How to respond to, "the thief on the cross"

[Jcnava15]

I’m no theologian, or expert on Catholic dogma, but here is my view.

Interestingly enough, my favorite quote to summarize my view on this faith versus works argument, comes from a Protestant author. He says;
“What I believe is not what I say I believe. What I believe is what I do”- Donald Miller

The theif had faith because he saw Christ, and knew. I imagine had this theif met Christ earlier, he would have been a follower.

Faith is not a mental process, faith is an action.

I have faith that Christ is saving me, so I do what he says. If I didn’t do what he said, then clearly I wouldn’t have faith.

It’s like the child who says to his mom, when asked to clean his room, “I’ll do it in a minute”, but then never does.

 

[Bob_Crowley]

Hello all,

Please bare with me as I am not sure if this has been posted in the correct forum. Admins, please feel free to move this thread if necessary. Thank in advance.

I often have the opportunity to discuss with friends, and co workers about salvation., being saved by faith alone, or faith and works. Being a devout Catholic in a rather Catholic hostile area ( I am in the Bible Belt, and mostly spar with Evangelicals.) I do not have a good counter to the arguement of the “thief on the cross who was saved by his faith alone”

So that I can better understand, and better explain the Catholic position, please help me to provide some counter arguements to this question.

Thank you to everyone who chooses to participate.

God Bless You all!

The thief was literally crucified with Christ. He suffered. He didn’t get in scot free. I suppose you could say that his time on the cross was his Purgatory. It’s a Purgatory I’d rather not go through, speaking personally.

In the case of the other thief, his time on the cross could be seen as the precursor to hell.

One suffered as the costly prerequisite to entering heaven, and appealed to Christ to accept him. The other suffered as a foretaste of the pains of hell, and rejected Christ.

I also think the thief is a special case. Evangelicals might like to think they’ve been crucified with Christ, but the reality is that not many of them (or us) have done much suffering for Christ. It was Paul who said, “I fill up in my body the sufferings of Christ.”

He also gave witness, despite his agony, to Christ in front of a mocking crowd.

 

[Mystic_Faith]

Thanks to everyone who responded. This give me a lot to think about. I’ll try to digest this and come up with some sort of basic tract to remember.

 

[jimcook87]

It was once pointed out to me the circumstances of the thief’s proclamation of faith. He didn’t silently accept Christ’s offer of salvation, nor did he comfortably state that he had accepted Christ as his Savior. No, while he was dying a suffocation death on a cross, he painfully drew breath and made his profession of faith. So as it was explained to me… Even one agonizing breath to proclaim your faith in Christ goes beyond simple faith alone salvation…

 

[YourAverageJoe]

I’m sure you’ve noticed that protestant denominations selectively take a passage and say, “Ah, ha …saved by faith” to the exclusion of ten other passages that also say we are saved by grace and by works.

In the case of the thief on the cross, through Jesus’ mercy and grace, he was saved by his repentance and his faith in Jesus. The other thief wasn’t repentant nor did he believe that Jesus was the Son of God.

This was a death bed confession. Jesus as the High Priest forgave sins.

 

[InDefense]

I often have the opportunity to discuss with friends, and co workers about salvation., being saved by faith alone, or faith and works. Being a devout Catholic in a rather Catholic hostile area ( I am in the Bible Belt, and mostly spar with Evangelicals.) I do not have a good counter to the arguement of the “thief on the cross who was saved by his faith alone” !

The thief on the cross was still under the Old Covenant and cannot be used as an excuse for those who have opportunity under the New Covenant to get baptised in water (full immersion) and to receive the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues.