From Reviling, Railing, and Mocking to Believing... All While Hanging on a Cross

I wonder if you've ever noticed something rather spectacular in the Gospel accounts. No doubt, the story of the thief repenting and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ in his last hour is a popular and well-known story, but there are two other verses in the Bible that make this story even more spectacular.

First, Luke's account in 23:32-43:

Two others, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. ...And the people stood by, watching, but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!” ...
One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Pretty spectacular, right? This criminal, obviously heart-broken and humbled by his death-sentence sees the dying Christ on the cross and is so moved by the sight that he repents of his rebellion and pleads with Jesus to reconcile him to God. And even more amazingly, Jesus freely agrees. It is surely true, grace is free.

But have you ever noticed Matthew and Mark's same account?

Matthew 27:44 "And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way [as the scribes and elders."

Mark 15:32 "Those who were crucified with him also reviled him."

Do you see? Perhaps it wasn't the man's death sentence at all that humbled him. If we believe in the inerrancy of Scripture, then both thieves, the one to his left and the one to his right, started out reviling him. They were both unmoved by their impending death. They were still hardened in their hearts, rebellious, and under the wrath of God.

But then, in an instant (Jesus was only on the cross for a matter of hours), God used the sight of Jesus suffering under the Father's wrath to soften one thief's heart, and to compel him to repent and put all his hope for redemption in the man crucified next to him. Wow! What a radical, instantaneous transformation. Who can deny that a man believing on the Lord Jesus is a sovereign act of God? Who but God alone can take a dying, hard-hearted man from reviling to desperately clinging for salvation in a matter of moments? And all that while the man is slowing suffocating, bleeding out, and having his flesh torn open. It wasn't like he didn't have other things to think about!

Marvel at the grace of God! And if that sovereign grace has drawn and compelled you, like this thief, to look upon this dying man and to cry out, "My Lord and my God, forgive me of my sins and reconcile me to the Father," then marvel in the free, sovereign grace of God all the more.