Our Stance Determines Our Circumstance

UV 1553/10000 Our Stance Determines Our Circumstance
And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.

Luke 23 v 42

The two thieves were in exactly the same circumstances. Both admittedly had a similar past of crime. Both were condemned to die under Roman law. Both were crucified equidistant from the cross on which Jesus was crucified. Both were in the immediate presence of the King of the universe, the Prince of Heaven, the Commander in Chief of the armies of angels and archangels. Both had heard testimonies about the awesome miracles that accompanied the amazing words of Jesus. Both were disgraced and were in great physical pain. Both were powerless and dying for certain within a few hours. One mocked Jesus and challenged Him to prove that He was the Messiah, the Saviour. The other defended Him and believed that He could save Him in the after life. The individual responses to Jesus determines the fate of either. Today as yesterday and the day before and tomorrow, we human beings are born in exactly the same circumstances. We are born sinful or having a tendency to come short of God’s standards.

We can mock God or Jesus by challenging them to prove they exist or like the thief who believed Jesus to be the Messiah, the soon and coming King of eternity, we can trust Jesus to be our transport to the better life for eternal life begins the moment one trusts Jesus and not after one dies. It begins here and now. The thief was the first to gain entrance into paradise soon after the death of Jesus and the thief himself. Jesus had transformed his destiny from being thief to chief for every saved person is a chief, a servant leader, a servant king. The thief had received salvation that the chief priest of the day could not and did not. We receive grace to experience glory. The thief’s life had ended in a blaze of glory not because of anything he had done or not done. He himself felt that he deserved death and eternal death but in Jesus he saw the hope of eternal glory. The other thief condemned himself further by his own words and attitude. Having been condemned to death, he should not have added to his condemnation further but repented and turned to Jesus for salvation. We too should not add to our condemnation or our guilt by anything we say or think.

The thief who believed Jesus was neither naïve nor innocent. He had been hardened by a life of crime and struggle. Yet he allowed the Holy Spirit to soften his heart to receive the words of salvation. His was a life of failure that ended in success in a world where even the astoundingly successful end their lives in failure if they do not have belief in the after life and the hope of salvation. Jesus did not offer the thief a false hope, a sop or straw to hold onto as all three of them sank into death but He gave him the certainty of being with Him in paradise that very day. Despite His own pain, the physical pain and the pain of being separated from the Father by the guilt of mankind heaped on His shoulders, Jesus was mindful of the contrite thief. Similarly, when we are contrite and faithful, Jesus is mindful of us. Like the thief, we have entered this day into the Kingdom of God. God rules over our lives. All is not well with the world but it is well with my soul to know I am redeemed. I no longer have the guilt of my past haunting me. Instead, I am enlivened by my hope and certainty of eternal life in Jesus and with Jesus. When hope and certitude coincide that attitude is called faith. Our stance of faith determines and alters our circumstances from one of powerlessness, guilt and hopelessness into one of power, love, forgiveness and hope.

Prateep V Philip