But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?
On the cross with Jesus placed between two thieves as the greatest criminal, one condemned man joined the mockery while the other rebuked him instead. By asking about fearing God in the same condemnation he appealed to their shared sentence and suffering as reason for reverence, confessing that they suffered justly for their deeds while Jesus had done nothing wrong. His rebuke came from faith that discerned in the dying Jesus the Redeemer, Messiah, Son of God and Lord, illuminated by the Spirit when priests and even disciples failed to see. That faith grasped Christ as able to pardon sin even in humiliation, and drew the promise of paradise, proving the vilest sinner may find salvation through His blood even at the eleventh hour. Yet his turning at the last moment because he had no light before warns against delaying repentance, for the two thieves stand for those who believe in Jesus lifted up and live and those who refuse and die without hope.
Setting and Meaning
The rebuke belongs to the crucifixion after the condemnation of Jesus on the way from the judgment-hall to Calvary, when news of His condemnation had spread throughout Jerusalem and people of all classes and ranks flocked toward the place, and disciples and believers from the city and surrounding region joined the throng following the Saviour because the priests and rulers were bound by promise not to molest His followers if He Himself were delivered to them. Three figures hung on crosses before the gathered crowd below, with Jesus placed between two thieves so as to make Him appear the greatest criminal. His forgiving and encouraging a sinner even in His own agony belongs to that same scene.
It followed His descending into the depths of humiliation as a malefactor dying on the cross. His own nation clamored for His blood, Herod and his soldiers plaited the crown of thorns for His brow, clad Him in the purple robe, bowed before Him and struck Him with the reed placed in His hand, and scourged Him as the worst of criminals while the murderous Barabbas was chosen in place of the Teacher who was thought to take His place on David's throne. Seeing Him in whom their hopes of eternal life were centered thus in the hands of wicked men tried the disciples, made them mourn and fast, and caused hope and courage to fail.
The speaker is the penitent thief crucified with Christ, rebuking his fellow criminal instead of joining him in railing at and mocking Jesus as the priests, rulers and scribes did. While one condemned man prayed to Jesus, the other was hardened, made desperate and defiant by pain, and joined in contempt and reviling in hope of being saved by Christ with themselves if He were the Christ, and the account centers on the one who rebuked. Both men faced the same condemnation and physical torture as Jesus, yet only one turned to rebuke.
By asking whether his fellow does not fear God seeing they are in the same condemnation, he appeals to their shared sentence, suffering and judgment as reason for reverence and humility. Fear of God is thereby shown to be inconsistent with joining in contempt and reviling of Christ even while suffering the same judgment. He and his fellow no longer fear men because men can make them suffer no more, but conviction pours upon him that there is a God to fear and a future and a judgment to tremble at, since death is not the end.
The rebuke belongs with the open confession that the two thieves suffer justly receiving the due reward of their deeds, while Jesus has done nothing amiss or wrong and does not deserve His suffering. Conviction of his own guilt and recognition of Christ's innocence led the repentant thief to trust the Saviour. His rebuke thus reflects both fear of God and recognition of Christ's innocence.
He was convicted by the appearance of Christ and by His unresisting suffering without one word of reproach, by His Godlike deportment and His pitying forgiveness of His tormentors, and by hearing passersby defend Christ, repeat His sayings and tell of His works, which dropped as seed into his heart and raised the question what manner of man this is. As a Jew he had believed Messiah was soon to come, had heard Jesus and been convicted by His teachings and had once favored Christ, but had turned to his own desires through the influence of priests and rulers, had his morals corrupted by base association and pleasure, and had sunk farther into wickedness until arrested for open crime and condemned to die, leaving him hopeless upon conviction of his crime. On that day of trial he had been with Jesus in the judgment hall and on the way to Calvary, had heard Pilate declare Him a just man, had marked His deportment, and in his heart acknowledged Him to be the Son of God and the Christ. He had also heard from those passing by that both thieves must stand before the judgment seat of Christ and must answer to God in the great day for every insult and mockery done to Christ, when everyone shall receive according to works, and he grieved that he had not known this before while he might have lived a different life before closing his sin-polluted history.
Faith, Pardon and Warning
The rebuke came from faith that discerned the world's Redeemer, Messiah, Son of God and Lord in Jesus crucified like a malefactor. Though in the same physical suffering and condemnation, his mind was illuminated by the Spirit of God until link after link the chain of evidence was joined and the suffering victim stood forth before him as the Son of God. While priests and rulers in self-righteous scorn failed to see His divine character and even the disciples doubted His divinity, he was the only one to call Jesus Lord as He hung dying, a lone witness to His identity amid an apparently lost cause.
