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The clearest answer in the Bible to how a person accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior came from a man who could not move his hands.
He was hanging on a cross a few feet from Jesus, at the place Luke calls Calvary. He had no time left, no clean record, no way to go back and make anything right. According to two of the four Gospels, he may even have spent part of that same day joining in the insults. And before the afternoon was over, Jesus gave him a promise with a date on it.
So if you have been trying to work out how to do this — and quietly worrying that you have nothing to bring, no Bible knowledge, no track record, no certainty you would even get the words right — he is the person to watch. He did the whole thing with empty hands. And what Jesus promised him turns out to be the best description anyone has given of what comes next.
Everyone on That Hill Kept Using the Word “Save”
Luke tells the crucifixion slowly, and if you read it in one sitting, one word keeps coming back.
The rulers: “He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God” (Luke 23:35). The soldiers: “If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself” (Luke 23:37). Then one of the two criminals crucified beside him: “If thou be Christ, save thyself and us” (Luke 23:39).
Three different voices. One word. And every time it is a dare. Prove it. Get yourself down. Get us down while you are at it.
Now the detail that is easy to read straight past. The man on the other side of Jesus — the one who received the promise — never uses the word at all. Everybody else demanded a rescue on their own terms. He asked for something else entirely.
What He Actually Said, Start to Finish
This is his entire recorded speech. It is short enough to read in one breath:
“But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.” — Luke 23:40-42
Take it apart and there are three moves in it:
- He told the truth about himself. “We receive the due reward of our deeds.” No excuse, no speech about his circumstances, no case for why he was a decent person underneath. Just the plain truth.
- He told the truth about Jesus. “This man hath done nothing amiss.” He looked at the same man the crowd was mocking and saw the one innocent person on that hill.
- He asked. Not “save yourself and prove it.” Just: remember me.
That is the answer to the “how.” Honest about you, clear about him, and a request instead of a demand. None of it requires a church, a script, or a good week.
“Lord” Meant He Read the Sign as True
Above Jesus’s head, Luke says, hung a sign written “in letters of Greek, and Latin, and Hebrew, THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS” (Luke 23:38). It was put there as an insult, and the soldiers’ taunt threw the same title back at him.
The criminal is the one person in Luke’s account who takes that sign at its word. “When thou comest into thy kingdom” — said to a man who was dying, mocked by nearly everyone in earshot, whose kingdom looked from every visible angle like it had just been nailed shut.
That is what the “Lord” half of “Lord and Savior” really asks for. Not a title you recite. A verdict you reach about who is actually in charge — even on a day when everything you can see argues the other way. (If the order of those two words has ever puzzled you, here is why scripture keeps putting Lord first.)
One honest footnote, because you may notice it: in the King James he opens with “Lord.” Many modern translations, following older Greek manuscripts, have him simply say the name — “Jesus, remember me.” Either way, the request does the same work. You do not ask a man about his kingdom unless you believe he has one.
He May Have Been Mocking Jesus Earlier That Day
Here is the part that makes this story land for anyone who thinks they have waited too long or said too much.
Luke is the only Gospel that shows one of the criminals change his mind. Matthew and Mark describe the two of them together, and neither is gentle: “The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth” (Matthew 27:44). “And they that were crucified with him reviled him” (Mark 15:32).
Readers have set those accounts side by side for centuries, and many have concluded that the man who asked to be remembered had been one of the voices mocking Jesus earlier, and turned during the hours they hung there together. The Gospels never spell out how the accounts fit, and some read Matthew and Mark as speaking in general terms. But if that reading is right, the man who ended the day with a promise from Jesus started it on the other side.
If you have spent years on the other side — arguing, joking, walking away, or just not caring — you are not disqualified by your morning.
Everything He Couldn’t Do
Make the list honestly. That afternoon he could not kneel. He could not be baptized. He could not go back and repay anyone. He could not read a verse, join a church, or prove by ten years of changed living that he had meant it. Every single thing we tend to picture when we imagine “doing it right” was physically out of his reach.
