Lent Day 34–Victory through Confession

Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23: 43

How many of us long for that kind of direct reassurance? I can’t begin to imagine what a comfort that must have been for the criminal who was hanging on a cross on one side of Jesus. Faced with imminent death, he made a confession that Christ was King. In his final moments of life, he heard the reassuring voice of Jesus offering words of hope beginning with, “I tell you the truth”…

Not a wish.
Not a dream.
Not a best guess.
Not a wild prediction.
Not statistics or betters’ odds.

Jesus responds to the criminal’s confession with truth that “today”…

Not, sorry you’re too late.
Not maybe next week.
Not maybe next year.

The truth is that today “you”…

Not everyone who is sneering and hurling insults will be with me—

but you will.

You will be with me in paradise.

All because of a sinner’s confession that Jesus was the King of the Jews—sinless and crucified. But this was only one half of the story. Read the whole account:

Luke 23: 39 One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? 41 We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Jesus has given us this truth: There is Victory in Confession of His Name.