http://apologeticspress.org/APContent.aspx?category=11&article=1274
The Thief on the Cross
Legion are those who dismiss water baptism as prerequisite to salvation
on the grounds that “the thief on the cross was not baptized.” The
thought is that since the thief was suspended on the cross when Jesus
said to him, “Today you will be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43), he
was being pronounced as saved by Christ without being required to be
baptized. As one well-known preacher put it, “There was no water within
10 miles of the cross.” Please give consideration to two important
observations.
First, the thief may well have been baptized
prior to being
placed on the cross. Considerable scriptural evidence points to this
conclusion (Matthew 3:5-6; Mark 1:4-5; Luke 3:21; 7:29-30). If he was,
in fact, baptized, he would have been baptized with the baptism
administered by John the baptizer. John’s baptism was temporary (i.e.,
in force only during his personal ministry, terminating at the death of
Christ). However, even John’s baptism was “for the remission of sins”
(Mark 1:4) and, hence, essential for salvation for those to whom it was
addressed. John’s baptism, like the one administered by Jesus while He
was on Earth (John 3:22,26; 4:1-2), was unique and temporary. It was
addressed
only to Jews, and only to the Jews who populated the vicinity of
Jerusalem and Judea. It was designed to prepare the
Jewish people for the arrival of the Messiah. But John’s baptism must not be confused with
New Testament baptism that is addressed to everybody, and that did not take effect until
after
the cross of Christ. If the thief was a Jew, and if he already had
submitted to John’s baptism, there would have been no need for him to be
re-baptized. He simply would have needed to repent of his post-baptism
thievery and acknowledge his sins—which the text plainly indicates that
he did.
Second, and most important, the real issue pertains to an extremely
crucial feature of Bible interpretation. This hermeneutical feature is
so critical that, if a person does not grasp it, his effort to sort out
Bible teaching, in order to arrive at correct conclusions, will be
inevitably hampered. This principle was spotlighted by Paul when he
wrote to Timothy and told him he must “rightly divide the word of truth”
(2 Timothy 2:15). In other words, if one simply takes the entire
Bible—all 66 books—and treats them as if everything that is said applies
directly and equally to everyone, his effort to be in harmony with
God’s Word will be hopeless and futile. For example, if a person turned
to Genesis 6 and read where God instructed Noah to build a boat, if he
did not study enough to determine whether such instruction applied to
himself, he would end up building his
own boat—the entire time
thinking that God wanted him to do so! The Bible is literally filled
with commands, instructions, and requirements that were
not intended to be duplicated
by people living today. Does God forbid you and me from eating a
certain fruit (Genesis 2:17; 3:3)? Are we to refrain from boiling a baby
goat in its mother’s milk (Exodus 23:19)? Does God want you and me to
offer our son as a burnt offering (Genesis 22:2)? Are we commanded to
load up and leave our homeland (Genesis 12:1)? Moving to the New
Testament, does God want you to sell everything you have and give it to
the poor (Matthew 19:21)? Does God expect you to leave everything, quit
your job, and devote yourself full time to spiritual pursuits (Matthew
4:20; 19:27; Mark 10:28; Luke 5:28)? Does God intend for you to “desire
spiritual gifts” (1 Corinthians 14:1), i.e., seek to possess miraculous
abilities? The point is that the entire Bible applies to the entire
human race. However, careful and diligent study is necessary to
determine
how it applies. We must understand the biblical distinction between the application of the
principles of the Bible and the
specific details.
Here, then, is the central point as it pertains to the relevance of the
thief on the cross: Beginning at Creation, all humans were amenable to
the laws of God that were given to them at that time. Bible students
typically call this period of time the Patriarchal Dispensation. During
this period, which lasted from Creation to roughly the time of the
cross, non-Jews were subject to a body of legislation passed down by God
through the fathers of family clans (cf. Hebrews 11:1). In
approximately 1,500
B.C., God removed the genetic
descendants of Abraham from Egyptian bondage, took them out into the
Sinai desert, and gave them their own law code (the Law of Moses). Jews
were subject to that body of legal information from that time until it,
too, was terminated at the cross of Christ. The following passages
substantiate these assertions: Matthew 27:51; Romans 2:12-16; Galatians
3:7-29; Ephesians 2:11-22; Colossians 2:11-17. The book of Hebrews
addresses this subject extensively. To get to the heart of the matter
quickly, read especially Hebrews 9:15-17. When one “correctly handles
the Word of truth,” one sees that the Bible teaches that when Christ
died on the cross, Mosaic law came to an end, and patriarchal law
shortly thereafter. At that point, all humans on the planet became
amenable to
the law of Christ (cf. Galatians 6:2). The law of Christ consists strictly of information that is intended to be in effect
after the death of Christ. It includes
some of the things that Jesus and His disciples taught while He was still on Earth. But as regards the
specifics
of salvation, one must go to Acts 2 and the rest of the New Testament
(especially the book of Acts) in order to determine what one must do
today to be saved. Beginning in Acts 2, the new covenant of Christ took
effect, and every single individual who responded correctly to the
preaching of the gospel was
baptized in water in order to be forgiven of sin by the blood of Christ.
Every detail of an individual’s conversion is not always mentioned, but
a perusal of the book of Acts demonstrates decisively that water
immersion was a
prerequisite to forgiveness, along with faith,
repentance, and confession of the deity of Christ (Acts 2:38,41;
8:12,13,16,36-38; 9:18; 10:47-48; 16:15,33; 18:8; 19:5; 22:16).
The thief was not subject to the New Testament command to be baptized
into Christ’s death (Romans 6:3-4), just as Moses, Abraham, and David
were not amenable to it. They all lived
prior to the cross under different law codes. They could not have been baptized into Christ’s death—
because He had not yet died! The establishment of the church of Christ and the launching of the Christian religion did not occur until
after Christ’s death, on the day of Pentecost in the year
A.D.
30 in the city of Jerusalem (Acts 2). An honest and accurate appraisal
of the biblical data forces us to conclude that the thief on the cross
is not an appropriate example of how people are to be saved this side of
the cross.
