The Gospel Of Repentance

One of the criminals crucified with Christ to me is one of the most admirable people I have never met. Why? Because of his character. I want to take a few moments to carefully analyze his words. 1. He rebuked the other criminal for his insolence of the Lord and admitted that they were guilty and justly condemned for their crimes When the other criminal demanded that Jesus save him because he wanted a get-out-of-jail-free-card, the contrite rightly rebuked telling him, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Rarely do we hear people taking responsibility for their sins. This shows tremendous character on the part of this justly condemned. I used the word sins on purpose because our society looks at it as an antiquated word that it would love to totally dismiss from our vocabulary forever. The problem that ...

Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And Jesus said to them, "Do you suppose these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will likewise perish. Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will likewise perish."                                                                                                                            ...

In 1 Peter 3:18-20 we read these words, “For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison , who were formerly disobedient, when once the Divine long suffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared in which a few, that is eight souls were saved through water” (NKJV). The phrase He went and preached to the spirits in prison , is a subject of debate. Some, perhaps many that are aware of this account in the church believe this means Jesus between His death and resurrection went to an area in the underworld called paradise and preached the gospel to Old Testament saints like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Daniel, Isaiah, etc. Jesus had to reveal to them that He was the Messiah they must believe in order to receive salvation so they could be taken to heaven when he led captivity captive (Ep...