Pastor Kyle's Devotion

Luke 23:43, “And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

The perfect son of God died a criminals death between two thieves at Golgotha.  Jesus never spoke a bad word about anyone, never took advantage of anyone, never slandered anyone, and never committed any sin.  Yet, Jesus was crucified between two men whom Matthew refers to as robbers.  They were violent men comparable to the modern day armed robber.  They were men deserving of punishment.  These two criminals had vastly different experiences in the final moments of their lives.  As a result, they are having vastly different experiences in eternity.  One of the criminals railed against Jesus.  However, the other criminal rebuked the first one and made a sincere request of Jesus.  He wanted access to God’s Kingdom and asked Jesus to remember him in His Kingdom.  Jesus replied to the man’s request and said, “today you will be with me in paradise.”  The undeserving man’s eternity was changed because Jesus gave him the gift of eternal life.  He had done nothing to earn the gift Jesus gave.  The thief was not going to be awarded the citizen of the year award by the local chamber of commerce.  He was not a deacon of a local church.  He knew nothing about the book of Revelation.  He did not have time to be baptized.  However, in the final moments of his life with mockers all around he took a step of faith to believe on the Lord Jesus for salvation.  This is a great picture of God’s amazing grace toward those who humbly receive His Son Jesus as Savior.  Jesus is gracious to pardon and forgive our sins when we come to Him.  I hope you have experienced the God’s free gift of salvation.  I hope you have had a moment when you have dared to go against the crowd of unbelievers to be counted among those who have received Christ as Savior.  Remember, in a world of various religions there is nothing we can do to earn eternal life.  Rather, it is a gift only Jesus can give.