by Dave Brown
Ye often hear it said ...
"You can be saved just like the thief on the cross."
but Jesus said (Matthew 7:21):
“Not everyone that saith unto me Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven;
but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”
It is impossible for you to be saved "just like the thief on the cross." To do so you would have to be crucified on a cross next to Jesus. You would have had to have been in the circumstances that the thief was in. This would have included being born under, and thus subject to, the Old Testament law. This is impossible today. It would be equally as reasonable to state that your pattern for salvation is going to be:
Noah. Could building an ark save you today?
Abraham. Could sacrificing your son save you today?
Moses. Could you lead the Israelites out of slavery?
Surely we all understand that we are not saved by the specific acts of obedience established by these Old Testament characters. Yet, Hebrews 11 tells us that they were men of faith who were acceptable to God because their faith motivated them to do what God commanded when he commanded it. God’s commands for us today are in the New Testament (Hebrews 1, 7, 9; Col. 2:14; Gal. 3, 4, 5; Rom. 3, 6). When we subject ourselves to these commands we demonstrate the same faith that the thief on the cross demonstrated.