This illustrates even on Calvary's cross the way we come to Christ. To truly come to him, it is not enough to be a nominal Christian, and to vaguely believe in him, to vaguely assent to him. That doesn't bring you to true conversion. There are many people in the world who think they are Christians, but they've never really come to Christ. They've never truly repented of sin; they have never truly turned their lives over to him. They have not known that inner change which comes about by the power of the Spirit, the new birth. They have never really seen Christ like the centurion saw him. ‘Certainly he is the Son of God. Look at him and his composure, and his holiness and purity, and what he's doing. They are hurling these insults at him.’ Like the dying thief the centurion had heard a sermon. He heard it from the lips of unbelievers, from the chief priests, and the scribes and the Pharisees. They did know it, but they were preaching a sermon, to the dying thief, to the centurion in charge of the Roman detail, perhaps to all the Roman soldiers there, because it’s said in one Gospel that they all said this: ‘Surely he is the Son of God.’
What was the sermon? It consisted of the insults they were flinging into the teeth of Christ. ‘You said you were the Son of God. You saved others. You are claiming to be the Messiah of God. You’re claiming to be the Saviour; save yourself.’ But the reaction of the centurion and the dying thief was, ‘He is the Saviour then. This accounts for him. This accounts for what he is doing, a holy man, a healer of thousands. This accounts for his perfect deportment and composure no matter what they do. This explains the way he speaks to his Father in such a familiar personal way. He is the promised Messiah, the only person in the history of the world to have been prophesied before his birth, many times, and in great detail, including everything he would do. That centurion had heard the dying thief witnessing to him also. ‘This man hath done nothing amiss. 42 And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.’ And he had heard those words of Christ: ‘To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.’ He saw him, saying, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’ Then he saw the mother of Christ and the disciple John, and Christ committing the care of his mother to the disciple John. And he thought to himself, ‘Who is this man, who cares more about his mother and her care, and who speaks so gently when he is in agony and wounded and dying on this cross? Then he saw the three hours darkness and there is silence and the people cannot move. There's no moonlight – it is day time during a full moon. There is no starlight; they have no lamps with them. This, even to a Roman centurion, was surely a token of judgment. All these things amounted to a sermon. He came to realise they were crucifying their Saviour. You see on Calvary's cross the miracle of two hearts breaking. The heart of the dying thief – a rebel thief and possibly a murderer too, an insurrectionist – he turns his life over to Christ; and that of the centurion: ‘Truly this was a righteous man.’ ‘Truly this was the Son of God.’ That is a profession of faith in Christ, and possibly there were other Roman soldiers too.