tbutkovich wrote:
If you had been living during the Passion of Christ when he was brought before the tribunal, you would be one of many yelling at the top of your lungs: “ “Crucify Him!”
On the three crosses, you would have been characterized as the the murderer on the left of Jesus mocking Jesus saying: “If you are the Christ (Messiah), come down off the cross and save us!” The thief on the right of Jesus rebuked the other saying: “Do you not even fear God seeing that you are under the same condemnation, and that we indeed have justly receive the due rewards of our deeds, but this man has done nothing.” Then he turned to Jesus and said: “Remember me when you enter your kingdom.”
Jesus was so impressed by the humility of the man on the right, he said: “I tell you the t***h, today you will be with me in paradise.”
This is a powerful message to all mankind. You do not have to be baptized to get to heaven, you don’t have to be Jewish or Catholic to get to heaven. You simply have to humble yourself before Christ.
The thief did not ask Jesus to take him to Christ’s Kingdom. He acknowledged the existence of God, expressed his sinful life, rebuked the murder, declared Christ’s innocence and then humbled himself turning to Jesus Christ with a simple request: “remember me”. He did not feel he was entitled or worthy of entering the Kingdom of God asking only “to be remembered.” For the thief’s humility he was given the reward of paradise.
We have the free will to choose in our physical life. We can hold fast to our p***e, hypocrisy and denial of Jesus Christ or will we can be humble, t***hful and accept Jesus Christ into our hearts.
Everyone has a chance to repent up to the very last second of our life, in spite of their past sinful life we lived. The thief on the cross was a classic example of that.
We must just turn to Christ and accept him as our Savior before our last second on earth and we will enter the Kingdom of God.
If you had been living during the Passion of Chris... (
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Well said, and thank.you.
