“And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise,” Luke 23:43.

We come to a study of what is believed to be the second saying of Christ on the cross.

In the midst of humiliation and rejection Christ showed His power to save.

Before we come to our text we will look at the words of the thief to Christ. I did not intend to do this but I feel it necessary to do so.

Note His high view of Christ. “Lord”. He had a very different view from his companion.

He put a different between himself and his erstwhile companion. He asks that he might be in the thoughts of the Lord. That is what we all need.

He clearly was given an understanding of the kingdom over which the Saviour would reign one day. How few have such an understanding today!

Isaiah the prophet, some 700 years before the Saviour’s birth, wrote of the cross under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, 53:8-9, 12.

He specifically prophesied of the scene before us in our text. “He was numbered with the transgressors.”

This thief, this  ‘transgressor’ died in joyful confidence that he was delivered from hell and was going to heaven to be with Christ.

The record of the conversion of the thief is given us to show that a man can be saved on the doorstep of death but it its the only recorded case to remind us that such things are rare!