remember me

have you ever really thought about how good God is? how good He is to offer us the gift of salvation? the free gift, for us sinners to be with a holy and perfect God. ‘for by grace you have saved through faith. and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God’ (Ephesians 2:8).

i think one of the most beautiful stories of salvation can be seen when Jesus is on the cross with two thieves, one on his left and the other on his right. when Jesus and the two robbers were on their cross’s, both the robbers chimed in on mocking Jesus as the religious leaders and some onlookers were doing. until one of the robbers said to Jesus ‘are you not the Christ? save yourself and us!’ (Luke 23:39) and the other robber had a change of heart. it doesn’t say anywhere why or what happened within him. all we know is that this other robber rebuked the other ‘saying, ‘do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? and we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.’ (Luke 23:40-41). in a moment this robber’s heart has changed, i’m sure the same way as many of our hearts have changed in just an instance. my sophomore year of college on a Saturday night, i went to study hall to work on a paper and God wrecked me in that room and i looked at my life wondering what i was doing. and from that night on my life has been different. yes, i still sin. we all do. no, i’m not perfect. we all aren’t. but God sees me as blameless, sees you as blameless! God sees us all as worthy of being saved. nobody is too far gone for the gift of salvation to change their eternity. the gift is so freely given because Jesus doesn’t want to spend eternity apart from one his children! as you will see, after the robber is done correcting the other, he says to Jesus, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom. and Jesus said to him ‘truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.’’ (Luke 23:42-43). and just like that, this man who has been a robber for all the years of his life, is saved in his final minutes or hours – hanging on a cross, as a man who wants to be with Jesus. and the beautiful part is that Jesus accepts. this thief is now walking through ‘pearl gates’ and walking down ‘streets of gold’ (Revelation 21:21), not in some mythical place, but in the dwelling place of our God. worshipping the goodness of God for saving a man such as himself – a man that is not worthy, a person just like you and i. Jesus wants to spend eternity with you, are you humble enough to say to Jesus, ‘remember me’?

-n0tbychance