Three Crosses stood upon Calvary 2,000 years ago. Those three crosses speak of two destinies, of three men and in what condition they died.
Today you and I are just like one of those crosses. Because those three Crosses portray you and me. Those three crosses portray all that is important today, in all of life and for all of eternity. Which Cross do you identify with?
The middle Cross was Christ's. He died with all sin on Him but no sin in Him. What do I mean? He never sinned. He never disobeyed any of God's law. He was perfect, sinless, holy, divine, and unblemished in life and death. He was God. But He BECAME sin for us. He never sinned, but God hath "laid upon Him the iniquity of us all." Jesus bore the sin of the world as the Lamb of God. So we can never identify with His condition for we are never perfect nor ever God. Rather we can find ourselves as identifying with a thief on one side or the other of Jesus Christ. What do I mean?
On each side of Christ's cross were the thief's crosses. One thief went to Paradise with Jesus, and the other went to the fires of Hell with Judas, most if not all the Sadducees, and probably Pilate and Herod. What made the difference?
A simple equation helps us sort out their destinies.
The Thief who went to Paradise died with sin in him but not on him. What is that? He died a saved sinner. He died in peace, he died cleansed, forgiven, with a new heart, with no condemnation, with an endless life, and he was a saved sinner. He was not perfect, he was not sinless, but he was eternally forgiven.
The thief who dropped from the cross into Hell died with all his sin on him and in him. He died full of anger and bitterness in his soul.
Only Jesus could be so bold as to say there is no middle road on the highway to heaven. It's all or none. It's receive the free gift of eternal life or reject it. No choice is to make the answer to Him be NO.
Taken from "Three Crosses" by Discover the Book Ministries (used by permission).