His faith grasped Christ as a sin-pardoning Saviour even in humiliation and apparent defeat, calling on Him as Lord to remember him when coming into His kingdom. This drew the promise of paradise, proving Christ retained in dying agony His right and power to forgive sin and to save to the uttermost all who receive Him. The words of pardon show Jesus forgiving and encouraging a sinner even in His own agony. His petition gave Christ a gleam of comfort in bitter loneliness, and Christ gave him peace and assurance that he would be with Him in Paradise.
His peace and comfort of acceptance with God was a genuine conversion under peculiar circumstances for a special purpose, testifying to all beholders that Jesus was no impostor but sustained His character and carried out His mission to the closing scene. No words in His whole ministry were more grateful to Him amid blasphemy and taunts. Declared on the very day of Christ's death alongside the Roman centurion who commanded the guard and the man who bore the cross, his faith stands as fresh evidence of fulfilled prophecy and new witness to Christ's divinity, proving the Redeemer saw of the travail of His soul even upon the cross.
Christ could speak forgiveness to the suffering thief as the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. While His humanity suffered the hatred and revenge of His enemies, His divinity was at work through His suffering humanity. Christ alone was free to respond and to undertake suretyship for the guilty criminal, showing tender consideration for all who trust His power to save and give them victory. Though guilty and suffering justly for his own crimes, the thief was far less guilty than those who sentenced and executed Him and than the priests, scribes and rulers who demanded the death of the Son of God.
The verse teaches that the vilest sinner may find pardon and salvation through the merits of the blood of Christ even at the eleventh hour at the close of probation. It shows that God loves the sinner and that Christ can impress even one facing death. As those who looked on the uplifted brazen serpent in the wilderness lived, so all who now look in faith to the Saviour are pardoned, since without shedding of blood no one can be saved. The gospel was thus preached to the dying thief on the cross and is to be preached to people in prison, for the Lord accepts all who receive and believe, meeting the ensnared with pity and forgiveness.
The two thieves represent two classes: those who look to and believe in Jesus lifted on the cross and will live forever, like the thief who turned to Him, and those who refuse to believe and will die without hope, like the hardened thief. The thief's experience warns that no one must neglect present opportunities and delay repentance presuming on the thief and trusting to a death-bed repentance. He turned to God only at the last moment because until then he had no light, while those shown their duty in God's Word should not delay serving God. Every neglected ray of light leaves the sinner in greater darkness until deception takes possession and the case becomes hopeless, though where enlightenment comes at the last moment and is accepted with intelligent faith such penitents find favor with Christ.
On the cross with Jesus placed between two thieves as the greatest criminal, one condemned man joined the mockery while the other rebuked him instead. By asking about fearing God in the same condemnation he appealed to their shared sentence and suffering as reason for reverence, confessing that they suffered justly for their deeds while Jesus had done nothing wrong. His rebuke came from faith that discerned in the dying Jesus the Redeemer, Messiah, Son of God and Lord, illuminated by the Spirit when priests and even disciples failed to see. That faith grasped Christ as able to pardon sin even in humiliation, and drew the promise of paradise, proving the vilest sinner may find salvation through His blood even at the eleventh hour. Yet his turning at the last moment because he had no light before warns against delaying repentance, for the two thieves stand for those who believe in Jesus lifted up and live and those who refuse and die without hope.
Setting and Meaning
The rebuke belongs to the crucifixion after the condemnation of Jesus on the way from the judgment-hall to Calvary, when news of His condemnation had spread throughout Jerusalem and people of all classes and ranks flocked toward the place, and disciples and believers from the city and surrounding region joined the throng following the Saviour because the priests and rulers were bound by promise not to molest His followers if He Himself were delivered to them. Three figures hung on crosses before the gathered crowd below, with Jesus placed between two thieves so as to make Him appear the greatest criminal. His forgiving and encouraging a sinner even in His own agony belongs to that same scene.
It followed His descending into the depths of humiliation as a malefactor dying on the cross. His own nation clamored for His blood, Herod and his soldiers plaited the crown of thorns for His brow, clad Him in the purple robe, bowed before Him and struck Him with the reed placed in His hand, and scourged Him as the worst of criminals while the murderous Barabbas was chosen in place of the Teacher who was thought to take His place on David's throne. Seeing Him in whom their hopes of eternal life were centered thus in the hands of wicked men tried the disciples, made them mourn and fast, and caused hope and courage to fail.
The speaker is the penitent thief crucified with Christ, rebuking his fellow criminal instead of joining him in railing at and mocking Jesus as the priests, rulers and scribes did. While one condemned man prayed to Jesus, the other was hardened, made desperate and defiant by pain, and joined in contempt and reviling in hope of being saved by Christ with themselves if He were the Christ, and the account centers on the one who rebuked. Both men faced the same condemnation and physical torture as Jesus, yet only one turned to rebuke.
