Saved Like a Thief

Doctrinal dissertations are fine, but most people would agree that the easiest way to learn is by seeing a model. God’s salvation plan is no different. There are discourses on salvation by faith in the book of Romans, the role of works in the book of James, and the importance of Christ’s sacrifice in the letter to the Hebrews. All of these are important. Different teachers can be found playing these passages against each other, but for ease of understanding God has given us models of how to lay hold of His saving grace. The surprise is which model is so often used. Far and away, the most commonly used example of salvation is the thief on the cross. “I don’t have to be baptized,” we often hear, “because the thief on the cross wasn’t.”

In this tract, Carl McMurray suggests three reasons why the thief should NOT be our model today for accepting salvation.