Who was God asking forgiveness for? The criminals? The Jews who fabricated charges of blasphemy against him? Or the Roman soldiers who drove in the nails?
Since the scriptures tell us that death pays for even serious sins, the deaths of the criminals would give them a chance of the resurrection, this is what Jews believed.....so not the criminals.
The Jews who lied to have Jesus illegally tried, and then blackmailed Pilate into having him put to death? There could be no forgiveness for them...their fate was already sealed. (Matt 23:33)
So it was the Roman soldiers who had no interest in who Jesus was, and didn't care about who he claimed to be....they were just doing their job....and we know that the Romans were cruel people who thrived on bloodshed as part of their culture. They acted in ignorance.
Pilate appeased the Jews who clamored for Jesus' death only after they threatened his political position. They were going to report him to Caesar for treason which was a capital offense. He had Jesus flogged and in a very poor physical state the Romans had no compunction in adding to his pain as they impaled him to die in agony.
This promise made to one of the thieves is heart warming for two reasons....firstly, the repentant attitude of the man who asked to be remembered when Christ got into his Kingdom, meant that he acknowledged Jesus as Messiah. Because Jesus only preached to the Jews, this criminal was obviously Jewish.....he knew that they deserved their just punishment under Roman law, but that Jesus was an innocent man.
Pilate had stated that he found nothing criminal about his activities....but the Jews cried out for for his death, even cursing themselves and their children with his blood. (Matthew 27:25) Who misled them?
Secondly as a Jew, the man also knew what Jesus meant when he said...
"you will be with me in paradise".
The controversial part of that verse is the addition of a comma that changes the whole meaning of what Jesus said.
"And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”
There is no punctuation in Greek, so the comma is placed at the discretion of the translator. But if you put the comma after the word "today" the whole meaning of the verse changes the time frame.
"And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise.”
Its very subtle but satan is good at that.
We have to ask which placement of the comma is the correct one, by using the scriptures themselves to answer that question.
Did Jesus go to paradise that day? And what is the "paradise" that he referred to? Since the Jews did not have any belief in an immortal soul (no such belief exited in the Jewish scriptures) it was adopted later, influenced by Plato....a Greek philosopher. (Adopted also by Christendom in the early centuries.)
The Jewish belief was that Messiah would be a human in the family line of David, and he would sit on an earthly throne and establish his Kingdom on earth with the Jews making up
"the royal priesthood an a holy nation" as God had promised through Moses. (Exodus 19:5-6)
They knew nothing about the heavenly nature of the Kingdom and did not expect to go there. "Paradise" to a Jew meant the earthly paradise that Adam and his wife lost for all their children. Messiah was going to come and reinstate that paradise and rule on earth for the blessing of all the nations.
Now what about Jesus? What did he say about where he would be the day he died?
Matthew 12:38-40...
"Then as an answer to him, some of the scribes and the Pharisees said: “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.” 39 In reply he said to them: “A wicked and adulterous generation keeps on seeking a sign, but no sign will be given it except the sign of Joʹnah the prophet. 40 For just as Joʹnah was in the belly of the huge fish for three days and three nights, so the Son of man will be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights."
Jesus was not going to be anywhere the day he died, in fact he was going to be in his grave "the heart of the earth" for three days and nights. Just as Jonah was confined in the belly of the fish, so Jesus would be confined in his grave, making the promise to the thief something other than what Christendom wants to think it does. And Jesus remained here on the earth for 40 days prior to his ascension. So he did not return to heaven that day, or in the following 40 days after his resurrection. (Acts 1:3)
So, moving the comma to the correct place, (after the word "today") gives us the truth about what Jesus promised to the thief that day.
It was a promise made that day, for the man to be resurrected in paradise (not heaven) when Jesus brought his Kingdom to rule this earth. (Rev 21:1-4)
Those raised to heaven, Jesus said are the ones who had lived a faithful life of obedience to his teachings and who had died faithful.....this rules out last minute death bed conversions....though, like the thief, an earthly resurrection is promised even for those who did vile things. They paid for their sins with their own lives....Jesus' sacrifice gives them another chance to be 'saved'. They will have a judgment period....the thousand year reign of God's Kingdom.
"Do not be amazed at this, because a time is coming when all who are in the graves will hear His voice 29 and come out—those who have done good things, to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked things, to the resurrection of judgment." (John 5:28-29)
That is how I understand the scriptures on this topic.
