Luke 23:41 Commentary and Bible Study

‘Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds.’ Whereas a short time before he had been joining with the other thief in abusing Christ, he now begins to rebuke his companion as he thinks about who is hanging between them, and how shocking it is that such a one should be treated in this way. In his own case he knows perfectly well that he and his fellow thief deserve to be hanging on those crosses – ‘we indeed justly’. Justice has caught up with them, and now they face not just the penalty of their crimes on earth, but they are about to stand before a far more awesome seat of judgment: the judgment throne of the Most High God. Yes, they have reason to fear God, and therefore all scorn for others and all malice and hypocrisy must be done away with. This thief is appalled at the words of his companion, and at his own former words. They are words spoken with no awareness that every man, woman, and child is accountable to God, and that no one can act as judge over another without invoking the same standard of judgment against themselves. They are both certain to die, and they are both going to have to give account to God for their lives within hours. There will be no defending their conduct in front of him whose eyes are as a flame of fire. To continue with that sin right up to the very last moment and to come unrepentant into the presence of God would be the worst mistake of all and this thief knows it. The public acknowledgement of his evil life is the first part of an appeal to God’s mercy.He came face to face with death. He knew he only had a few hours of agony left, and all that, as the saying goes, concentrated his mind wonderfully. He suddenly realized what a meaningless failure his life had all been. All the things he had wanted, money, homes, love and so on; all these things seemed so petty and so small. What was life really for? Sometimes we need a shock like that, something which makes all the tinsel of life seem cheap. We can be very fickle, and we can go months and years without ever feeling any need for realism and purpose, and we need a shock. In looking at Christ he really did see the majesty and the power of God. He suddenly realized the wonderful nature of the Son of God and we need that. Sometimes we need an awesome, overpowering view of the fact that there is a God. It needs to somehow strike us spiritually that he is there, and here am I going through life, living it for myself, doing what I want, scorning him, but he is there and all things are naked and open to his eyes. We all need to be very humbled and very awestruck that there is a God in heaven and he will hold us to account for our lives.