Three Men Crucified

“And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left.” Luke 23:33.

It was not just by chance that Jesus was crucified with two thieves, because Isaiah prophesied: “Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”

The First Man

“Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, ‘If You are the Christ [Messiah], save Yourself and us.’”

This thief represents the world that wants to be saved without accepting the judgment. They say: “If you are the Messiah, then take away the judgment; set Yourself and us free. Show us what You can do. If You are a Christian, then You must please me and satisfy my demands. If You are the Messiah, then go up to Jerusalem for the feast and show Yourself to the people; throw Yourself down from the pinnacle of the temple, and command stones to become bread. Display Your glory and Your talents so that people can truly see and understand that the Messiah is among us.”

This is the kind of Messiah the world would like to have, and one day their wish will be fulfilled in the Antichrist. However, Christ’s mission was not to let the world have its way or to perform signs and miracles in the presence of the beast and earn its approval. He came to crucify the world and to bring it into death, so that everyone who dies with Him might receive life.

The thief was hanging there on the cross. He could blaspheme, but he was condemned to death all the same, and the nails of the cross held their victim faithfully. In this same way, the world is also crucified, because we reckon that if One is crucified for all, then we are all crucified; and if One died for all, then we are all dead. The Spirit’s convictions of judgment are the nails that an ungodly person can never tear out of their heart, because the prince of this world has been judged. The world can try—as the thief did—to save its life, but it will not succeed; it will lose it.

The Second Man

“But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.’”

The first thief wanted to be saved without judgment. The second thief, however, was willing to suffer for the evil deeds he had committed according to the flesh so he could be freed from them in eternity. He placed his burden of sin on Him who bore the sins of the whole world, and he received the promise that he would be with Jesus in Paradise.

The first thief had both sin within him and sin weighing upon him, and it was the same with the second thief. However, the latter was freed from his burden of sin through acknowledgment and judgment. There was no longer any condemnation for him. He was cleansed from what he judged. Nevertheless, he did not get rid of the sin within him. He represents the people who are cleansed from their sins but have no desire for anything more.

The Third Man Crucified

This was none other than Jesus Himself. The first thief directed his mockery toward Him, but Jesus did not reply. However, the second thief did reply. In the same way, God also has thieves who have been saved in our day. They can answer all the world’s questions about Jesus and refute its arguments and turn aside its mockery. However, Jesus doesn’t answer the world even with one word. But He did respond to the second thief with a promise: “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

Jesus not only bore our sins in His body up on the tree, He also bore them within His body. He was made to be sin for us. God condemned sin in His flesh. Rom. 8:3. And when this work was finished, He gave up His spirit. It was impossible for the law to judge sin in the flesh, because every sin that a person commits is outside the body. But God did what the law could not do: He condemned sin in Christ’s flesh. Now, everyone who wants to be saved from the sin within must take up their cross daily. The thief was saved from his transgressions, but he did not partake of divine nature. Jesus did not take upon Himself the nature of angels, but rather the seed of Abraham. This was so that He could destroy sin in the body and in its place plant the fullness of the Godhead, which now dwells in Him bodily.

The judgment over the sin in our nature—the nature of the old Adam—is not condemnation, since it takes place within the body. However, Peter writes about this salvation, “If the righteous one is scarcely saved . . . .” 1 Pet. 4:18. There is a growth in the body, a salvation in the body, and a judgment in the body, so that each one will be rewarded according to the things done in the body.

God does everything in duplicate. He provides an outward salvation through Jesus Christ, and He provides an outward and inward salvation through the same Person.

However, the enemies of the cross of Christ resist this inner salvation, and like the thief, they are satisfied with the forgiveness of sins.

Not so with the bride of Christ. Her desire is to partake of His holiness, and she has counted the cost. She is flesh of His flesh and bone of His bones. She is willing not only to share joy with her Bridegroom, but also to suffer and die with Him—not only die to the curse of the law, but die to the nature of Adam in His body.