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Luke 23:40-41 – The Faith of the Thief
“What about the thief on the cross? He had no outward manifestation of his faith.” This statement was made to me when doing evangelism at our Coffeehouse Evangelism by someone who believed baptism was not necessary. So we revisited the thief on the cross.
That believer said, “Don’t you even fear God, since we are undergoing the same punishment?” (Luke 23:40). Who is undergoing the same punishment according to the thief? “God”.Who is he suffering with on the cross? Jesus. This thief confesses Jesus to be divine. Then the confessor says, “We are punished justly, because we’re getting back what we deserve for the things we did. But this man has done nothing wrong” (Luke 23:41). Now this man confesses his sin showing repentance. He also confesses Jesus to be a man showing his belief in the incarnation, however elementary.
While obviously he was not baptized while hanging on the cross, and that can be further investigated, the argument that there was not outward manifestation of his faith is shown to be wrong by looking at the evidence. Faith is not just in the head. Faith is lived, even if as with thief, with his last breaths.
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