Why Can't I Be Saved Like The Thief On The Cross?

Luke 23:39-43 Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, "If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us." But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, "Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong." Then he said to Jesus, "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom." And Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise." 

Perhaps you have considered the doctrine of "faith only" based on what Jesus said to the thief on the cross. Many people feel they can be saved in the exact same way he was. However, we must remember a crucial biblical timeline: the thief on the cross was living under the Old Testament... the Law of Moses. He was not under the New Covenant. When Jesus spoke to him, Christ had not yet died, been buried, or risen from the grave.

Furthermore, there was no way to be baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of sins under the Law of Moses. The command had not yet been given. No one under the Old Covenant could have been "buried with Him in baptism" (Colossians 2:12) because Jesus had not yet been buried.

Consider this story I once heard during a Gospel Meeting. Abraham Lincoln never paid one dime in income taxes. Let's suppose you write a letter to the IRS telling them that you will no longer pay income taxes because Abraham Lincoln never paid them. You advise the IRS that they have received your very last check. No doubt, you would receive a swift letter from the IRS informing you that Abraham Lincoln lived and died before there was ever an income tax law. Because he was never under an income tax law, he could not have paid income taxes even if he had wanted to. They will be expecting your check by return mail.

Another historical analogy goes something like this. Imagine a wealthy man writes a Last Will and Testament. In his will, he states that his entire fortune will be divided among his children, provided they graduate from college. However, a week before the wealthy man dies, his neighbor comes over and asks for help. Out of the goodness of his heart, the wealthy man simply hands the neighbor the keys to a brand-new car, no strings attached. After the wealthy man dies, the neighbor's brother goes to the executor of the estate and says, "I want a car too! And I shouldn't have to graduate college to get it, because the wealthy man gave one to my brother without that rule!" The executor would rightfully respond: "While the man was alive, he had the authority to give his own property to whoever he wanted, however he wanted. But now that he has passed away, his Last Will and Testament is in full effect. We are now strictly bound by the written conditions of the will." 

And one more... For forty years, the speed limit on a local highway was 65 mph. During that time, your grandfather drove that road every day at 65 mph, and he perfectly obeyed the law. However, the area has grown with businesses and a school nearby, and the city officially changed the speed limit to 55 mph and posted new signs everywhere. If a police officer pulls you over for driving 65 mph, you cannot argue, "But my grandfather drove 65 on this road, and he was right with the law!" The officer would tell you: "Your grandfather was right with the law of his time. But a new law has been issued and new signs clearly posted, and you must obey the law that is in effect today. Here's your speeding ticket, sir. Slow it down!"

If we can understand these simple analogies, we should have no problem understanding why the thief on the cross was not baptized under the law of the Great Commission. The thief lived and died prior to the Great Commission; we live under the law of the Great Commission. The thief lived before the consummation of the gospel of Christ. There is no possible way he could have obeyed the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, even if he had wanted to.

We live under the New Testament, which is the new covenant God has made with us. In order for a testament (or a will) to be in force, the testator must die. Jesus is the Testator. Once He died, was buried, and was raised on the third day, He gave the commandments for salvation that we must obey today.

Hebrews 9:11-17 But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives. 

The Old Covenant was replaced by the New Covenant upon the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus gave the commandment to be baptized after His resurrection. The thief on the cross was dead before Jesus was resurrected. There is no possible way we can be saved under the same conditions as the thief.

So, why did Jesus say the thief would be with Him in Paradise? Because while Jesus was here on this earth, He had the divine power to forgive people of their sins directly.

Matthew 9:6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins"—then He said to the paralytic, "Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house."

Jesus forgave and saved many people before He died. He had that authority as the Son of God walking the earth. But Jesus is not "on earth" now; He is at the right hand of God. Before He ascended into heaven, He gave universal instructions on how all men must be saved under the New Covenant (John 8:24; Luke 13:3,5; Matthew 10:32; Mark 16:16).

People claim the thief was saved by "faith only," but even while pinned to a cross, the thief was actively demonstrating obedience.

• He showed repentance by rebuking the other thief and confessing his own guilt: "And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds" (Luke 23:41).

• He confessed Christ publicly, defending Jesus' innocence and acknowledging His authority: "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom" (Luke 23:42). The thief did everything physically possible in his unique situation to obey God. It was not a silent, internal "mental assent," but an active, spoken faith.

