Why Men Today Cannot Be Saved Like The Thief On The Cross?



Posted: Tuesday, December 02, 2008

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I recently had an individual ask the question that if baptism is essential for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38) then why did not Jesus tell the rich young ruler?  (This individual does not believe what Peter taught on the subject in Acts 2 where Peter makes baptism essential to salvation.)  It is the wrong question to ask.  Why?  Because when Jesus was talking to the rich young ruler he was not talking to you and me.  The only lessons in the account of the rich young ruler that could be made applicable to us is (1) a man may be very religious but lost and (2) the danger of having a hidden idol in one's heart.  

Your salvation and mine does not depend on what Jesus did or did not tell a man living under the Law of Moses some time prior to his own death on the cross.  Our salvation depends on what Jesus says directly to you and me today under his law, the law of Christ, which began to be preached among men beginning on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2. 

Jesus, in speaking to his disciples after the resurrection, said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." (Luke 24:46-49 ESV) 

Luke tells us they were ordered to not depart from Jerusalem, "he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, 'you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.'" (Act 1:4-5 ESV) 

In Acts 2 we see the arrival of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:1-4) clothing the apostles with power from on high.  Peter's sermon that day and in that chapter fulfilled Jesus' earlier proclamation found in Luke 24 "that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem." (Luke 24:46-47 ESV) 

This gives us a beginning point of both time and place of the gospel message God has for us today.  Those desiring to be saved the way the thief on the cross was saved (by faith without baptism) go back too far, past Jerusalem, past the beginning, and in doing so end up with another gospel.  

The only way one can have the Jerusalem gospel is to preach what Peter did that day beginning in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost.  Since hardly anyone is willing to do that today their gospel is another gospel. 

A person who seeks to be saved in a way some individual might have been saved while Christ lived and walked upon the earth is rejecting the Jerusalem gospel - "repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem."  That individual's gospel does not originate in Jerusalem and is thus not the gospel of Christ. 

A big part of the problem that causes people to misunderstand God's plan of salvation for man is a failure to discern what we call the dispensations.  There are 3 as follows: (1) the Patriarchal, (2) the Mosaical, and (3) the Christian.  I will deal with the last two as they are the two relevant to this discussion. 

Jesus lived and died under the Mosaical law.  Jesus was in the fullness of time "born of a woman, born under the Law." (Gal. 4:4 NAS)  When we say Jesus lived a sinless life what law did he keep perfectly?  The Law of Moses.  In what was the second to last utterance Jesus made on the cross he said, "It is finished!" (John 19:30 NAS)  What was finished?  What was finished was the fulfillment of the law and the Prophets (which included, of course, his sacrifice on the cross as prophesied, his mission on earth to make himself a sacrifice for the sins of man). 

Hear Jesus in Matt. 5:17-18, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished." (ESV)  When Jesus drew his last breath on the cross the Law and the Prophets were fulfilled. 

The law of Christ became binding on men as the old law was fulfilled and passed away.  The old Law of Moses was nailed to the cross. (Col. 2:14)  The Christian dispensation of time when men came to live under the law of Christ began when Jesus died.  "For where there is a testament, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives." (Heb 9:16-17 NKJV) 

Jesus "has become a surety of a better covenant." (Heb. 7:22 NKJV)  "In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one (the law of Moses - DS) obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away." (Heb 8:13 NKJV)  "For the priesthood being changed, of necessity there is also a change of the law." (Heb 7:12 NKJV)  

Many take the thief on the cross as an example for all men regarding salvation (Luke 23:39-43) and say look at him.  All he needed was faith.  He did not have to do what those men and women on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2 did for salvation and neither do I.  Was Jesus talking to you (or me) or was he talking to the thief on the cross beside him that day approximately 2,000 years ago?  Did the thief live under the Christian dispensation or under the Mosaical?  Had the gospel that was to be preached beginning at Jerusalem yet been preached?  Will you disregard the Jerusalem gospel?  You will have to if you choose to attempt to be saved as the thief on the cross was. 

If Jesus forgave sins in the gospel accounts in a way different from that which sins are forgiven today what has that to do with me?  I live under the New Covenant. 

Speaking to the apostles Jesus said, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you." (John 14:26 NAS)  Did Jesus lie?  Did the Holy Spirit fail to do this with Peter on the day of Pentecost?  If you ever wanted to know when Jesus taught baptism for the remission of sins then Acts 2:38 is one of your answers. 

Speaking to the apostles before his death Jesus said, "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.  But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.  He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you." (John 16:12-14 NAS) 

Today we have the completed revelation that Jesus has made to man.  The law Jesus had and has for you and me has now been fully revealed to us.  For me today to go back and say well it was not always done this way is foolishness.  What is that suppose to prove even if it is true which I do not deny?  What if the thief on the cross did not have to do what you do for salvation?  What does that have to do with either you or me? 

If Jesus wanted to forgive a man by merely speaking the word who is to say he is going to do that for me or you if we disobey his will and refuse to do what he has said to do for salvation under his new covenant (and that is exactly what we will be doing if we wait and expect to be saved like the thief was)? 

If we expect to be saved like the thief on the cross that is about the equivalent of giving Jesus a slap across the face.  It is saying I don't care about your new covenant.  You save me like you saved him.  Instead of you obeying Jesus you would have him taking orders from you and obeying you.  It does not work that way. 

We are bound to live under and obey whatever law is in effect at the time we live, not when someone else lived.  Our job is not to question God but to do as he has told us.  No matter what someone else has done or not done in years gone by for salvation you have the gospel of Christ now, the new covenant, the law of Christ.  You are bound to it, to believe and obey it, as am I.  

I have an earlier article on this directory I recommend to you on this general topic entitled, "Bible Contradictions - True or False."  It deals in some depth with how faith, repentance, confession, baptism, the blood of Jesus, grace, the word of God all work together in harmony and how each is essential to salvation.  Many believe it is not possible to be saved by both faith and baptism forcing the Bible into a contradiction of itself.  If the Bible says that baptism is for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38), which is exactly what it says, you better believe it, not try and reason it away, but instead try and learn and see how it fits into a harmonious whole. 

All of Denny's articles, over 150, can be found on his web site DennySmith.Net.
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