SCRIPTURE
And when they were
come to the place, which is called
* Luke 23: 33. ** Mark
15: 32.
And one of the
malefactors railed on Him, saying, If Thou be Christ, save Thyself
and us.
But the other
answering rebuked him saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the
same condemnation? And we indeed justly;
for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this Man hath done nothing
amiss.
And he said unto
Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest in Thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto
thee, today shalt thou be with Me in paradise.*
* Luke 23: 39-43.
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It was a public execution. Three men had been condemned to die. Two were guilty of theft. But the third was different. He was the Son of God, the Saviour. Perfect and sinless. Dying as a Substitute for
repentant, believing sinners.
And that is what the dying thief
learnt. It changed his whole
future. Lets see how.
He was a SINNER. The case was
proven. He had been tried and condemned
in a court of law.
He was the SAME as his companion. Both of
them had verbally abused and reviled the Saviour. He was clearly no better or deserving. None can merit Gods salvation. All have sinned, - and that includes you!
That he was SUFFERING there is no doubt.
Crucifixion is a slow, agonising death.
Yet he looked away from himself and his difficulties and got his eyes on
the Saviour. That is the way to get
salvation.
He SWITCHED sides. In the morning he was abusing and
reviling. But then came
a change. He saw that his estimate of
the Man on the centre cross was all wrong.
By midday he had turned right
around. He acknowledged his sin and
spoke of the worth of the Saviour. That is real repentance. There is no salvation without it.
Look at the STEPS he took. Note the
order of them.
# First, he feared God. He came to the realisation that he had to
give account of himself to God.* Sure he had
broken human laws and been condemned by an earthly judge. But that was nothing compared to being judged
by the great God of eternity. Do you
fear God in this way?
* Romans 14:
12.
# Then he faced his own sin. He accepted that his punishment was
just. No excuses. No blaming others.
Owning you are a sinner and bowing to the sentence God has
passed upon you must come before you can have salvation.
# Look at what he found
out. He learned that the Saviour
had done nothing amiss - He was sinless.
From His prayer he heard that He was ready to forgive. And from the public notice above His head he
learned that the Saviour was a King to whom he should bow. Lets bring all these together. Unless you believe that the Saviour is
sinless, ready to forgive and a Person to whom you must bow, you can never have
[eternal]
salvation.
# Finally,
he had faith. He believed that the dying Saviour would rise
again and reign in His own kingdom.
And in asking to be remembered he showed faith in Christ to meet his
need.
And, of course, he received SALVATION. The person that comes to the Saviour will not
be cast out. That day the thief was
received into Paradise. Remember, he had nothing and could do nothing. He was dying. And what he had done counted
against him.
There were SUPERNATURAL events that day.
Darkness at midday. An earthquake. People rising from the dead.* But none of these happened until after
the thief had trusted the Saviour. God
will never send signs and wonders to persuade you about His Son. Like the thief, you must base your faith upon
Gods Word. It says, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.**
[*Note. Not
necessarily a resurrection to immortal life from Sheol / Hades, the
place of the dead; but, like Samuels appearance to Saul - (1 Sam. 28: 3-20), a resurrection from there to be
seen by those then present upon earth.
The First Resurrection (Rev. 20: 5) of the dead (to immortality) has not
yet taken place; and this will be proved by the death of Gods two witnesses at
the hands of the beast that comes up from the Abyss
who will overpower and kill them: (Rev. 11: 7).
cf. Luke 20: 35; Rev. 6: 9-11; John
14: 3; 1 Thess. 4: 16, etc. N.I.V. ]
** Romans 11: 3.
B.W.A.
