Luke 23:43

Context

Of the two criminals crucified with Jesus, one reviled him, while the other rebuked his companion and said, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom" (v. 42). Verse 43 is Jesus' answer to that request. The criminal asked for a place in a kingdom in the distant future, but Jesus answered with the word "to day." This scene appears only in the Gospel of Luke.

Interpretation

• An example of immediate salvation: This criminal had no opportunity to be baptized or to do good works, yet he received the promise of salvation through faith and confession alone. For this reason the scene is often cited as an illustration of the Protestant teaching that justification comes by faith rather than by works.
• Basis for the intermediate state: The major Protestant denominations, as well as the Catholic and Orthodox churches, cite this verse as evidence that the soul of a believer is with Christ immediately after death. The word "paradise" (paradeisos) originally meant "garden," and Paul also used the term (2 Corinthians 12:4). The verse is read together with Philippians 1:23: "to depart, and to be with Christ."
• Although the Catholic Church holds the doctrine of purgatory, it explains the case of this thief as an example of someone who entered paradise immediately through perfect repentance and grace.

Controversies and Debates

The original Greek manuscripts contain very little punctuation. As a result, it is grammatically possible to divide the sentence either as "Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise" or as "Verily I say unto thee to day, thou shalt be with me in paradise." Jehovah's Witnesses and the Seventh-day Adventist Church, who hold that the dead await the resurrection in an unconscious state, follow the latter reading. Most denominations and translations follow the former, on the grounds that elsewhere Jesus always used the expression "Verily I say unto thee" on its own, without adding "to day," and that "to day" stands out as an emphatic answer to the thief's "someday."

In Korean Churches

The verse is frequently cited at deathbed services, in sermons at funeral services, and in evangelistic sermons emphasizing that "repentance is not too late even at the last moment."

Related Passages

• 2 Corinthians 5:8
• Philippians 1:21-23
• 2 Corinthians 12:2-4
• Revelation 2:7