The Dying Thief by Ryle

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 25, 1856

The Dying Thief.

By Ryle

I WANT you thoroughly to understand that the leading principles of the penitent thief’s religion were just the same as those of the oldest saint that ever lived.

See, for one thing, how strong was the faith of this man. He called Jesus, "Lord." He declared his belief that he would have a kingdom. He believed that He was able to give him eternal life and glory, and in this belief prayed to Him. He maintained His innocence of all the charges brought against Him: "This man," said he, "hath done nothing amiss." Others perhaps may have thought the Lord innocent; none said so openly, but this poor dying man.

And when did all this happen? It happened when the whole nation had denied Christ, shouting, "Crucify him, crucify him; we have no king but Caesar"—when the chief priests and Pharisees had condemned and found Him guilty of death—when even His own disciples had forsaken him and fled—when He was hanging, faint, bleeding, and dying on the cross, numbered with transgressors, and counted accursed. This was the hour when the thief believed in Christ, and prayed to Him. Surely such faith was never seen since the world began.

He only saw our Lord in agony and in weakness, in suffering and in pain. He saw Him undergoing a dishonorable punishment, deserted, mocked, despised, blasphemed. He saw Him rejected by all the great and wise and noble of His own people, His strength dried up like a potsherd, his life drawing to the grave. Ps. xxii, 15; lxxxviii, 3. He saw no sceptre, no royal crown, no outward dominion, no glory, no majesty, no power, no signs of might. And yet the dying thief believed, and looked forward to Christ’s kingdom.

See, for another thing, what a right sense of sin the thief had. He says to his companion, "We receive the due reward of our deeds." He acknowledges his own ungodliness, and the justice of his punishment. He makes no attempt to justify himself, or excuse his wickedness. He speaks like a man humbled and self-abased by the remembrance of past iniquities. This is what all God’s children feel. They are ready to allow they are poor hell-deserving sinners.

In one word, you see in the penitent thief a finished work of the Holy Ghost. Every part of the believer’s character may be traced in him. Short as his life was after conversion, he found time to leave abundant evidence that he was a child of God. His faith, his prayer, his humility, his brotherly love, are unmistakable witnesses of the reality of his repentance. He was not a penitent in name only, but in deed and in truth.—Ryle.