“I say to you, today…”

“Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” – Luke 23:43

“Verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise.” “To-day.” Thou shalt not lie in purgatory for ages, nor sleep in limbo for so many years; but thou shalt be ready for bliss at once, and at once thou shalt enjoy it. The sinner was hard by the gates of hell, but almighty mercy lifted him up, and the Lord said, “To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise.” What a change from the cross to the crown, from the anguish of Calvary to the glory of the New Jerusalem! In those few hours the beggar was lifted from the dunghill and set among princes. “To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise.” Can you measure the change from that sinner, loathsome in his iniquity, when the sun was high at noon, to that same sinner, clothed in pure white, and accepted in the Beloved, in the paradise of God, when the sun went down? O glorious Saviour, what marvels Thou canst work! How rapidly canst Thou work them!

Please notice the majesty of the Lord’s grace in this text. The Saviour said to him, “Verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise.” Our Lord gives His own will as the reason for saving this man. “I say.” He says it who claims the right thus to speak. It is He who will have mercy on whom He will have mercy and will have compassion on whom He will have compassion. He speaks royally, “Verily I say unto thee.” Are they not imperial words? The Lord is a King in whose word there is power. What He says none can gainsay. He that hath the keys of hell and of death saith, “I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise.” Who shall prevent the fulfilment of His word? ~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/2078.cfm

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