A Sinner Learns Christ

And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. - Luke 23:42

    I said in a message a few weeks ago, “The redeemed thief didn’t know a lot as far as quantity, but he knew the Lord.” I recant on this statement. I was wrong. I believe God the Spirit teaches us in this experience that Christ taught this sinner upon regeneration what every saved sinner is taught in the Gospel of Christ. In all probability he had heard of our Lord in all things concerning Him which led to his crucifixion. This was not done in secret or in a corner. However, the thief knew him not in his glorious person until this divinely appointed, wondrous moment on his vertical deathbed. By God’s sovereign quickening grace, the once spiritually dead, physically dying thief beheld the LAMB OF GOD in the midst of the throne with God-given faith!

    Thank God for his sovereign love, mercy and grace given to his people in Christ Jesus! Our dying Redeemer was in command of this poor sinner’s eternal life by his own vicarious death! What did this brother learn in this short hour? He learned he was an utterly helpless guilty sinner in the presence of the Lord of Glory. He learned if he were to be saved, Christ must save Him. He learned the Lord was sovereign in all things, especially in bringing him into his presence. And, thanks be unto God, he learned in a brief moment he would be with Christ in Paradise.

    Whereof may this justified, glorified sinner glory? In nothing of his own—in Christ alone! His recognizing and calling upon the Lord was not of his doing. It was all of Christ’s pleasure, power and glory. All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him (Lk 10:22). The blessed truths of the Gospel are not doctrinal points to learn, argue, and debate, and cram down people’s religious digestive systems. These blessed truths are only revealed, received and lovingly embraced in Christ by sinners whom God the Father has looked upon in our time of his everlasting love. The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live (Jn 5:25).