Expository Thoughts
truly penitent.
7. That the key of this kingdom did hang at Christ's girdle, though he now hung dying on the cross.
8. That he does roll his whole soul for eternal salvation upon a dying
Savior.
43. "Today you will be with me in paradise." This sentence deserves close attention. It is a distinct answer to the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory. It shows clearly that no purification of any kind after death is needed for the person that dies a penitent believer. If the thief needed no purgatory, the whole doctrine of purgatory falls to the ground.
This is an instructive intimation about the state of believers after death. The moment they die, they are "with" Christ. Their condition, of course, is one we cannot pretend to explain. We cannot comprehend that state of a soul separate from the body. It is enough for us to know that a dead believer is immediately with Christ.
This is clear proof of the separate existence of the soul when the body is dead. We shall live and have a being even when our earthly tabernacle is moldering in the grave. The thief's body was that day to be broken and mangled by the Roman soldiers. But the thief himself was to be with Christ.
"In paradise." Heinsius remarks that Christ never performed a more illustrious miracle than he did in saving the penitent thief.
The Church of England's Homily of Good Works quotes Chrysostom as saying: "I can show a man that by faith without deeds lived and came to heaven: but without faith never man had life. The thief, who