CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Jesus was crucified with two thieves. One mocked him as they hung from the cross. “If you are a king, save yourself and save us too,” the thief on his right said. But the one of the left rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die? We are getting our just punishment, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
And Jesus replied, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
So great is God’s love that his grace – a forgiveness that we haven’t earned and don’t deserve – is available to us even at the final moments of our life. That tells me something about the nature of God. That his ability to forgive us has a depth beyond my understanding. It is my nature to keep score, to remember past wrongs, and to be slow to forgive. God, apparently, is not like that. We are told that when we ask for forgiveness in His name, our sins are wiped clean – forgotten.
I must tell you, there’s something about that which seems unfair. I’ve tried to live a good life. I pray. My faith has never waivered. And a thief, sentenced to death, gets exactly the same salvation that I’ve worked all my life for?
Well, yes, that’s exactly how it works.
For two reasons. First, if we were ever shut off from God’s grace… bad beyond redemption… what a miserable place the world would be. People who had no hope of salvation would sink to even deeper levels of depravity. The victims of their wickedness would be people like you and me. And secondly, while I’m tempted to hold myself up as a good man – but I’m not. I fall short of God’s glory. I sin. You do, too. My sin is no different that the sin of a thief sentenced to death. We should not be so arrogant to say who does and doesn’t get God’s grace. And it’s our sin, not us, that’s unacceptable to God.
Chris Conley
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