39 Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, [a]“If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.”
40 But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said [b]to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”
43 And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”
Luke 23:39-43
“If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.” The criminal who blasphemed our Lord here was so close to salvation but simply could not see past his own pain and anger. Jesus IS the Christ, and He was sacrificing Himself to save everyone, which He demonstrates in the following verses of this chapter.
After the outburst from the first criminal, the “thief on the cross” revealed the conviction within himself by acknowledging who Jesus is. The thief confessed that he was worthy of this punishment, but that Jesus was innocent. He then made a simple request of Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”
While we still have breath, we still have time to turn to Jesus. The thief on the cross, who we all were before we accepted Jesus into our hearts, was faced in that moment with his mortality. He saw both an eternity apart from God, and an eternity in the presence of God before him. He chose to humble himself, exalt Christ, and physically turn to Jesus through the pain of the cross.
By making that decision in his final moments, he was guaranteed salvation and eternal life. “Assuredly I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise.” Praise the Lord!
