" You Will Be With Me in Paradise"

 "Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in Paradise." - LUKE 23:43. 

JESUS and the two criminals beside him were suffering as they felt their life draining away.  (Luke 23:43) Both of the criminals had been speaking abusively of Jesus, so they clearly were not his disciples.  (Matthew 27:44; Mark 15:32)  But one of them had a changed of heart.  He said:  "Jesus remember me when you get into your Kingdom."  Jesus replied: "Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in Paradise." (Read Luke  23:39-43.)  Nothing suggests that this criminal had accepted the message about "the Kingdom of heavens," which Jesus preached during his ministry. And Jesus never did say the man would get into the Kingdom. (Matthew 4:17)  Jesus was speaking about the future earthly Paradise.  Why can we say that?

The repentant criminal was likely a Jew.  That criminal said to the other: "Do you not fear God at all, now that you have received the judgment?" (Luke 23:40)  The Jews worshipped one God, but people from nations believed in many gods.  (Exodus 20:2, 3; 1 Corinthians 8:5, 6)  Had those criminals been men of the nations, the question might have been, "Do you not fear the gods at all?"   Furthermore, Jesus was sent, not to people of the nations, but to "the lost sheep of the house of Israel." (Matthew 15:24)  God had revealed to the Israelites that he would raise the dead. The repentant criminal may have known about this, and as his words suggest, he assumed that Jehovah would resurrect Jesus to rule in God's Kingdom.  The man apparently  hoped that God would resurrect him. 

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