THE THIEF ON THE CROSS AND US

Three crosses stood at Calvary. On the centre cross hung the sinless Son of God. On either side hung a condemned criminal.

We often call these men “thieves”, but we should not automatically picture petty thieves in the modern sense. Luke calls them criminals; Matthew and Mark use a word that can describe robbers, or bandits. What they really were is akin to our current word, insurgents. They were involved in rebellion against the then Roman rule, oraganising and leading 'locals' against Roman occupancy, so to speak.

Scripture makes unmistakably clear that one of these men acknowledged his guilt, recognised Jesus’ innocence, and entrusted himself to Jesus as King.

He had no impressive record to present. No remaining years in which to repair his reputation. No opportunity to descend from his cross and begin a public ministry.

Yet he prayed:

“Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”

And Jesus answered:

“Today you will be with me in paradise.”

What extraordinary mercy! A condemned man, approaching death, received the promise of life with Christ.

But this beautiful account must be understood fully. It teaches us the sufficiency of Christ to save, and it also challenges the way we live after receiving His salvation.

We are like that man in our need for grace. We are differently situated in the opportunities entrusted to us.

The grace that received him is the same grace that receives us. But his earthly life was ending. Ours, for as long as God preserves it, remains a field in which that grace should bear fruit.

The same grace that welcomes a dying sinner teaches a living believer how to live.

His acceptance rested entirely on Christ

Consider what the criminal could offer Jesus.

His hands were fastened to a cross. His feet could carry him nowhere. His past condemned him, and his future on earth was rapidly disappearing.

He could not purchase forgiveness. He could not accumulate enough good deeds to outweigh his sins. He could not negotiate a better standing before God.

He could only entrust himself to the One beside him.

And Christ was enough.

That is our position too. Whether we come to Christ in childhood, in middle age, or near the end of life, our acceptance before God rests on the same Saviour and His saving work.

Ephesians 2:8–9 teaches that salvation comes by grace through faith, as God’s gift, rather than as a human achievement that gives us grounds for boasting.

The criminal had no grounds for boasting. Neither do we.

Years of church attendance cannot purchase what Christ gives freely. Neither theological knowledge, generosity, ministry experience, nor moral improvement can bear the weight of our justification.

Our confidence is Jesus Christ: crucified for our sins and raised from the dead.

We never become so mature that we outgrow our need for grace.

The believer who has served faithfully for fifty years needs Christ as completely as the criminal who turned to Him in his final hours.

Yet our complete dependence on grace must never become an excuse for resisting what grace intends to accomplish in us.

Even on his cross, his faith began to bear fruit

Sometimes we describe this man as though he merely uttered a convenient sentence and remained otherwise unchanged. But Luke shows us something deeper.

He feared God. He acknowledged that his punishment was deserved. He confessed Jesus’ innocence. He challenged the other criminal’s mockery. And he appealed to Jesus as a King whose reign would extend beyond the apparent defeat of crucifixion.

We need not assume he understood everything the apostles would later proclaim. Nevertheless, his appeal expressed a remarkable confidence: a dying Jesus could still receive him into His kingdom.

His circumstances had not improved, but his response to Jesus had changed.

He could not walk into a town to preach, but he spoke truth where he was. He could not undo his crimes, but he stopped defending them. He could not demonstrate years of obedience, but repentance and faith were already becoming visible in the moments available to him.

His remaining opportunities were severely limited; his response within those opportunities was real.

He therefore gives us no support for a Christianity that wants forgiveness while remaining deliberately indifferent to Christ.

The man who asked to be remembered also acknowledged his guilt and honoured the King.

We share his Saviour, but we do not all share his circumstances

Here is the distinction we must understand.

That man’s remaining earthly life was measured in hours. Many of us have already received years since we first professed faith in Christ.

We have had opportunities to hear the Word, learn the gospel, seek reconciliation, help the vulnerable, pray for others, and speak about Jesus. We have received resources, relationships, responsibilities, and gifts.

These things do not make us more deserving of salvation. They do make us accountable for what has been entrusted to us.

Jesus teaches in Luke 12:48 that greater trust brings greater responsibility.

We should therefore be careful when we say, “The thief got in by grace, and that is all that matters for me too.”

If we mean that Christ alone is sufficient to save us, we speak truly.

If we mean that knowing Christ, obeying Him, loving people, and serving His purposes are optional matters of little importance, we have misunderstood the grace we celebrate.

