Posted on 12/03/2018 3:45:53 PM PST by OddLane
Some ask, “How was the thief on the cross saved if he didn’t live a righteous life?” Let us consider what this implies about how they believe a person is declared right before God.
Original question: Please clarify this for me. Regarding the theif on the cross. How do you compare his salvation with ours? I mean, he did not live a good life at all. He did not show any fruit of repentance. He did not live right, yet Jesus saved him anyway.
How was Jesus able to save him when we are clearly instructed to live right and to turn from sin? As I understand it, he was the only one in scripture who had this deathbed salvation so we can’t rely on that but you know what I mean?
Romans 4:5
“But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”
Jesus calls us just as we are.
Accept Him and receive Him and you're saved.
THEN your eyes are opened to sin and unrighteousness.
I believe it was the words "your kingdom" that saved him.
He believed Jesus was who He said He was and actually HAD a kingdom, and that there is some kind of consciousness there and the repentent theif wanted Jesus to remember him.
As I understand scripture and many evidences in my own life and the many testimonies of my brothers and sisters ... Jesus' love is very easily given and all we have to do is believe Hin and receive Him.
over here
Doesn’t matter what time you started work in the vineyard. The pay is the same.
That's what I was thinking!
If any be a devout lover of God, let him partake with gladness from this fair and radiant feast.
If any be a faithful servant, let him enter rejoicing into the joy of his Lord.
If any have wearied himself with fasting, let him now enjoy his reward.
If any have laboured from the first hour, let him receive today his rightful due.
If any have come after the third, let him celebrate the feast with thankfulness.
If any have come after the sixth, let him not be in doubt, for he will suffer no loss.
If any have delayed until the ninth, let him not hesitate but draw near.
If any have arrived only at the eleventh, let him not be afraid because he comes so late.
For the Master is generous and accepts the last even as the first.
He gives rest to him who comes at the eleventh hour in the same was as him who has laboured from the first. He accepts the deed, and commends the intention.
Repent- greek=metaknoia, or changing one’s mind. What does that have to do with “fruit”?
Christian’s fall down, and get up. As we live, we ought to be falling down less of course, but as long as we are in the flesh, we are subject to the fall; but being conformed to the image of Christ.
The Bible says we (believers) are the righteousness of God in Christ. Amazing!
But I WAS taught that after His death and entombment, Jesus opened the gates of heaven for those who are saved (not that Heaven is a physical location with GPS coordinates and "gates", but you know what I mean) --- and that the holy faithful people who came before Christ (Abel the Just, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Elijah and all the rest) had to wait for Christ to die for their sins and accomplish their salvation.
1 Peter 3:19–20
(Jesus) "went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits..."
The Bible also says this:
Hebrews 6:13-15
"And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised."
The immediate context here is that Abraham received many offspring, starting with Isaac. But then Scripture goes on to say that it means not just Isaac, Jacob, Jacobs' twelve sons, etc. etc. but that it pre-eminently means his descendant, Christ.
Galatians makes this very clear:
“The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ” (Galatians 3:16).
So Abraham waited patiently for ... Christ.
So --- this is not a gotcha question, I just would like to know what you think --- isn't it reasonable to think that if the Good Thief died, say a couple of hours before Jesus did, he would have to wait (as did Abraham and all the rest) for Jesus' death on the Cross to save him?
Abraham waited maybe a couple of millennia, and the Thief on the Cross, might have had to wait--- a couple of hours?
Just askin' ...
(Luke 23:39-43)
"Then one of the criminals who was hanged blasphemed Him, saying,''' "If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us."...... But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying,... ‘Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation?.... And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.’".... Then he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.’. And Jesus said to him, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in paradise’” (Luke 23:39-43).
The thief went straight to paradise that day — no purgatory. However that does not mean the thief is not judged.
If you’ve ever been with an individual going through the death process there are amazing things going on between them and the Lord.
Jesus said in response to questions by the Pharisees, “Before Moses was, I AM”
His use of the Tetragrammaton (YHWH) indicates He is God. The Hebrew pictograms define itself as “open hand/nailed/tree”.
John clearly states that He (Jesus) the Word or “Logos, breath, essence, was “with God, was God in the beginning” and was the Creator of all things.
Pretty clearly defines Jesus the Christ as God the Man, equal to and coexisting with God the Father, and God the Spirit. Three in one, not three “ones”.
Blessings
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There is little to nothing in scripture to indicate what kind of life the thief led, except Yeshua’s words: “This day thou shall be with me in Paradise.”
Those words indicate he must have been obedient to the Father’s commandments, Just as Yeshua’s words to the Christians in Matthew 7:21-23 indicate that they were disobedient.
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“Baptism of Desire. Baptism of Blood”
Chapter and verse??
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There is no “Purgatory.”
When he gathers his bride on the Day of Trumpets, they will immediately be present with him on the “Sea of Glass mingled with fire” for the wedding feast.
They will then return with him to Earth to rule with him for 1000 years.
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The thief ‘identified himself as a sinner’ when he said he and the other thief were worthy of death for what they had ‘done’.....He then looks to Jesus and Identify’s with Jesus as sinless.....(He has ‘done’ nothing wrong)...at which he asks he remember him when he entered ‘his kingdom’....which again was recognizing him as the promised Christ..Jesus response ‘confirmed’ he would be with him.
Jesus does not leave us guessing about our salvation....it is usually people who cannot get past the legalities of the law, (which Jesus fulfilled for us) to accept the ‘finished work’ Jesus has done.
As Jesus said.....”These things have I written to you that you may ‘know’... (not wonder or guess)....but ‘Know’ that you have eternal life....... who believe on the name of the Son of God”....1 John 5:13
“For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God”.....Ephesians 2:8
You cannot pay for a ‘gift’...it’s given freely.
Or the Catholic Church's interpretation of what the word "saint" means.
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The sole basis of our salvation is the obedience to his commandments that is written on our hearts.
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