Luke 23:43

Here again, we must examine how the thief should be thought worthy of Paradise, seeing that a flaming sword prevents the entrance of the saints. But observe that the word of God describes it as turning about, so as it should obstruct the unworthy, but open a free entrance to life to the worthy.

We believe in thy words, O Redeemer, Which, when triumphing over death's darkness, Thou didst speak to thy robber companion, Bidding him in thy footprints to follow. Lo, now to the faithful is opened The bright road to paradise leading; Man again is permitted to …

The hands that Adam stretched out toward the tree of knowledge, breaking the commandment, were unworthy of stretching out toward the tree of life to receive the gifts of the God that they had despised. Our Lord took these hands and attached them to the …

Because Adam touched the tree he had to run to the fig; he became like the fig tree, being clothed in its vesture: Adam, like some tree, blossomed with leaves. Then he came to that glorious tree of the cross, put on glory from it, …

Adam had been naked and fair, but his diligent wife labored and made for him a garment covered with stains. The garden, seeing him thus vile, drove him forth. Through Mary Adam had another robe which adorned the thief; and when he became resplendent at …

Through the mystery of the water and blood flowing out from the Lord's side, the robber received the sprinkling that gave him the forgiveness of sins. "You will be with me in this garden of delights."

There came to my ear from the Scripture which had been read a word that caused me joy on the subject of the thief; it gave comfort to my soul amidst the multitude of its vices, telling how he had compassion on the thief. O …

Why should I add more touching these two planks (as it were) of human salvation, caring more for the business of the pen than the duty of my conscience? For, sinner as I am of every dye, and born for nothing save repentance, I cannot easily be silent about that concerning which also the very head and fount of the human race, and of human offence, Adam, restored by exomologesis to his own paradise, is not silent.

Until now, one [thief] was the equal in all things of his companion. He was a robber on the roads and always a danger to the safety of people. Deserving the cross, he suddenly becomes a confessor of Christ.… "Remember me, Lord, when you enter into your kingdom." …Then came the gift in which faith itself received a response. Jesus said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise." This promise surpasses the human condition, because it did not come so much from the wood of a cross as from a throne of power. From that height, he gives a reward to faith. There he abolishes the debt of human transgression, because the "form of God" did not separate itself from the "form of a servant." Even in the middle of this punishment, both the inviolable divinity and the suffering human nature preserved its own character and its own oneness.

This cross of Christ holds the mystery of its true and prophesied altar. There, through the saving victim, a sacrifice of human nature is celebrated. There the blood of a spotless lamb dissolved the pact of that ancient transgression. There the whole perversity of the devil's mastery was abolished, while humility triumphed as conqueror over boasting pride. The effect of faith was so swift that one of the two thieves crucified with Christ who believed in the Son of God entered paradise justified.Who could explain the mystery of such a great gift? Who could describe the power of such a marvelous transformation? In a brief moment of time, the guilt of a longstanding wickedness was abolished. In the middle of the harsh torments of a struggling soul, fastened to the gallows, that thief passes over to Christ, and the grace of Christ gives a crown to him, someone who incurred punishment for his own wickedness.

just as Adam had on the sixth day sinned by eating about mid-day of the fruit of the tree, and was cast out of the garden in the afternoon, so also on the sixth day and at the sixth hour, the Lord Christ for his …

to the thief who believed in him he gave this promise: Verily I say unto you, to-day shall thou be with me in Paradise. Here as evidently as possible he speaks of the soul as in a place. And that he speaks with reference to …

In the beginning, God shaped man, and man was an image of the Father and the Son. God said, "Let us make man to our image and likeness." Again, when he wished to bring the thief into paradise, he immediately spoke the word and brought him in. Christ did not need to pray to do this, although he had kept all people after Adam from entering there. God put there the flaming sword to guard Paradise. By his authority, Christ opened paradise and brought in the thief.