Jesus did not ask for any of it. That is not an argument that those things do not matter — they are how a life with Jesus gets lived out, and most of us will have years to live it. It is proof that none of them is the entry fee.
So borrow his three moves, tonight, in your own words — out loud if you can, silently if you cannot:
- Tell God the plain truth about where you are. Not the polished version.
- Say what you now believe about Jesus — that he is who he said he was.
- Then ask. Ask him to remember you, to lead you, to take it from here.
The Promise Was Two Words: “With Me”
Now read what Jesus said back: “Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).
The man asked to be remembered someday. Jesus answered with today. He asked to be remembered. Jesus answered with with me. The answer was bigger than the question on both counts — and the center of it was not a place or a status. It was Jesus’s own company.
That is the part people miss when they treat accepting Jesus as a box to tick. The man on the cross got a few hours at Jesus’s side. You get something he never had: tomorrow morning, and the one after that. Jesus once described eternal life itself as knowing God and knowing him — a life that starts now, not only after death. The acceptance takes a moment. Getting to know the one you just called Lord takes mornings.
Most people stall right here. They open the Bible at page one, run out of steam somewhere in Leviticus, and read the stall as proof that nothing really happened. It was not proof of anything, except that nobody gave them a place to start. (If you are in that first week now, here is what to do as a new Christian.)
That is exactly why 30 Days Walking with Jesus exists. It walks you through the life of Jesus one day at a time, straight through the Gospels, built for somebody starting from zero. There are 30 short devotional videos, each under a minute, and 30 full-chapter audio readings for the mornings when reading is more than you have in you. A PDF study guide with journal prompts gives what you read somewhere to land, and five quick-reference scripture guides keep you from hunting for anything. It takes under ten minutes a day.
And it is free. No payment, no card, no upsell, no expiration — because the words of Jesus should not sit behind a paywall. Instant access on any device, and it is yours to keep. The man on the cross came to Jesus with empty hands. You can start this the same way.
Questions People Are Asking
Q: How do I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior if I have done terrible things?
A: The clearest example in the Bible is the criminal crucified next to Jesus. He admitted his guilt plainly — “we receive the due reward of our deeds” (Luke 23:41) — and then asked, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom” (Luke 23:42). Jesus answered, “To day shalt thou be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43). He had no time to make anything right first. Being honest about what you have done is part of accepting Jesus, not a reason you cannot.
Q: Do I have to be baptized or join a church before I can accept Jesus?
A: The man on the cross beside Jesus could do neither, and Jesus still promised him paradise that same day. Christian traditions differ on how and when baptism fits into the life of faith, and it is well worth talking through with a local church. But his story shows that Jesus did not turn away someone who could do nothing except ask. Those practices are how a walk with Jesus is lived out; they are not an entry fee.
Q: What words should I say to accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior?
A: There is no required script in the Bible. The criminal on the cross said three things in Luke 23:40-42: the truth about himself (“we receive the due reward of our deeds”), the truth about Jesus (“this man hath done nothing amiss”), and a simple request (“Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom”). Your own plain words in that same shape — honest about you, clear about Jesus, then asking — are enough.
Q: What does “Lord” mean when you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?
A: Savior means trusting Jesus to rescue you. Lord means trusting that he is the one actually in charge. On the cross, the criminal asked Jesus about “thy kingdom” while Jesus was dying under a sign that mockingly read “THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS” (Luke 23:38). Calling Jesus Lord means reaching that same verdict: that he really is king, even when circumstances look like the opposite.
Q: What should I do after I accept Jesus as my Lord and Savior?
A: Start getting to know him. When Jesus answered the man on the cross, the heart of the promise was “with me” (Luke 23:43) — a relationship, not a checkbox. The simplest way to begin is reading the Gospels, the accounts of Jesus’s own life, a little each day rather than opening the Bible at page one. 30 Days Walking with Jesus is a free, beginner-friendly plan that walks through the Gospels one day at a time in under ten minutes a day, with no payment or card required.
