Luk 23:39-43

And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on Him

The impenitent malefactor

I.

THIS MANS TREATMENT OF CHRIST suggests several things for our consideration. He railed on Him.

1. What inhumanity. The suffering of Jesus ought surely to have moved his heart to pity.

2. The friendlessness of the majestic Sufferer touched him not.

3. His like condition to the Sufferer by his side touched no chord of sympathy in his breast.

II. THE MALEFACTOR WAS AN UNBELIEVER. He had probably never seen Christ before. On this account he was less guilty than many at Calvary that day; and less guilty than thousands who hear the gospel to-day, but still reject Christ. According to light and privileges is our responsibility. But this robber had ground enough to warrant his belief in Christ. His companion bad, yet he joined those who railed upon Jesus.

III. CHRISTS TREATMENT OF THE MALEFACTOR. Pitying silence. He will answer no mans prayer to prove His power. His word, His Church, the Christian, are the miracles that must testify to His power to save. (G. E. Jones.)

The impenitent thief

I. HUMAN LIFE ENDING AN UTTER MORAL WRECK.

II. HUMAN LIFE ENDING ON THE GALLOWS.

III. HUMAN LIFE ENDING IN SIGHT OF THE CROSS.

IV. HUMAN LIFE ENDING IN DESPAIR. (The Lay Preacher.)

The two malefactors

I. REFLECTIONS. Here we have a true picture of human nature as it appears amidst difficulties, and dangers, and sufferings, the appropriate fruits of sin. A care to avoid pain is universally prevalent, but a care to avoid sin is comparatively of rare occurrence. Of this conduct one of the malefactors crucified with Christ afforded a lamentable example. But the other, however bad he had previously been, however much hardened or debased, was brought to true repentance. There was an invisible energy touching his soul and melting it into contrition; the power of the cross of Christ was felt, and it proved the Redeemer to be great in sufferings. Yes, this criminal became humble, his heart believed, and his faith penetrated the vail of the incarnation, realizing what was concealed from an eye of sense, even a ground of hope for his guilty soul.

II. APPLICATION.

1. Let us see the greatness and the glory of the Saviours character. What power I what grace! what dominion over the invisible world!

2. The language of the text supplies a plain proof of the separate and happy existence of the spirits of just men after death.

3. The sufficiency of the sacrifice for sin made by the death of Christ, is illustrated by the case we have considered. He contemplated sinners, the chief of sinners, when he offered Himself to God.

4. What different effects may result amidst a sameness of circumstances and opportunities. Here were two of similar character, both exceedingly wicked, with death in immediate prospect; one becomes a penitent seeking his salvation, the other remains hardened in his sins.

5. The subject suggests the language of encouragement and of caution. (Essex Remembrancer.)

The two robbers

To defer the time of conversion, and as a pretext for persevering in the ways of sin, the worldly-minded flatter themselves with three principal delusions.

1. One delays his conversion because he imagines that a time of sickness and suffering will present a more favourable opportunity to think of it. He flatters himself that he will not be carried away by a violent or sudden death; that a long and slow malady, during the course of which he will have time to reflect, and to make an account of his ways, will permit him to prepare himself for the meeting with his God. But how does he know whether a malady, under the weight of which the very organism of the constitution sinks, will not oppress his senses, dull his spirit, take from his mind its energy, and paralyze his faculties? Who can be ignorant that, in such a case, nothing is more usual than hesitations, adjournments, and delays, seeing the man has accustomed himself to the deceitful hope of a recovery, sooner or later?

2. A second reason, as I said, for which the worldly-minded defer their conversion is, that they suppose that at the hour of death Providence will work miracles of salvation, other and more efficacious than those which they have been able to enjoy during their life; and that the most pressing invitations of grace, the most irresistible attractions of the Holy Spirit, the most powerful manifestations of Divine love will be afforded. Where has God promised such manifestations? Nowhere. But so be it; what does this prove? When the heart is hardened by a long course of sin, will it not resist the evidence of truths the best established, and facts the most palpable, even the most powerful miracles of salvation?

3. Lastly, impenitent sinners defer their conversion upon the pretext that, at the time when they shall see death to be near, love of the world will disappear from the heart, carnal passions will be extinguished, and the soul will open itself to the influence of the truths of the Word of Life. But if the experience of many centuries is not sufficient to attest that such a time has not upon the soul that regenerating power which is supposed; that, instead of detaching himself from the things of earth, the unregenerated man will strive to attach himself more, and to cling more strongly, to measures which may prolong his existence in this world; that so far from becoming more susceptible to the beauty of truth and love, a long course of resistance renders the heart incapable of feeling their attractions, surely the example of the dying robber will be sufficient to dispel for ever those fatal delusions. Not only is this robber not touched by the truth, but he repels it; not only does he continue to sleep in the security of sin, but he is incensed against the Word; and whilst shame and remorse should have closed his lips, he unites with the multitude to insult the Saviour of the world: and to all his other sins he adds an impudent irony against the Son of God; he crowns all his crimes by blasphemy. After that, will you still count, O all you who defer your conversion, on the changes that accompany death, as if they could miraculously break the chain of your sins, or promote your eternal salvation? Three things have struck us in the history of the unconverted robber: first, that death was not startling; second, that extraordinary succour of grace was not received; third, that he aggravated his condemnation and hardened himself in circumstances, which it seems should have ameliorated his state. The conversion of his companion in iniquity presents to us reflections of quite another nature. And can you doubt, that if in this moment some one had been able to bring down the converted thief from the cross, had been able to lavish upon him the succours of art, and, in the end, cicatrize his wounds: if one could have contrived to arrest the fever to which he was a prey, to give him the use of his members; to restore him to life; can you doubt that, such being his feelings, the remainder of his earthly existence would have been other than a noble demonstration of the power of the faith and love which lived in his soul? (Dr. Grandpierre.)

The crucified malefactors

I. Let us consider WHEREIN THESE TWO MALEFACTORS WERE ALIKE.

1. They were alike in respect to depravity of heart.

2. They were alike in respect to their knowledge of Christ.

3. They were alike in practice–both malefactors.

4. They were alike in condemnation.

II. WHEN THEY BEGAN TO DIFFER. Apparently it was when the darkness began. And we can easily believe that such an unexpected and solemn miracle, on such an awful occasion, did make a deep impression upon the minds of all the spectators of the crucifixion of the Lord of glory, and more upon some than others.

III. WHEREIN THEY EVENTUALLY AND FINALLY DIFFERED. Here it may be observed–

1. That one realized the wrath of God abiding upon him, whilst the other did not. This poor, perishing criminal was thoroughly awakened from his long and habitual stupidity, and clearly saw his dangerous condition; which is usually the first step to conversion. He might, however, have seen and felt such danger, and with his eyes open gone to destruction. But–

2. His awakening was followed with conviction. He not only realized that he was exposed to everlasting misery, but was convinced, in his conscience, that he deserved it.

3. He renounced his enmity to God, and became cordially reconciled to His vindictive justice.

4. Having exercised true love, repentance, and submission towards God, he exercised a saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus the two malefactors began to differ while hanging on the cross; and they continue to differ as long as they lived, and will continue to differ as long as they exist.

What has been said in this discourse may serve to throw light upon some important subjects which have been supposed to be dark and difficult to understand.

1. It appears from the conduct of the penitent malefactor, that the doctrine of unconditional submission is founded in fact. He really felt and expressed a cordial and unreserved submission to God, when he expected in a few moments to sink down into the pit of endless destruction.

2. It appears from the views and exercises of the penitent malefactor, that the doctrine of repentance before faith is founded in fact.

3. It appears from the views and feelings of the penitent malefactor, that the doctrine of instantaneous regeneration is founded in fact.

4. It appears from the conduct of God towards the two malefactors, that He acts as a Sovereign in renewing the hearts of men.

5. The conduct of the impenitent malefactor shows that no external means or motives are sufficient to awaken, convince, or convert any stupid sinner.

6. It appears from the fate of the impenitent malefactor, that impenitent sinners have no ground to rely upon the mere mercy of Christ in a dying hour. It is, therefore, presumption in any sinners to live in the hope of a death-bed repentances.

7. It appears from the conduct and the condition of the penitent malefactor, that sinners may be saved at the eleventh or last hour of life, if they really repent and believe in Christ. (N. Emmons, D. D.)

Lessons from the three crosses on Calvary

I. THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH.

1. Death to the sinner–the death of the body, and afterwards the death of the soul in hell.

2. Death to the Saviour, who knew no sin, but bears our iniquities on the cross.

3. Death to the saint; for though on him the second and more awful death, the death of the soul, hath no power, yet he cannot escape the death of the body; for all saints since Abel have had to pass through the river Jordan, save two, Enoch and Elijah. God must be just; and nothing short of death is sins just recompense. Oh that you would turn to Him whose gift is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord!

II. Another lesson we learn from this solemn scene is, that THE UNCONVERTED GROW WORSE AND WORSE. Perhaps the lost thief was brought up by pious parents; most likely he was taught to kneel before God by his mother, and was led up to the temple, and heard the sweet music echo among its marble arches, when the worshippers sang Gods praises. Often had he wondered, and perhaps wept, when hearing the history of Joseph, and Samuel, and Daniel. But, alas! he was led away by little and little, adding sin to sin, until sinning became a habit, and habit became confirmed and strengthened, till he walked openly with the ungodly, stood in the way of sinners, and at last sat down in the seat of the scorner; and though rebuked, remained hardened, and went down a doomed man to hell. You cannot indulge one sin without opening the door for others. The man who begins by walking in the downhill path of sin, goes on to running, until he falls headlong into hell.

III. THERE ARE NONE TOO BAD TO BE FORGIVEN. Art thou a thief? As the thief on the cross was saved, so mayest thou; take heart, and cry to Jesus. Art thou a blasphemer? The blasphemer, Bunyan, was saved, and so mayest thou; take heart, and cry to Jesus. Art thou a harlot? The harlot, Mary, was saved, and so mayest thou; take heart, and cry to Jesus. Art thou a murderer? There may be some such here; for God knows there are not only murders that never saw the light, but he that hateth his brother is a murderer. But oh! the murderer David was saved, and so mayest thou; take heart, and cry to Jesus. Saul of Tarsus, whose hands were dyed with the blood of Stephen, was washed with the blood of Jesus. I saw, not long since, lying on the bed of sickness and death, a poor outcast woman, whose spirit has since departed. She spoke to this effect to a dear friend of mine:–I have been, not five, not ten, not fifteen, but twenty years living in open and loathsome sin; but I have found that Christ will cast out none–no, not the most hell-deserving sinner who cries to Him. And now I amdying; but I am happy, for the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth me from all sin. And when I am gone, let these words be written on my tombstone–So foolish was I, and ignorant, I was as a beast before Thee. Nevertheless I am continually with Thee: Thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel and afterward receive me to glory. Oh, whoever you are, Christ can save you!

IV. Learn, too, from Calvary that WHEN A SINNER IS SAVED, IT IS BY FAITH IN JESUS. How can I prove to you the faith of the penitent thief? By his wonderful prayer. (H. G. Guinness, B. A.)

Dost not thou fear God?—

The restraining principle

And what is this fear? This fear is a solemn dread of the creature in presence of the Creator. Well, then, with real thought on the Passion, why must we feel, as a prominent principle, a fear of God?

1. The Cross, my brothers, witnessed to two things–Gods awful and necessary judgments on human sin. It must be so. God could not be God if it were otherwise. The atonement is nothing else but the fearful statement of Divine holiness in relation to sin. Our first clear intimations of God, it has been truly argued, are not conclusions from reasoning on final causes, or evidences from the harmonies of a material world. No; they are the voice of conscience, and the self-evident consistency of the moral law. It is always possible to conceive, so it has been wisely said, all sorts of changes in the structure of the material world, and we find no difficulty to the intellect, whatever may be said about the imagination in the revelation of its final transformation by fire–that unimagined and yet inevitable catastrophe. But one thing is impossible–we cannot conceive right being otherwise than right, and wrong than wrong; we cannot imagine created dissonances in the harmony of the moral law, and what is that but saying that there are eternal necessities in the being of our Creator? And if so, being good, His judgment must be severe, must be awful, on persistent sin. We say so in our saner moments, but how are we to feel the truth of our saying? The answer is–Calvary.