The criminal’s story tells us that Christ can save someone at the end of life. It does not tell those who still have life to waste it.

And we should not say we have “all the time”. None of us knows how many days remain. James 4:14 reminds us how brief and uncertain human life is.

We have today. Today is an opportunity to trust Christ, grow in Him, and serve Him.

Grace brings us into a new life

We must keep reading after Ephesians 2:8–9.

Verse 10 teaches that those saved by grace are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works that God has prepared for them to walk in.

The passage holds together what we often separate: salvation as God’s gift and a transformed life as His purpose for those He saves.

Good works cannot purchase our place in Christ. But those who belong to Christ have been made new for a life of obedience.

Titus 2:11–14 develops the same truth. God’s saving grace trains His people to reject ungodliness, live faithfully in the present age, and become eager to do good.

Grace is therefore more than a comforting explanation of how our past can be forgiven. It is God’s provision for a changed life.

Romans 6 makes this personal. Through union with Christ in His death and resurrection, believers are called to walk in newness of life. Paul refuses the suggestion that abundant grace gives us permission to continue comfortably in sin.

The question becomes: What does belonging to the crucified and risen Christ mean for the way I live today?

It means my body belongs to Him. My speech matters. My private conduct matters. My relationships matter. My use of time and money matters. Whether or not I spend serious time studying His word matters.

We should learn what Jesus accomplished through His death, burial, and resurrection because these truths reveal both the foundation of our hope and the character of our new life.

He bore our sins. He rose victorious over death. He reconciles His people to God. Those who belong to Him are called to live under His lordship.

Salvation brings us into fellowship with a living Lord who continues His work in us.

Learning Christ is part of following Christ

The criminal’s short remaining life gave him little opportunity for sustained instruction. Many of us can open a Bible every day.

What are we doing with that privilege?

Second Peter 3:18 calls believers to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. Colossians 3:16 calls us to let Christ’s word dwell richly among us.

Spiritual infancy should never become our settled ambition.

We should desire to understand Scripture more faithfully: who God is, what the gospel announces, how Christ fulfils God’s promises, how the Spirit forms holiness, and how the church is called to live.

This requires more than collecting favourite verses. It involves reading passages in context, receiving sound teaching, asking honest questions, and submitting our assumptions to the whole counsel of God.

Yet knowledge must lead into obedience. James 1:22 warns against hearing the Word while failing to practise it.

A person may learn the language of grace while remaining harsh towards others. A person may discuss prayer without praying, or defend evangelism without speaking to anyone about Christ.

The purpose of learning is to know the Lord more truly and follow Him more faithfully.

We study because He has spoken. We obey because His word is good. We grow because the One who received us is worthy of our attention.

Paul’s discipline shows us the seriousness of the Christian life

In 1 Corinthians 9:24–27, Paul compares the Christian life and his ministry to an athletic contest. He describes purposeful running, disciplined training, and bringing his body under control, lest he himself be disqualified after preaching to others.

This is a searching warning.

Paul did not assume that spiritual experience, public usefulness, or a preaching ministry made watchfulness unnecessary. He understood that a person could proclaim truth to others while becoming careless about his own conduct.

The following chapter reinforces the seriousness of his concern. First Corinthians 10 recalls Israel’s privileges and failures, then warns those who think they stand to take heed lest they fall.

Christians differ over the precise implications of “disqualified” in 1 Corinthians 9:27. It should neither be casually reduced to an insignificant loss nor used to suggest that Paul was trying to earn salvation by punishing his body. His point demands sober perseverance and self-control.

He disciplined himself because he belonged to Christ and wanted his life to accord with the gospel he preached.

His discipline involved governing his desires, rather than allowing them to govern him.

Our desires will not always lead us towards faithfulness. We may want comfort when obedience requires sacrifice. We may want approval when truth requires courage. We may want entertainment when we need prayer, or self-justification when we need repentance.

Paul’s example confronts the attitude that says, “Since I have received grace, diligence no longer matters.”

Yet Paul also tells us where faithful labour receives its strength. In 1 Corinthians 15:10, he attributes his strenuous work to the grace of God working with him.

Grace produced effort in Paul, and Paul gave grace the glory for it.

Philippians 2:12–13 brings these realities together: believers are to work out their salvation with reverent seriousness because God is at work within them, shaping both their desires and their actions.

We act in dependence on the God who acts in us.