Here then might one see the Saviour between the thieves weighing in the scales of justice faith, and unbelief. The devil cast Adam out of Paradise. Christ brought the thief into Paradise before the whole world, before the Apostles. By a mere word and by faith alone he entered into Paradise, that no one after his sins might despair of entrance. Mark the rapid change, from the cross to heaven, from condemnation to Paradise, that you may know that the Lord did it all, not with regard to the thief's good intention, but His own mercy. But if the reward of the good has already taken place, surely a resurrection will be superfluous. For if He introduced the thief into Paradise while his body remained in corruption without, it is clear there is no resurrection of the body. Such are the words of some, But shall the flesh which has partaken of the toil be deprived of the reward? Hear Paul speaking, Then must this corruptible put on incorruption. (1 Cor. 15:53.) But if the Lord promised the kingdom of heaven, but introduced the thief into Paradise, He does not yet recompense him the reward. But they say, Under the name of Paradise He signified the kingdom of heaven, using a well-known name in addressing a thief who knew nothing of difficult teaching. Now some do not read it, This day shall thou be with me in Paradise, but thus, I say unto thee on this day, and then follows, thou shalt be with me in Paradise. But we will add a still more obvious solution. For physicians when they see a man in a desperate state, say, He is already dead. So also the thief, since he no longer fears his falling back to perdition, is said to have entered Paradise.

The tree brought ruin to Adam. It will bring you into paradise. Do not fear the Serpent. He will not throw you out, for he has fallen from heaven. I do not say to you, 'This day you will depart,' but 'This day you will be with me.' " Take heart; you will not be thrown out. Do not fear the flaming sword, because it stands in awe of its Lord.

He asked the Lord to remember him when He came into His kingdom, and the Lord said to him: Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise. For to be with Christ is life; therefore, where Christ is, there is life, there is the kingdom.

The seventh day coincides with separation from the body. "This day thou shalt be with Me in paradise." And this day has no evening. Then follows the eighth day, which does not differ from the one before but is a repetition of the first, when …

Fourth, as regards the mercy of the Savior, he subjoins: And Jesus said to him: Amen I say to you: Today you shall be with me in paradise: in which Christ showed wondrous mercy as a most loving high priest, because he did not refuse …

Whoever looks upon this mercy seat with full turning of the countenance, gazing upon him who hangs upon the cross through faith, hope, and charity, devotion, admiration, exultation, appreciation, praise, and jubilation, makes the Passover, that is, the passing over, with him, so as to …

Let us therefore reflect, dearly beloved brethren, on the evils we have done, and let us wear ourselves down with constant lamentations. The inheritance of the righteous, which we did not hold through our life, let us seize through repentance. Almighty God wills to suffer such violence from us. For the kingdom of heaven wills to be seized by our tears, since it is not owed to our merits. Therefore let no quality, no quantity of our evils break us from the certainty of hope. That venerable thief provides great confidence in pardon—venerable not because he was a thief, for he was a thief from cruelty, but venerable from his confession. Think therefore, think how incomprehensible are the depths of mercy in Almighty God. This thief, dragged away with bloody hands from the throat of the road, was hung on the gibbet of the cross; there he confessed, there he was healed, there he deserved to hear: "Today you will be with me in paradise." What is this? Who would be sufficient to speak of, who to estimate such goodness of God? From the very punishment of his crime he arrived at the rewards of virtue. For this reason Almighty God permitted His elect to fall in certain lapses, so that He might restore hope of pardon to others lying in fault, if they rise up to Him with their whole heart, and open to them through the laments of repentance the way of His mercy. Let us therefore exercise ourselves in lamentations, let us extinguish with tears and worthy fruits of repentance the faults we have committed; let not the time granted us for forgiveness perish, because when we see many already healed from their iniquities, what else do we hold but a pledge of heavenly mercy?

For I consider Peter, I reflect upon the thief, I look at Zacchaeus, I gaze upon Mary, and I see nothing else in these except examples of hope and repentance placed before our eyes. Another has burned against his neighbor in the malice of cruelty; let him look to the thief, who even at the very moment of death arrived at the rewards of life through repentance.

Did not the thief come at the eleventh hour, who, even if he did not have time through age, yet had it late through punishment, who confessed God on the cross, and breathed out the spirit of life almost with the voice of his sentence? The householder began to give the denarius from the last, because he led the thief to the rest of paradise before Peter.

(Mor. 12. c. 9.) Or that flaming sword is said to be turning, because that He knew the time would come when it must be removed; when He in truth should come, who by the mystery of His incarnation was to open to us the way of Paradise.

And Jesus said to him: Amen, I say to you: Today you will be with me in paradise. A most beautiful example of the conversion to be sought, that so quickly the thief is forgiven, and the grace is more abundant than the prayer. For …

For as many of us as were baptized in Christ Jesus, were baptized in His death; but we are washed by baptism, seeing we were sinners. But some, in that they praise God suffering in the flesh, are crowned; others, in that they refuse to have the faith or works of baptism, are deprived of the gift which they have received.