2. But this fear is also a serious apprehension of the dreadfulness of evil in itself. The Cross showed the intensity of the love of God, and, by the form of the revelation, was revealed His knowledge of our fearful danger. The genius of Michael Angelo made the Sibyls splendid on the ceiling of the Sistine from the magnificence of proportion quite as much as from the softness of colour. Proportion is the secret of lasting charm. It is holy fear that is the principle of proportion in the relation of the creature–the fallen creature–to his Creator. To see God in suffering is, by grace, to have a proportionate affection. By it we are restrained, by it we are awed and solemnized, by it we act as men should in the felt presence of their Maker, by it we learn, in fact, our proper place. (Canon Knox Little.)

The fear of God gives harmony to life

As the glow of a solemn sunrise gives to the tracts of impenetrable vapour a splendour which illumines and transforms, changing into awful beauty the cloud-folds of the slate-grey morning on the mountains, which were otherwise but the draperies of a sulking storm, so the fear of God gives harmony and colour to the more murky cloud]ands of the inner life. It is, it is indeed, to each of us a distinct and necessary element in that solid and faithful perseverance to which, and to which alone, is promised the reward of victory. Amidst the mysteries and miseries of this lower life; amidst its simple joys, its unspeakable sorrows; amidst the delirium of ambition, the intoxication of pleasure, the heart-corroding of daily care, the numbing frosts of encroaching worldliness, the blinding mists of severe temptations, we may be–if we will to realize its meaning–we may be arrested by the spectacle of the Passion; and among its fruitful and tremendous lessons, it teaches restraint of the tempest of our lower desires, brings us some sense of the vast issues of eternity, and says to us in accents which we may hear above the surge of the surf and the breaking of the billows, Look to your Representative; contemplate the dignity, the mystery of His sorrow; whether high in rank or among (what the world calls) the dregs of society, whether with great gifts or with few attainments, walk as a creature in presence of his Creator; have a care what you are doing; live as those who live, but who have to die, or those who now in time must soon feel the pressure of eternity. Child, child of such an awful, such a splendid sacrifice, fear God! (Canon Knox Little.)

Nothing amiss

The dying thiefs testimony to our Lord

Nothing amiss–what does that mean, as used here? Literally, it means nothing out of place–unsuitable, unbecoming, improper. Does it mean, then, He has not been guilty of crimes like ours–of robbery, violence, insurrection, murder? With nothing of that sort was He ever charged; and none in the city, good or bad, could be a stranger to the one charge brought against Him; for the whole country, as well as the crowded streets of the metropolis, was full of it. He was dying under the charge of high treason against heaven–of blasphemy–of not only laying claim to royal honours, but malting Himself equal with God. I take it, therefore, that in saying, This Man has done nothing amiss, his words must mean, He has made no false claim: He said, I am the Christ, but in that He did nothing amiss; I am the King of Israel, but in that He did nothing amiss; He called Himself the Son of God, the Light of the world, the Rest of the weary, the Physician of the sick at heart, but in this He did nothing amiss. Not that I for a moment suppose that this penitent criminal had knowledge enough to say all this as I have said it; but I feel confident that he had gleams of it, and that I have not gone beyond the spirit of his testimony to the innocence of our Lord. Amidst the buzzings about this new kind of criminal–innocent, by universal consent, of all the ordinary crimes, yet charged with a crime never before laid to the charge of any–some account of the marvellous works ascribed to Him, and of the words of heavenly grace He was said to have uttered, might easily reach this mans ear; and just as the wind bloweth where it listeth, so that grace which is the Spirits breath upon the soul might send what he heard like arrows into a softened breast–as not seldom it does even still. (D. Brown, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 39. One of the malefactors which were hanged.] It is likely that the two robbers were not nailed to their crosses, but only tied to them by cords, and thus they are represented in ancient paintings. If not nailed, they could not have suffered much, and therefore they were found still alive when the soldiers came to give the coup de grace, which put a speedy end to their lives. Joh 19:31-33.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

39. railed on himcatching upthe universal derision, but with a turn of his own. Jesus, “reviled,reviles not again”; but another voice from the cross shall noblywipe out this dishonor and turn it to the unspeakable glory of thedying Redeemer.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And one of the malefactors, which were hanged,…. On the cross, one of the thieves crucified with Christ; the Oriental versions add, “with him”; according to the Evangelists Matthew and Mark, both of them reviled him, and threw the same things in his teeth as the priests, people, and soldiers did; which how it may be reconciled, [See comments on Mt 27:44]

railed on him, saying, if thou be Christ, save thyself, and us; taking up the words of the rulers, and adding to them, perhaps, with a design to curry favour with them, hoping thereby to get a release; or, however, showing the wickedness and malice of his heart, which his sufferings and punishment, he now endured, could make no alteration in; see Re 16:9.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Railed (). Imperfect active, implying that he kept it up. His question formally calls for an affirmative answer (), but the ridicule is in his own answer: “Save thyself and us.” It was on a level with an effort to break prison. Luke alone gives this incident (39-43), though Mark 15:32; Matt 27:44 allude to it.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Railed [] . Imperfect : kept up a railing.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “And one of the malefactors which were hanged.” (eis de ton kremasthenton kakourgan) “Then one of the criminals hanged,” beside Jesus; One of the two led, and Matthew and Mark indicate that “they both did for a time,” Mat 27:44. The one (malefactor) who led the railing was likely a Jew, who joined the cynical priests, Luk 17:34-36.

2) “Railed on him, saying,” (eblasphemei auton) “Blasphemed him,” or railed at Him, as follows, Mat 27:44; Mar 15:32.

3) “If thou be Christ,” (oudhi su ei ho Christos) “Are you not the Christ?” like you claim; If you are the Christ, the Messiah, indicating skepticism.

4) “Save thyself and us.” (soson seauton kai hemas) “Save yourself and us,” liberate or deliver yourself, and us, from these nails, before we die, Mar 15:32.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

Luk 23:39

. And one of the malefactors. This reproach, which the Son of God endured from the robber, obtained for us among angels the very high honor of acknowledging us to be their brethren. But at the same time, an example of furious obstinacy is held out to us in this wretched man, since even in the midst of his torments he does not cease fiercely to foam out his blasphemies. Thus desperate men are wont to take obstinate revenge for the torments which they cannot avoid. (274) And although he upbraids Christ with not being able to save either himself or others, yet this objection is directed against God himself; just as wicked men, when they do not obtain what they wish, would willingly tear God from heaven. They ought, indeed, to be tamed to humility by strokes; but this shows that the wicked heart, which no punishments can bend, is hard like iron.

(274) “ Voyans qu’ils ne peuvent eschapper les tormens, ils se vengent en s’obstinant et rongeant leur frein, comme on dit.” — “Perceiving that they cannot escape torments, they take revenge by obstinacy, and by champing the bit, as the saying is.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(39) And one of the malefactors.The incident that follows is singularly characteristic of St. Luke. If we ask how he came to know what the other Gospels pass over, we may, I think, find his probable informants once more in the devout women who followed Jesus to the place of Crucifixion, and who stood near enough to the cross to hear what was then spoken. The word for hanged is used by St. Luke (Act. 5:30; Act. 10:39) and St. Paul (Gal. 3:13) as applied to crucifixion.

Railed on him.Literally, was blaspheming, but in the sense in which that word signifies the reviling of which man, and not God, may be the object. He, too, catches up the taunt of the rulers and the soldiers.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

39. One of the malefactors As to the question whether both thieves at first reviled Jesus, we refer to our notes on Mat 27:44; Mat 27:49.

Railed The miraculous darkness and relentings of heart had already commenced. One of the malefactors is earliest to feel the solemn influences, while the other continues his mockeries of Jesus.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘And one of the evildoers who were hanged, railed on him, saying, “Are you not the Christ (Messiah)? Save yourself and us.” ’

The mockery and anger continued. Now it was one of the evildoers who had been crucified alongside Him, who turned his pain-wracked attention to him, and muttered at Him through His parched lips. His words were no doubt spoken in the bitter irony of despair, for he clearly did not really believe what he said. The Messiah was what he had been waiting for. And he had never come. So if this fellow claimed to be the Messiah why did he not get down from the cross and save him too? But it was said in bitter irony and misery. He had no expectation that He would, nor that He could, do him any good. He was just expressing the bitterness in his soul. And the sad thing was that had he but said it in another frame of mind and from another outlook he would have been saved. His words are in deliberate contrast to those of his compatriot that follow. He said almost the same thing, he saw what the other saw, but how different was his intent. For there was nothing within this first evildoer that responded to what Jesus was.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The penitent malefactor:

v. 39. And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on Him, saying, If Thou be Christ, save Thyself and us.

v. 40. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?

v. 41. And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man hath done nothing amiss.

v. 42. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.

v. 43. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise.

During the first hour of the excruciating agony of the crucifixion, both malefactors had joined the surging throngs in Revelation ling and cursing and mocking the man hanging in the middle between them, Mat 27:44. But the example of wonderful patience, together with the words which fell from the lips of the Sufferer, gradually caused one of the criminals to become silent. His heart was pierced by thoughts of sorrow and repentance, he acknowledged Jesus as his Savior. When, therefore, the other malefactor continued his objurgations, sneeringly asking Jesus to save Himself and them also, the man on the right hand rebuked him. It is difficult to say in just what way he brought out the emphasis, but he probably meant to express: Isn’t there even fear of the holy, just God in thy heart, not to speak of any other feeling of commiseration and sympathy! He reminded the other that they both were suffering justly, receiving payment in full for the sins which they had committed, exactly what their deeds were worth. But they were the only ones in that class; for this Man, this Jesus, had done nothing out of place, nothing wrong, nothing wicked. So this malefactor acknowledged his great guilt before God and accepted his punishment as a just payment of divine wrath. He was heartily sorry for his sins. And this sorrow was supplemented and completed by faith. Turning to Jesus, he begged Him: Remember me when Thou enterest into Thy kingdom. The Lord should in grace and mercy think of him and receive him into His kingdom, at the time when the Messiah would return in glory. The poor outcast thus made a splendid confession of Christ; he recognized in Him the King of heaven. He knows that he is not worthy of the mercy of this King, but upon this very mercy he relies, his trust in that gives him the strength to make his petition. This faith was a miracle of divine grace. It is always a triumph of grace if God gives to a poor criminal and outcast of human society who has served sin all his life, grace unto repentance in the very last hour of his earthly existence. And Jesus bestowed upon this malefactor the very fullness of His divine pardon. He gave him the assurance, with solemn emphasis, that he would be with Him in paradise that very day. There was no waiting for a future glory necessary, neither was there a purgatory for him to pass through, but the glory, the happiness of paradise would be his as soon as he had closed his eyes in death. For all sinners in the whole world the Lord has opened the doors of paradise by His life, suffering, and death, and whosoever believeth on Him has complete salvation as soon as he dies. That is the glorious fruit of the Passion of Christ: forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Luk 23:39. And one of the malefactorsrailed on him, The word rendered malefactor, , does not always denote a thief, or a robber, but was likewise applied to the Jewish soldiers, who were hurried by their zeal to commit some crime in opposition to the Roman authority, See the note on Matth. xxvi

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Luk 23:39-43 . ] A difference from Mar 15:32 and from Mat 27:44 ; see on the passages.

(see the critical remarks) . is a jeering question, Art thou not the Messiah ?

Luk 23:40 . ] not: Dost not even thou fear (de Wette, Bleek, following the Vulg., Grotius, Lange, and others, that would be .)? but: Hast thou no fear [265] at all on thy part before God , since thou art in the same condemnation (as this Jesus whom thou revilest)? This similarity of position in suffering the judicial condemnation of the cross is the reason wherefore he ought at least to be afraid before God, and not continue to practise blasphemous outrage.

