The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 1

VI. Most Sublime Episode of Christ’s Redemptive Career

And now, with the evidence all before us, picture the scene again. Jesus had for three years been preaching to the listening multitudes concerning His coming kingdom of glory. A part in that kingdom had been promised to all His followers. But now the powers of death pressed in around Him. Darkness and failure seemed destined to triumph, crushing down His lofty promises to the depressing prospects of the grave. He who was to have been king in the coming triumph was now expiring in agony and reproach. Moreover, His innermost disciples had forsaken Him and fled. None stood with Him in the crisis hour. Never had the outlook seemed so bleak and blasted. CFF1 282.2

1. RECOGNIZED IN JESUS THE COMING KING

But it was amid that enshrouding darkness that divine illumination flashed into the mind of that stricken thief on the adjoining cross. Conviction of the truthfulness of Jesus’ claims as the Messiah, the Son of God, pierced his heart. He had seen the superscription upon Christ’s cross, “The King of the Jews.” He recognized in the outcast, anguished Jesus, the King of the coming age. He realized that Jesus must first be resurrected, as He claimed He would be, if He were to reign as king. Nevertheless, vaulting all obstacles, and accepting Christ for what He claimed to be, the penitent then and there placed his trust and his future into the hands of the dying Jesus. CFF1 283.1

“Lord,” he petitioned, “remember me” in the day when Thou comest into Thy triumph and glory—“when thou comest into [possession of] thy kingdom.” It is one of the highest acts of faith ever recorded. And then it was that Jesus, the suffering Saviour, the cross-nailed Christ, in the hearing of that mocking, jeering multitude, majestically declared, “Verily, I say unto thee today”—today, in this My hour of darkness and shame and agony, when the cross is seemingly defeating all My claims; today, amid all these forlorn prospects and blighted hopes, so far as the natural eye can see—“Verily, I say unto thee today, Thou shalt be with Me in Paradise,” the new-earth home of the saints, with Me—yes, “with” Me—when My kingdom shall indeed be established in triumph and glory forevermore! CFF1 283.2

2. SYMBOL OF MULTITUDES IN EARTH’S ELEVENTH HOUR

Such is the beauty and force of these words of our Lord, uttered toward the close of that crucifixion day. But the scattered disciples missed their impact, for they had fled, and had heard them not. And the taunting multitude paid no heed. Only the penitent thief heard and understood their import. Now, in the light of that act of faith, no separating veil of darkness could long becloud Christ’s vision. His agony over the feared forsaking by His Father (Matthew 27:46) passed. His prophetic foresight penetrated the physical darkness (Matthew 27:45) and fixed itself upon the destined coming victory over death. Lifted up from the earth on Calvary’s cross (John 3:14, 15), He had drawn one of His companion sufferers unto salvation and life in that climactic hour. He died with His trust in His Father (Luke 23:46). CFF1 283.3

In this last convert ere He died—symbol of multitudes who would yet believe, many of them in the eleventh hour of human history (Matthew 20:6-16)—He saw the travail of His soul and was satisfied (Isaiah 53:11). He was comforted by the faith of a penitent thief. And the sharer of the suffering of Golgotha would be with Him in Paradise restored, and that forever. Such is the grandeur of that day—the thief and the King side by side, and the thief not ashamed of the Crucified One, of whom apostles were ashamed; the thief trusting in the One whom His closest disciples had temporarily ceased to trust. CFF1 284.1

3. PROBLEM REMOVED BY SHIFT OF COMMA

Thus by the simple shifting of the man-made comma-misplaced many centuries too late by the misguided translators because of their Platonic misconceptions—the problem of this text is removed, harmony is established with the general tenor of Scripture, and the beauty and significance of that majestic utterance stands out in its true grandeur in one of the most sublime episodes of Christ’s redemptive career on earth. Christ died, conscious of the trust of His fellow sufferer on the adjoining cross. And because He died, the thief will live forevermore in the coming kingdom. CFF1 284.2

4. BEWARE OF PUTTING FALSEHOOD ON LIPS OF CHRIST

Let us beware lest we commit the audacious act of putting upon the lips of Truth Incarnate, in the solemn hour before death, a mocking echo of the lie of Eden, which He came to confute and expose. Let us be on our guard lest we place the dying Son of God in the unthinkable position of offering a mocking hope to the repentant thief—of being together somewhere that day, in some Platonic, Jewish, papal, or Protestant paradise—a deception that would not only be totally untrue but utterly repugnant to Jesus, the inerrant and impeccable embodiment and exponent of truth. CFF1 284.3

That would be a sacrilegious, yes, a mendacious act, fearful in its implications, and for which the perpetrator would assuredly be held accountable. Never should we forget the solemn dictum of Holy Writ, “It was impossible for God to lie” (Hebrews 6:18), and the paralleling truth that He never deceives. Christ would never reverse the infallible utterance of Eden that He came to sustain. CFF1 285.1