How Was the Thief on the Cross Saved?

Let’s read the Scriptures together. We’re going to read first of all in Matthew chapter 27, and we’re going to begin reading at verse 39.

Matthew 27: The Crowd Mocks Jesus

Matthew 27:39: “And those who passed by”—that is, they were passing by the cross. They were passing by that place called Calvary where the Lord Jesus was hanging. And on either side of Him were two others, criminals who were being put to death.

“Those who passed by derided Him”—they mocked Him—“wagging their heads and saying, ‘You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save Yourself. If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.’”

So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked Him—we were hearing about this already during these meetings—saying:

“‘He saved others; He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him come down from the cross, and we will believe in Him. He trusts in God; let God deliver Him now, if He desires Him. For He said, “I am the Son of God.”’ And the robbers, the criminals who were crucified with Him, also reviled Him in the same way.”

I’m emphasizing that because when we go to the next reading, in the book of Luke, something happens. Something changes.

Luke 23: Something Changes

So let’s go to Luke’s Gospel, chapter 23. It’s really the same account, but there was something different. Wonderfully different. Stop and think about it as we read these verses together. Verse 32, Luke 23:

“Two others, who were criminals”—they were called malefactors—“were led away to be put to death with Him. And when they came to the place that is called the Skull, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on His right and one on His left. One of the criminals who were hanged railed at Him.”

Remember, we read in Matthew that the criminals, these malefactors, mocked Him in exactly the same way.

“One of the criminals said this: ‘Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us.’”

But the other—wait a second. Matthew says they both. Here’s the difference. Here’s the change. Here’s what happened:

“But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God? Since you are under the same sentence of condemnation, we indeed justly, we are receiving the due reward of our deeds’”—we’re getting what we deserve—“‘but this Man has done nothing wrong.’ And he said, ‘Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.’ And He said to him, ‘Truly I say to you, today’”—imagine hearing that—“‘today you will be with Me in paradise.’”

“It was now about the sixth hour”—that’s noontime—“and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour”—that’s three o’clock in the afternoon, the brightest time of the day, normally, typically—“while the sun’s light failed.”

In other words, there came a darkness.

Two Criminals, Two Eternities

That was then, and this is now.

One of these two criminals is in heaven. Wait a second. You said “criminal” and “heaven” in the same sentence. Yes. God’s mercy extends to all. One of these two criminals is in heaven, and he has been enjoying it for about 2,000 years.

One of those two criminals is in hell, and he has suffered for 2,000 years. And he’s never gotten the drop of water that he asked for, like the rich man.

And 2,000 years later, a question for you: Where will you be 2,000 years from now? Where will you be?

I hope, I trust, that right now you’ll make the choice, because this room is divided, not by this aisle. It’s divided by those who are on their way to heaven and those who are not. I don’t know you. I don’t know where you stand as far as eternity is concerned. But if you are not on the way to heaven, then you are on the way to a place that the Lord Jesus spoke of. And He doesn’t want any of you to be there. He’s done everything He can, and everything necessary, so that you be with Him in heaven.

The Miner Who Got It Settled

Quite a few years ago, in a mining town in England, there was a man having some meetings just like this. There was one of those miners who had been coming to hear the gospel very often, and he was deeply troubled about his soul. He knew he wasn’t ready for God’s eternity. He knew he wasn’t ready to meet God. He wasn’t ready to go to heaven, and he was desperate to find out how he could be sure of being in heaven.

And so after one particular meeting, he went to the preacher at the end of the meeting and said, “I want to be saved. Please help me.”

So they sat down together and began opening the Scriptures. And the man, as best he was able with the help of God, pointed him to the Scriptures that pointed to the Saviour, the only Saviour of sinners. He read a verse like you’ve been hearing at the beginning of this meeting: “When we were without strength, when we were utterly helpless, Christ came.” That’s what a Saviour does. He comes, as you’ve heard, right to the person where they are in their need, at the right time. And He died. And the preacher went over Scripture after Scripture after Scripture.

It was eleven o’clock that night. The preacher was exhausted. He didn’t know what else to say. He didn’t know what other verses to read. And he said to the man, “I want you to go home. I want you to think about the verses we’ve read. Come back tomorrow night.”

And the man looked at him straight in the eyes and said, “I’m not leaving until this is settled.”