Luk 23:41 . ] nothing unlawful; see in general, Lnemann on 2Th 3:2 . The very general expression marks the innocence so much the more strongly.

Luk 23:42 . Think on me (to raise me from the dead, and to receive me into the Messiah’s kingdom) when Thou shalt have come in Thy kingly glory (as Mat 16:28 ). The promises of Jesus in regard to His Parousia must have been known to the robber, which might easily enough be the case in Jerusalem, and does not actually presuppose the instructions of Jesus; yet he may also have heard Him himself, and now have remembered what he had heard. The extraordinary element of the agonizing situation in the view of death had now as its result the extraordinary effect of firm faith in those promises; hence there is no sufficient reason on account of this faith, in which he even excelled the apostles, to relegate the entire history into the region of unhistorical legend [266] (Strauss, II. p. 519; Zeller in his Jahrb. 1843, I. p. 78; Schenkel, Eichthal), in which has been found in the different demeanour of the two robbers even the representation of the different behaviour of the Jews and Gentiles towards the preaching of the crucified Christ (Schwegler, II. p. 50 f.). Others (Vulgate, Luther, and many others, including Kuinoel and Ewald) have taken in a pregnant sense as equal to , which is erroneous, since Jesus Himself establishes His kingdom; but to conceive of the supramundane kingdom (Euthymius Zigabenus, Grotius, Bornemann) brings with it the supposition, which in Luke is out of place, that the robber has heard the saying of Jesus at Joh 18:36 .

Luk 23:43 . ] does not belong to (a view already quoted in Theophylact, and rightly estimated by the phrase ), in respect of which it would be idle and unmeaning (this also in opposition to Weitzel in the Stud. u. Krit. 1836, p. 957), but to what follows. The Lord knew that His own death and the robber’s would take place to-day . In the case of the robber it was accelerated by means of breaking the legs.

On the classical word (Park), see Poppo, ad Xen. Cyr. 1. 3. 14. The LXX. Gen 2:8 f. give this name to the dwelling-place of the first pair; the blessedness of this place, however, very naturally occasioned the naming, in the later Jewish theology, of the portion of Hades in which the souls of the righteous after death dwell till the resurrection , paradise. Comp. also the Book of Enoch Luk 22:9 f. Not to be confounded with the heavenly paradise, 2Co 12:4 ; Rev 2:7 . See on Luk 16:23 ; Lightfoot and Wetstein on the passage. In the answer of Jesus there was probably not implied a divergence from the kind and manner in which the petitioner conceived to himself the fulfilment of his petition (Schleiermacher), but it presented simply and without veil, as well as in the most directly comforting form, the certainty of his petition being granted, since if his soul came into paradise, participation in the resurrection of the just and in the kingdom of the Messiah could not fail him. Hofmann, Schriftbew . II. 1, p. 488, rationalizes the idea of paradise. Where the blessed communion of man with God is realized, there, he says, is paradise. This abstraction is surely erroneous, for this reason, that according to it the risen souls must be in paradise, which is nowhere taught they are in Messiah’s kingdom. By Jesus expresses definitely His descensus ad inferos (Knig, Lehre von d. Hllenf . p. 45 ff.; Gder, Lehre v. d. Erschein. Jesu Chr. unter d. Todten , p. 33 ff.), in respect of which the fact that here circumstances required the mention of paradise only, and not of Gehenna, does not exclude what is contained in 1Pe 3:18 f., as though we had here “a passage contradicting the analogy of doctrine” (de Wette). See, on the other hand, also West in the Stud. u. Krit. 1858, p. 252 ff.

[265] To say nothing, moreover, of penitent humility and resignation.

[266] For apocryphal fables , which subsequently linked themselves thereto, see Thilo, ad Evang. Infant. 23, p. 143.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

c. THE PENITENT THIEF (Luk 23:39-43)

39And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ [Art not thou the Christ?15], save thyself and us. 40But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not [even16] thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? 41And we indeed justly; for we receive [are receiving17] the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. 42And he said unto Jesus, Lord, [he said, Jesus, remember, V. O.18] remember me when thou comest into [in] thy kingdom. 43And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Luk 23:39. And one of the malefactors which were hanged.According to Mat 27:44, and Mar 15:32, our Lord is mocked by both robbers; according to Luke, only by one. The different harmonistic attempts to remove here all appearance of contradiction are familiar. See Lange, Matthew, p. 525. The view of Lange, that we must make a distinction between and in the following manner, namely, that the latter could be said only of the impenitent, the former also, on the other hand, of the better-minded robber, who had begun as well as his fellow to urge our Lord to leave the cross, but had soon given up this earthly-minded expectationthis view diminishes the difficulty without doubt, but yet does not wholly remove it. For even in this way the psychological objection cannot be refuted as to how so sudden a conversion could all at once have arisen in the soul of the penitent thief, and as to whether it is not in contradiction to the nature of an unfeigned conversion, when the penitent begins his conversion with rebuking a fellow-sinner on account of an act which he himself had only a few moments before been committing. We rather assume (Ebrard), that Matthew and Mark express themselves indefinitely; that they meant only to give the genus, but not the number of the last class of the scoffers, and that it was reserved for Luke to instruct us more fully about a particular which, in the Pauline Gospel of justification by free grace, is so very peculiarly in its place.

Luk 23:40. Dost not even thou fear God?It is not, therefore, the blaspheming of Jesus in itself which gives occasion for this outspoken rebuke, but the frivolous forgetfulness of God, the lack of the fear of God which manifests itself in the words of a man who is now suffering the same punishment with Jesus, whom he blasphemes, and who, therefore, now at least ought to have exhibited a more serious temper. But now the powerful antithesis with this word: , comes before his awakening consciousness of faith, and he expresses, as strongly as possible, the heaven-wide distinction which exists between the Saviour and the companions of His fate.

Luk 23:41. And we indeed justly, sc. .He knows himself to be before God a man as guilty as the companion of his fate, although he censures his blasphemy.

This man hath done nothing amiss, .Nothing censurable, evil. Comp. 2Th 3:2. The mild expression denotes innocence the more strongly. (Meyer). Even had the robber said nothing more than this, yet he would awaken our deepest astonishment, that Godin a moment wherein literally all voices are raised against Jesus, and not a friendly word is heard in His favorcauses a witness for the spotless innocence of the Saviour to appear on one of the crosses beside Him. This murderer is the last man who before Jesus death deposes a testimony in honor of Him. But now he soon shows a yet clearer and firmer faith, while he directs his look upon the middle cross, and now begins to speak no longer of, but to, Him Himself.

Luk 23:42. Jesus, remember me.He desires no instantaneous liberation from the cross, on which he on the contrary is convinced that he must die, but he desires solely and singly that our Lord in grace may remember him, and receive him into His kingdom. Undoubtedly he is not wholly free from earthly Messianic expectations, and here is thinking not of the heaven in which our Lord after His death would be, but he represents to himself the moment when the Messiah comes in His kingly glory to erect His kingdom upon earth, and desires that he then, awakened from the grave, may enter in with Him into the joy of his Lord. Comp. Mat 16:28. But even on this interpretation his prayer is assuredly one of the boldest and most surprising that has ever been utrered. A crucified malefactor, the first that has fully understood the deep sense of the superscription over the cross, and becomes the herald of the royal dignity of our Lord, in the same instant in which the Messianic hope of the apostles themselves was most vehemently shakenof a truth this phenomenon may be called one of the brightest points of light in the history of the last hours in the life of our Lord! And even if we assume that he had previously heard and seen our Lord; that he, although a murderer, could not yet have been a hardened felon; that he attentively observes Jesus in the last hours, and that the approach of death had filled him with the deepest seriousness, yet all this clears up for us only a part of the riddle, which finds singly and solely its full solution in the faith of Gods free grace, which has in this very moment in fullest abundance glorified itself in the robber, while it had, we may believe, even previously prepared him by all the circumstances of his life for this courageous faith and this sincere conversion, which comes to light here in him in so surprising wise. An examination of the history of the psychological development of his inner life, which commends itself by great originality, see in Lange, Leben Jesu, ii. p. 1568. Only in this way does it become explicable how he in clearness of knowledge, in strength of faith, as well as in courageousness of confession, could be so far prominent above all others, and behold now a source of life and a royal throne in the cross, that even for the most advanced disciples was a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence. [Trenchs conjecture appears to be a reasonable one, that this robber may have been a companion of Barabbas, and that both these may have belonged to that class of turbulent zealots for freedom who had already begun to appear in the Jewish land, and who, like the Greek Klephts in Turkish times, united audacious wickedness with a perverted but ardent feeling of devotion to their country. The fact that Barabbas had just about this time made a sedition, which implies accomplices, who were not like himself released, but doubtless punished, lends weight both to the conjecture that some vague Messianic longings may have been mixed up with his crime, and that this man may have been a participant of it. A nature led through the very strength of noble impulses into crime, might well be more receptive of Divine grace in the hour of utter disenchantment and of mortal agony, than that of a common ruffian. Of course, this must remain only a conjecture, but I think we may be free to say, a not improbable conjecture.C. C. S.]

Luk 23:43. And Jesus said unto him: To-day.We can but faintly guess what, for the suffering Saviour, a word like this must have been. Over against all the voices of blasphemy He has observed steadfast silence; but such a petitioner He permits not to wait a moment for an answer. He promises to him something much higher than he had desiredthe highest that he could pray or conceiveParadise, and that even to-day, and in fellowship with Him. Senseless is the combination To-day with , of which Theophylact already speaks, and which is vindicated in particular by Roman Catholic exegetes, in order as much as possible to weaken the proof which has always been derived from this word on the cross against the doctrine of Purgatory. It is self-evident that our Lord spoke to-day, not yesterday; never has He so pleonastically expressed Himself; moreover, on this interpretation the so thoroughly definite promise would lose all precision. But now there is implied nothing less in it than first the assurance that the murderer should die even to-day, and that with the Saviour, while He had perhaps feared that he should have to languish slowly away, hanging yet one or several days upon the cross [as we know was frequently the case in crucifixion, before death ensued.C. C. S.]; a promise which was fulfilled a few hours later by the crurifragium. But at the same time our Lord promises him Paradise, a word whose whole sweetness in such a mouth, for such ears, could only be experienced if one had himself hung there with the Saviour upon the cross. We have, however, by this Paradise to understand not the heavenly Paradise, 2Co 12:4; Rev 2:7, but that part of Sheol which is opposed to Gehenna, and which was also named Paradise, and moreover, apparently, Abrahams bosom. Nothing else could the forgiven one understand, who unquestionably had grown up entirely within the sphere of the Israelitish popular expectations; nothing else could the Saviour have had in view, since He undoubtedly from His death-hour to the resurrection morning, must abide in the condition of separation. Dubium non est, quin Christus ita locutus sit, quomodo sciebat, a latrone intelligi. Grotius. In the assurance of a being with the Lord in this Paradise, there is at the same time included for the Penitent Thief the promise of the resurrection of the just, and of further participation in the blessings of the Messianic kingdom. Respecting the Jewish popular conception of the future state, comp. Sepp, iii. p. 557 seq.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The history of the Penitent Thief may in the fullest sense of the word be called an Evangelium in Evangelio. The inner truth and beauty of this account of Luke strikes the eye with special clearness, when we compare it with that which the Apocryphal Gospels have to relate about this man, whom tradition has named varyingly, Titus, Demas, Vicinus, and Matha. According to the Arabic Evangelium Infanti, Luke 23, see Thilo, Cod. Apocr. I. p. 93, the man had already protected the child Jesus on the flight to Egypt, against the wickedness of the second robber, and our Lord then for a reward therefor, foretells to His mother with childish lips, what thirty years afterwards should take place on Calvary with these two. The Gospel of Nicodemus, Luke 26, even proceeds to tell us about the meeting of this man with Enoch and Elijah in Hades. Does there now exist between these narratives and the account of Luke no other distinction than between secondary and primary myth-formations?

