THE THIEF ON THE CROSS

Luke 23: 39-43; Mark 16:15-16;

When we read the two passages that we read, you may not have realized it…but in reference to salvation, they initially seem to conflict…or contradict each other.

One says that you must “believe and be baptized to be saved”, the other indicates that “all you have to do in order to be saved…or to be in paradise with Christ…is call on Him to save you.”
Two completely different ideas.

Which is it? And the answer to this is critical because there is no issue more important than eternal salvation.

If you do not get to heaven, nothing else matters.
This is critical.

And I must tell you, this is an issue that separates us as a Church of Christ from almost every other religious group in town.

The thief on the cross is what other groups refer to, to say that “all you need to do in order to be saved is call on the name of the Lord. After all, he was saved without baptism.”
And we refer time and time again to Mark 16:16 and many other passages in the NT that command baptism to say that “you must believe in Christ and obey Him by being baptized for the forgiveness of your sins.”
And the question is, “Which is it? What is the truth of this matter? Do these two passages contradict each other? Are there two ways, today by which a person can be saved?
Can you just be saved by “believing in Christ and calling on Him to save you?” or is baptism essential for salvation?

First of all, these two passages do not necessarily contradict each other.

What has happened is, the conditions or requirements for salvation…as well as some other circumstances have changed from when one took place and when the other took place.
And because they did that makes one no longer valid for salvation.

Let me show you what I mean. Turn with me to Matthew 9: 1-6.

2 And behold, they were bringing to Him a paralytic, lying on a bed; and Jesus seeing their faith…

Now, let me show you something right here.
Notice Jesus saw “their faith”…not the paralytic’s faith…but “their faith”…the faith of those carrying the paralytic.

Now, look what Jesus says to the paralytic: “Take courage, My son, your sins are forgiven.”

This is interesting. He sees, “their” faith, and yet he forgives the paralytic’s sins.
Now, would you argue from this that one can be forgiven of his sins without believing? Without faith?
NO…individual faith is required of everyone and to say you can be saved without faith is to violate other scripture.

Well, doesn’t that apply to saying you can be saved by faith without being baptized? Doesn’t denying baptism violate other scripture?

But now, let me show you the original point.

“2 And behold, they were bringing to Him a paralytic, lying on a bed; and Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic lying on the bed, “Take courage, My son, your sins are forgiven.” 3 And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This fellow blasphemes.” 4 And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, “Why are you thinking evil in your hearts? 5 “For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, and walk’? 6 “But in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”– then He said to the paralytic– “Rise, take up your bed, and go home.”

Now, it is obvious from this passage that Jesus has the authority to forgive sins…and while here on this earth he exercised that authority as He saw fit.

And that is what he did over in Luke 23 with the thief on the cross.

But what has happened by the time you get to Mark 16:16 where Jesus says, “He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved.”?

Well, a lot has happened.

Christ has been crucified…He has been placed in the tomb…He has been raised from the tomb…and now He is about to ascend into heaven.
And in verse 19 He does just that.

But just before He leaves this earth…He gives his disciples and us, the instructions He gives in verse 16…instructions that are to be carried out…while He is gone!

In fact, look at Acts 1: 1-2.

“The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up, after He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen.”

What were those instructions that He gave the apostles in Mark 16:15-16…and Matthew 28:18-20.
They were “orders”…”commandments”…orders to be obeyed.

And that is exactly what his disciples did.

In Acts 2:38, Peter preached baptism…in Acts 8, Philip preached baptism…in Acts 15 Paul and Barnabas preached baptism…in Acts 22:16…and Romans 6:3-4 and Galatians 3:26-27, Paul preached baptism…and in 1 Peter 3:21 Peter preached baptism.
And in each of these references the people who heard baptism preached, obeyed.

You see, when Christ was here on this earth He exercised his authority to forgive sins as He saw fit.

