5. Here we see the Saviour-hood of Christ.
The crosses were only a few feet apart and it did not take the Saviour long to hear this cry of the penitent thief. What was his response thereto? He might have said, You deserve your fate: you are a wicked robber and have merited death. Or, he might have replied, You have left it till too late; you should have sought me sooner. Ah! but had he not promised, "Him that cometh to me! will in no wise cast out"! So it proved here.
Of the reproaches which were cast on him by the crowd the Lord Jesus took no notice. To the insulting challenge of the priests to descend from the cross, he made no response. But the prayer of this contrite, believing thief arrested his attention. At the time he was grappling with the powers of darkness and sustaining the awful load of his people’s guilt, and we should have thought he might be excused from attending to individual applications. Ah! but a sinner can never come to Christ in an unacceptable time. He gives him an answer of peace and that without delay.
The salvation of the repentant and believing robber illustrates not only Christ’s readiness but also his power to save sinners. The Lord Jesus is no feeble Saviour. Blessed be God he is able to "save unto the uttermost" them that come unto God by him. And never was this so signally displayed as when on the cross. This was the time of the Redeemer’s "weakness" (2 Cor. 13:4). When the thief cried, "Lord, remember me", the Saviour was in agony on the accursed tree. Yet even then, even there, he had power to redeem this soul from death and open for him the gates of Paradise! Never doubt then, or question the infinite sufficiency of the Saviour. If a dying Saviour could save how much more he who rose in triumph from the tomb, never more to die! In saving this thief Christ gave an exhibition of his power at the very time when it was almost clouded.
The salvation of the dying thief demonstrates that the Lord is willing and able to save all who come to him. If Christ received this penitent, believing thief, then none need despair of a welcome if they will but come to Christ. If this dying robber was not beyond the reach of divine mercy then none are who will respond to the invitations of divine grace. The Son of Man came "to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10), and none can sink lower than that. The gospel of Christ is the power of God "to every one that believeth" (Romans 1:16). 0 limit not the grace of God. A Saviour is provided for the very "chief of sinners" (1 Tim. 1:15), if only he will believe. Even those who reach the dying hour yet in their sins are not beyond hope.
Personally I believe that very, very few are saved on a deathbed, and it is the height of folly for any man to postpone his salvation till then, for there is no guarantee that any man will have a death-bed. Many are cut off suddenly, without any opportunity to lie down and die. Yet, even one on a death-bed is not beyond the reach of divine mercy. As said one of the Puritans, "There is one such case recorded that none need despair, but only one, in scripture, that none might presume".
Yes, here we see the Saviour-hood of Christ. He came into this world to save sinners, and he left it and went to Paradise accompanied by a saved criminal - the first trophy of his redeeming blood!