I answer that, As Christ, in order to take our penalties upon Himself, willed His body to be laid in the tomb, so likewise He willed His soul to descend into hell. But the body lay in the tomb for a day and two nights, …

As man He is on the cross, but as God He is everywhere — both there and in paradise He fills all things, and there is no place where He is not. Some may ask: when the Lord says to the thief, "Today you will …

And as every king who returns victorious carries in triumph the best of his spoils, so the Lord having despoiled the devil of a portion of his plunder, carries it with Him into Paradise. This however is more true than all, that although they have not obtained all the promises, I mean, the thief and the other saints in order that without us they might not be made perfect, (Heb. 11:40.) they are notwithstanding in the kingdom of heaven and Paradise.

And Jesus said unto him,.... Jesus immediately answered him, though he said not one word to the other that railed at him, or to the multitude that abused him; and promised him more than he asked for, and sooner than he expected.

In paradise - The place where the souls of the righteous remain from death till the resurrection. As if he had said, I will not only remember thee then, but this very day.

Christ upon the cross is like Christ upon the throne; for now is the judgment of this world: one departs with a curse, the other with a blessing. Though Christ himself was now in the greatest struggle and agony, yet he had a word of comfort to speak to a poor penitent that committed himself to him.

Today ... - It is not probable that the dying thief expected that his prayer would be so soon answered. It is rather to be supposed that he looked to some “future” period when the Messiah would rise or would return; but Jesus told him that his prayer would be answered that very day, implying, evidently, that it would be “immediately” at death.

Learn (1) How "One is taken and another left"; (2) How easily divine teaching can raise the rudest and worst above the best instructed and most devoted servants of Christ; (3) How presumption and despair on a death hour are equally discountenanced here, the one in the impenitent thief, the other in his penitent fellow.

The verses we have now read deserve to be printed in letters of gold. They have probably been the salvation of myriads of souls. Multitudes will thank God to all eternity that the Bible contains this story of the penitent thief. We see, firstly, in the history before us — the sovereignty of God in saving sinners. We are told that two criminals were crucified together with our Lord, one on His right hand and the other on His left. Both were equally near to Christ. Both saw and heard all that happened during the six hours that He hung on the cross. Both were dying men, and suffering acute pain. Both were alike wicked sinners, and needed forgiveness. Yet one died in his sins, as he had lived, hardened, impenitent, and unbelieving. The other repented, believed, cried to Jesus for mercy, and was saved. A fact like this should teach us humility. We cannot account for it. We can only say, "Even so, Father, for so it seems good in your sight." (Matthew 11:26.) How it is that under precisely the same circumstances, one man is converted — and another remains dead in sins? Why is it that the very same sermon is heard by one man with complete indifference — and another man goes home to pray and seek Christ? Why is it that the same Gospel is hidden from one — and revealed to another? All these are questions which we cannot possibly answer. We only know that it is so, and that it is useless to deny it. Our own duty is clear and plain. We are to make a diligent use of all the means which God has appointed for the good of souls. There is no necessity that anyone should be lost. There is no such a thing as decreed damnation in the Bible. The offers of the Gospel are wide, free and general. God's sovereignty was never meant to destroy man's responsibility. One thief was saved — that no sinner might despair.

The verses we have now read deserve to be printed in letters of gold. They have probably been the salvation of myriads of souls. Multitudes will thank God to all eternity that the Bible contains this story of the penitent thief. We see, firstly, in the history before us — the sovereignty of God in saving sinners. We are told that two criminals were crucified together with our Lord, one on His right hand and the other on His left. Both were equally near to Christ.

SOME TIME AGO I preached upon the whole story of the dying thief. I do not propose to do the same to-day, but only to look at it from one particular point of view. The story of the salvation of the dying thief is a standing instance of the power of Christ to save, and of his abundant willingness to receive all that come to him, in whatever plight they may be.

