The Criminal On The Cross And The Gospel

There is a viral video going around of someone, I assume maybe a podcaster, talking about the thief on the cross and using him as an example of what it takes to be saved. You have probably seen it yourself, but his first question is how the thief on the cross fits your theology. His overall point is that the thief brought nothing to Jesus but his belief, recognizing Jesus was the Son of God, believing in that, and he walks into paradise that day. He then goes on to quote John 3:16, says that is the gospel, and then says that whoever you are, just believe. Now, someone reading this probably right away is asking, “What is wrong with that?”

The interaction with the criminal on the cross is much more revealing and says more if you go to the text and read it, but let’s set that aside for a bit to remind ourselves of this, “All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16, Legacy Standard Bible). The criminal on the cross narrative is important to fit into our theology, but our theology must also fit the rich, young ruler, who was told to sell everything he has, give it to the poor, and follow Jesus. Remember, Jesus watches him walk away sorrowing and does not call Him back and say, “Just kidding, just believe.” Both these accounts must fit into our theology, not just one of them. Is the gospel really “just believe”, and if so, why did Jesus and the apostles call people to repent, or call this rich, young ruler to sell everything he had?

If someone professes to believe Jesus is the Son of God, that He died for their sins, that He rose again on the third day, but their lifestyle is one of grievous sin in which they seem to revel and enjoy, are they in Christ? They just believe, don’t they? There might be some reading this thinking I am wrong, that this person would go to heaven, but James said this, “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder” (James 2:19). Paul said this, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9). How do these verses fit into the theology of “just believe”? All Scripture must fit our theology.

If someone professes to believe Jesus is the Son of God, that He died for their sins, that He rose again on the third day, but their lifestyle is one of grievous sin in which they seem to revel and enjoy, are they in Christ?

So, let me tell you how the criminal fits into Biblical theology. Let’s look at the account first in Luke 23:39-43. First, in verse 40, we see the criminal rebuke the other criminal asking him if he fears God, which means, somehow, this criminal began to fear God at some point. Maybe it was when he was condemned, maybe it was before he committed his crime even, but at some point, the criminal in his heart had been given a fear of God. We also see in verse 41 his recognition of his just condemnation, that he deserves what he is getting. The criminal recognizes here his wickedness, his sinfulness, his wretchedness, or you could say, his poverty in spirit, that he has nothing to bring to God. He then reveals what he thinks of Jesus, that Jesus has done nothing wrong. He sees the sinless Savior next to him as righteous. He then asks Jesus to remember him when He comes into His kingdom, meaning he sees that Jesus is God, that Jesus is the Christ, the Chosen One. In other words, this account reveals that this criminal knew a lot about theology 101.

How did he know these things? Well, the Word of God never tells us his background, so we cannot know if he was possibly raised in a good home and taken to synagogue and learned about the Messiah there, and whether he heard the news of Jesus as He traveled around. We could speculate a lot on what he knew and how he knew it, but what we can say is that this man understood some deep, spiritual truths, truths that the other criminal clearly did not understand, and the Word of God does tell us how he knew those. “But to us God revealed them through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God” (2 Corinthians 2:10). The other criminal did not understand, “But a natural man does not accept the depths of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually examined” (2 Corinthians 2:14). The criminal who was saved learned who Christ was because God revealed it to him, just as it was revealed to Peter in this account, ”And Simon Peter answered and said, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’ And Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven’” (Matthew 16:16, 17).

...this account reveals that this criminal knew a lot about theology 101.

The criminal on the cross did believe in Jesus, but he did not offer his own belief to Jesus, rather, he offered to Jesus what God had granted him as a gift. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). The criminal only exercised the faith God had already granted to him as a gift. For all of the talk about what the criminal did not do in his life to be saved, I would go one step further and say that the criminal did not even bring forward his own belief and offer it to Jesus as the podcaster says, rather he simply exercised the faith given to Him by God as a gift for salvation. I contend the criminal did less than suggested, and that God did it all for the criminal by His grace.

The criminal on the cross narrative would be a great text to preach to someone who is on their death bed, no doubt, but I promise you that if the criminal were somehow given the opportunity to live a few more years, you would have seen him get baptized, take communion with the saints, share the gospel with others, give to his local church, and all of these things because someone given that gift of faith produces works. The grace that saves you is grace that is powerful enough to change your life. God can certainly bring salvation to someone on their deathbed, no doubt, but if someone on their deathbed made some confession, made an unexpected recovery, and then lived their life for themselves for their remaining days, the Bible would say that confession was disingenuous and did nothing for that man. I think if we are sharing the gospel with people who are not on their deathbeds, we should perhaps use other passages as our ultimate example of how to do it, perhaps like Jesus with the rich, young ruler even.

I think part of the issue we have in our evangelism is we are not on the same page as God. We think our goal in evangelism is to stop people from going to hell and get them to go to heaven. God, however, has a different purpose in mind, which is to create a holy and blameless people (Ephesians 2:4) and to conform people into the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). This results in eternal life, no doubt, but over and over again God is saving people to transform people, whereas we are often just trying to get them out of hell and into heaven and far too often unconcerned with any transformation in their lives. How would our evangelism change if we aligned our thinking with God’s thinking in creating a holy people for His name? I suggest it would make all the difference in the world.