Well, we finished making our way through the book of 2 Corinthians, and so for the next few Sundays, I'd like for us to focus on what has traditionally been called the seven last words of Christ. Those poignant statements Jesus made from the cross as he was atoning for the sins of his people through his own death and suffering. Today we'll consider the first two of these words. We find them in the 23rd chapter of Luke's Gospel. Let's begin reading at verse 32, Luke 23, and we will read verses 32 through 43.
Two others who were criminals were led away to be put to death with Jesus. And when they came to the place that is called the skull, there they crucified him and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. And Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And they cast lots to divide his garments. And the people stood by watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, He saved others, let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his chosen one.
The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine and saying, If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. There was also an inscription over him. This is the king of the Jews. One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us.
But the other rebuked him, saying, Do you not fear God? Since you were under the same sentence of condemnation, and we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong. And he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And he said to him, Truly I say to you, today you will be with me. in paradise.
Let's pray. Father, would you please give us a renewed appreciation for. the redemption we have in Christ, your Son. Help us to understand the depths of his suffering. And in understanding his suffering, to understand the depths of our sinfulness and the magnitude of the salvation that we have been given, Lord, make us grateful.
that we might cling to Christ all the more. Holy Spirit, without your Mysterious work in our hearts and minds, we have no hope of understanding the Word of God, much less of believing it and being eternally transformed by it.
So illuminate our minds, conquer our wills. And work in us that which is pleasing in your sight, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Mm. The last words spoken by the people we love are important to us.
Because they are the last concrete verbal memory we will have of our relationship with them.
Sometimes these words convey something very mundane. Bing Crosby's last words purportedly were, that was a great game of golf. Let's go have a Coca-Cola. Other times, a person's last words are ironic. For example, the last words of Winston Churchill, whose life held more adventure and drama than most, said at his death, I'm bored with it all.
On occasion, the last words of a person are profound, revealing their deepest convictions, their greatest loves at the very climax of their life. Polycarp, the early church father, when told to deny Christ or be martyred, declared, Eighty and six years have I served Christ, and he has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King who saved me? Last words are important. Especially the ones spoken by people we love or admire.
To be sure, then, the last words spoken by Jesus Christ stand in the category all their own. First of all, because of who Jesus is. Jesus is God in the flesh. When Jesus speaks, God speaks. And it should be pointed out that any word that comes from the mouth of God, any word, regardless of whether it is His last words or first words or middle words, is of utmost importance.
It is from God, it's true, it's authoritative. Not to mention living and powerful. We could also point out that, in a sense, Jesus Christ does not have any last words, so to speak, because he's not dead. He's defeated death, rose from the dead, and continues to speak. After his crucifixion and death, there are still more red-lettered words in the Gospels and in Acts and in the book of Revelation.
We will hear Christ speak one day when we see him face to face. Still, we can rightly say that the words Jesus spoke on the cross. Are the last words he would speak in his humanity, but prior to his exaltation? And for that reason, they do capture something of immense importance. These words capture what was on the heart and in the mind of Jesus at the very moment when he was making atonement for sin.
That is immensely profound. And so these words are worth every moment we spend meditating on them.
Well, today we're going to spend some time meditating on the first two of these words. First, there's a word of forgiveness. Secondly, there's a word of salvation.
Next Sunday, Lord willing, we'll consider the third, fourth, and fifth words, and then we'll skip a week for Palm Sunday and conclude on Easter Sunday by looking at the last two words of Christ on the cross. We might designate the first statement that we hear Jesus saying from the cross as a word of forgiveness. He says, Father, forgive them. for they know not what they do. And let's begin our meditation on this statement with a question: Who is the them for whom Jesus is requesting forgiveness?
It's the very ones who have just crucified him. This was, in fact, their job, to crucify convicted criminals on behalf of the Roman Empire. They were doing their job, but on this particular day, their job had entailed committing the most heinous sin imaginable. They were putting the very Son of God to death. Of all the sins that have ever been committed by all the human beings over the span of history, I suppose the worst in terms of the impact of that sin on others would be the first sin committed by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
In their sinning, the whole human race sinned. But the worst, most egregious sin of all sins, in terms of its sheer heinousness and offensiveness. in terms of the depth of its wickedness would have to be this sin. the unjust execution of the very Son of God himself. And those who carried out this deed are the ones for whom Christ prays to God the Father: forgive them.
