In verse 42, the thief said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” By acknowledging that Jesus has a kingdom, the thief affirmed Christ’s lordship… Beza observes that the Gospel accounts emphasize how the disciples scattered, with only John remaining at the cross. None of the Twelve spoke on Jesus’s behalf or testified to their faith as he was crucified; this good work was performed by the thief alone.

In 2006, Alistair Begg preached a sermon titled “Blind from Birth.” He reflected on the free gift of salvation offered through Christ’s death, and to illustrate this, he referenced the thief on the cross:

You know, I always think about this in relationship to the thief on the cross when he arrives at the portals of heaven. You imagine that interview process?

“What are you doing here?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, who sent you here?”

“What? No one sent me here. I . . . I . . . I’m here!”

“Well, are you . . . Have you been justified by faith? Do you have peace with God?”

“I don’t know.”

“Well, do you know anything?”

“Yeah.”

“What do you know?”

“The man on the middle cross said I could come here.”

Begg rightly notes the thief was saved by Christ alone, not by good works, good theology, or any other merit. After all, the thief’s spiritual résumé would’ve been short.

In this illustration, Begg used the repentant thief to emphasize salvation without works. But other Christians in church history have used the thief’s story to highlight other truths. Theodore Beza (1519–1605), for example, used the thief to remind his readers that while good works don’t save us, they necessarily accompany the faith that does.

Beza’s Little Book of Christian Questions and Answers

French Reformed theologian Beza served as the first rector at the Academy of Geneva founded by John Calvin (1509–64). As Ryan McGraw notes, Reformed scholastics like Beza gave their scholarly endeavors a pastoral dimension. As scholar-pastors, they studied for the church. This is especially evident in Beza’s 1570 work A Little Book of Christian Questions and Responses.

In a section on sanctification, Beza explores the relationship between faith and works. He argues that “good works do not justify, but [follow] the one who believes and is already justified in Christ, just as good fruits do not make a tree good, but a tree is known to be good by its good fruits” (A 152).

The connection between faith and works leads Beza’s imaginary interlocutor to raise a poignant question: “Therefore, you say that good works are necessary to salvation?” Beza responds with an affirmative syllogism: “If faith is necessary to salvation, and works necessarily flow out of true faith, (as that which cannot be idle), certainly also it follows, that good works are necessary to salvation.” “Yet,” Beza clarifies, “not as the cause of salvation (for we are justified, and thus live, by faith alone in Christ), but as something necessarily attached to true faith” (Q/A 154). For Beza (who cites Rom. 8:14; 1 John 3:7; and James 2:21), faith necessarily produces good works not as the source but as the vital consequence and companion of salvation.

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