But He did not give that authority to forgive sins to His disciples.
Instead, He gave them orders on what they were to teach in reference to having sins forgiven…and when He left, they obeyed His orders.
By His authority they taught that one must have faith in Christ, confess Him as Lord, repent of sins, be baptized for the remission of your sins…and walk in the light as He Himself is in the light.
And that is what is to be done until He comes back again.

Yes, the indication is that Christ saved the thief on the cross without the thief being baptized.

But Christ did that while he was here on the earth.
In His absence, He left us different orders to follow.

Look at this again. Look at Acts 1 again. In verse 2 it says that Jesus gave His apostles His “orders”…now look at verse 3.

3 To these He also presented Himself alive, after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.

He gave His orders in Mark 16:16 just before He ascended into heaven…that means it had been 40 days since the crucifixion.

When Christ gave His orders in Mark 16:16 and Matthew 28:18…the thief had been dead for 40 days.
One of the reasons the thief was not baptized into Christ…is because He was never commanded to be!
He never heard the command…He was already dead when the Lord commanded it!

The thief never came under the command of the great commission.

But we do!

To look at the thief on the cross and say that baptism is not essential for salvation is to look back to a time prior to our Lord’s ascension…and the orders that He gave for us to follow.

Now, let me show you something else that changed. Turn with me to Hebrews 8:6. Let’s read this.

6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. 8 For finding fault with them, He says,

“Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, When I will effect a new covenant With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; 9 Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers On the day when I took them by the hand To lead them out of the land of Egypt; For they did not continue in My covenant, And I did not care for them, says the Lord. 10 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of IsraelAfter those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their minds,And I will write them upon their hearts.And I will be their God, And they shall be My people. 11 “And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, And everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ For all shall know Me, From the least to the greatest of them. 12 “For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more.”

13 When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.

Now, from reading this passage there is no doubt that there is an Old Covenant…and a New Covenant.

And the old was to be done away with and a new was to be instituted.
And verse 6 tells us that it was Christ who would “mediate” this new covenant.
No one will argue that.

Now, when did the New Covenant come into being…or into “force”? Well, turn to Heb. 9:15.

Heb 9:15-18

15 And for this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, in order that since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. 16 For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. 17 For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives.

Christ mediated the New Covenant…He brought it into force when He died.

Look at Col 2:13-15

13 And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, 14 having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

When Christ died on the cross the old covenant was invalidated…and a new covenant was established.

Now, let me ask you this. Which covenant did the thief on the cross live under?

He lived under the old.
Therefore, he never came under Christ’s new covenant commandment to be baptized for salvation.

But after Christ’s death…after the New Covenant was “in force”…Christ commands all believers to be baptized for salvation.

Now, one last point.

Those who point to the thief and say that he proves that you can be saved without being baptized…cannot prove that.
They cannot prove that he wasn’t baptized.
Turn with me over to Matthew 3:

Matt 3:4-6 Now John himself had a garment of camel’s hair, and a leather belt about his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. 5 Then Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea, and all the district around the Jordan; 6 and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins.

It is entirely possible that the thief on the cross had heard John preach…and that he was baptized for the remission of his sins…and on that cross his statement of repentance may have prompted Christ to forgive him of his sins and save him.

The truth of the matter is…we do not know if the thief had ever been baptized or not.
And to say that he wasn’t is to say more than the Bible says.

A great multitude of people today…perhaps even someone here this morning…have turned to the example of the thief on the cross to claim salvation simply by “calling on His name.”

In doing so, you have dismissed the commandments…the orders that He left for us while He is gone.

I know the example of the thief on the cross is a very popular teaching…and the idea of salvation apart from baptism is one that many ascribe too.

But just because it is popular…and just because a very large number of people ascribe too these ideas does not make it right.

What is right…and what we must ascribe too is what Christ commanded for us to do while He is gone…and He commanded us to be “baptized in His name…or by His authority, for the forgiveness of our sins.”

Which will you do? One will save you…the other will not.