Reformed Covenanter
Cancelled Commissioner
Theodore Beza helps us to see that the thief on the cross often does not get the credit he deserves for his works of evangelical obedience after exercising saving faith in Christ:
Q155 What if someone is not endowed with faith until the very moment of death itself. For this seems to have happened to the thief hanging on the cross. What kind of good works will someone of this type have brought forth?
A155 No, the faith of that thief was in that brief time unspeakably active, for he rebuked the blasphemes and wickedness of the other thief, he detested his own crimes, and with a plain and marvelous faith he acknowledged Christ as the eternal king while he was in the very disgrace of the cross; as all the disciples kept silent, he invoked him as his Saviour, and finally he openly reproved the cruelties and ungodly voices of the Jews.
Moreover, the acknowledgement of sin, the invocation of God the Father in Christ, and thanksgiving, are the most excellent works of the first Table, which cannot be separated from faith in any man. Yet someone who is prevented by death is not able to demonstrate any of the works of the second table. Nevertheless, faith is not to be considered idle in him, since although it does not have charity joined in deed, it has it joined in potentiality.
For the reference, see Theodore Beza on the good works of the thief on the cross.
Q155 What if someone is not endowed with faith until the very moment of death itself. For this seems to have happened to the thief hanging on the cross. What kind of good works will someone of this type have brought forth?
A155 No, the faith of that thief was in that brief time unspeakably active, for he rebuked the blasphemes and wickedness of the other thief, he detested his own crimes, and with a plain and marvelous faith he acknowledged Christ as the eternal king while he was in the very disgrace of the cross; as all the disciples kept silent, he invoked him as his Saviour, and finally he openly reproved the cruelties and ungodly voices of the Jews.
Moreover, the acknowledgement of sin, the invocation of God the Father in Christ, and thanksgiving, are the most excellent works of the first Table, which cannot be separated from faith in any man. Yet someone who is prevented by death is not able to demonstrate any of the works of the second table. Nevertheless, faith is not to be considered idle in him, since although it does not have charity joined in deed, it has it joined in potentiality.
For the reference, see Theodore Beza on the good works of the thief on the cross.