This leaflet comes to you from:
GOSPEL PUBLICATIONS
* * *
[And] The
Creator Christ
Creation
The first view we ever get of Christ is as God: in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
God: and when Eternity
passes into Time, at the exact junction of the crossing where all worlds were
made, it is in the full panoply of the creating Godhead that we behold our
Lord. For all things were made by Him; and without Him was not
anything made that hath been made (John 1:
3): in Him were all things created: all things have been created through
Him (Col. 1: 16). Our
Lord not only is God, but He has acted as God: for creation is the
challenging proof of Godhead, and the whole creative power of the Godhead
centres in Christ: He that built all things is
God (Heb. 3: 4). No materials lay at hand for the construction
of a universe: the worlds have been framed by the
word of God, so that what is seen hath not been made out of things which do appear (Heb. 11: 3): whether
thrones - the crowned heads of the Angels or dominions - angelic satrapies or principalities - subordinate chiefs or powers - controlling winds and
lightnings; all things have been created through Him. As
no creature is too minute, so none is too gigantic; as none is too simple, so
none is too complex; as none is too humble, so none is too sublime: through
whom He made the worlds (Heb. 1: 2) - the heavenly world, and the
earthly world; the external world, and
the internal world of the soul; this world, and all other
worlds. Our Lord emerges into Time
exercising the full functions and prerogatives of Godhead.
But the
matter does not end there. Who upholdeth all things by the word of His power (Heb. 1: 3): for in Him all things consist (Col. 1: 17) - that is, cohere, hold together; so that,
but for the power momently issuing from the word of Christ, binding creation in
continuous life, all things would fly back into their native nothingness. Jesus is as essential to the existence of the
universe as He was to its creation. He
who said, Let there be light, says also, Let light abide. The world is not a mechanism, wound up and left to go of itself: the sun rises only because Jesus is: every law of nature, every force, every
manifestation of life, reside in Him: the intellect of angels, the march of
empires, the burning of the suns, the fall of a sparrow, our birthday and our death
day - all worlds, and all forces in all worlds, are but manifestations of His
will.
Redemption
But a
revelation still more astounding remains.
All things have been created unto
Him (Col. 1: 16); the universe came forth from Him, but it
also sweeps back to Him, in a gigantic circle: He is Alpha, but also Omega; He
is the Beginning, but also the End.
Christ made the universe Himself; He made it by Himself; but most
wonderful of all, He made it for Himself.
It is not only a palace of His creation, but a palace for His ultimate
occupation: a fact that carries with it the redemption of the
universe, when one
dark cesspool shall have drawn off and hidden for ever the filth of the
worlds. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end (Rev. 22:
13).
Annihilation
Yet
another, and an awful, function of Godhead is exercised by Christ. Thou,
Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens
are the works of Thy hands: they shall perish; but Thou continuest (Heb. 1:
10). Of whom is this said? Of the
Son He saith. And who causes the perishing? As a
mantle shalt Thou roll them up. Creation and annihilation are but two aspects
of one Divine power; and both reside in Christ.
Christ created, Christ annihilates: Thou hast laid the foundation Thou shalt roll them
up: Christ begins the creation, and Christ ends it. It was the creator Christ who said in Genesis (5: 4),- Every
living thing that I have made I will destroy; and it
is the Son, into whose hands all judgment is given, before whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and
there was found no place for them. (Rev.
20:11). The worlds lapse back
into the Void, out of which He called them, at the will of Christ, to make way for new worlds (2 Pet. 13) of His creation.
Worship
So
righteous, therefore, and so founded on fact, is the decree of God;- When He again - at the Second Advent bringeth in the firstborn into the world, He saith, And let
all the angels of God worship Him (Heb. 1: 6). Had the Angels not been most exalted beings,
the Apostle would never have compared them to Christ; yet God says,- Let all the angels of God worship Him. Angels never created a world,- Christ created
all worlds; angels, under permission, handle lightnings and wield hurricanes -
Christ arrests the universe from lapsing into nothingness; angels are immortals
only as drawing life from God, - Christ hath life
in
Himself (John 5: 26). So
then our duty is plain. If angels need
to worship, so do we: if angels on the spot and in the heart of Heaven, knowing
the exact truth concerning Christ, worship Him, so ought we: if angels of the
highest rank all angels, without
exception - worship Christ, not one of us can be too exalted to worship Him: if
sinless angels worship Christ, how much more ought sinful mortals: if God commands all angels to worship Christ,
can He command us less? and if angels, for whom Christ
never died worship Him, shall the redeemed refuse? And they WORSHIPPED
Him (Luke 24: 52).
- D. M.
PANTON.