Lord, remember me

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." – Luke 23.39-43

Sometime we can over complicate what faith is. We even have a fancy name for it. People argue about all the various aspects of soteriology. Are we grace or free will? Lapsarian? Supra, lapra, or some other breed? Covenant or dispensational? And so on and so on and so on.

All that is well and good, but when it comes down to the basics of salvation it is pretty simple. ‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’

And here, at the very end of Jesus earthly ministry we find an example.

Jesus had already been crucified. He hung on a hill between two criminals. In the hours they remained alive a conversation took place. The two criminals spoke. One taunted Him and mocked Him. ‘If you are really the Son of God get off that cross.’

The other spoke as well – ‘What are you saying? We deserved to be on our crosses, but this man did nothing.’ He then turned to Jesus – ‘Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’

There it is. We have a confession of sin and a call of faith to the only one who could do anything about. That’s it – salvation in a nutshell.

And Jesus’ words? ‘Today you will be with me in paradise.’

How about that? No theology class, no ‘do this don’t do that,’ not even baptism. Salvation was simply an honest recognition of sin and turning to Christ for deliverance with a call of simple faith.  

The simplicity reminds me of the famous John Newton quote - “Although my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Saviour.”

'Lord, remember me' was enough for this criminal on the cross. It still is.