The same caller that I referred to in the first article actually called to ask me a question. Even though he understood what the Bible taught about baptism, he did not know how to deal with the fact that the thief on the cross was not baptized into Christ. How was it that Jesus said he would be with Him in paradise (Luke 23:42-43)?  

I answered by taking him to Jude 3. This passage stated that there is a “common” salvation, meaning that everyone gets saved the exact same way. Was there ever a time when there was uncommon salvation? Yes. Prior to the death of Jesus, our Lord had the power to forgive sins and make certain demands on people. For example, Christ told a rich man to sell all he had and give it to the poor in order to have treasure in heaven. The man was then supposed to follow Jesus (Luke 18:22). While on the cross, Jesus knew the heart of the thief and granted him salvation.

Because our Savior has died, resurrected and gone back to heaven, there is a common message that needs to be taught for man to be saved (Mark 16:16). To think that we today do not need to be baptized for the remission of our sins because the thief on the cross was not baptized for this reason is incorrect. The gospel message is the same for everyone (Gal. 1:6-9; II Thess. 1:8; Rom. 1:16). To create different plans of salvation today is to remove the common salvation we are to have.

Finally, I mentioned that even if you could have taken the thief down and baptized him, Jesus had not died yet. How can you be baptized into Christ’s death and rise up like Him in His resurrection before He died (Rom. 6:3-7)? We need to see that both the thief and Jesus lived and died under the Old Law. The gospel came into effect after Jesus died (Heb. 8-9; Col. 2:14). The thief could not be expected to access something not yet available.

This week’s bulletin (both articles) illustrate the need to rightly divide the word of God. There are many that want to pervert God’s word, and we all need to be on guard.

                                                                                            Chuck