Forgiveness is among the most wonderful mercies a sinner could possibly receive from God. In fact, without this mercy, the mercy of forgiveness. We are unable to receive or enjoy any other grace or blessing or favor from God. We need mercy. We need mercy above all.
And so, in Jesus Christ's first word on the cross, we see him asking for the best mercy to be given to the worst sinners. Church, it is an incredible act of grace. And this grace is the reason Christ was even on a cross to begin with. There's another aspect of this first word that we dare not miss. Not only was it directed to the worst of sinners, and not only was it asking for the greatest mercy imaginable, this request was grounded in a reason.
A rationale. Christ included not only the request for forgiveness, but also a reason for the granting of the request. On a quick side note, when you pray, do you give God reasons to answer? This is an important aspect of prayer, and one that Christ Himself models for us, even on the cross. Of course, giving reasons for God to answer our requests when we pray is not for the sake of God's motivation.
He knows what He wants to do and why He wants to do it. Praying this way, praying with well-thought-out reasons for why our prayers ought to be heard and answered by God is for our benefit. It helps us think through our own motivations. and forces us to stop and consider how God operates. It makes us consider the higher purposes of God when we pray, rather than just.
praying for our own convenience or pleasure or desires.
So, what was the reason Jesus gave for his request? He said, for they know not what they do. They know not. what they do. Those who had a hand in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ did not understand the awfulness of the sin they were committing.
This doesn't change the fact that it was still sinful. It was. But their ignorance became the grounds on which Christ made his request of forgiveness on their behalf. The Apostle Paul would later acknowledge, none of the rulers of this age understood the significance of Christ's person and work, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. And so the worst sinners are granted the greatest mercy on the grounds of their ignorance of the very sin they were committing.
It's Christ's first word on the cross, and it is a word of forgiveness.
Now, we can infer some things from this simple statement of Christ. First, we can infer that it is possible to commit sins in ignorance. It's possible to commit sins in ignorance. It's possible to break God's law without even knowing what you've done. We need to recognize that this is not because God has kept his moral will a secret.
On the contrary, he has revealed his will to anyone who would see it. He has written his moral law in scripture. He's written his law on our hearts. He's written his righteous character on the very canvas of creation itself. He's even come in the flesh to show us the perfect visible image of God.
If we are ignorant of what righteous living entails, it's because we choose to be ignorant. And if we choose ignorance, we choose it Because we love not knowing what God's righteous law demands. Jesus declared in John 3, the light has come into the world. And people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works We're evil. And so, while there truly are such things as sins of ignorance, it is also true that sins of ignorance are still sinful.
For purposes of illustration, let's compare sin to breaking the speed limit. I may not realize that the speed limit has dropped from 55 to 35, but that doesn't change the objective fact that I'm breaking the law if I drive 55 miles per hour in a 35 mile per hour zone. The law is absolute. The law is objective by definition.
Now, there is a difference between unknowingly speeding and intentionally speeding. If I intentionally speed, I'm at fault on two accounts. I'm at fault for breaking the speed limit. But I'm also at fault for not caring that I broke the speed limit.
So it is with God's moral law of the universe. The rightness or wrongness of a thing does not depend on my awareness of the rightness or the wrongness of a thing. Righteousness is a fixed standard that is as unchanging as God Himself. My objective compliance to God's law matters. But my subjective attitude towards the body towards my compliance to God's law also matters.
So there's another inference we can make from this first word of Christ on the cross, and it's that even sins of ignorance need forgiveness. Even sins of ignorance need forgiveness. They need forgiveness because they incur guilt. Ignorance may diminish the guilt of a particular sin, but it does not absolve the guilt. Christ's executioners may have been sinning in ignorance.
But there was a willfulness about their ignorance. A willfulness that characterizes the sin of every one of us. But here's what we dare not miss. It is of willfully ignorant sinners that Jesus says, Father, forgive them. for they know not what they do.
Who crucified Jesus? It wasn't just a group of Roman soldiers who happened to be on duty that day. It was you. It was me. It was every sinner whom the Lord had come to save.
Though we do not, it did not hold the nail and swing the hammer, it was our sin that made Calvary's cross necessary. We crucified Christ. And thus his prayer of mercy is a prayer for us. It's a prayer for any sinner who will come to Christ and acknowledge their awful load of sin and rely on Christ's absolutely perfect. Righteousness.
