “You’ll be at the back of the hall and I’ll be sitting on the platform,” but, “You and me together, side by side.” Wherever Jesus was going, this thief would be right by his side.
Jesus is promising that this thief—who has lived his entire life in crime—will, upon his death, be transferred to heaven, where he will be in the personal presence of Jesus Christ. Truly this thief received much more than he asked.
As I ponder this story, I take from it three lessons of hope and encouragement.
1. It is never too late to turn to Christ. As long as there is life
and breathe, as long as the heart still beats, the invitation still stands. Those of us who are praying for our loved one should take great hope from this principle. Sometimes we look at people and say, “They are just too far gone. They will never come to Jesus.” Then we get discouraged and stop praying for them. But this story teaches us that no one is ever too far gone.
2. Even the very worst sinners can be saved at the very last moment. He had lived an absolutely rotten life, yet he died a Christian death. It happened by the grace of Jesus Christ. It doesn’t matter where you’ve been sleeping. It doesn’t matter what you’ve been drinking. It doesn’t matter who you’ve been hanging around with. It doesn’t matter what sins you’ve committed. You can be saved right now.
3. God has made salvation simple so every person can be saved. Consider what we have in this story. This man was never baptized, never took the Lord’s Supper, and never went to confession. This man never went to church, never walked an aisle during a public invitation, never attended catechism class, and never gave his money to the Lord’s work. This man could not lift a hand for the Savior, for his hands were nailed to a cross. He could not run any errands for the Lord, for his feet were nailed to a cross. He could not give his money, for he had not a penny to his name.
For this man, there was no way in but through the mercy of God. He was pardoned before he lived a single righteous day. In one transforming moment, a man who was not fit to live on earth was made fit to live in heaven. When we place our faith in Jesus Christ, in that very moment we are saved.
The question is simple: Are you ready to die? You have nothing to fear if you know the Lord. You are not ready to die if you don’t. Do you know him?
To be "with the Lord forever" (1 Thess. 4:17) is the goal of all our hopes. To have us with Him forever is what our Savior is looking forward to.
Conclusion
Listen to the thief’s prayer: "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
Listen also to the Lord’s gracious and sovereign response: "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."
