A few years ago I was teaching a Bible study on the different religions, and I met with a couple of Mormon missionaries to get a better understanding of what the Mormon religion was all about. As they were discussing their view of heaven, it became obvious that their understanding of heaven and salvation was different from ours. I asked them about the repentant thief on the cross. They said that he would go to a heaven, but not the level of heaven the ‘good’ people would go to, because, as one of them said, “I don’t believe that a loving God would send that evil person to the same heaven where I am.”
This parable definitely speaks against their claim, doesn’t it? Yet even sometimes we have a similar thought, that how could God forgive someone as evil as a murderer or a rapist? God’s grace and love is great enough for all people, for the repentance thief on the cross, or the murderer that believes and confesses Jesus Christ on his death bed. They are no better or worse than those of us who have believed for our whole lives. What an amazingly gracious God we have!