2. The beatitude uttered upon the Penitent Thief appears to have preceded the commendation of Mary to the disciple John (Joh 19:25-27), so that we have here before us in Luke, not the third, but the second word on the cross.According to the course of the Synoptical representation, the mockery follows so quickly upon the crucifixion, and the scene between our Lord and the Penitent Thief so quickly upon the mockery, that it appears forced to insert the Johannean account between the one and the other event. On internal grounds, moreover, we consider it as much more probable that our Lord provided for His mother only after He had previously saved this sinner, than the reverse; the spiritual at every time with Him preceded the natural. The first word on the cross was for His enemies, the second for a penitent sinner, only the third for His sorrowing mother, while then finally the fourth reveals to us His own anguish of soul; thus does the circle draw ever closer together.

3. Brief as the utterance of the Penitent Thief was, yet there is nothing lacking to it that belongs to the unalterable requirements of a genuine conversion,sense of guilt, confession of sin, simple faith, active love, supplicating hope,all these fruits of the tree of the new life we see here ripen during a few moments. The address of our Lord, on the other hand, comprehends, as it were, in a short summary, the whole riches and the glory of redemption. The first word on the cross gives us a view into His High-priestly heart. His kingly character reveals itself in the second. Grace and majesty suddenly diffuse their bright beams through the night of the deepest humiliation. We wonder not that history gives us no account of an answer of the forgiven robber to the promise of the Saviour. On a cross there is not long or much speaking, and how, moreover, could he have found words for his thanks! But without doubt the consolation of this promise illumined his last hours, and he stands forth before our eyes as the first fruits of the millions of subjects whom the King of the kingdom of God has won even on His cross, and through the same.
4. The possibility of a conversion even in the last moments is undoubtedly established by the example of the Penitent Thief; the impenitent companion of his fate, however, proclaims quite as powerfully by his terrible end, how dangerous it is to postpone conversion so long.
5. The second word of our Lord on the cross contains a very significant intimation in respect to His Descensus ad Inferos, with which the yet further developed teaching of 1Pe 3:18; 1Pe 4:6, &c., is in no way in contradiction; but at the same time it renders not less than Php 1:23; Rev 14:13, and many other passages of the New Testament, a powerful testimony against the Roman Catholic doctrine of Purgatory.

6. The two robbers on the cross, the representatives of the whole human race in its diverse behavior towards Jesus. The crucified Jesus also the fall and the rising of many, Luk 2:34. The beatitude pronounced upon the Penitent Thief a type of the great judgment day.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

The three crosses.The hill of death a place of triumph.Calvary shows us: 1. The triumph of stubborn wickedness; 2. the triumph of penitent faith; 3. the triumph of redeeming love.The view of death cannot of itself break the froward heart.The rebuke of the sin of our neighbor a difficult but holy duty.The different ways in which two sinners proceed towards the terrors of eternity.The desperate cry for help and the believing petition for redemption.How the penitent looks upon the Saviour, how the Saviour looks upon the penitent: 1. The sincere penitent is a. humble in the acknowledgment of guilt, b. eager for salvation in coming to Christ, c. courageous in the confession of the Saviour; 2. the Saviour, a. accepts the confession of guilt, b. hears the humble prayer, c. crowns the courageous hope.The theatre of judgment changed into a working place of grace.How penitent faith may expect after the hour of death: 1. The joy of Paradise; 2. the joy of Paradise with Jesus; 3. the joy of Paradise immediately after death.As the Father so also the Son does exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we can ask or think, Eph 3:20.Conversion in the hour of death: 1. Possible, certainly; 2. but yet rare; and 3. only to be expected when one does not stubbornly and presumptuously strive against the drawings of the prevenient grace of God.Wonderful guidance of God, which at the boundary of life: 1. Gives the sinner yet to find his deliverer; 2. gives the King of the kingdom of God even yet to find one of His subjects.For Gods grace no sinner too vile.Salvation and damnation in a certain sense already decided before the hour of death.

Starke:Men are not of one kind, as not in life, so not in death.Brentius: It is an infallible token of a sound and true repentance when one acknowledges Gods judgment upon himself as righteous, and publicly praises the same.The Christian is under obligation to deliver the innocence of the innocent.How profitable it is to talk with the suffering Jesus.The eye of hope must look farther than upon the visible things of this world, 1Co 15:19.It is not the with Me, that comes first, but the through Me.Gods acceptance of a fervent prayer is not delayed.Brentius:Christ has again opened the closed Paradise.Man will after death be either with Christ or with the devil.Whoever remains in his suffering steadfastly united with Jesus, will also remain united with Him in His glory.Heubner:The suddenness of this conversion should excite no doubt, for: 1. It is bound to no conditions of time; 2. there was found in the thief everything that precedes conversion; 3. undoubtedly there was here a miracle of grace in order to reveal the power of the death of Christ, even to coming generations.This is what every poor sinner should daily pray: Lord, remember me.

Compare the well-known inscription on the grave of Copernicus: Non parem Paulo veniam requiro, gratiam Petri neque posco, sed quam in cruris ligno dederis latroni, sedulus oro.The sermon of Chrysostom, De latrone, and that of Melanchthon in Bretschneider, Corpus Reform, ii. pp. 478487.The Passion Weeks sermons of Rieger, p. 641643.Saurin:Sur les deux brigands, p. 403.T. Theremin:The Cross of Christ, the third sermon.F. Arens, Preacher in Osnaburg:The value of the grace on Calvary set forth in one of the crucified thieves.Thomasius:Our own death-hour in the light of this history.Dr. J. J. Rambach: 1. The prayer of the malefactor; 2. the answer of the Saviour.Palmer:Christ between the robbers.Krummacher:The robber: 1. A look into the heart of both robbers; 2. into the great kingly word of Immanuel.

[15]Luk 23:39.According to the reading of Tischendorf, [Meyer, Tregelles, Alford]: ; after B., [Cod. Sin.,] C.1, L., Versions. The Recepta comes from Luk 23:37.

[16]Luk 23:40.That is, any more than the mockers around, who at least have not a fellow-suffering to restrain them from impious cruelty towards a dying man.C. C. S.]

[17]Luk 23:41.Revised Version of the American Bible Union.C. C. S.]

[18]Luk 23:42.The of the Recepta is wanting in B., C.1, D., [Cod. Sin.,] Cursives, &c. is supported by the authority of B., C.1, L., [Cod. Sin.,] Origen, and the Coptic and Sahidic Versions.

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

39 And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.

Ver. 39. Which were hanged, railed, &c. ] Sic plectimur a Deo, nec flectimur tamen (saith Salvian), corripimur, sed non corrigimur. There are many, quos multo facilius fregeris, quam flexeris, saith Buchanan. Monoceros interimi potest, capi non potest. The wicked are the worse for that they suffer, and will sooner break than bend.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

39 43. ] Peculiar to Luke. Matthew and Mark have merely a general and less precise report of the same incident.

All were now mocking; the soldiers, the rulers, the mob: and the evil-minded thief, perhaps out of bravado before the crowd, puts in his scoff also.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Luk 23:39-43 . The penitent malefactor , peculiar to Lk. and congenial to the spirit of the Gospel of the sinful.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Luk 23:39 . : the wretched man caught up the taunt of the rulers and, half in coarse contempt, half by way of petition, repeated it, with added, which redeemed the utterance from being a gratuitous insult.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Luk 23:39-43

39One of the criminals who hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!” 40But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!” 43And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”

Luk 23:39 The mockery continues (imperfect active indicative).

“Are You not the Christ” This question grammatically expects a “yes” answer, but it is mockery.

Luk 23:40 “But the other answered, and rebuking him said” Both Mat 27:44 and Mar 15:32 have both thieves insulting Jesus, however, in Luke one of them repented (cf. Luk 23:40-41) and turned to Jesus for help (cf. Luk 23:42). The beautiful thing is that Jesus responded as He always did and always does!

Luk 23:42 This dying criminal, with probably little knowledge of the gospel, was freely accepted and forgiven. Oh the reach of the mercy and grace of God!

Luk 23:43 “today” If this is to be taken literally and Jesus did not ascend to heaven (cf. Act 1:9) for some forty days (cf. Act 1:3), then this cannot refer to heaven in this context, but to the righteous part of hades (see note below).

It is surely possible that it was figurative and thereby has nothing to do with hades (see SPECIAL TOPIC: Where Are the Dead? at Luk 3:17).

For me the most precious part of Jesus’ statement is “you shall be with Me”! Jesus’ presence is what makes paradise, paradise!

“Paradise” This is a Persian loan word for a nobleman’s walled garden used in the Septuagint (of Gen 2:8; Gen 13:10) for the Garden of Eden. The rabbis usually used this term for one of the divisions of Hades or Sheol, where the righteous abide (i.e., Abraham’s bosom, cf. Luk 16:22-23; I Levi 18:10-11; Ps. Sol. 14:3; I Enoch 17-19; 60:7,8,23; 61:12). Paul uses this in the sense of heaven in 2Co 12:3 (also see Rev 2:7). It is my opinion that Jesus went to Hades after His death on the cross (cf. 1Pe 3:19; 1Pe 4:16) and some thirty to forty hours later, He arose from the dead. When He ascended forty days later, He took all of those in the righteous part of Sheol with Him (cf. Eph 4:7-10). Now Paul can say in 2Co 5:6; 2Co 5:8, “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

railed = kept up a railing.

Christ. The Lewis Codex of the Syriac Gospels recently found at Mount Sinai reads “Saviour”, not Messiah. save Thyself and us. This reads (in the same Codex), “save Thyself alive this day, and us also”.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

39-43.] Peculiar to Luke. Matthew and Mark have merely a general and less precise report of the same incident.

All were now mocking; the soldiers, the rulers, the mob:-and the evil-minded thief, perhaps out of bravado before the crowd, puts in his scoff also.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Luk 23:39. , began railing at Him) The most extreme trials do not bend every one. [Nay, indeed, so great is the strength of the mind disposed to sneering (the cavilling mind), that it can betray itself even when hung on a cross.-V. g.] That this robber was a Jew, and that the other was a Gentile, may be inferred from the language of both, and from other circumstances; for the former, according to the custom of the Jews, sneers at His assumption of the name, Christ; the latter directs his thoughts towards the name assigned to Him, King, as the soldiers did, but in a better way. We may add, that the Lord, in promising him blessedness, makes allusion, not to the words of the promises given to the fathers, but to the first beginnings of things [when the distinction of Jew and Gentile had not arisen], viz. concerning Paradise. Nor is it opposed to this, that the words of the converted man refer to the one God [whereas the Gentiles believed in a plurality of Gods]: for faith in Christ, as an immediate consequence, infers faith in the one God. But still, let the Hebrew term in Luk 23:43, , verily, be considered, which however does not necessarily presuppose that the person addressed is a Hebrew. Comp. Mat 25:40 [where the Judge saith. , to persons not necessarily Hebrews]. Hence the opinion anciently entertained, as to the converted robber being a Gentile, retains a show of probability. I have written above, it may be inferred [not, it is positively certain].-, saying) with raging impatience and ferocity.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Luk 23:39-43

12. THE THIEF ON THE CROSS

Luk 23:39-43

39 And one of the malefactors-Both Matthew and Mark say that the “robbers” or “they that were crucified with him reproached him.” (Mat 27:44 , Mar 15:32.) Luke speaks of only one who railed upon him, and records that only one asked him if he were “the Christ,” and if he be the Christ to save himself and “us.” This is harmonized by the fact that both at first may have joined in the reproaches hurled at Jesus by the rulers and people; but one of them, being afterward convinced of the Messiahship of Jesus, repented. It seems that the climax of the picture is reached in the reproaches of his fellow sufferers. The agonies of crucifixion did not suppress nor subdue the enmity toward Jesus. If he be the Christ, then he should show his power by coming down from the cross.

