There were three crosses on Calvary. Three men dying in public agony. The one in the center was Jesus. On either side, two criminals — the text calls them thieves, malefactors, men whose crimes had earned them Roman execution. One of them joined the crowd in mocking Jesus. But one of them turned his head and spoke directly to Him. He did not recite a sinner's prayer. He did not take communion. He did not get baptized. He asked for one thing: "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom."
What makes this man's request remarkable is not what he asked. It is what he did not ask. He did not ask to be rescued from the cross. He did not ask for his sentence to be commuted. He did not ask for a second chance at life. He was dying and he knew it. He simply wanted to be remembered when the Man beside him came into His Kingdom. It was the smallest, most humble request a person could make.
And Jesus answered with one of the most staggering words in the New Testament: "To day." Not someday. Not after you've been processed. Not after we consult the record of your life. Today. The same day the thief was nailed to that cross, he was walking in paradise. No intermediate state of suffering. No waiting period. No further qualification required. Jesus' word was immediate, total, and non-negotiable.
This man is the greatest argument against salvation by works that exists in Scripture. He could not do works. He was nailed to a cross with hours to live. His hands were literally immobile. If grace required anything he could perform, he would have died without it. But grace required nothing he could perform — only what Jesus had already performed. The thief had nothing. And nothing was exactly what grace required him to bring.
If you have been told that you have done too much, gone too far, waited too long — look at the thief. His was not a quiet, private life of small sins. His sentence was public death. His life had been catastrophically off course. And Jesus said today. The same Lord who said that word to him is the same Lord who says it to you. You do not need to fix what is broken first. You do not need to clean yourself up before coming. Come to Him broken, empty, with nothing — and find that today is still the day of salvation.