Day Seven
Luke 23:32 & 39
“And two others also, who were criminals were being led away to be put to death with Him…and one of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him saying, “are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
We all know this passage of course and we all know what happens here. And if you look closely, you will see our present-day situation as well. We have Jesus in the middle, separating two sinful natures, a sinner on the right hand and another on the left. Today, one of these men is in Paradise, the other suffering condemnation and awaiting his place in the Lake of Fire. Both of these men were destined to die. Both of these men recognized Jesus for who He was and that He came to earth to die for our sins. One wanted Jesus to save just his life; the other wanted Him to save his soul. We are given the same choice today. Through the Bible, we are given God’s word and because our free will, we are given the ability of choice. One of the key points in this passage is the urgency of choosing. Within a few hours at the most, both of these men will be dead. There is no chance of escape whatsoever. The sinner who rejected Jesus simply wanted a way out of his predicament. He had no interest in his soul. Here is Jesus, the Son of the Living God only a few feet away from him, and all he could think about was the pain and suffering which he actually did deserve. Many people today focus on their own pain to the exclusion of all else, including their salvation. We become like the criminal who saw Jesus, knew who He was, but only wanted Jesus on his terms. Even the other criminal had to do more that just know who Jesus was. To be saved he had to asked to be saved. He committed what was left of his life to Jesus. I do not believe Jesus would have saved him if he had not asked. The criminal, further in the passage, told of his unworthiness. He knew he was a sinner and knew he was getting what he deserved. We are all sinners. But, because of God’s grace, we are given a chance to make a choice. It is interesting to note that Jesus did not interrupt the interchange between the criminals. It wasn’t until one of the criminal was asked to be saved did Jesus promise him eternal life. It is same today. We need to ask Jesus to save us from our sins, not from our situation. It is at this point that many will reject Jesus because He did not save them from their situation. They will rely on their own strength to overcome the power of sin in their lives. They will be directed to develop or seek standards that will appeal more to their personality. High morals, treating everyone with kindness, using many of the standards of the Bible will be a part of their lifestyle. In other words, they will measure themselves by themselves. And in seeking their own standards, they reject God’s standards. They follow their own plan instead of submitting their lives to God’s plans. The enemy of course will continue to guide anyone who wants to be a “self-made man”. Satan doesn’t care how religious or how great a humanitarian or caregiver you are or how successful your ministry might be, even if it is healing or church building. He will even help you in these endeavors as long as Christ is not apart of your efforts.
Like the criminals with Jesus, we are sinners deserving judgment. Just like the criminals we are faced with making a choice because time is short. The urgency cannot be made any clearer than in these Scripture passages. Jesus will separate us—believers on one hand and unbelievers on the other. There is no middle ground. Either you are saved or you are not. You are either a sinner who is on His right hand or a sinner who is on His left.
