Have you ever had a brush with death? When I was in high school, my friends and I were in a serious car accident. We were speeding on a winding downhill road when we lost control. The car skidded broadside down the steep hill then somersaulted, corner to corner, three times. By the grace of God we all walked away from the wreckage with minor injuries, but for years afterward I struggled with panic attacks at the thought of dying and anxiety every time I got into a car driving faster than 25 miles an hour. My brush with death put fear into my heart, and I still dread the thought of ever getting in another accident.
We all deal with the prospect of death in different ways. Most choose to ignore it: That's morbid. Who wants to think about death? I'm going to live my life! Some embrace it: I'm not afraid of dying. I've lived life to the full. Besides, we're all going to a better place anyway. Others fear death to the point where they are paralyzed by it, fixated on it, and robbed of so much joy in life it's as if they're dead already! Still others mock death in a desensitized, detached sort of way, shrugging their shoulders and making off-color remarks in an effort to dissolve their tension. Death is designed to evoke a response in us, but unfortunately none of these is the right one. Death, more than anything else, ought to lead us to fear God and put our faith in Jesus.
Imagine this scene: A man is paraded, bruised and bleeding, through the streets of your town. He is condemned to public execution by the oppressive dictatorship that has overtaken your country, and a group of brutish soldiers lead him toward a hill on the outskirts of the city. There they crucify him, stripping him of his clothes, nailing his hands and feet to a wooden cross and erecting it on top of the hill for everyone to see. A crowd of people literally watch this man for hours as he suffers in agony, each minute bringing him closer and closer to inevitable death.
Most of the mob choose to mock and ridicule him, hurling insults and jeering in the face of death. Some turn their heads away from the gruesome scene, ignoring it and continuing on their way. Others accept it with indifference. For a few, the horrific display strikes fear into their hearts—fear of death and fear of men. But for many this awful spectacle, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, has become a seed of faith—planted in their hearts by grace, watered with the word of God and growing up into their salvation! And it all began with a criminal: the thief on the cross.
The thief on the cross started out like all the rest of us—in opposition to God and condemned in his sin. He joined in the mockery of Christ: "...the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him" (Matthew 27:44; Mark 15:32). Without these verses we might assume the thief had some sort of predisposition within himself toward faith. We might be tempted to give him credit for recognizing the Son of God and achieving salvation by the merit of his own wisdom. But Scripture tells us this is not possible, for "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God" (Romans 3:11, emphasis added).
So at some point during the hours of pain and agony, with death creeping nearer and nearer, the thief on the cross realized his desperate estate. He knew there was no escaping his fate. He knew he could not save himself. We also must be brought to this same condition—the realization that death is coming, we are powerless to save ourselves, and we need a Savior. We must be made aware that apart from Christ we are enemies of God deserving just punishment. Only after we have been brought low and humbled before God are we in a place to receive the gift of faith.
And this is exactly the place where the thief on the cross found himself: humbled, humiliated, helpless. We're told the other criminal continued to mock Jesus, taunting Him to prove He was the Christ (Luke 23:39). "What's the matter with you? If you really are the Son of God save yourself! And save us while you're at it!" But a wondrous thing happened next! The thief, rather than joining in the derision, rebuked him (v. 40). "You don't get it, do you? We're going to die! And we deserve to die...but this man is innocent; he has done nothing wrong."
How does such an impossible transformation take place? In His word God tells us: "...faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ" (Romans 10:17). The thief heard the insinuations of the crowd—"...let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One"; "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself" (Luke 23:35, 37, emphasis added). He likely read the words fixed above Jesus' head: THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS (v. 38). And, by God's incredible mercy and miraculous grace, he began to believe it.
Faith was born in the heart of this desperate sinner—God-given, grace-planted, soul-saving faith! And though its inner workings were unseen, the evidence of his faith was shown in that the thief feared God, he recognized his sin, and he looked to Jesus: "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom" (Luke 23:42). Scripture tells us anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved (Romans 10:13), even a condemned criminal in the last few hours of his life.
Listen to Jesus' words to this man: "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43). The thief hoped Christ would remember him; Jesus said you will be with me. The thief hoped for some distant future; Jesus said today. The thief hoped for a kingdom; Jesus promised him paradise. What blessed assurances! And what pains Christ took to make them—as He hung on the cross every word He uttered was excruciating. It hurt Jesus to bring comfort to this man's soul in its darkest hour—our confidence is that important to Him!
Because of Christ's sacrifice, we no longer need to fear death. We do not need to ignore it or joke about it or come to terms with it in order to feel better. We can let death drive us to Jesus in faith, knowing He has defeated it once and for all! We can respond to our soul's darkest hour with joy as we look forward to paradise with our Lord, singing, "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" (1 Corinthians 15:55). And we can bring the hope of salvation to others, for as long as we draw breath it is never too late to turn to Christ.