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From the recording The Seven Last Sayings Of Christ By Dr. Scott Hahn. For this recording in its entirety or other great recordings, please visit lighthousecatholicmedia.org

I am sure that everyone knows the story from the Bible about the good thief. Jesus is crucified in the middle of two thieves. One of the thieves is only concerned about himself, saying “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us” (Luke 23:39). But the other thief rebukes him, saying “We have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal” (Luke 23:41). The thief then asks Jesus to remember him when Jesus comes into His kingdom. Jesus replies “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). Many people use the story of the good thief to attack various Catholic beliefs. They will say things such as “It is obvious that the good thief was saved by faith alone. He did no good works while on the cross, but because he believed that Christ was Lord, his faith saved him.” They may also say “How can you claim that baptism is necessary for salvation when the good thief obviously was never baptized” or “How can you claim that people need to go to church when the good thief never went to church and was still saved” or “How can you believe in Purgatory when the good thief obviously went straight to heaven because Jesus said ‘Today you will be with me in Paradise’.” Let us investigate these claims a little further.

The first thing that we have to remember with the good thief is that he was nailed to a cross when he accepted Christ, so therefore could not be baptized, go to church, or do good works. But what excuse will you and I have when we face God when we die. When God asks us what we have done while on Earth to be allowed into heaven, what will happen if we do not have a good response? As Jesus tells us in Luke 12:48, “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded.” If you have been taught about Jesus from an early age and have accepted Him into your heart at a young age, then much will be demanded of you. The good thief’s situation is an extraordinary circumstance and should not be applied to all humans.

Also, who is to say that the good thief did no works? He defended Christ and rebuked the bad thief. He accepted responsibility for his own sin. This seems like a pretty good work seeing as he had nails driven into his hands and feet and fluid building up in his lungs as he was hanging from a cross. It was difficult for him to breath, much less talk. He had to push himself up on his feet with a nail through them to speak every word. Furthermore, we really do not know what type of works the good thief did before being crucified. It is very possible that the good thief already asked God for forgiveness and did works of penance and charity before he was nailed to a cross.

Another important note is that before Jesus was raised from the dead, He had not established His Church yet, so it would have been impossible for the good thief to be a part of it. The people were still under the Old Covenant. While baptism is necessary under the New Covenant, circumcision is how people entered into God’s Covenant in the Old Covenant. Was Abraham, Moses, or David baptized? They were not because, like the good thief, were under the Old Covenant, yet Abraham, Moses and David were saved.

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