40, 41 But the other answered, and rebuking him said, The rebuke was conveyed in the question: “Dost thou not even fear God?” The meaning seems to be that those who were railing upon Jesus among the rulers and chief priests did not fear God, and this malefactor, by railing upon Jesus, put himself in the class of those who did not fear God. The meaning is, have you no fear of divine justice, that at this awful moment you can taunt and jeer at an innocent man? This robber confessed that he and his fellow robber were suffering justly; that they, by their crimes and wickedness, merited in a judicial sense the punishment that they were suffering. “But this man hath done nothing amiss.” Both were soon to appear before God; Jesus had nothing to answer for, but the other had added to his former sins the sin of reviling an innocent man in his death. Even in the mind of this malefactor the commission of one of the greatest crimes that the human mind could conceive would not justify such taunts, jeers, and insults as were being heaped upon Jesus by the rabble who had gathered around the cross.

42 And he said, Jesus, remember me-The penitent malefactor now turns to Jesus and pleads that he may be remembered when Jesus comes into his kingdom. He seems to pray to Jesus, not for deliverance from the cross, nor for any present good, but for a blessing which can be conferred only after his death, which he recognized as inevitable. Some think that he had a misconception of the nature of the kingdom that Jesus was to establish, and that he thought, in some way, that Jesus would come into possession of his earthly kingdom, and that he might save him from the cross. If he understood the nature of the kingdom that Jesus was to establish he had a deeper insight into the spiritual nature of the kingdom than (lid the apostles, or anyone else, at that time. This penitent malefactor had confessed his sins, reproved his companion, defended Jesus, and now asked Jesus to remember him. We do not know how much knowledge of Jesus and his claim this robber had. We only have Luke’s record of the account. The kingdom had not been established at this time, and this robber lived and died under the law of Moses; he must be judged by it

43 And he said unto him, Verily I say unto thee,-The answer that Jesus gave to this penitent malefactor has received many different interpretations. Jesus used his familiar form of speech to preface his answer. Jesus said to him: “Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise.” Jesus had observed the most profound silence amidst the jeers of the rulers and multitude, but now he is ready to make reply to this penitent, dying man. The statement that Jesus gave him can be understood when we know the general teachings of the Christ. “Today,” not at some time in the distant future, but this very day, you are to be associated with me in the pains and death of the cross and are to be associated with me in “Paradise.” “Paradise” originally meant “an enclosed park or pleasure-ground.” In the Septuagint Version (Gen 2:8) it means the Garden of Eden. We are told that in Jewish theology the department of Hades where the blessed souls await the resurrection is calld “Paradise”; it is equivalent to “Abraham’s bosom.” (Luk 16:22-23.) It occurs three times in the New Testament-in this passage, 2Co 12:4; Rev 2:7. It always seems to mean the abode of the blessed. Some doubt that the evidence in the scripture is strong enough to warrant a belief in the intermediate state of the dead. Whatever may have been the conception of the early Hebrews with regard to the separation between the righteous and the wicked in Sheol, those of a later period did conceive a separation; hence to them Hades and Sheol designated the place of the righteous and the wicked dead; Hades was the place for the blessed and called Paradise, while the wicked dwelt in the abyss called Tartarus. Evidently Jesus did not mean that this robber would go with him to heaven that day, as it seems clear from other statements that Jesus did not go to heaven that day. His day of ascension came about forty days after that time. After Jesus was raised from the dead and appeared to Mary, when she recognized him he said to her: “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended unto the Father.” (Joh 20:17.)

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Chapter 53

One Taken, The Other Left

He did not learn it until he was in hell; but in hell the rich man learned that between him and Lazarus there is a great gulf fixed; so that they who would pass from one side to the other cannot (Luk 16:26). So it has been, so it shall be, and so it is. The human race is divided into two parts: sheep and goats, elect and reprobate, Jacobs loved of God and Esaus hated by him, vessels of mercy and vessels of wrath. Goats will never become sheep; and sheep will never become goats. Elect will never become reprobate; and reprobate will never become elect. Jacob will never become Esau; and Esau will never become Jacob. Vessels of mercy will never become vessels of wrath; and vessels of wrath will never become vessels of mercy.

The gulf was fixed in eternity. The division was made in the decree of God. The distinction was established in eternity. It will be made clear to all at Christs second coming, in that great day when the Son of God sits in judgment upon his Great White Throne (Luk 17:33-36). In that day, one shall be taken, and the other left. As it shall be in that day, so it is today. When the appointed time of love is come for the salvation of Gods chosen, one is taken, and the other left.

We have already seen this fact vividly set before us in the two thieves who were crucified with the Lord Jesus. Only Luke was inspired to tell us of our Saviours abundant mercy and distinguishing grace bestowed upon this dying thief. It is a story that deserves to be written in gold, told often, and remembered by all.

Salvation By Grace

The first thing that is obvious in this story is the fact that salvation is altogether the work of Gods free grace, altogether without works. This dying thief had no merit of any kind. He had no pre-disposition of heart toward the Son of God. He rendered no service to the Lord. He observed no ordinance. He was not baptized. He never united with, or even visited a church. He never observed the Lords Supper.

Everything we know about this man tells us that he was a depraved sinner, a moral degenerate, whose life of infamous shame was about to be ended by penal execution. Yet, this poor, wretched, degenerate man was saved. No explanation can be given for that fact except this: By grace ye are saved (Rom 9:16; Eph 2:1-5; Eph 2:8-9; Tit 3:3-7).

Sovereign, Distinguishing Grace

Second, Gods saving grace, in every instance of it, is set before us in holy scripture as sovereign, distinguishing grace. Certainly, that is obvious in the story of these two thieves. Both of the other malefactors crucified with the Lord Jesus were guilty thieves, justly condemned. Matthew and Mark tell us that both joined in the rabble of Pharisees and the soldiers, mocking the Lord of Glory and railing upon him.

Then there was a sudden change. One of the thieves ceased to curse the Saviour and sued him for mercy, crying, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Both were equally near the Saviour, one on his right hand and the other on his left. Both saw and heard all that happened during the six hours that he hung on the cross. Both were dying men. Both were suffering acute, torturous pain. Both were alike wicked sinners. Both needed forgiveness. Yet, one died as he had lived, hardened in sin, proud and without repentance, unbelieving and without hope. The other repented, believed, cried to the Son of God for mercy, and was saved.

What made the difference? Grace! Grace alone! The penitent thief was made penitent because the Lord Jesus gave him life and faith by the power of his omnipotent grace. He snatched the dying thief from the very brink of hell and took him with him to heaven as a trophy of his rich, free and sovereign grace. His conversion cannot be accounted for in any other way. We can only say, Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight (Mat 11:26).

How can two people hear the same sermon, from the same preacher, in the same condition, and one be converted, while the other remains dead in sin? How can one be totally indifferent and the other bowed in brokenness before God? How can one pray for mercy, while the other blasphemes? How can one see and the other remain blind? There is only one answer that can be given to those questions. The LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel (Exo 11:7; 1Co 4:7). In election, in redemption and in effectual calling it is God, and God alone, who makes the difference between men.

Timely Grace

Third, this dying thief shows us an example of the fact that grace is always on time. Many say, concerning this man, He was saved just in the nick of time. But that is hardly the case. He was saved precisely at the divinely appointed time. He could not have been saved at any other time; and he could not have been saved at a better time.

He could not have been saved at any other time, because, for him, this was the time of love, when he must be called. As illustrated in Gomer, the Prodigal Son, Onesimus, and this dying thief, there is an appointed time for the salvation of each of Gods chosen (Gal 4:4-6). Some are saved in youth. Some are saved in the middle of life. And some are saved in old age. But all who are saved are saved at the only time they could be saved, because for each of us it took the whole experience of our ruin to bring us to our Saviour.

And he could not have been saved at a better time. You might think, But, wouldnt it have been better for him to have lived longer, that he might serve and honour Christ upon the earth? Let me answer that question by asking you what human being has ever been more useful. What man has ever been more influential for good? What person has been such a blessing to so many others? Who has ever been more instrumental for the glory of his maligned, blasphemed and ridiculed Redeemer than this man?

Every saved sinner is saved at Gods appointed time; and each one is saved at the best time.

The Means Of Grace

The fourth thing that strikes me about the conversion of this man is this: The means of grace is not always obvious. We know that faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Rom 10:17). We know that sinners are born-again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you (1Pe 1:23-25). But many point to the dying thief and say, That man was saved without hearing the gospel. Was he? No.

Let me remind you of the things he heard, as he hung upon the cross. I do not know what he heard, or did not hear beforehand. But as he hung by his dying Saviour, he heard and saw the gospel as clearly as anyone ever could. He heard the Lord Jesus hailed as the King of Israel (Mat 27:42). He heard that the Man hanging beside him had claimed to be the Son of God. He said, I am the Son of God (Mat 27:43). He heard the chief priests and scribes say, He saved others; himself he cannot save (Mar 15:31). He heard the Lord Jesus himself pray, probably just as he and the other thief had railed upon him, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luk 23:34). How many times he heard people that day crying, Save! Save! Save! to the Saviour, as they derided him! He read Pilates testimony, This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews (Luk 23:38; Joh 19:19). And he saw the Lamb of God dying as a substitute in the place of a guilty man (Barabbas), who was released from death because he died in his place.

The Character Of Faith

Fifth, the dying thief shows us the character of true, saving faith. This man stands before us as a defining example of God-given faith (Luk 23:39-42).

And one of the malefactors which were hanged 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 into thy kingdom.

Here are seven things that are always characteristics of that faith that comes to chosen, redeemed sinners by the gift and operation of God the Holy Spirit.

True faith is the result of conviction and arises from Holy Spirit conviction. It acknowledges justice. Oh fall down and own that the sentence of the law, which curses you for sin, is just. Denounce the pride and self-righteousness of your heart.

True faith confesses sin. True faith confesses Christs holiness. This man has done nothing amiss. It confesses Christ as Lord and King. True faith looks to Christ alone for mercy. Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.

True faith obtains Gods salvation. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with Me in paradise (Luk 23:43).

This mans faith was, in all those respects, precisely the same as that which God gives to every heaven-born soul. Yet, his faith in Christ is the most remarkable display of faith to be seen in all the Word of God, the most remarkable faith to be found in the history of the world! He trusted Christ as God his Saviour, his Lord and King, when all others had forsaken him, as he was dying!

A Willing Saviour

Sixth, this inspired narrative declares in bold letters that the Lord Jesus Christ is willing to save all who come to God by him, and able to save to the uttermost (Heb 7:25). The Saviour is able to save any sinner in any circumstance, any place, any time. He is willing to save. But that is not all. The Son of God will save all who come to God by him (Joh 6:37-40).

Glory Near

Seventh, this brief history of the dying thief tells us how near we are to glory. Heavenly glory is but a breath away! What a consolation that fact ought to be to all Gods saints, especially when we find ourselves dying. Heaven is but a breath away. Our Saviour said to this new-born soul, who would soon cease to live in his tortured body, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Without any past works to commend him, without possibility of future goodness, altogether by the work of Christ, he was assured of everlasting salvation with Christ in heaven!

Today speaks volumes. It tells us that as soon as this earthly house, this tabernacle of clay is dissolved, we have a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (Php 1:23; 2Co 4:17 to 2Co 5:9). In that blessed state, in that place called heaven, we shall be with Christ! What is heaven like? Look yonder to the assembly around the throne. What are their joys, their feelings, their happiness? All is explained by this simple statement: They are with Christ.

If the sheep are with the Shepherd, if the members are with the Head, if the saints are with him who loved them and gave himself for them, if the Bride is with her Beloved, if the redeemed are with the Redeemer, if the saved are with the Saviour, all is well. Nothing is lacking. Their joy is full!

I do not know and cannot describe what heaven is; but the name of that city is Jehovah-Shammah, the Lord is there (Eze 48:35). I want no more. I ask no more. I can have no more. Christ is All! Well did the Psalmist sing, In Thy presence is fulness of joy (Psa 17:15; Psa 27:4).

Jesus, Thou art the sinners Friend; as such I look to Thee.

Now in the bowels of Thy love, O Lord, remember me.

Remember Thy pure word of grace, Remember Calvary,

Remember all Thy dying groans, and then remember me.

