Dear Editor,

With Easter upon us I felt a need to comment on one of the great lessons of that day. The question is this. How can we have assurance we will not go to hell?

The answer lies in the exchange between Jesus and the thief on the cross. But before I go on let me first tell you what isn’t an assurance. It certainly isn’t “love is love” or “God is love” because that love doesn’t acknowledge the sacrifice, righteousness nor Holiness made by the God/man Jesus Christ. That love makes the person their own God and says Jesus loves me as I live my own lifestyle. People and Churches enter into this false belief but I must warn you. God makes the rules…not you. It is you who must change…not Jesus. The second greatest falsehood proven by the conversion of the thief was there were no works or baptism involved. He was in his last moments of life. All he could do was recognize Jesus was who He was. So what did happen in those last few hours of the thief’s life. At first, according to scripture, he mocked Jesus along with the other man hanging on the opposite side of the cross. As time went by this thief looked down at the 2 groups of people who were there because of Jesus. One group was in deep mourning because they were losing their leader. People thought their only hope was hanging on the cross and the Kingdom of God was lost. The other group laughed, spat and ridiculed Him. They even repeated the mantra,” He said He was the Son of God.” The hatred is immense. The loss is immense. All this time, Jesus did nothing to retaliate in anger. He said something that was probably as foreign to them as a T-Rex would be walking down our streets. Jesus said, “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.” I believe that this may have been the breaking point for the thief. All hope was gone for him. He was going to die in his sin. He was going to hell. He did 4 things that saved him. He acknowledged he was a sinner when he rebuked the other thief. He said to the other thief, “We are rightly punished but this man has done nothing wrong. Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” The man performed no act except (faith) in who Jesus was. Jesus required no great prayer, or works but an honest belief in Jesus as God. Jesus granted (Grace.) The man (acknowledged he was a sinner) and Jesus was innocent.

And finally the thief acknowledged Jesus as God when he said remember me when you come into your kingdom. He must have declared it loud enough because it is recorded in Luke. So what does getting into Heaven look like? One: It is only the Grace of Jesus’s shed blood on the cross that will save you, nothing else. You must have faith in that grace that can only come from Jesus Christ. You recognize you are a sinner. You declare Jesus is God to others. Grace + faith + acknowledgement and repentance of sin + declaring Jesus is God to others = salvation.

The thief saw beyond the shame of death on a cross to the coming glory of Christ. No one else that day saw that glory. Turn to Jesus today.

Randy Marple

Shadyside