This salvation story is found in the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 23.
39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
The fact of this man’s salvation is found in vese 43 and is worth repeating:
Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
That this man, hanging on a cross next to our Lord, was indeed ‘saved’ for all eternity is certain, for Jesus himself delivered the news. There was no altar call, no signing of a card, no asking Jesus to enter the heart, no specific proclamation of repentance, not much of anything we often assume must accompany the salvation experience. There was a simple proclamation of faith expressed in a statement of our crucified Lord’s innocence. Jesus, however, knew this man’s heart and proclaimed that salvation was his!
What does this tell you about all our ‘methods’? What does this tell you of the relationship of any sort of works or demonstration of a changed life before salvation is attained? More than these, what does this account tell you about the role of faith in our salvation?
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