And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!”

And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”

And he was saying…

The thief on the cross was saying, not asking.

Why was he not asking?

The definition of faith is to be certain of things unseen.

IF the thief on the cross had been asking, it would have meant the thief would have been open to receiving a ‘no’ for an answer.  He is not open to the possibility of receiving a ‘no’ – he is CERTAIN of what he is saying and who he is saying it to.  His faith is bold.

The thief on the cross is making a statement of fact in faith, a declaration.

Lets continue with John 1:1:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

Jesus is the Word – the Word is Jesus.

Lets strip away the “characters” of the conversation between the thief and Jesus and look at it this way:

Statement of faith = “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your Kingdom.”

The Word = “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”

Statement of faith + the Word = Confirmation

When you make a statement or declaration in faith, Jesus confirms it.

How do you know when you are making a statement in faith?  A declaration of faith comes from within, it comes from the spirit.  It does not come from the flesh.

The purest way to speak in faith is to seek earnestly the gift of prophesy:

1 Corinthians 14:

¹ Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.

This opens up a whole new level of communication, a whole new language if you will.  To effectively speak in tandem with the Word is to realize that when Jesus tells you the following:

John 15:7:

⁷ If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

…that the same Word from John 1:1 actually lives within you and that is where you need to be speaking from.

For Christians, the thief on the cross event symbolizes one of the conversations Jesus had with us in the New Testament, in which He says ‘to rest in Him’.  God is ‘for us to rest’ in Him.  When we rest in Him and surrender our own efforts unto God, He works through us so we don’t have to, we become the vessel God wants us to be.  And we then become much more effective… and active, spiritually.  The thief is resting in Him and can do nothing. 

For non-Christians the thief on the cross event symbolizes that you don’t have to belong to any specific church, group, ministry, or religion, in order to have a relationship with God AND to be saved.  The thief is not labeled anything other than ‘thief’ and he has a relationship with God.  The thief is not a Christian, Catholic, Protestant, Mormon, Baptist, or Jehovah Witness. 

He is a human being who has a direct relationship with God.  So are you.

As you now know, you can not escape judgment, you are either receiving it or dishing it out non-stop.  Judgement is an act of evaluation and then coming to a conclusion, and although we tend to look at it exclusively as a negative, it can be positive or negative.  We judge and get judged all the time, literally.  We judge with our eyes, our ears, our nose, our hands, our feet… and especially with our tongue.

As Christians we tend to get hung up on the importance of a) trying to prove that we don’t judge, and b) that when we DO judge, it’s because it’s a big one, like homosexuality… and God wants us to ‘take care of it.’  As if God really needs us to defend Him.  Why do we judge others so?  Because it takes the focus off ourselves.  But the bible makes it very clear that we become who we judge.

Saying that you do not judge is untrue.  Realizing that you do, all the time – will set you free, and will actually show up as less of a struggle.