Thou wondrous Advocate with God, I yield myself to Thee;

While Thou are sitting on the throne, Dear Lord, remember me.

I own Im guilty, own Im vile; yet Thy salvations free;

Then in Thy all abounding grace, dear Lord, remember me.

However forsaken or distressed, however oppressed I be,

However afflicted here on earth, do Thou remember me.

And when I close my eyes in death, and creature helps all flee,

Then, O my dear Redeemer God, I pray remember me.

Richard Burnham

One Taken, The Other Left

When Joseph had interpreted the chief butlers dream, how pathetically does he plead with him! Think on me when it shall be well with thee (Gen 40:14). But such is the base ingratitude of man, that all was in vain. When the butler was restored, he cared nothing for Joseph in prison. Exalted men seldom care for needy souls. But it is not so with the King of kings. He is ever the Friend of poor sinners. He remembers us in our low estate. For us he hung on the accursed tree between two accursed sinners. One was taken, the other left.

In the saved thief we see the marvellous power of Gods sovereign grace. Here is a reviler changed into a suppliant. What caused the change? Let every proud notion of self-righteousness, self-worth and freewill forever perish! Fall down before the Son of God and adore his distinguishing grace. One malefactor was left to himself and went to hell blaspheming. The other died in faith, trusting Christ and praying. He was snatched, by omnipotent grace, from the jaws of hell, as a brand our Saviour would not allow to be burned. Do you see your nature to be as wicked and your state as desperate as this thiefs? If so, your soul is humbled before God. Do you see that nothing but the same grace of Christ can save you? If so, you will exalt the free grace of God in Christ. Oh my soul, exalt the mercy, love and grace of Christ!

Oh, may God the Holy Spirit teach you to pray as he taught this man to pray, Lord, Remember me. There is no Saviour but you, no salvation but by you. I am a hopeless, helpless sinner; unless you save me, I must be damned forever. You are the King. Yours is the kingdom. Oh bring me with you into your kingdom! If God will grant you such faith in the Saviour, Christ Jesus, you will soon be in Glory with the same Lord, who is rich in mercy unto all who call on him (Rom 10:12).

Oh, what a great magnet the crucified Christ is to poor, needy, helpless sinners! I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die (Joh 12:32-33). Let every member of Immanuels Bride cry as we are taught of God, Draw me, we will run after thee (Son 1:4).

Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible

Luk 17:34-36, Mat 27:44, Mar 15:32

Reciprocal: Job 1:8 – one Job 30:1 – whose Mat 24:40 – the one Mat 27:38 – General Mar 9:12 – set Joh 11:37 – Could Joh 19:32 – of the first Rom 5:20 – But Col 2:15 – triumphing

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

9

One of the malefactors. This is more definite than the account in Mat 27:44, and it should be used as a guide in interpreting that one.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

THE verses we have now read deserve to be printed in letters of gold. They have probably been the salvation of myriads of souls. Multitudes will thank God to all eternity that the Bible contains this story of the penitent thief.

We see, firstly, in the history before us, the sovereignty of God in saving sinners. We are told that two malefactors were crucified together with our Lord, one on His right hand and the other on His left. Both were equally near to Christ. Both saw and heard all that happened, during the six hours that He hung on the cross. Both were dying men, and suffering acute pain. Both were alike wicked sinners, and needed forgiveness. Yet one died in his sins, as he had lived, hardened, impenitent, and unbelieving. The other repented, believed, cried to Jesus for mercy, and was saved.

A fact like this should teach us humility. We cannot account for it. We can only say, “Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight.” (Mat 11:26.) How it is that under precisely the same circumstances one man is converted and another remains dead in sins,-why the very same sermon is heard by one man with perfect indifference and sends another home to pray and seek Christ,-why the same Gospel is hid to one and revealed to another, all these are questions which we cannot possibly answer. We only know that it is so, and that it is useless to deny it.

Our own duty is clear and plain. We are to make a diligent use of all the means which God has appointed for the good of souls. There is no necessity that any one should be lost. There is no such a thing as decreed damnation in the Bible. The offers of the Gospel are wide, free and general. “In all our doings,” says the 17th Article, “that will of God is to be followed, which we have expressly declared to us in the word of God.” God’s sovereignty was never meant to destroy man’s responsibility. One thief was saved that no sinner might despair, but only one, that no sinner might presume.

We see secondly in this history, the unvarying character of repentance unto salvation. This is a point in the penitent thief’s story which is fearfully overlooked. Thousands look at the broad fact that he was saved in the hour of death, and look no further. They do not look at the distinct and well-defined evidences of repentance which fell from his lips before he died. Those evidences deserve our closest attention.

The first notable step in the thief’s repentance was his concern about his companion’s wickedness in reviling Christ. “Dost thou not fear God,” he said, “seeing thou art in the same condemnation?”-The second step was a full acknowledgment of his own sin. “We indeed are justly in condemnation. We receive the due reward of our deeds.”-The third step was an open confession of Christ’s innocence. “This man hath done nothing amiss.”-The fourth step was faith in Jesus Christ’s power and will to save him. He turned to a crucified sufferer, and called Him “Lord,” and declared his belief that He had a kingdom.-The fifth step was prayer. He cried to Jesus when he was hanging on the cross, and asked Him even then to think upon his soul.-The sixth and last step was humility. He begged to be “remembered” by our Lord. He mentions no great thing. Enough for him if he is remembered by Christ. These six points should always be remembered in connection with the penitent thief. His time was very short for giving proof of his conversion. But it was time well used. Few dying people have ever left behind them such good evidences as were left by this man.

Let us beware of a repentance without evidences. Thousands, it may be feared, are every year going out of the world with a lie in their right hand. They fancy they will be saved because the thief was saved in the hour of death. They forget that if they would be saved as he was, they must repent as he repented. The shorter a man’s time is, the better must be the use he makes of it. The nearer he is to death, when he first begins to think, the clearer must be the evidence he leaves behind. Nothing, it may be safely laid down as a general rule, nothing is so thoroughly unsatisfactory as a death-bed repentance.

We see, thirdly, in this history, the amazing power and willingness of Christ to save sinners. It is written that He is “able to save to the uttermost.” (Heb 7:25.) If we search the Bible through, from Genesis to Revelation, we shall never find a more striking proof of Christ’s power and mercy than the salvation of the penitent thief.

The time when the thief was saved was the hour of our Lord’s greatest weakness. He was hanging in agony on the cross. Yet even then He heard and granted a sinner’s petition, and opened to him the gate of life. Surely this was “power”!

The man whom our Lord saved was a wicked sinner at the point of death, with nothing in his past life to recommend him, and nothing notable in his present position but a humble prayer. Yet even he was plucked like a brand from the burning. Surely this was “mercy.”

Do we want proof that salvation is of grace and not of works? We have it in the case before us. The dying thief was nailed hand and foot to the cross. He could do literally nothing for his own soul. Yet even he through Christ’s infinite grace was saved. No one ever received such a strong assurance of his own forgiveness as this man.

Do we want proof that sacraments and ordinances are not absolutely needful to salvation, and that men may be saved without them when they cannot be had? We have it in the case before us. The dying thief was never baptized, belonged to no visible church, and never received the Lord’s supper. But he repented and believed, and therefore he was saved.

Let these things sink down into our hearts. Christ never changes. The way of salvation is always one and the same. He lives who saved the penitent thief. There is hope for the vilest sinner, if he will only repent and believe.

We see, lastly, in the history before us, how near a dying believer is to rest and glory. We read that our Lord said to the malefactor in reply to his prayer, “To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.”

That word “to-day” contains a body of divinity. It tells us that the very moment a believer dies, his soul is in happiness and in safe keeping. His full redemption is not yet come. His perfect bliss will not begin before the resurrection morning. But there is no mysterious delay, no season of suspense, no purgatory, between his death and a state of reward. In the day that he breathes his last he goes to Paradise. In the hour that he departs he is with Christ. (Php 1:23.)

Let us remember these things, when our believing friends fall asleep in Christ. We must not sorrow for them as those who have no hope. While we are sorrowing they are rejoicing. While we are putting on our mourning, and weeping at their funerals, they are safe and happy with their Lord.-Above all, let us remember these things, if we are true Christians, in looking forward to our own deaths. To die is a solemn thing. But if we die in the Lord, we need not doubt that our death will be gain.

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Notes-

v39.-[One of the malefactors…railed…&c.] The question naturally arises, How are we to reconcile Luke’s account of the conduct of the thieves with the account given by Matthew and Mark? They distinctly say that both the thieves railed. Luke says, “one of them.”

1. Some think that only one thief railed, and that Matthew and Mark use the plural number, in the general way that people sometimes use it, when describing a transaction. They adduce as instances Psa 2:2; Heb 11:33-34, Heb 11:37. This, according to Maldonatus, is the opinion of Cyprian, Cyril of Jerusalem, Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, Gregory, and Leo. It is also held by Scott and Doddridge.

2. Some think that both the thieves railed at first, but that one of them afterwards repented, ceased to rail, and began to pray. This is the opinion of Athanasius, Origen, Hilary, Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Euthymius. It seems far the most probable opinion.

Let it be noted that the impenitent thief is a striking proof that pain, suffering, and the approach of death, are not sufficient, without grace, to convert a soul. The followers of the impenitent thief are unhappily far more numerous than those of the penitent thief.

v40.-[The other answering, rebuked him.] Who this malefactor was, and what first struck his conscience and moved him to repent, we are not told. Some say, as Bengel, that he was a Gentile; and some as Scott, that he was a Jew.-Some think, as Suarez, that he had heard our Lord preach, and seen Him work miracles at some former period.-Some think, as Euthymius, that he had heard our Lord’s answers to Pilate, and been struck by them and so learned to believe in our Lord’s kingdom.-Some think, as Stier, that he was struck by the title put over our Lord’s head on the cross.-Some think, as Theophylact, that he was pricked to the heart by hearing our Lord’s prayer for His enemies, and by seeing our Lord’s patience under suffering. All these are purely conjectural ideas.

Cornelius Lapide surpasses all other writers in his remarks on the thief. He mentions with much gravity an opinion of Fererius, that the shadow of Christ on the cross, as the day wore on, fell on the thief, and was the cause of his conversion, as the shadow of Peter healed the sick! He adds another opinion, that Mary stood between the thief and Christ, and obtained grace for him! He also tells us that the name of the thief was Dismas, that his name in the calendar of saints is March the 25th, and that chapels are erected in honor of his name! It is well that people should know how much rubbish can be found in the pages of an accredited Roman Catholic commentator.

As to the nation of the thief, it is probable that he was a Jew. Our Lord’s words to him seem to imply that. He would hardly have spoken of “paradise” to a Gentile. As to the cause of his conversion, it is safest to rest in the belief that it arose from the free, sovereign grace of Christ, and was intended to be a proof of Christ’s power to save even at His time of greatest weakness, and a pattern of Christ’s willingness to save the chief of sinners.

[Dost not thou fear God.] Our English version has hardly given the full sense of the Greek words. Scholefield would render it, “Dost not even thou fear God? Even thou, in thy circumstances of desperate wretchedness,-whatever others may do in the unthinking levity of present security?”

v41.-[This man has done nothing amiss.] The Greek word here translated “amiss,” is only found in two other places. (Act 28:6; 2Th 3:2.) In one it is rendered “harm;”-in the other “unreasonable.”

The sentence rather favors the idea that the thief had either heard or seen something of our Lord before, though he had not been a disciple. We must either suppose this, or else we must suppose that he knew generally that he was being crucified in company with a man whom Pilate and Herod thought innocent.

v42.-[Lord remember me, &c.] The remarks of Ness on this wonderful prayer are worth reading. “This short prayer contained a very large and long creed, the articles whereof are these. 1. He believed that the soul died not with the body of man;-2. That there is a world to come for rewarding the pious and penitent, and for punishing the impious and impenitent;-3. That Christ, though now under crucifying and killing tortures, yet had right to a kingdom;-4. That this kingdom was in a better world than the present evil world;-5. That Christ would not keep this kingdom all to himself;-6. That He would bestow a part and portion hereof on those that are truly penitent;-7. That the key of this kingdom did hang at Christ’s girdle, though he now hung dying on the cross;-8. That he does roll his whole soul for eternal salvation upon a dying Saviour.

