“What a strange kind of man this must be! He claims to be king of the Jews, and the superscription over His cross says the same. But what sort of a throne is this! He says He is the Son of God. Why does not God send down His angels and destroy all these people who are torturing His Son to death? If He has all power now, as He used to have when He worked those miracles they talked about, why does He not bring out His vengeance, and sweep all these wretches into destruction? I would do it in a minute if I had the power. I wouldn’t spare any of them. I would open the earth and swallow them up! But this man prays to God to forgive them! Strange, strange! He must be different from us. I am sorry I said one word against Him when they first hung us up here.
What a difference there is between Him and me! Here we are, hanging on two crosses, side by side; but all the rest of our lives we have been far enough apart. I have been robbing and murdering, and He has been feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and raising the dead. Now these people are railing at us both! I begin to believe He must be the Son of God; for surely no man could forgive his enemies like that.”
Yes, that prayer of Christ’s did what the scourge could not do. This man had gone through his trial, he had been beaten, he had been nailed to the cross; but his heart had not been subdued, he had raised no cry to God, he was not sorry for his sins. Yet, when he heard the Savior praying for His murderers, that
BROKE HIS HEART.
It flashed into this thief’s soul that Jesus was the Son of God, and that moment he rebuked his companion, saying:
“Dost thou not fear God?”
The fear of God fell upon him. There is not much hope of a man’s being saved until the fear of God comes upon him. Solomon says, “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.”
We read in Acts that great fear fell upon the people; that was the fear of the Lord. That was the first sign that conviction had entered the soul of the thief. “Dost thou not fear God?” That was the first sign we have of life springing up.
CONFESSING.
Next, he confessed his sins: “We indeed justly.” He took his place among sinners, not trying to justify himself.