A Great Faith by Francis M. Wilcox

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jun 8, 1911

A Great Faith

By Francis M. Wilcox

A GREAT faith possessed the thief who died in connection with Christ’s crucifixion. Of his life experience in a general way we know but little, only what is indicated by his crime. In God’s providence, not a mere coincidence, he and the Lord Jesus are crucified at the same hour. Perhaps the thief had heard of Christ before, had known something of his mighty works, but now he is brought in personal contact. He is enabled to witness for himself the spirit that possesses the Man of Calvary. He finds in him no hardened criminal, like himself and his companion. From Christ’s lips escapes no word of curse or rebuff or murmuring. “As a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” Patiently, meekly, he speaks to his persecutors; and when reviled by the very men he came to save, who ask him in derision to prove his divinity by descending from the cross, the only word he utters is a prayer that the Father will forgive his enemies for their malicious hatred.

Christ’s demeanor has its effect upon the thief who hangs by his side. He recognizes in Christ a spirit he has never before seen manifested. He queries if this is not indeed the long-looked-for Messiah, the Saviour of men. Every moment as they hang there side by side strengthens the conviction. Faith takes possession of his soul. Receiving the just deserts for his evil deeds, forsaken of men, he sees in the throng before him no pitying eye; but in the One who hangs by his side, he sees a holy calmness, a face softened and subdued, an eye of pitying tenderness, a heart of love. He grasps the hope which the Spirit of God has created in his soul. He casts his eyes upon the Lord, and cries, in agony, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.”

O, what a faith was this! to see in the Crucified One the Majesty of heaven, to realize that he who now hangs upon the cross, classed by men among criminals, was sometime to possess a kingdom, was sometime to reign in triumphant glory! Peter could forsake his Lord and flee, the disciples could be scattered as sheep without a shepherd, crushing doubts filling their hearts as to the divine mission of their Master; but here was one whose faith pierced the gloom of the cross, and recognized in the Man of Sorrows his own divine Saviour.

And if the faith was marvelous, as truly marvelous was the confident answer returned: “And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee to-day, shalt thou be with me in paradise.” To human onlookers this appeared on the part of Christ a vain assumption of power. How could this man, despised and rejected of his own nation, forsaken by his own disciples, about whose cross the lightning of heaven played fitfully, surrounded by a darkness which seemed the frown of his Father’s face, thus meet the request of the penitent thief? Here, too, in the promise of our blessed Lord was the manifestation of a mighty triumphant faith over the powers of darkness. He understood his position, if man did not. He knew the outcome of his sorrow and suffering, even if his disciples did not know. Across the abyss of death he saw the glorious resurrection day. As the culmination of his ministry of grace, he saw the establishment of his divine kingdom.

The request of the thief was that he might be remembered when Christ came into his kingdom. Into this glorious estate our Lord did not enter at his death, nor even at his resurrection. When the work of grace has been accomplished; when out of all nations have been gathered a people for his name; when from the east and the west, and the north and the south, the redeemed of the Lord shall come with songs of joy and rejoicing to Zion, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,—then it is that Christ will fully enter upon the establishment of his kingdom. “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels: and then he shall reward every man according to his works.” “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory.”

In full accord with this request of the thief was the promise of our blessed Lord. He promises the penitent believer that he shall be with him in paradise. Paradise is the dwelling-place of the Most High. “To him that overcometh,” the Lord says, “will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” This tree of life, we learn from Revelation 22, is on the banks of the river of life, which flows from the throne of God.

Christ did not ascend to paradise the day he died; even three days after, the morning of his resurrection, we find him plainly stating that he had not yet ascended to the Father. In the garden of burial, where Mary is weeping for her Lord, Christ draws near. Mary mistakes him for the gardener, but in tones which she could not mistake, Christ calls her name. She turns herself, and with a cry of “Rabboni,” she is about to cast herself at his feet in divine worship, but Christ restrains her. “Touch me not,” he said; “for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.”

Why did Christ decline the worship of Mary on this occasion? Was he not the divine Lord, and had he not shown by his triumph over death his right to Mary’s worship?—Yea, verily, but evidently he had not yet received from the Father’s own lips the assurance of the acceptance of his sacrifice. Before receiving worship, he must know from the Majesty of high heaven that the penalty for man’s transgression had been fully met, and that he was man’s accepted Substitute.

Nor is it probable that the thief died the day of his request. Frequently criminals hung on the cross for several days before death ended their suffering. The thieves, when taken from the cross, had their legs broken in order that they might not escape. That the thief expected salvation at the establishment of the kingdom, and that this was the time Christ promised that he would be with him, is the conclusion we are forced to accept.

This view of the dying request of the thief and of the promise of the Lord makes perfect harmony with the divine plan. The generally accepted view as indicated by the punctuation of Christ’s promise, the placing of the comma before the word to-day instead of after it, only serves to bring in contradiction and confusion of the Scriptures of truth. The punctuation of the Scriptures is not a

matter of inspiration. By its use the translators expressed their conception of the meaning of the sacred record. Christ did not promise that the thief should be with him that day in paradise, but he did make the promise that day—“Today.” In that day of all others when it seemed that such a promise would be utterly fruitless, when any statement of his coming kingdom would seem sheer assumption, the great faith of the Lord Jesus in the triumph of his divine mission was positively asserted. The blessed realization of this promise will be made possible through the marvelous working of God’s grace, and the sublime, childlike faith which actuated the humble penitent.

May such a faith be ours. May we look beyond the present darkness and gloom, and take hold upon the blessed fruition, the grand reality, of that hope in the everlasting kingdom of our God.

F. M. W.