Ness remarks, also, that the two malefactors, one penitent and the other impenitent, one on the right hand and the other on the left, are “a clear emblem of the sheep and goats” in the day of judgment.

[Into thy kingdom.] Scholefield remarks, that these words would have been better translated, “in thy kingdom.”

It is observed justly, by Lightfoot, Bengel, and other writers, that not one of the twelve apostles had such a clear and correct view of the real nature of Christ’s “kingdom” as this penitent thief had.

v43.-[Verily I say unto thee.] The use of the word “amen,” or “verily” here, shows the authority and power with which our Lord even on the cross could save souls, and the certainty with which the grant of paradise was made to the thief. His great faith received a great reward. No child of Adam ever received such an assurance as this.

[To-day shalt thou be with me.] This sentence deserves close attention.

It is a distinct answer to the Romish doctrine of purgatory. It shows clearly that no purification of any kind after death is needed for the person that dies a penitent believer. If the thief needed no purgatory, the whole doctrine of purgatory falls to the ground.

It is an instructive intimation as to the state of believers after death. The moment they die they are “with Christ.” Their condition of course is one we cannot pretend to explain. We cannot comprehend the state of a soul separate from the body. Enough for us to know that a dead believer is immediately with Christ.

It is a clear proof of the separate existence of the soul when the body is dead. We shall live and have a being, even when our earthly tabernacle is mouldering in the grave. The thief’s body was that day to be broken and mangled by Roman soldiers. But the thief himself was to be with Christ.

Maldonatus, the Roman Catholic commentator, struggles in vain to show that the passage before us does not disprove purgatory. He maintains that the thief must have believed in purgatory, from the fact of his praying to be remembered when Christ came in His kingdom, and not before! Such arguing shows the straits to which a man is reduced by an unscriptural theory.

[In paradise.] The word so translated is only found in two other places in the New Testament. (2Co 12:4, and Rev 2:7.) Parkhurst says, “This is without controversy an oriental word. The Greeks borrowed it from the Persians, among whom it signified a garden, park, or inclosure, full of all the valuable products of the earth. In this sense the word is found in Herodotus, Xenophon, and Diodorus. In the New Testament the word is applied to the state of faithful souls between death and the resurrection, when, like Adam in Eden, they are admitted to immediate communion with God in Christ, and to a participation of the true tree of life.”

Brentius maintains that the passion of Christ opened Paradise, which had been closed since Adam fell, and that these words proclaimed the opening.

It is clear from the whole narrative that the penitent thief died unbaptized. To avoid this difficulty some writers of Romish tendency have actually caught at the idea, suggested by Augustine, that he was baptized with the blood and water which came from our Lord’s side, when it was pierced with a spear! This baseless and gratuitous assertion shows the absurdities into which men may be driven to maintain their theory of baptismal regeneration. It is clear that the thief was born again. It is equally clear that he was never baptized. It follows therefore that a man may be born again without baptism.

The general remarks made by all the best commentators on the case of the penitent thief are very striking. It would be impossible to give them all. Cornelius Lapide collects many good things from the Fathers, and Gerhard is peculiarly full of good matter in considering the whole narrative.

Heinsius remarks that Christ never wrought a greater or more illustrious miracle than He did in saving the penitent thief.

The Church of England Homily of Good Works quotes Chrysostom, saying, ”I can show a man that by faith without works lived and came to heaven: but without faith never man had life. The thief, that was hanged when Christ suffered, did believe only, and the most merciful God justified him. And because no man shall say, that he lacked time to do good works, for else he would have done them, truth it is, I will not contend therein; but this I will surely affirm, that faith only saved him.”

Luther, quoted by Stier, says, “This is a comfortable symbol and example for all Christians, how that God will never let faith in Christ and a confession of His name go down. If the disciples as a body, and those otherwise related to Christ, confess not and lose their faith, deny Him in fear, are offended and forsake Him, this malefactor and murderer must come forward to confess Him, to preach Him to others, and teach all men who He is and what consolation all may find in Him.”

Rollock, on the Passion, says, “I say of this man, to the glory of God, that he shamed all that stood by. He shamed the Apostles and made them cast down their faces. He shamed all men who will not believe, when they see Christ not crucified as he saw, but glorified in the heavens, and sitting at the right hand of Majesty.”-“The Lord raised him up on the gallows to be a teacher of faith and repentance, of hope, of patience, of love, and of all graces. Think no shame to learn of him.”

Baxter says, “The thief’s example showeth us what election freely doeth in calling one, while another is passed by. Christ would give this present proof of the virtue of His sacrifice to call and justify sinners. True conversion is never too late to the obtaining of mercy and salvation. True repentance and faith, however late, will have its fruits. This man was not saved without good works.”

Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels

Luk 23:39. One of the malefactors. Alford: All were now mocking: the soldiers, the rulers, the mob;and the evil-minded thief, perhaps out of bravado before the crowd, puts in his scoff also. This fourfold mocking is a fearful revelation of the extent and power of sin. The better attested form of the taunt is striking: Art not thou the Christ? Save thyself and us.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Here we have a further aggravation of our Lord’s sufferings upon the cross, from the company he suffered with, the two thieves who reviled him with the rest. St. Matthew and St. Marks say, they both reviled him; St. Luke says one of them reviled; possibly both of them might do it at first, and one of them repents; which, if so, increases the wonder of the penitent thief’s conversion.

From the impenitent thief’s reviling of Christ, when he was at the very point of death, and even in the suburbs of hell, we learn that neither shame nor pain will change the mind of a resolute sinner; but even then, when he is in the suburbs of hell, will he blaspheme.

From the penitent thief’s confessing of Christ, and praying to him, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom; we learn, both the efficacy and freeness of divine grace.

1. The efficacious power of it: oh how powerful must that grace be, which wrought such a change in an instant, which supplied that heart in a moment, which had been hardening in sin for so many years.

2. The freeness of it; which takes hold of his heart, when he was at the height of sin, and was not only void of grace, but seemed past grace. Oh the powerful efficacy and adorable freeness of the heart changing grace of God in this vile person; it disposed him to own his sin; to confess the justness of his punishment, to justify Christ’s innocency, to reprove his fellow companion, to pray to a crucified Christ, and to intercede with him, not for present deliverance from death, but for a place in Christ’s kingdom.

Where we learn,

1. That true conversion is never too late for obtaining mercy and salvation.

2. That true conversion, how late soever, will have its fruits: the fore-mentioned fruits of faith and repentance were found with this penitent thief; yet must not this extraordinary case be drawn into example. This extraordinary and miraculous grace of God is not to be expected ordinarily: we have no warrant to expect an overpowering degree of God’s grace to turn our heart in an instant at the hour of death, when we have lived in forgetfulness of God, and in a supine neglect of our soul’s concerns all the days of our life; for it is evident as to this case of the penitent thief’s conversion at the last hour.

1. It is an example without a promise.

2. It is but a single example.

3. It is an example recorded but by one evangelist: the Spirit of God, foreseeing what an ill use some would make of this instance, leaves one example upon record, that none might despair; and but one, that none might presume.

4. This thief probably had never any knowledge of Christ before.

5. This thief improved his time at last, as never did any before or after; for he believed Christ to be the Saviour of the world; when one disciple had betrayed, another denied, and all had forsaken him; he owned him to be the Son of God, the Lord of life, when he was suffering the pains of death, and seemingly deserted by his Father: he proclaims him Lord of paradise, and disposer of the kingdom of heaven, when the Jews had condemned him, and the Gentiles crucified him as the vilest of impostors. He feared God, owned the justice of his punishment; was solicitous, not for the preservation of his body, but for the salvation of his soul; yea, not for his own only, but of his brother’s that suffered with him; so that he glorified Christ more at the moment of his death, than some do in the whole course of their lives.

6. This was a miracle, with the glory whereof Christ would honor the ignominy of his cross: so that we have no more ground to expect such another conversion, than we have to expect a second crucifixion. This converted person was the first fruits of the blood of the cross.

From whence we learn, that God can, and sometimes does, though very seldom, prepare men for glory, immediately before their dissolution by death. His grace is his own, he may dispense it how, and when, where, and to whom he pleases; yet this is no more warrant to neglect the ordinary, because God does sometimes manifest his grace in an extraordinary way. True, in this conversion, we have a pattern of what free grace can do; but it is a pattern without a promise: where we have not a promise to encourage our hope, our hope is nothing but presumption.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Luk 23:39-41. And one of the malefactors railed on him The word , here rendered malefactor, does not always denote a thief, or robber, but was a term likewise applied to the Jewish soldiers, who were hurried by their zeal to commit some crime, in opposition to the Roman authority. As Matthew and Mark represent both the malefactors here spoken of as reviling our Lord, we must either suppose that they both did so at first, and that afterward one of them, by divine grace co-operating with the extraordinary circumstances in which he was now placed, was brought to repentance; or that those evangelists put the plural number for the singular, as the best authors sometimes do. This seems most probable, because, if this malefactor, while on the cross, had been guilty of reviling Christ, it is likely that, when he rebuked his fellow-criminal, he would have confessed his sin in that particular, and have assigned some reason for so suddenly altering his opinion of Christ. But, indeed, it is by no means certain that his repentance did not commence till he hung on the cross. For any thing we know to the contrary, he might have repented and turned to God long before; his condemnation to death, and his sufferings in prison, being made, through divine grace, the means of producing that effect. Or, he might have heard our Lord preach in the course of his ministry, and have seen some of his miracles, and from a consideration of both joined together, might have been solidly convinced that he was the Messiah. And, with regard to the crime for which he was condemned to die, it might have been committed before such conviction took place, though not discovered till some time afterward. Or, like many professors of religion in every age, holding the truth in unrighteousness, he might have been overcome by temptation, so as to commit some gross act of wickedness, by which he had forfeited his life, but of which he had afterward sincerely repented. This supposition would account for his declaration concerning Christ, that he had done nothing amiss , nothing improper, disorderly, or out of place, as the words signify: a declaration which he certainly could with no propriety have made, unless he had firmly believed Jesus to be the true Messiah, and therefore innocent of those things which the Jews laid to his charge. Be this as it may, at whatever time, and in whatever way he was brought to repentance, he now gave evident proof, indeed all the proof which in his circumstances could be given, that his repentance was genuine; bringing forth all such fruits as were meet for repentance: 1st, In publicly confessing his guilt, and desert of the punishment inflicted on him. 2d, In reproving his fellow-criminal. 3d, In bearing an honourable testimony to Christ, and that at a time when the chief priests, scribes, and elders, and all the multitude, were condemning and reviling him; and he was in such disgraceful circumstances as stumbled even his own disciples. 4th, In professing, and evidently possessing, faith in a future state, and in the righteous retributions thereof, evidently manifested when, in reproving his fellow-sinner, he said, Dost thou not fear God? that is, fear his vengeance in another world; for they had nothing to fear in this, beyond the crucifixion which they were now suffering. 5th, By reposing his confidence in Christ, as the Lord of that world, at a time when his enemies were triumphing over him, and he himself, abandoned by most of his friends, was expiring on a cross. In short, as Dr. Whitby observes, This thief improved his time at last in such an extraordinary manner, as, perhaps, no man ever did before, or will do hereafter. He then believed Christ to be the Saviour of the world, when one of his disciples had betrayed, another had denied him, and all of them had forsook him! to be the Son of God, the Lord of life, when he was hanging on the cross, suffering the pangs of death, and seemingly deserted by his Father! he proclaims him the Lord of paradise, when all the Jews condemned him, and the Gentiles crucified him as an impostor and malefactor! He feared God, acknowledged the justice of his punishment, and with patience submitted to it. He condemned himself, and justified the holy Jesus, declaring that he had done nothing amiss. He was solicitous, not for the preservation of his body, but the salvation of his soul; nor only for his own, but the salvation of his brother thief, whom he so charitably reprehends, so earnestly requests not to proceed in his blasphemous language, so lovingly invites to the fear of God. So that the glory which he did to Christ by his faith and piety, upon the cross, seems such as the whole series of a pious life in other men can hardly parallel. Upon the whole, this penitent malefactor was a remarkable instance of the power of divine grace, especially if his conversion was effected while he hung on the cross. But this gives no encouragement to any to put off their repentance till they are on their death-beds, in hopes they shall then find mercy; for though it is certain that true repentance is never too late, it is as certain that late repentance is seldom true. None can be sure they shall either have time or grace to repent when they are sick and dying; but every man may be sure that he cannot have the advantages which this penitent thief had, whose case was altogether extraordinary, and who was placed in the midst of scenes and circumstances of the most affecting kind. He heard the blasphemous reproaches and revilings cast upon him whom he, now at least, if not before, knew to be not only a righteous man, but the true Messiah, the Son of God; beheld the barbarous cruelties exercised upon him, the unparalleled patience with which he suffered, and the benevolent and forgiving spirit which he manifested toward his murderers: not to mention the preternatural darkness which had begun to take place, sufficient, one would have supposed, to produce astonishment and dread in all whose hearts were not perfectly hardened. To which may be added, that the conversion of this sinner was designed to be a singular instance of the power of Christs grace, and to put a peculiar glory upon him when he was now in his lowest estate of humiliation and suffering.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

