But didn't the Lord tell the thief on the cross that he would be with the Lord in Paradise on that very day? Indeed He did.

Let us elaborate on this passage a bit, for it often is used to prove we are saved by our profession of faith and our behavior has little or nothing to do with our salvation. Also, we just got through saying that the Lord Jesus did not come to bring sinners into Paradise, except in a secondary sense.

The first consideration is the statement made by the thief. What prompted him in his agony on the cross to recognize that Jesus, who also was hanging on a cross, was the king of a kingdom? What the thief said is really remarkable. It probably was true that on former occasions he had heard Jesus teach and had been a while making up his mind.

The one thief just wanted Jesus to save the three of them from the death of the cross. The other thief worshiped Christ, as it were, not trying to get Him to prevent their execution.

Although the thief asked about the Kingdom, Jesus promised him that which was at hand—to walk with Jesus in Paradise. To actually enter the Kingdom requires being born again, and that was not possible until Jesus rose from the dead.

Whenever any person, young or old, boy or girl, man or woman, comes to Jesus with the attitude of the thief on the cross, that individual will be saved from God's wrath. However, the kings and priests of the royal priesthood are not qualified by a "deathbed" acceptance of the lordship of Jesus Christ.

The problem with applying this episode to prove the current doctrine that we are saved by a profession of belief rather than a life of cross-carrying obedience is that the people who wish to make this kind of a deal with God do not have the tremendous faith and humility of the thief, a faith and humility that would worship the King of kings while slowly dying of suffocation and dehydration in the blazing sun, not even asking for deliverance from pain and death.

Compare this profession of faith with the cheap "decision for Christ" that is made to give the "believer" a pass out of Hell and a ticket to Heaven.

No, the Lord Jesus did not come to bring sinners into Paradise except, as we have explained, in a secondary sense. But any sinner who genuinely repents of his or her way of life, humbling himself as a little child, and asking to enter God's righteous Kingdom, will always be received by the Lord. This is altogether different from telling people that they can make a profession of faith, live like the devil, and then enter Paradise when they die.

And too, to enter Paradise is not the same as to enter the Kingdom of God. Paul's warnings concerning sin had to do with inheriting the Kingdom of God, not with entering Paradise. The issue of the New Testament is the Kingdom of God, not Paradise.

To be continued.