The thief on the cross who asked Jesus to remember him when He entered into His kingdom has become one of the most well-known figures from the ministry of Christ. What we know from him comes from Luke 23:39-43. The thief recognized the existence of God and the innocence of Jesus. He felt remorse for his own sins and saw royalty in the Son of God. He felt pity that Jesus was suffering but was innocent. Then he chastised his fellow thief for insulting the Lamb of God.
When that thief awoke that morning, he was a criminal, condemned to death by his fellowman. Before the sun set that night on Mount Calvary, the thief was reconciled to the God of heaven. That morning, he walked the streets of Jerusalem to the jeers and hisses of a crowd standing on the street. That evening, he would walk through the gates of heaven to the singing and rejoicing of angels.
What happened at the cross?
There is disunity all around the world. Catalonia wants to break away from Spain. Britain wants to break away from the European Union. Scotland wants to break away from the United Kingdom. There is war in Syria and Crimea. North Korea is being belligerent toward the United States. And man seeks for unity on principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity. But we can see where that is leading us.
There is no lasting unity except through the blood of Jesus Christ. Paul writes that Jesus “abolished in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity” (Eph. 2:15-16).
Jesus abolished the barrier of the dividing wall (2:14) and He gave man one system of worship, one Savior, one Spirit, one hope, one faith, one baptism (4:4-6). Then He put man into one body. In the process, He also abolished the spirit that divides man: the spirit that causes jealousy, envy, wrath, strife, backbiting, slander, pride, and ego.
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We know the value of our souls because they cost Jesus His life.
In the parallel passage to Ephesians 2, Colossians 1:19-23, Paul further writes: “For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach— if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.”
What happened at the cross? In Jesus Christ, we are now made holy. Blameless. Beyond reproach.
There is a story of an old, tender-hearted man who was meditating in the countryside by a stream. He noticed a scorpion struggling to get out of the swirling water. The man took pity at the scorpion and tried to lift him up on the rock but the scorpion kept striking at him. A friend walked up and noticed the effort and commented: “Don’t you realize that it is the nature of scorpions to sting and attack?”
The man answered, “Yes, but it is my nature to save and rescue. Why should I change my nature just because the scorpion doesn’t change his?”
God cannot change His nature – neither His holiness which repels sinful man from His presence, nor His love, which reaches out to man through Jesus Christ. Christ has destroyed the causes of discord and disharmony among mankind and between man and God. We need to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.
