Every Saint Has a Past: The Thief on the Cross

Every saint has a past. Every sinner has a future.

I need you to sit with that for a second. Look around your life, your church, your circle. The people you admire most in their faith? They have a past. And the person you might be tempted to write off? They have a future. God uses broken people, and Part 2 of this series is going to show you exactly how far His grace reaches.

Today we're going to the cross itself. Because what happened between Jesus and a criminal on a Friday afternoon is still one of the most powerful pictures of grace in all of Scripture.

We're All Born Into This

Before we get to the cross, let's set the table. Because some of us walk around acting like we're better than the next person, and we need a reality check.

Psalm 51:5 says, "For I was born a sinner, yes, from the moment my mother conceived me."

That's not a popular verse. But it's honest. We came into this world with a problem already baked in. You ever wonder why you do things you know you shouldn't? Why you say something and immediately wish you could reel it back? It's because sin isn't just something we do. It's something we inherited.

Romans 5:12 confirms it: "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, so death spread to all people."

And Romans 3:23 seals it: "Since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

On your best day, you still look too long at something you shouldn't. You still say something sideways. You still fall short. We are saved by grace, not by our performance record. And that matters for what comes next.

Stop Judging the New Believer

This is where Jesus tells a story that might make some longtime church folks uncomfortable. Matthew 20:1-16, the parable of the vineyard workers.

Here's the setup: a landowner goes out early in the morning and hires workers. He agrees to pay them a fair wage. Then he goes back out at 9 AM, noon, 3 PM, and even 5 PM, hiring more workers each time. At the end of the day, he pays everyone the same amount, starting with the ones who showed up last.

The early workers lost their minds. "We've been out here all day in the heat, and these people who worked one hour get the same pay?"

The owner's response in verse 13 is calm but direct: "Friend, I am doing you no injustice. Did you not agree with me for the wage? Take what belongs to you and go."

And then the line that should stop every judgmental Christian in their tracks, verse 15: "Am I not permitted to do what I choose with what is mine? Or is your eye envious because I am generous?"

Here's what God showed me about this story. This is what happens when saints who've been walking with God for a long time aren't careful. They start looking down on baby Christians. They start measuring worth by time served instead of grace received. "I grew up in church. My mama took me. I've been tithing since I was twelve." Good for you. But just because God caught you early doesn't mean you're better than the person He caught late.

Some of you grew up in homes where your parents took you to church every Sunday. I went to church for the donuts. My grandmother took me, not my mama. And I didn't hear a word the preacher said because I was focused on that glazed donut in the back. God catches us at different points in our lives. The person who found Jesus at 50 gets the same grace as the person who found Him at 5. That's not unfair. That's the kingdom.

And here's the real issue: most of the problems in the church don't come from sinners. They come from saint-on-saint crime. The Bible says deal with the plank in your own eye before you start pointing at the speck in somebody else's. If we did a deep dive into your life, you'd need the same grace you're withholding from others.

Isaiah 55:8 reminds us: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are my ways your ways, declares the Lord."

God doesn't see it the way you see it. The person you think is disqualified might be the next one God uses.

The Man in the Middle

Now let's go to the cross. Luke 23:32-43.

There are three crosses on a hill. Jesus is in the middle. One criminal is on the left, one on the right. Think about that for a second: of all the ways Jesus could have died, He died between two criminals. Born in a manger, surrounded by animals. Died on a hill, surrounded by convicts. From the very beginning, Jesus was never far from the people the world rejected.

One criminal starts mocking Him: "If you're really the Christ, save yourself and us." Same energy as the people who only come to God when they want something but never actually surrender.

But the other criminal? Something shifted in him. Verse 40-41: "Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? We are suffering justly because we are getting what we deserve, but this man has done nothing wrong."

This man owned his sin. He didn't make excuses. He didn't blame his upbringing or his circumstances. He looked at his life, looked at Jesus, and saw the difference clearly.

Then verse 42: "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

That word "remember" hits different when you think about it. He's not just saying "don't forget me." He's saying, "Life has dismembered me. Can you put me back together?" He was broken, and he was asking the only one who could fix him to do exactly that.

