One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at [Jesus]: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:39-43)
The account of the thief on the cross came to mind when I was reading through these verses from Isaiah: “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon” (Isaiah 55:6-7).
What a beautiful display of God’s undeserved grace to this thief, this sinner, who didn’t deserve it. As the thief himself said, he was getting what he deserved. And yet, in humble faith, he called out to the Lord while he was near—so close that Jesus was dying on a cross right next to him. And then his Savior spoke, giving him something he didn’t deserve.
“Today you will be with me in paradise.”
Our heavenly Father makes the same grace-filled, pardoning promise to you and me. At the moment of our death or when Christ returns, we will be with him in paradise. That’s a sure and certain fact. Not because we deserve God’s grace and mercy, but because of the Savior who spoke those fate-changing words to a dying man on a cross. A man who had been getting exactly what he deserved now was given something else by his God.
By the evil we’ve done and the good we’ve failed to do, by being sinful from the time our mothers conceived us, we’ve deserved only one thing: death. Eternal death in hell. As Paul wrote in Romans, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). And because we’ve all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
But our gracious God doesn’t treat us as our sins deserve. He doesn’t give based on what we’ve earned for ourselves. No, “the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). He freely pardons us because of our Savior Jesus who lived a perfect life, shed his blood and died, and rose again, all for us.
Dear Christian, all your sins are forgiven. You are God’s dearly loved child. Heaven is yours. All because of Jesus.
How can I be sure God loves me? Discover God’s deepest heart—his sure and certain love for you—inside Pastor Lynn Wiedmann’s Seeing God’s Heart: The Certainty of His Love for Me.
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Alex Brown is the marketing and content copywriter at Northwestern Publishing House and a 2023 graduate of Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary with a Master of Divinity degree. He enjoys reading, writing, and spending time in God’s creation with his family.
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