One of the deepest felt needs of the human heart is the need to be remembered.  However, all of us have the capacity to forget people. Was the thief on the cross asking Jesus to save him or take him into the kingdom?  Nobody in the New Testament has ever asked Jesus to save them from eternal punishment.  We are not saved by asking Jesus to save us. We are saved by believing that Jesus keeps His promise to save us when we trust Him to do that.  We do not need to pray or ask to be saved. We just need to believe in Jesus for the free gift of everlasting life.  By the thief’s faithfulness to Jesus Christ when Jesus was dying alone, the thief on the cross became impossible to forget and was rewarded in the kingdom.  The question is whether Jesus will remember us in the same way.

Other passages: Matthew 27:38, 44; Mark 15:27; Luke 16:19-31.