By asking whether his fellow does not fear God seeing they are in the same condemnation, he appeals to their shared sentence, suffering and judgment as reason for reverence and humility. Fear of God is thereby shown to be inconsistent with joining in contempt and reviling of Christ even while suffering the same judgment. He and his fellow no longer fear men because men can make them suffer no more, but conviction pours upon him that there is a God to fear and a future and a judgment to tremble at, since death is not the end.
The rebuke belongs with the open confession that the two thieves suffer justly receiving the due reward of their deeds, while Jesus has done nothing amiss or wrong and does not deserve His suffering. Conviction of his own guilt and recognition of Christ's innocence led the repentant thief to trust the Saviour. His rebuke thus reflects both fear of God and recognition of Christ's innocence.
He was convicted by the appearance of Christ and by His unresisting suffering without one word of reproach, by His Godlike deportment and His pitying forgiveness of His tormentors, and by hearing passersby defend Christ, repeat His sayings and tell of His works, which dropped as seed into his heart and raised the question what manner of man this is. As a Jew he had believed Messiah was soon to come, had heard Jesus and been convicted by His teachings and had once favored Christ, but had turned to his own desires through the influence of priests and rulers, had his morals corrupted by base association and pleasure, and had sunk farther into wickedness until arrested for open crime and condemned to die, leaving him hopeless upon conviction of his crime. On that day of trial he had been with Jesus in the judgment hall and on the way to Calvary, had heard Pilate declare Him a just man, had marked His deportment, and in his heart acknowledged Him to be the Son of God and the Christ. He had also heard from those passing by that both thieves must stand before the judgment seat of Christ and must answer to God in the great day for every insult and mockery done to Christ, when everyone shall receive according to works, and he grieved that he had not known this before while he might have lived a different life before closing his sin-polluted history.
Faith, Pardon and Warning
The rebuke came from faith that discerned the world's Redeemer, Messiah, Son of God and Lord in Jesus crucified like a malefactor. Though in the same physical suffering and condemnation, his mind was illuminated by the Spirit of God until link after link the chain of evidence was joined and the suffering victim stood forth before him as the Son of God. While priests and rulers in self-righteous scorn failed to see His divine character and even the disciples doubted His divinity, he was the only one to call Jesus Lord as He hung dying, a lone witness to His identity amid an apparently lost cause.
His faith grasped Christ as a sin-pardoning Saviour even in humiliation and apparent defeat, calling on Him as Lord to remember him when coming into His kingdom. This drew the promise of paradise, proving Christ retained in dying agony His right and power to forgive sin and to save to the uttermost all who receive Him. The words of pardon show Jesus forgiving and encouraging a sinner even in His own agony. His petition gave Christ a gleam of comfort in bitter loneliness, and Christ gave him peace and assurance that he would be with Him in Paradise.
His peace and comfort of acceptance with God was a genuine conversion under peculiar circumstances for a special purpose, testifying to all beholders that Jesus was no impostor but sustained His character and carried out His mission to the closing scene. No words in His whole ministry were more grateful to Him amid blasphemy and taunts. Declared on the very day of Christ's death alongside the Roman centurion who commanded the guard and the man who bore the cross, his faith stands as fresh evidence of fulfilled prophecy and new witness to Christ's divinity, proving the Redeemer saw of the travail of His soul even upon the cross.
Christ could speak forgiveness to the suffering thief as the propitiation for the sins of the whole world. While His humanity suffered the hatred and revenge of His enemies, His divinity was at work through His suffering humanity. Christ alone was free to respond and to undertake suretyship for the guilty criminal, showing tender consideration for all who trust His power to save and give them victory. Though guilty and suffering justly for his own crimes, the thief was far less guilty than those who sentenced and executed Him and than the priests, scribes and rulers who demanded the death of the Son of God.
The verse teaches that the vilest sinner may find pardon and salvation through the merits of the blood of Christ even at the eleventh hour at the close of probation. It shows that God loves the sinner and that Christ can impress even one facing death. As those who looked on the uplifted brazen serpent in the wilderness lived, so all who now look in faith to the Saviour are pardoned, since without shedding of blood no one can be saved. The gospel was thus preached to the dying thief on the cross and is to be preached to people in prison, for the Lord accepts all who receive and believe, meeting the ensnared with pity and forgiveness.
The two thieves represent two classes: those who look to and believe in Jesus lifted on the cross and will live forever, like the thief who turned to Him, and those who refuse to believe and will die without hope, like the hardened thief. The thief's experience warns that no one must neglect present opportunities and delay repentance presuming on the thief and trusting to a death-bed repentance. He turned to God only at the last moment because until then he had no light, while those shown their duty in God's Word should not delay serving God. Every neglected ray of light leaves the sinner in greater darkness until deception takes possession and the case becomes hopeless, though where enlightenment comes at the last moment and is accepted with intelligent faith such penitents find favor with Christ.