Jacob, Esau and Two Thieves on a Cross

In Romans 9, Paul makes crystal clear his case that God’s freedom to choose whom He will and reject whom He will is not based on any distinction in them; for God chose Jacob and rejected Esau before they had done anything good or evil, before they were even born. God’s freedom of choice is an application of His being. LORD, or Yahweh, means “I AM THAT I AM.” This name is who God is (whatever God chooses to be). And because God is who He chooses to be, He is free to do as He chooses to do. This application of His name is found in Exod 33:19, which Paul quotes in Romans 9:15: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” In Exod 3:14, when Moses asked God His name, God replied “I AM THAT I AM.” Later, in Exod 33:19, God speaks again to Moses, telling him, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy.” I AM is His freedom in being. “I will…” is His freedom of doing. Out of His absolute unbounded freedom to be is His absolute unbounded freedom to do.

Why two thieves next Jesus? The answer parallels the answer concerning Jacob and Esau. Neither of them had done anything good nor bad. They were both just as unworthy of God’s electing grace. Yet God, in His sovereign freedom, chose Jacob. And God, in His sovereign freedom, chose one thief and not the other. Here again, at the very center of redemptive history, at Calvary itself, we find God’s freedom blasting forth in full force. “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy.” God’s Spirit regenerated the heart of one thief right there on the cross as the crowd hurled their insults at Jesus. His blood must have boiled as he saw this grand injustice. The other thief heard the same insults and blasphemies poured out toward the Son of God, but the Holy Spirit left him in his wickedness. This thief even chimed in, joining in the mockery of Jesus. One was stirred to repentance, the other toward the greatest evil of all, reviling God Himself. And when the elect thief could bear it no more, he rebuked the wicked thief, making his profession of faith right there on a cross. And as he did, he summed up the doctrine of grace in one concise statement:

Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds…

This thief’s heart had been reborn. The veil had been lifted and he saw “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4:6). And seeing this, he saw his own wickedness, his own deserved condemnation, justly due him for his sins. And looking toward the center, He saw Jesus, the justifier, the propitiation of God’s wrath and condemnation. And he fell on Jesus.

This thief’s confession is the necessary confession of every person who ever walked and will ever walk the face of the planet – we are under the same sentence of condemnation, and we will justly receive the due reward for our deeds. We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. And the due reward for this shortcoming is wrath and eternal condemnation! One thief received his due upon the cross and now in all eternity. The other fell upon Christ and received mercy and an entrance into eternal life. Both deserved what one of them received; neither deserved what the other received. For God chose one and rejected the other. And these crosses on either side of Jesus’s stand forever as an reminder of God’s freedom to have mercy on whom He has mercy and to harden whom He hardens.