And notice what he says next: "when you come into your kingdom." This criminal, hanging on a cross, recognized that Jesus was a King. He acknowledged there was another life beyond this one. From a cross, with nothing left to give, he saw more clearly than the religious leaders who had studied the Torah their entire lives.

Jesus responds in verse 43: "Truly I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

Today. Not after you complete a membership class. Not after you get baptized. Not after you prove yourself for six months. Today.

He Got In Without a Resume

Here's what blows my mind about the thief on the cross. He was never christened. Never dedicated. Never confirmed. Never went to Bible study. Never spoke in tongues. Never joined a church. Never put a dime in an offering plate.

And he made it in.

I can imagine the scene when he showed up in Paradise. The angels looking at each other confused. "What are you doing here?" "I don't know what to tell you. The man on the middle cross told me I could come."

"Are you clear on the doctrine of justification by faith?"

"The what?"

"How did you get here?"

"All I know is, there was a guy I was hanging next to, and He said I could come. That's all I got."

Sometimes we overcomplicate this faith thing. We pile up requirements and checklists and hoops to jump through, and Jesus said it was always simpler than that. Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden. That's the invitation. Paradise is rest, because in Paradise, everything is already provided.

Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

It's a gift. And what God gives, He gives. He doesn't take it back.

Romans 9:16 adds, "So then it does not depend on human will or human effort, but on God who shows mercy."

His sovereignty. His choice. His mercy. Not your resume.

The Recycling Project

Throughout Scripture, Jesus kept recycling people that everyone else had thrown away.

The leper came to Jesus and said, "Lord, if it be your will, heal me." Recycled. Simon Peter, the cussing, sword-swinging fisherman from Part 1? Transformed into a teacher who helped build the New Testament church. The woman at the well didn't even know who her baby's father was. Jesus met her right there and turned her into the first evangelist of her town. The paralyzed man had been lying by the pool for decades, waiting for someone to help. Jesus said, "Get up." The man with the withered hand, shriveled and useless. Jesus said, "Stretch it out." The man with demonic spirits, living in a graveyard, out of his mind. Jesus set him free. The woman with the issue of blood, twelve years of suffering, crawling through a crowd just to touch the edge of His garment. Her blood dried up. Recycled.

The woman caught in adultery (and by the way, there was a man there too, but somehow only she got dragged in front of Jesus). He said, "Let him who has no sin cast the first stone." The Bible says the oldest one walked away first. The older you are, the more dirt you've collected.

The man born blind? Jesus went to the dirt, made mud, put it on his eyes, and gave him sight. A recycling project from the ground up. The tax collector went from a taker to a giver, because when you encounter Jesus, change is coming. And Paul, the man who hunted Christians for sport, met Jesus on the Damascus Road and became the author of most of the New Testament.

God told Ananias, "He is my chosen instrument." Ananias basically said, "Lord, do you know who this man is?" And God said, "I know exactly who he is. That's why I chose him."

You're Still Worth Something

Sometimes in life, you get folded up. Stepped on. Wrinkled. Crumpled by circumstances and people and your own bad decisions. Studies say the average person goes through two to three traumatic experiences in their lifetime. And how you handle those moments determines so much about the direction of your life.

But here's what I need you to hear: no matter what you've been through, your value hasn't changed. You might feel like you're not worth it anymore. People may have treated you like you're disposable. But God calls you a son. God calls you a daughter. God calls you an heir. The Bible says we are earthen vessels, and inside these broken clay jars, God has placed treasure.

He has called you out of darkness and into light. And who the Son sets free is free indeed.

I don't know where you are today in your faith walk. Maybe you're the person who's been in church your whole life and you've been looking down on someone who just got here. Check that. Maybe you're the person who just walked in and you feel like you don't belong. You do. Maybe you're somewhere in between, saved but stuck, knowing what to do but not doing it.

Whatever it is, let today be something different. He got up so you could get up. If you want something different, you've got to do something different.

Romans 10:9 says, "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

That's the ticket. No charge. No prerequisites. Just receive it.