3 d. Luk 23:39-46. Matthew and Mark ascribe the same jestings to the two thieves. The partisans of harmony at any price think that they both began with blasphemy, and that one of them afterwards came to himself. In any case, it must be assumed that Matthew and Mark did not know this change of mind; otherwise, why should they not have mentioned it? But is it not more natural to hold that they group in categories, and that they are ignorant of the particular fact related by Luke? How had this thief been touched and convinced? Undoubtedly he had been struck all at once with the contrast between the holiness which shone in Jesus and of his own crimes (Luk 23:40-41). Then the meekness with which Jesus let Himself be led to punishment, and especially His prayer for His executioners, had taken hold of his conscience and heart. The title Father, which Jesus gave to God at the very moment when God was treating Him in so cruel a manner, had revealed in Him a Being who was living in an intimate relation to Jehovah, and led him to feel His divine greatness. His faith in the title King of the Jews, inscribed on His cross, was only the consequence of such impressions. The words , not even thou (Luk 23:40), which he addresses to his companion, allude to the difference of moral situation which belongs to them both, and the railers with whom he is joining: Thou who art not merely, like them, a spectator of this punishment, but who art undergoing it thyself. It is not for him, who is on the eve of appearing before the divine tribunal, to act as the profane. , because, refers to the idea contained in : Thou at least oughtest to fear…; for…

The prayer which he addresses to Jesus (Luk 23:42) is suggested to him by that faith in an unlimited mercy which had been awaked in him by hearing the prayer of Jesus for His executioners. It seems to me probable that the omission of the word , Lord, in the Alex., arises from the mistake of the copyist, who was giving the prayer of the thief from memory, and that the transformation of the dative into the apostrophe () was the effect of this omission. The touching cry, Remember me! finds its explanation in that community of suffering which seems to him henceforth to establish an indissoluble bond between Jesus and him. Jesus cannot forget him who shared His punishment. The expression, coming in His kingdom, (not for His kingdom, ), denotes His Messianic return with divine splendour and royal majesty some time after His death. He does not think of the possibility of the body of Jesus being raised.

In our Lord’s answer, the word to-day stands foremost, because Jesus wishes to contrast the nearness of the promised happiness with the remote future to which the prayer of the thief refers. To-day, before the setting of the sun which is shining on us. The word paradise seems to come from a Persian word signifying park. It is used in the form of , H7236 (Ecc 2:5; Son 4:13), to denote a royal garden. In the form , it corresponds in the LXX. to the word , H7236, garden (Gen 2:8; Gen 3:1). The earthly Eden once lost, this word paradise is applied to that part of Hades where the faithful are assembled; and even in the last writings of the N. T., the Epistles and the Apocalypse, to a yet higher abode, that of the Lord and glorified believers, the third heaven, 2 Cor. xi Luk 1:4; Rev 2:7. It is paradise as part of Hades which is spoken of here.

The extraordinary signs which accompanied the death of Jesus (Luk 23:44-45)the darkness, the rending of the veil of the temple, and according to Matthew, the earthquake and the opening of several graves, are explained by the profound connection existing, on the one side between Christ and humanity, on the other between humanity and nature. Christ is the soul of humanity, as humanity is the soul of the external world. We need not take the words, over all the earth, in an absolute sense. Comp. Luk 21:23, where the expression , a weaker one it is true, evidently refers to the Holy Land only. The phenomenon in question here may and must have extended to the surrounding countries. The cause of this loss of light cannot have been an eclipse; for this phenomenon is impossible at the time of full moon. It was perhaps connected with the earthquake with which it was accompanied; or it may have resulted from an atmospheric or cosmical cause. This diminution of the external light corresponded to the moral darkness which was felt by the heart of Jesus: My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? This moment, to which St. Paul alludes (Gal 3:13 : He was made a curse for us), was that at which the Paschal lamb was slain in the temple.

It is difficult to decide between the two readings, Luk 23:45 : And the sun was darkened (T. R.); And the sun failing. In any case, it is the cause of the phenomenon related Luk 23:44, mentioned too late. Luke omits the earthquake; he had other sources.

The rending of the veil, mentioned by the three Syn., should probably be connected with this physical commotion. Is the veil referred to that which was at the entrance of the Holy Place, or that which concealed the Holy of Holies? As the second only had a typical sense, and alone bore, strictly speaking, the name (Philo calls the other ), it is more natural to think of the latter. The idea usually found in this symbolic event is this: The way to the throne of grace is henceforth open to all. But did not God rather mean to show thereby, that from that time the temple was no longer His dwelling-place? As the high priest rent his garment in view of any great offence, so God rends the veil which covers the place where He enters into communion with His people; that is to say, the Holy of Holies is no more; and if there is no Holy of Holies, then no Holy Place, and consequently no court, no altar, no valid sacrifices. The temple is profaned, and consequently abolished by God Himself. The efficacy of sacrifice has henceforth passed to another blood, another altar, another priesthood. This is what Jesus had announced to the Jews in this form: Put me to death, and by the very deed ye shall destroy the temple!

Jewish and Christian tradition has preserved the memory of analogous events which must have happened at this period. In the Judeo-Christian Gospel quoted by Jerome (in Mat 27:51), it was related that at the time of the earthquake a large beam lying above the gate of the temple snapped asunder. The Talmud says that forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem the gates of the temple opened of their own accord. Johanan Ben Zacchai ( is , H2858, Anna, with the name of Jehovah prefixed) rebuked them, and said: Temple, wherefore dost thou open of thyself? I see thereby that the end is near; for it is written (Zec 11:1), Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars.

At the time of the eclipse mentioned above, a great earthquake destroyed part of the city of Nice, in Bithynia. This catastrophe may have been felt even in Palestine.

Those phenomena, which are placed by Luke before the time of our Lord’s death, are placed by Matthew and Mark immediately after. Another proof of the difference of their sources.

Here should come the two sayings mentioned by John: I thirst, and: It is finished. Perhaps the words: When He had cried with a loud voice (Luk 23:46), include the saying, It is finished, which immediately preceded the last breath. But the participle has probably no other meaning than the verb : Raising His voice, He said. The words: When He had cried with a loud voice, in Matthew and Mark, refer rather to the last saying uttered by Jesus according to Luke: Father, into thy hands…The latter expresses what John has described in the form of an act: He gave up His spirit.

The last saying is a quotation from Psalms 31. The fut. , I shall commit, in the received reading, is probably borrowed from the LXX. The fut. was natural in David’s mouth, for death was yet at a distance; he described the way in which he hoped one day to draw his last breath. But the present is alone in keeping with the actual circumstances of Jesus. At the moment when He is about to lose self-consciousness, and when the possession of His spirit escapes from Him, He confides it as a deposit to his Father. The word Father shows that His soul has recovered full serenity. Not long ago He was struggling with the divine sovereignty and holiness (my God, my God!). Now the darkness is gone; He has recovered His light, His Father’s face. It is the first effect of the completion of redemption, the glorious prelude of the resurrection.

Keim does not accept as historical any of the seven sayings which Jesus is said to have uttered on the cross. The prayer for his executioners has no meaning either in regard to the Gentile soldiers, who were merely blind instruments, or in respect of the Jews, to whom He had just announced divine judgment. Besides, silence suits Jesus better than a forced and superhuman heroism. The story of the thief is exploded by the fact, that it was impossible for him to have known the innocence and the future return of Jesus, and that Jesus should have promised him paradise, which is in the hand of the Father. The saying addressed to John and Mary is not historical; for those two were not at the foot of the cross (Syn.), and John never had a house to which to take Mary. The prayer: My God, my God, is only an importation of Psalms 22 into the account of the Passion; Jesus was too original to borrow the expression of His feelings from the O. T. The same reason disproves the authenticity of the last saying: Father, into Thy hands, borrowed from Psalms 31. The It is finished of John is only the summary expression of the dogmatics already put by the author into the mouth of Jesus in His last discourses. The historic truth is thus reduced to two cries of Jesus: one of pain, which John has translated, not without reason, into I thirst; and a last cry, that of death. This silence of Jesus forms, according to Keim, the real greatness of His death.

The prayer of Jesus and His threatening are not more contradictory than divine justice and human intercession. There is room in history for the effects of both.

The prophetic form in which Jesus clothes the expression of His thoughts takes nothing from their originality. They spring from the depths of His being, and meet with expressions which are familiar to Him, and which He employs instinctively.

John here, as throughout his Gospel, completes the synoptics.

We think we have shown how the prayer of the thief is psychologically possible. It is doing too much honour to the primitive Church to ascribe to her the invention of such sayings. If she had invented, she would not have done so in a style so chaste, so concise, so holy; once more compare the apocryphal accounts.

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

23:39 {g} And {12} one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.

(g) Therefore we must either take Matthew’s account to be using the figure of speech synecdoche, or that both of them mocked Christ. But one of them who was eventually overcome with the great patience of God breaks forth in that confession worthy all memory.

(12) Christ, in the midst of the humbling of himself upon the cross, indeed shows that he has both the power of life to save the believers and the power of death to avenge the rebellious.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The salvation of one criminal 23:39-43

This is another incident that only Luke recorded. It reflects his interest in needy people receiving salvation from Jesus. This is such a dominant theme in Luke’s Gospel that one commentator concluded that this incident is the core of Luke’s crucifixion narrative. [Note: Ellis, p. 267.] The attitudes of the two criminals crucified with Jesus represent the two attitudes that lead to condemnation and salvation. The incident is also another testimony to Jesus’ innocence, and it presents Him as the Savior even as He was dying.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

The first criminal (robber, Mat 27:38; Mar 15:27) joined the mockery of others around the cross by implying Jesus’ inability to save Himself and His fellow sufferers. He was bitterly sarcastic of Jesus. [Note: Morris, p. 328.] His verbal abuse constituted blasphemy (Gr. eblasphemei). Blasphemy is essentially impious irreverence and defamation. Obviously this man did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. Luke may have intended this criminal’s action as a warning to his readers not to do the same thing. Refusing to take Jesus’ claims seriously constitutes blasphemy of Him.

"When the two malefactors were hanged beside the Lord, the one was no better than the other. . . . It is only the grace of God in the cross of Christ that can instantly transform a reviling sinner into an attitude of saving faith and confession. The repentant thief began to see (1) the justice of his own punishment (Luk 23:41); (2) the sinless character of Christ (Luk 23:41); (3) the Deity of Christ (Luk 23:42); (4) a living Christ beyond the grave (Luk 23:42); and (5) a kingdom beyond the cross, with Jesus as its coming King (Luk 23:42)." [Note: The New Scofield . . ., p. 1119.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)