The thief said to Jesus “remember
me when thou comest into thy kingdom.” What did the thief really know about
salvation? From the text, we have no reason to assume that he knew much of
anything.
The profession of faith made by
the thief on the cross is fairly weak. If someone offered this “prayer” at a
gospel meeting we would try to clarify the gospel for them to make sure they
understood. If the testimony of saying “remember me” was all we had to go on,
we would likely doubt the legitimacy of his salvation. If an evangelist asked
him the question “how do you know you are saved? there is no way he would get
a pass by answering “I asked Jesus to
remember me when He comes into His kingdom.” What about sin, sacrifice,
atonement, faith, grace, etc? And yet this thief is one of the few people in
Scripture that the Bible insists is in “paradise.”
Although the thief seemed to have
only a remedial understanding of the gospel, he does have one of the greatest
testimonies of repentance ever. He is the only person I know of who may have
never sinned after being saved.
Some people question their
salvation and will look back to their moment of profession for confirmation.
They will review the doctrines just to make sure that they really get it. Maybe
instead they should just stop living like a sinner.
Daniel
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