I. We see here an illustration of the Cross in its power of drawing men to itself,
II. We have here the Cross as pointing to and foretelling the kingdom.
III. Here is the Cross as revealing and opening the true Paradise.
A. Maclaren, Sermons preached in Manchester,p. 153.
I. It is no over-wrought or exaggerated statement that the dying thief exhibited all the tokens which can ever be demanded of a genuine conversion. There was confession of sin, there was spirituality of mind, there was anxiety for others, there was the fullest recognition of Christ's power to deliver; and there was a mighty faith which, nothing daunted by all the circumstances of apparent helplessness and defeat, was sufficient to confound and overcome distance, sprang beyond the line of death and shame, and seemed to gaze on the palace and the crown. The thief was perhaps the only individual who believed on Jesus when Jesus died; and certainly it was an amazing thing, that he who was hanging beside Christ should believe, while he who had lain in His bosom had doubted.
II. We may all be aware that what is called deathbed repentance has been identified with the repentance of this malefactor that men have encouraged themselves from it, in deferring to the end of life the providing for eternity. So men forget (1) that two thieves were crucified with Christ, and although the one was saved, the other perished. He must be singularly unconcerned about his soul who can be satisfied in pursuing a plan which, on the best calculation, leaves exactly equal the chances of being condemned and of being saved. (2) There is not one amongst us who can possibly, when his deathbed draws nigh, stand morally in the same position as the thief on the cross. We cannot drive away the baptismal waters from our foreheads; we may make ourselves apostates we cannot make ourselves heathens. (3) He who of set purpose defers repentance to a deathbed should be able to prove that the thief of set purpose deferred repentance to a deathbed, else the cases are so distinct that there is no excuse for believing that the final penitence of the one renders at all probable the final penitence of the other.
III. The history of the dying thief offers no encouragement to those who would defer repentance, but it does offer encouragement the fullest and the richest, to all who are sincerely desirous of being saved. Who can despair of finding mercy, when he sees a thief transported in a moment, from the Cross to Paradise? One thief, indeed, perished, though within reach of the Saviour, and therefore we are bound to guard against presumption; the other was saved, though in the jaws of destruction, and therefore we are bidden never to despair.
H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit,No. 2,071.
References: Luke 23:42. Homiletic Quarterly,vol. v., p. 323; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. ii., p. 159; F. O. Morris, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxxii., p. 409. Luke 23:42; Luke 23:43. S. Minton, Ibid.,vol. xiii., p. 233; A. Scott, Ibid.,vol. xxii., p. 76; T. T. Carter, Sermons,p. 47.