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Goldroom
by Gary E. Andrews - 10/08/26 01:40 PM
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SOMA
by Gary E. Andrews - 10/07/26 11:11 PM
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Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 5,788
Top 40 Poster
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Top 40 Poster
Joined: Apr 2006
Posts: 5,788 |
I found this and copied it...
"You wonder why God chose to allow two other men to be crucified with Jesus that day. In your thinking, why wasn't the historical spotlight put on Christ alone? Actually, I think what is interesting is not that the two thieves were there but that God chose to record that particular detail.
Think about all the things we don't know. Lots of stuff was going on that day which was never mentioned in any of the New Testament accounts. If the thieves were not important, they could have hung there beside Jesus in anonymity. So I think you are on to something in trying to figure out their significance. They were written into scripture for a reason.
You mention one of the great lessons regarding this incident in your question. Jesus extended love and forgiveness to the so called "good thief" even though he was dying himself. Actually, his love and forgiveness were there for the other thief also since Jesus died for the sins of the WHOLE world. The difference is that one chose not to receive it.
Yes, the tender love of God is one lesson but there are others. Jesus also gave us a key to understanding grace when he said to the good thief; "Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise." (Luke 23:43) Scripture teaches us that we are saved by grace and not by works and this is a perfect example of that. There was no time left for the thief to do anything in the way of making up for his sins or turning his life around. Yet Jesus told him TODAY he would be with him in paradise. It was the thief's heart condition that gave him instant access to eternity in heaven.
There is one more powerful analogy I see as I look at the three crosses. Jesus is in the middle, at the very center of God's plan for redemption. Who is he? "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me." (John 14:6)
But what is speaking out from either side of him? On the one side is faith; the other side is unbelief. On the one side is humility; on the other is arrogance. Profanity speaks out of one side and reverence speaks out of the other side. These two voices continue to speak from either side of the cross today. The world has always been divided, and always will be divided, with Christ at the center. Maybe God placed a man on each side of Jesus for this reason: one is the voice of the kingdom of this world and the other is the voice of the kingdom of God.
I will end with a question of my own for each reader. Which of these two speaks for you?"
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