Come, Isaiah says, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. It's a word of forgiveness. And it's spoken by the crucified to the crucifiers.
Come to him, sinner. and find rest. The second word Christ speaks on the cross is the word of salvation. We find it recorded for us in Luke 23, verse 43. Jesus was not crucified alone.
He was surrounded by two notorious and guilty criminals. One of those criminals reviled Jesus for not rescuing them, since he supposedly had the power to rescue them. The other criminal rebuked the first criminal for daring to speak against an innocent man. He said, How can you say such wicked things? We're being crucified because we deserve it.
Jesus is being crucified even though he has done no wrong. And then this second criminal cried out to Jesus in faith, saying, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And it was in reply to this simple prayer of faith that we hear Christ's second word from the cross. He said to this repentant criminal, Truly I say to you, Today you will be with me in paradise. Jesus was promising eternal salvation to a man who had lived his whole life in wicked rebellion against God and in the last moments of his life is miraculously saved and given eternal life.
We learn several things about the nature of Christ's saving work through the second word. First, we learn that. The salvation of sinners does not depend on some elaborate programme of penitence or good works, The way of salvation is simply this. Call upon the Lord and you will be saved. This criminal had not lived a good life.
And he certainly had not had time to display the sincerity of his repentance. All he could do as he drew his last few breaths was to cry out to Jesus Christ for salvation, and Christ saved him. We have in this room today all sorts of sinners. Moderate sinners, really bad sinners, young sinners, old sinners, whatever your sins are, however long you've committed those sins, the pathway to salvation is the same. Call upon the Lord and you will be saved.
The pathway to salvation is simple. Call upon the Lord and you will be saved. It doesn't require a degree in theology. It doesn't require a probationary period in purgatory. It doesn't require moral rehabilitation.
Call upon the name of the Lord and you will be saved. That's what salvation by grace through faith in Christ means. It is in fact so surprisingly Easy and simple that many sinners reject it because it just seems too good to be true. But it is true, and the criminal on the cross next to Jesus proves that salvation really is as simple as calling upon the Lord and being saved.
Now, having said that, does this mean that salvation depends on the mere formal act of saying the words, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom?
Well, no. Our calling upon the Lord for salvation must be a genuine call of faith. If I don't mean it, if I don't really believe it, if I'm just going through some religious motion by saying a prayer with my mouth, but not truly looking to Christ for salvation, the words don't mean anything. There is such a thing as a false profession of faith. There will be people who thought of themselves as saved who won't be saved on Judgment Day.
The end of the Sermon on the Mount makes that clear. The sincerity of one's faith matters. And if God gives us a lifetime on this earth after our conversion, that sincerity will be demonstrated. We will increase in our obedience over time. We will deepen in our knowledge for and love for the Lord.
But those effects of salvation are not the grounds or cause of our salvation. We don't prove the sincerity of our faith by looking at our faith. We prove it by looking to Christ. And this unnamed criminal, who had no time left to demonstrate his sincerity demonstrates that salvation comes through faith. in Christ.
Not through faith in faith. Not through faith in my obedience, faith. in Christ. Salvation for the sinner is not only simple. It's also instantaneous.
Jesus said, today you will be with me. in paradise. Not after 1,000 years in purgatory, not at the second coming, but today you will be with me in paradise. Paul said a similar thing, didn't he? When he said to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
Christ's atoning work is so effective that it saves with ease and with speed even the hardened criminal who repents. But this truth cuts both ways. Yes, Christ can save quickly and overcome the sins of the worst sinner with ease. Call upon the Lord and you will be saved. But it also means that those who do not call upon the Lord will not be saved.
The repentant criminal was transposed immediately from the miseries and pain of crucifixion to the unspeakable bliss of paradise. The unrepentant criminal was ushered from his state of being painfully crucified to the even worse state, a state so terrible that even crucifixion would have been a welcome relief. If for those who were in Christ, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord in paradise, than to be absent from the body without Christ is to be, as one Puritan preacher put it, Thrust into endless miseries, into the dark vault of hell. never to see the light of this world any more, never to see a comfortable sight, never to hear a joyful sound, never to know the meaning of rest, peace, or delight any more. Friends, this second word of Christ from the cross is a word of salvation, and it is spoken to any and all who would repent of their sin and come running to Christ in reliance upon his righteousness alone for their salvation.
