Just after Easter this year, I wrote about one of the most sobering verses in the Bible. There are many serious verses in the Bible and, unless we choose to reject the Bible or not believe it to be true (to whatever extent), it is right that we should take those verses solemnly. But it is all too easy to see condemnation and forget about salvation—God punishes, and does so justly, but He also forgives and saves. That is something extraordinary—the absolutely supreme, absolutely perfect, absolutely wise, and absolutely just God has mercy on some, instead of condemning all.
In the accounts of Jesus’ life on Earth (the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the New Testament), we have four accounts of Jesus’ execution on a Roman cross. All four accounts are clear: the Lord Jesus Christ was not executed alone, but with two other men alongside him. All three were crucified; each nailed to a cross and then hung on that cross to suffer a slow, painful, humiliating death.
Let us take a look at what the accounts (quoted from the English Standard Version) say about the two men executed with Christ.
In Matthew 27:38–44, we read: “Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left” (v. 38). In the following verses, the gathered crowd mocks Christ on the cross. You can read the verses for yourself, but in essence they attack Christ’s claim to be the Son of God, and challenge him to free himself from the cross. “And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way” (v. 44).
In Mark 15:27–32, we read: “And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left” (v. 27). In this account, again, the crowd mocks Christ. “Those who were crucified with him also reviled him” (v. 32b).
In John 19:18, noting that we will go to Luke’s account in just a moment, we read: “There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them.” In this account, we see nothing more about what the two men crucified with Christ may have said.
Finally, we come to Luke 23:32–43, which gives the most detailed account of what the two men said. We read: “Two others, who were criminals, 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” (vv. 32–33). Mockery follows, as in previous accounts, but then something remarkable happens.
In Luke 23:39–43, we read: “One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, ‘Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!’ But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.’ And he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ And he said to him, ‘Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.’”
Luke 23:43 must surely be one of the most glorious verses in the Bible. What compassion we see from Christ! Here was a convicted criminal—and that by his own admission, if nothing else—who had just in the preceding hours or minutes been ridiculing Christ. But something changed in him, and he came to see what a misjudgement he had made. Jesus, hanging alongside him and dying the same physical death, was not some deluded fellow from the desert, not some charlatan promising much and delivering nothing, not some religious nutcase who just wanted to argue with the authorities, but was the eternal Son of God—and very pertinently, the one person who was able to save his soul.
What changed in that robber’s heart? We do not know. But we do know that he did have a change of heart, and we also know that the other robber did not have a change of heart. Here, in the last few hours of their earthly lives, and despite having presumably lived a life of unbelief until that point, one man’s soul is saved and the other man’s soul is not saved. On death’s doorstep, one man saw the truth and repented of his ways, and the other man did not. This is something worth serious contemplation in and of itself, but let us come back to the specific verse at hand.
Replying to the robber who recognised him for who he truly is, Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” So few words. So much compassion—mercy, kindness, forgiveness; such magnanimity. Jesus healed with a word. He calmed the storm with a word. He raised the dead with a word. He saved a penitent man’s soul with a word, and welcomed him into Heaven.
Soli Deo gloria—to God alone be the glory.