Our lives will be evaluated by Christ

Scripture also teaches that what believers do with their lives has eternal significance.

Second Corinthians 5:10 says that we must all appear before Christ’s judgment seat. First Corinthians 3:10–15 describes the testing of work built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ.

In its immediate context, Paul is addressing those who build up God’s church. His warning makes clear that work can endure and receive reward, or be exposed as worthless and suffer loss.

The passage even describes someone being saved while suffering the loss of their work.

That is a solemn possibility. It should move us to examine the quality of our service.

Have we built faithfully on Christ? Have we taught truthfully? Have we served from love? Have we pursued God’s approval or human admiration?

Eternal rewards do not mean that anyone will boast of having placed God in their debt. Every faithful act depends upon His grace. Yet the Lord graciously chooses to recognise and reward the faithfulness of His people.

Hebrews 6:10 assures believers that God remembers their work and the love shown in serving His people. Jesus teaches that even a cup of water given because someone belongs to Him has significance before God (Matthew 10:42).

This should encourage the believer whose service attracts little attention.

The world may never applaud the person who cares faithfully for a sick relative, prays persistently for others, gives quietly, teaches children, or speaks of Christ with patient love. The Lord sees.

Faithfulness is measured by our response to what God has entrusted to us, rather than by the visibility of our platform.

We should not speculate about the criminal’s heavenly reward or use his short life of faith to diminish him. We know Christ promised him His presence.

Our responsibility is to be faithful with the opportunities Christ has given us.

We have been entrusted with the gospel

For many of us, those opportunities include people who have not yet heard or understood the good news of Jesus.

Christ’s commission is to make disciples, baptising them and teaching them to obey His commands (Matthew 28:18–20).

The criminal could speak to those within hearing distance of his cross. We may have homes, workplaces, friendships, neighbourhoods, and communities in which to bear witness.

We should pray for people by name. We should learn to explain the gospel clearly. We should be ready to speak of Christ with gentleness and respect. We should invite people into the life of the church and help new believers grow.

We must also remember that conversion belongs to God’s power. Paul planted, Apollos watered, and God gave the growth (1 Corinthians 3:6–7).

Faithful evangelism therefore combines earnestness with humility. We speak because the message matters. We pray because we cannot change a heart. We persevere because God is merciful.

“Winning souls” must never turn people into numbers or become a way of proving our spiritual importance. It means loving people enough to seek their good and point them to the Saviour.

We have received good news that others need to hear.

The centre of salvation is being with Jesus

Return to Christ’s promise:

“Today you will be with me in paradise.”

The deepest wonder of the promise is fellowship with Christ.

The criminal asked to be remembered. Jesus promised that he would be with Him.

This also corrects our understanding of salvation. If we think only in terms of gaining admission to heaven, we may overlook the One who makes heaven our joy.

We have been brought to God.

And if being with Jesus is the glory of our future, knowing Him should increasingly become the desire of our present.

Paul expressed that desire in Philippians 3:10: to know Christ and the power of His resurrection, sharing also in His sufferings.

The same apostle pressed forward towards the goal. His assurance in Christ gave him a reason to pursue Christ.

A heart that has begun to recognise the worth of Jesus will want more than the smallest possible involvement with Him. It will want to hear Him, please Him, resemble Him, and help others know Him.

The One who receives us is also the One we learn to love.

What will we do with the days that remain?

Yes, we are like the criminal.

We are guilty people who need mercy. We cannot save ourselves. We must entrust ourselves to Jesus. Our hope rests entirely on His grace.

And we are differently situated from him.

He was approaching the end of his earthly opportunity. We are hearing the Word today with some opportunity still before us.

Perhaps there is sin to confess. A relationship to repair. A neglected Bible to open. A habit to confront. A person to encourage. A neighbour to pray for. Someone who needs to hear why Jesus died and rose again.

We do not know how much time remains. We do know that the time we have belongs to the Lord.

The criminal’s story should fill the despairing sinner with hope: Christ can receive you even now.

It should also awaken the careless believer: the mercy that received you calls you to live faithfully now.

Do not postpone turning to Christ because one man was saved near death. You have no promise of another opportunity.

And do not use his limited opportunity to excuse neglecting your present one.

Rest completely in Christ’s finished work. Give yourself wholeheartedly to the life He has entrusted to you.

The criminal trusted Jesus with the little time he had left.

By that same grace, let us trust Jesus with every day that remains.