So he started all over again, going over the same verses, trying to use illustrations, trying to show the man what it was that God had done on his behalf. And finally, at about three in the morning, all of a sudden—sometimes people say the light came on, and that’s the way it was—his spiritual eyes were opened. His understanding was opened. He realized, Jesus already did the work. Jesus already suffered for my sins on the cross. And because of what He did, I’m free. I’m safe. I’ll never see God’s judgment against sin, because Jesus took that punishment, that judgment, on my behalf.

He went home. He didn’t get very much sleep, because he had to go to work the next day. He went into the mines as he did every day. And about four o’clock in the afternoon, there was this terrible crash, this roar, this sound that any miner and any miner’s village always dreaded. The entire roof had collapsed on all the miners who were inside that mine.

They tried their best to get as many miners out of that debris, out of the rubble of that collapse. They had pretty well finished, and they heard a sound, and they followed that sound and kept digging until they found where that sound was coming from. They got to where this man I’m speaking about was buried in the rubble and in the debris. They cleared away, as best they could, the debris from his face, from around his mouth, his head, his neck. And the man had just a bit of a smile on his face. It was obvious that he wasn’t very long for this world.

And you know what he said? His last words were this: “I’m so glad I got it settled last night.”

Because he didn’t have a tomorrow. He didn’t have another opportunity. He took advantage of what God had given him. “I’m so glad it was settled this night.”

What the Thief Teaches Us About Salvation

Now, very briefly, in what we have read together, I want you to look at a couple of points and think about what happened. Think about these two men: one man now in heaven, one man in hell forever and forever. I want you to understand that this man that day made his salvation very, very personal.

Salvation Is Personal

The Lord Jesus makes salvation personal. He uses direct words. Remember what He said to the religious leader of the entire country: “Do not marvel that I say to you…” I’m talking to you, Nicodemus. There’s no one else here. You and I are the only two here now, and I’m talking directly to you. Don’t be surprised. Don’t marvel that I say to you, “You must be born again.”

God’s salvation is personal. It’s not between you and me and God, or you and someone else and God. It’s between you and God personally.

And Jesus also made a personal promise. He said this a little bit later, in that same book, in John’s Gospel. He said, “It’s true. It’s true. I say to you”—He gives you a promise—“I say to you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who has sent Me has eternal life.” He’s saying, I’m telling you, if you’ll simply trust Me, if you’ll rest on Me and the work that I have done—or that He was about to do—you will have eternal life as a free gift, as you have heard already this evening.

So tonight, you make it personal. Think of someone who’s in the water, someone who’s drowning, and someone who throws them a life ring. That individual is really focused. It’s not about anyone else. Maybe a bunch of people came off the ship. Maybe a bunch of people were in the water. But there’s my hope. There’s my lifeline. There’s my salvation. And with all my might and all my concentration, I’m going to get it for myself.

I wonder if you’ve ever thought of salvation, God’s salvation, that way. Get it for yourself, because He offers it to each and every one of you as an individual.

“Don’t You Fear God?”

So He made it personal. Now I want you to understand something about this man. He had been mocking Jesus. But as he was watching Him, as he was seeing what had happened, he said to his cohort in crime, as we read in Luke’s Gospel, “Don’t you fear God?”

Do you think God can do what He has said He can do? Trust me, He can.

He Admitted His Guilt

I want you to think of the next point. This man admitted his guilt. He admitted his guilt. “Guilty as charged.” It’s a phrase that you hear in a courtroom when that hammer falls on the desk of the judge, and the person who is on trial has been found to be guilty as charged.

There was a preacher in the early 1900s—I don’t know his name, but he writes that when he was a boy of about twelve, he was outside. His mother had a flock—I don’t think “flock” is the right word, but a gaggle, I guess, of geese. She had twenty-four prized birds. And he had no problem with these geese. But one day, just sort of absent-mindedly, he picked up a rock and threw it at the geese. And sure enough, he hit one goose smack in the head, and it dropped dead right there.

He looked around, and he was sick to his stomach. What am I going to do? So he looked around, didn’t see anybody, and he buried the goose.

Supper time that night, as was the common practice, one of the children, this boy or his sister, was responsible for washing the dishes. Well, it was his sister’s turn to wash the dishes, but she leaned over and said, “I saw what you did today. You wash the dishes.”

So he did. And he did the next day too. And she thought she had a good thing going. So she went for day number three, and he said, “Sorry. I told Mom what I did, and it’s all okay. You wash the dishes.”

Guilt is a terrible thing. It eats at us. I trust that you will understand that guilt, your guilt, my guilt, before a holy God who sees and knows all things.

