Some individuals asked Jesus a question that we may have asked. “Then they asked him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’ ” (John 6:28). That’s how we naturally think. “What must I do? What are the works God requires of me before I can receive His approval?”Religion comes up with many answers to that question for us. Many of these actions are not bad at all. For example, look at what Cornelius was doing in Acts 10 before he became a Christian. He was praying to God, he was giving to the poor and he was attending church (going to the synagogue as a Gentile God-fearer). Yet all those good things didn’t result in his salvation until he believed in Jesus.When Jesus answered the same question in John 6 He left all the good things we might think out of His answer. “Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent’ ” (John 6:29).Believing in Jesus is all it takes to be saved. Religion says that’s not enough. We have to do something. Jesus says, “Faith in the One God has sent, Jesus, is all that God requires.”There are many stories of conversion in the New Testament. However, there is one that graphically demonstrates what Jesus said. It is the brief encounter that Jesus has with one of the thieves who died on a cross next to His.“One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: ‘Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ But the other criminal rebuked him. ‘Don’t you fear God,’ he said, ‘since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.’ Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise’ ” (Luke 23:39-43).The thief’s eternal destination hung on one request, “Remember me.” That strikes me as an amazing fact. D. L. Moody made a great point in his comment on the dying thief. “The thief had nails through both hands, so that he could not work; and a nail through each foot, so that he could not run errands for the Lord; he could not lift a hand or a foot toward his salvation, and yet Christ offered him the gift of God; and he took it. Christ threw him a passport, and took him into Paradise.” Works and “doing” were not an option for the thief, yet he accompanied Jesus into the next world.What, though, did he believe? He believed in the innocence of Jesus. He acknowledged his own guilt and need for a Savior. He confessed that he deserved his punishment. He was conscious of his own fear of God—not terror but reverence. He believed that Jesus was a King with a Kingdom even as He was dying next to Him. In fact, even His disciples had lost sight of that as Jesus died.A telling part of the thief’s request used the phrase, “When you come into your kingdom.” The preposition in the original language is “in” (en), not “into” (eis). The thief was pointing to a time when the King would come at the end of the age. Jesus responded with, not at the end of the age, but TODAY. “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”Without being able to “do” anything the thief gained eternal life because he believed. That’s true for anyone whether we have physical life ahead of us or only have our last breath. God responds to faith with His grace. After all, “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—” (Ephesians 2:8).
Wally | GG Team