If you come to him in faith, he will save you. If he saves you, you will be with him in paradise the instant your eyes close in death. On the other hand, if you refuse the sufficiency of the righteousness of Christ. And insist on your own standing before a holy God, you will face the irreversible consequences of your stubborn refusal to let go of your self-righteousness and receive the free offer of the gospel.
So which criminal are you? The one who reviled Jesus. for not saving him on his own terms. Or the one who cried out to Jesus in humility and faith, acknowledging his own guilt. and Christ's righteousness.
Do you live in the fear of death? or in the anticipation of paradise. Call upon the name of the Lord. and you will be saved. John Calvin in his commentary on This second word said this.
One point still remains. What is promised to the repentant criminal does not alleviate his present sufferings. nor make any abatement of his bodily punishment. This reminds us that we ought not to judge of the grace of God by the perception of the flesh. For it will often happen that those to whom God is reconciled are permitted by him to be severely afflicted.
It's possible that your life from now until the moment you were ushered into glory is full of suffering and difficult days and hardship. And it's tempting for us to view that suffering as an indication that God's promises of forgiveness and salvation are untrue, or at least not intended for us. We question God in light of the difficult circumstances that accompany life in this fallen world with things like: If you loved me, God, you wouldn't let these hardships happen to me. If I were your child, you would remove this difficult thing from my life. Therefore, I must not be your child.
I must not be the recipient of your love. Friends, if you are tempted to go down that path, look no further than the repentant criminal on the cross. He was truly saved. Christ told him as much. But that did not change the fact that his life of sin had landed him on a Roman cross.
He would still have to suffer and die. Albeit his death was merely temporal and would usher him into a state of glory and happiness that is indescribable and unimaginable to our fallen eyes. Calvin concludes, All our afflictions ought to be soothed by this single consolation, that as soon as God has received us into His favor, all the afflictions which we endure are aids to our salvation. This will cause our faith not only to rise victorious over all our distresses. but to enjoy calm repose amidst the endurance of sufferings.
Once the repentant criminal had received the promise of paradise from the mouth of Jesus Himself, the pain and the agony of his crucifixion did not stop. But can you imagine the peace and even the joy he would have had in those final excruciating moments of his life, knowing that on the other side of his suffering awaited an eternal weight? of glory. Faith redeems our suffering. The promise of paradise gives us endurance through the suffering because it promises an end to our suffering.
Church, Jesus Christ promises forgiveness and salvation. And his forgiveness. and salvation are extended even to the vilest offenders. to criminals. who have been justly condemned but repent.
to God haters who don't even know that they're hating God. If God's mercy can overcome these kinds of hearts, there is no heart it cannot overcome. These first two words of Christ on the cross. Are intended to make coming to Christ for salvation a sweet, sweet prospect. If you're tired of fighting your sin and your own strength, if you're overwhelmed at the seemingly insurmountable Strength of that rebel streak in your own heart, come to Christ.
and find rest for your souls. There is no heart so black. There is no mind so darkened, no addict so enslaved, no sinner too far gone that Christ cannot save. And perhaps you've already come to Christ in faith. Perhaps you're on your way to paradise, but you've forgotten how gracious your life's pathway is.
Perhaps you've come. to doubt if the faith you once experienced is real. These two glorious words of Christ are intended not only to call sinners to faith, but also to call saints to assurance. If Christ stands ready to forgive the very ones who crucified him in ignorance, you can rest assured, Christian, that he stands ready to forgive his own. that he has already forgiven his own.
He loves us with an everlasting love that unhesitatingly says, even as we are sinning, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. He says to the helpless hurting sinner, Today, You will be with me in paradise.
Well, Christ has much more to say to us from Calvary's cross, but. Christians, be encouraged today by these gracious words of forgiveness. and salvation. Our God truly is mighty to save. Let's pray.
Father, thank you for The great love. you have for your children. A love that drove you to send your only begotten Son into the world that we might be saved. Jesus, thank you for suffering and dying because of our sin. Thank you for extending to us forgiveness and salvation, even as you suffer great agony.
Holy Spirit, thank you for pouring out on us every blessing secured for us by Christ.
Now, please fill us with the assurance that we are children of God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What a gracious and powerful God you are, and we thank you. In Jesus' name. Amen.
Sure.