And this man also agreed with his punishment. “We are getting exactly what we deserve.” I want to ask you a really pointed, difficult question: Would God be fair if He put me and you in hell? It’s what we deserve. The wages of sin is death. He would be absolutely fair. He would be absolutely just if that’s what He did. Thank God He made a way. Thank God there’s a way of salvation, a means of salvation.

He Declared Jesus Righteous

He also declared this Man, the Lord Jesus, righteous. “This Man has done nothing wrong.” He has done nothing amiss. And even at His trial, you remember that the judge, the governor, Pilate, as he listened to this one and that one and knew about this Man Jesus who was on trial before him, in his heart he knew, and he said it publicly at least three times, “I find no fault in this Man. This Man is not guilty of anything.” He was a politician. And you know what happened as a result? He sentenced Him to die.

The Scripture says this: “In Him,” John says, “was no sin.” Peter says, “He could do no sin.” And the apostle Paul, he “knew no sin.” But listen to what Paul writes in 2 Corinthians chapter 5: that God made Him to be sin. This One in whom there was no sin, in and out—it was impossible for Him to sin—God made Him, as the sacrifice, to be sin. Therefore, on that sin, God could judge sin in the sacrifice, who was His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And all of my sins were laid upon Jesus that day so that I could be made—so that you could be made, as the verse says—righteous. Given a right standing in the presence of God, rather than God looking upon us in all of our sin, because that sin He took, He put on His Son.

And Jesus died for me.

Can you honestly say that Jesus died for me?

You say, “Is God’s salvation that simple?” Yes. What else is there? I’m a lost sinner. We’re getting what we deserve. But this Man, sinless, and He died for me. I’m so thankful for the moment in my life when I understood it. He died, and in that death He suffered the penalty of my sins.

He Acknowledged His Helplessness

And this man did something else. We already heard about it tonight in detail. He acknowledged his own helplessness. He couldn’t do a thing. Here’s the verse that you’ve already seen tonight from Romans chapter 5: “When we were utterly helpless, at just the right time, in due time, Christ died for us sinners, the ungodly.”

What Did the Thief See?

I want to ask you a question. That scene, have you ever imagined it? What did the thief see when he turned and looked at that Man on the middle cross? What did he see?

I’ve seen a lot of bad things in my life and hospital experience. Maybe you have, in whatever experience. But when he turned and looked at the Lord Jesus, according to Isaiah 52, He didn’t resemble a human. He had a crown of thorns on His head. The beard on His face had been ripped out. He had been punched with the fists of hardened Roman soldiers. His back was torn right down to the bone. Spit ran off of His face.

And he turns to Him. He sees this Man on that middle cross, and he says, “Lord.” It wasn’t the visual. It wasn’t the physical that he got a hold of that day. This Man is Jesus. He’s the Messiah. He’s the Lord’s Christ. And he says those wonderful words as the man asked Him, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”

“Lord, Remember Me”

And this One, who was the Mediator between God and men, made a promise: “Truly, you will be with Me in paradise.” You will be with Me, if you allow Me. You will be with Me in heaven.

Thomas said, “How can we know the way?” And Jesus says, “I am the way.”

There are those who think that you have to live a good life. You have to be baptized. You have to do penance. You have to go to confession. You have to do this, that, and the other thing. This man is in heaven now. Guess what? He didn’t have a chance to do any of those things. All he had a chance to do was say, “Lord, I have sinned, and You are sinless. I’m getting what I deserve.” He recognized this Man didn’t deserve any of it. And he calls Him Lord, and he says, “Remember me.” And he got a promise that day: “Today you’ll be with Me in paradise.”

And you know what? That man is in heaven.

Someday I’m going to meet him. I don’t even know his name, but I’m going to meet him. I don’t know if we will end up doing that kind of thing or not, but I’m going to ask, “What was it like for you to look at that Man on the middle cross, that Man, Jesus? What was it like for you to look at Him?” You know, I’ve seen Him. Not like he did, but by faith I saw that Man on the middle cross who suffered deep agony and shame so that He could bring me to God.

Guess what? He wants to bring you to God. He wants you to bring Him to His Father. He wants to bring you to heaven forever and ever. He doesn’t want you ever, ever, ever to experience the horrors of hell, separation from God forever.

The Free Gift of God

May God help you this night, just in simplicity, just in giving up on yourself, because you’ve heard, “when we were utterly helpless,” simply to rest on the One who can. He says, “I did it so that I can bring you to God.” He did it, and He’s able, and He longs. He will never force. He will never force Himself on you.

He just simply says, as we have read in Romans 6 many times during the course of these meetings, these words: “The free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”