SOME TIME AGO I preached upon the whole story of the dying thief. I do not propose to do the same to-day, but only to look at it from one particular point of view. The story of the salvation of the dying thief is a standing instance of the power of Christ to save, and of his abundant willingness to receive all that come to him, in whatever plight they may be. I cannot regard this act of grace as a solitary instance, any more than the salvation of Zacchaeus, the restoration of Peter, or the call of Saul, the persecutor. Every conversion is, in a sense, singular: no two are exactly alike, and yet any one conversion is a type of others. The case of the dying thief is much more similar to our conversion than it is dissimilar; in point of fact, his case may be regarded as typical, rather than as an extraordinary incident. So I shall use it at this time. May the Holy Spirit speak through it to the encouragement of those who are ready to despair! Remember, beloved friends, that our Lord Jesus, at the time he saved this malefactor, was at his lowest. His glory had been ebbing out in Gethsemane, and before Caiaphas, and Herod, and Pilate; but it had now reached the utmost low-water mark. Stripped of his garments, and nailed to the cross, our Lord was mocked by a ribald crowd, and was dying in agony: then was he "numbered with the transgressors," and made as the offscouring of all things. Yet, while in that condition, he achieved this marvellous deed of grace.

THE dying thief was certainly a very great wonder of Divine Grace. He has generally been looked upon from one point of view only—as a sinner called at the eleventh hour and, therefore, an instance of special mercy because he was so near to death. Enough has been made of that circumstance by others! To my mind, it is by no means the most important point in the narrative. Had the thief been predestined to come down from the Cross and live for half a century longer, his conversion would have been neither more nor less than it was.

THE dying thief was certainly a very great wonder of Divine Grace. He has generally been looked upon from one point of view only—as a sinner called at the eleventh hour and, therefore, an instance of special mercy because he was so near to death. Enough has been made of that circumstance by others! To my mind, it is by no means the most important point in the narrative. Had the thief been predestined to come down from the Cross and live for half a century longer, his conversion would have been neither more nor less than it was. The work of Grace which enabled him to die in peace would, if it had been the Lord's will, have enabled him to live in holiness. We may well admire Divine Grace when it so speedily makes a man fit for the bliss of Heaven! But it is equally to be adored when it makes him ready for the battle of earth. To bear a saved sinner away from all further conflict is great Grace. But the power and love of God are, if anything, even more conspicuous when, like a sheep surrounded by wolves, or a spark in the midst of the sea, a Believer is enabled to live on in the teeth of an ungodly world and maintain his integrity to the end! Dear Friend, whether you die as soon as you are born-again, or remain on earth for many years is comparatively a small matter—and will not materially alter your indebtedness to Divine Grace! In the one case the great Husbandman will show how He can bring His flowers speedily to perfection. And in the other He will prove how He can preserve them in blooming beauty despite the frosts and snows of earth's cruel winter! In either case your experience will reveal the same love and power. There are other things, it seems to me, to be seen in the conversion of the thief besides the one single matter of his being brought to know the Lord when near to death's door.

To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise - Marcion and the Manichees are reported to have left this verse out of their copies of this evangelist. This saying of our Lord is justly considered as a strong proof of the immateriality of the soul; and it is no wonder that those who have embraced the contrary opinion should endeavor to explain away this meaning. In order to do this, a comma is placed after σημερον, to-day, and then our Lord is supposed to have meant, “Thou shalt be with me after the resurrection I tell thee this, To-Day.” I am sorry to find men of great learning and abilities attempting to support this most feeble and worthless criticism. Such support a good cause cannot need; and, in my opinion, even a bad cause must be discredited by it. In paradise. The garden of Eden, mentioned Gen 2:8, is also called, from the Septuagint, the garden of Paradise. The word עדן Eden, signifies pleasure and delight. Several places were thus called; see Gen 4:16; 2Ki 19:12; Isa 37:12; Eze 27:23; and Amo 1:5; and such places probably had this name from their fertility, pleasant situation, etc., etc. In this light the Septuagint have viewed Gen 2:8. as they render the passage thus: εφυτευσεν ὁ Θεος παραδεισον εν Εδεμ, God planted a paradise in Eden. Hence the word has been transplanted into the New Testament; and is used to signify a place of exquisite pleasure and delight. From this the ancient heathens borrowed their ideas of the gardens of the Hesperides, where the trees bore golden fruit; and the gardens of Adonis, a word which is evidently derived from the Hebrew עדן Eden: and hence the origin of sacred groves, gardens, and other enclosures dedicated to purposes of devotion, some comparatively innocent, others impure. The word paradise is not Greek, but is of Asiatic origin. In Arabic and Persian it signifies a garden, a vineyard, and also the place of the blessed. […]

Is there any need to repeat and spin out the story of how the tragedy trailed up the Via Dolorosa and how they threw him in haphazard with two thieves in one of the ordinary batches of execution; and how in all that horror and …