Those who use the thief to promote "faith only" assume that he was never baptized. But the Bible never says that. In fact, there is strong circumstantial evidence suggesting he may have been baptized by John the Baptist.

• John preached a "baptism of repentance for the remission of sins" (Mark 1:4). The very next verse says, "Then all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and were all baptized by him in the Jordan River..." (Mark 1:5). John's baptism was widespread.

• While on the cross, the thief knew Jesus was innocent, a King, and that Jesus had a coming Kingdom (Luke 23:41-42). Where did he learn this theological truth? It is possible that he heard John the Baptist or Jesus preaching earlier in his life, submitted to John's baptism, but later fell into a life of crime. We cannot say that he was definitely never baptized.

To find a case of salvation without New Testament baptism, a person has to bypass the entire history of the early church. Once the New Covenant began, we have a complete record of conversions in the Book of Acts. Why do people ignore the 3,000 souls on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:38-41), the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:36-38), Saul of Tarsus-Paul (Acts 22:16), Cornelius and his family (Acts 10:47-48), and the Philippian Jailer (Acts 16:30-33)? All of these people lived under the New Covenant, and they were all baptized. Jumping backward to the Old Testament to borrow an example reveals a deep ignorance of Christ's commands from the New Testament under which we now live.

The core of the Gospel that saves us today, as defined by Paul, is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).

• Under the New Covenant, we are told: "that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9).

• The thief could not believe that God had raised Jesus from the dead, because Jesus hadn't died or resurrected yet! The thief was saved without believing the core tenet of the Christian gospel because the gospel had not yet been fully accomplished.

Something most people are not considering when they say they want to be saved like the thief on the cross is that they are cherry-picking how they want to be saved. They want the result only (salvation without baptism). They fail to consider the thief's situation. If anyone wants to be saved like the thief, they will have to be nailed to a cross. 

When we look at the reality of the crucifixion, no sane individual would ever want to trade places with that man. Crucifixion was perfected by the Romans to be the most agonizing, shameful, and drawn-out method of execution possible. In fact, the modern word "excruciating" literally translates from Latin as "out of the cross."

To be saved exactly like the thief, you would have to endure the same horrific conditions. You would be stripped naked and nailed to a rough wooden beam by your wrists and feet. Every time you needed to take a breath, you would have to push up on the nails in your feet, scraping your scourged back against the splintered wood, just to pull air into your collapsing lungs.

Furthermore, you would have to suffer the final, brutal act of the Roman soldiers. Because the Sabbath was approaching, the soldiers needed the victims to die quickly so the bodies would not remain on the crosses.

John 19:31-32 "Therefore, because it was the Preparation Day, that the bodies should not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who was crucified with Him."

The thief had his legs shattered by a massive iron mallet so that he could no longer push himself up to breathe, leading to death by rapid asphyxiation.

When people claim they "want to be saved like the thief on the cross," what they are really saying is, "I want to avoid the command to be baptized." They do not actually want the thief's experience. Using the extreme, agonizing, and entirely unique final moments of a dying man's life as an excuse to avoid a simple, painless command given by the resurrected Christ is not sound biblical reasoning. God does not ask us to be nailed to a tree to be saved; He simply asks us to believe, repent, confess, and be buried with Christ in the waters of baptism (Acts 2:38; Romans 6:3-4).

Finally, consider the most evident proof that "faith only" does not save us. Remember what the thief on the cross said? He said, "Lord, remember me..." (Luke 23:42).

Many people believe they can be saved simply by believing and calling Jesus "Lord," just as the thief did. However, Jesus Himself explicitly warned that simply acknowledging Him as Lord is not enough to enter heaven.

Matthew 7:21-23 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'"

This passage establishes undeniable truths:

• Do people calling Jesus "Lord" have faith? Yes. They believe He is Lord, otherwise they would not call Him that.
• Will this faith alone save everyone? No.
• Does Jesus prove here that not everyone with faith will be saved? Yes. He requires obedience to "the will of My Father."

You can have faith, but if you do not obey, that faith is dead (James 2:26). As Jesus plainly asked the crowds:

Luke 6:46 "But why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and not do the things which I say?"

God bless you!
Sonnie Parker