A Glorious day

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

A GLORIOUS DAY

Luke 23:40-43

40 But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." 42 Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." 43 Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." 

NIV

So much has been said about this criminal and his death bed confession in his faith in Christ with his resulting salvation. He understood that he was a guilty man being punished justly for what he had done. Surely not like so many of those who are incarcerated today insisting on their innocence. Perhaps there is a lesson in that admission of guilt for us. It does require that admission of our guilt, or sin in order to experience salvation. Whenever someone refuses to believe they are guilty of sin against God, or for that matter refuse to accept the existence of God, or Jesus, or sin they are as the other criminal who will die without ever seeing paradise. But there is another truth here we need to see as well. Although some people who argue that Jesus descended into Hades while his body was in the grave, they would be wrong based on his words here. He told the criminal who confessed his sin and his faith in Jesus that he would be in paradise with him that very day. We see this man asking for Jesus to remember him when he came into his kingdom, and Jesus said they both would be in that kingdom that very day. Because of what God says through the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Corinthians about being absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, we have to believe that was also true of this criminal. Because when he became absent from his body he was therefore present with the Lord in paradise, not in Hades preaching to the unsaved. The point here is that we are in fact going to see Jesus the moment we pass from this life and we will be that very day in paradise with him, as long as we confess our sin, and ask him to remember us, at least in some sense. We know that he told Nicodemus that in order to enter his kingdom we need to be born again, which of course requires us to die, in the spirit that is. By the confession of this criminal he died twice that day, first in his spirit and then in his body, but his spirit was born again, alive to Christ and he experienced paradise in the presence of Jesus that very day. What a day that will be when my Jesus I will see. What a day, glorious day that will be.