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Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith, and today a special edition as we continue our audio series Heaven, How I Got Here. It’s the story of the thief on the cross as read by actor Stephen Baldwin. And if you’ve missed any of the previous days in this series, I do hope you’ll come and visit our website. It’s openthebible.org, and you can go back and listen to any previous broadcast of this series, the first few chapters of the book.

Colin, so far, we have seen how the thief was filled with hatred, how he began to turn to Jesus, ultimately placing his faith in the promise that Jesus gave him that he would be with Jesus in Paradise. Today, we look at what happened after he trusted in Jesus.

Colin Smith: Yeah, and it’s a remarkable story. Of course, the thief was witness to everything that happened during the time that Jesus was on the cross. He actually died after Jesus, and we know that because when the soldiers came to break the legs of the criminals, our Lord had already died and committed his spirit into the hands of the Father. So, the thief was witness to all of this, and we’re going to learn more about what happened on the cross through the eyes of the thief as he recollects these events for us. Well, let’s go ahead and listen to his recollection. This is actor Stephen Baldwin with Chapter 5, Love.

Stephen Baldwin: Chapter 5: Love. 11:50 a.m. The bright sun dazzled my eyes, so I looked down to the small group of friends standing in front of Jesus. One of them was called Mary, and it became clear to me that she was Jesus’ mother. There was a radiant beauty about Mary. As she wept and watched and waited, surrounded by hatred, she exuded love. It seemed to me that Jesus Christ was more hated and more loved than any other person I had known.

I thought about my own mother and was glad that she was not there. I had already broken her heart with the choices of my life, choices that led to years of estrangement. On top of all that, if she had to endure seeing me on a cross, I think the pain would have been unbearable for her. But Mary, the mother of Jesus, was there.

I tried to imagine what it was like for her to watch her son suffer. I had come to trust him in the last hour, but she had loved him from the day of his birth. Now, the brow she had kissed as she put him to bed was crowned with thorns, and the hands she had held as she taught him to walk were pierced with nails. I looked at her and felt compassion. It was a strange sensation for a heart that was more familiar with hate than with love.

Over the years, I had hardened myself. My lifestyle demanded it. Grit and steel were my familiar friends. Compassion was far from me. But now, enveloped in pain, I felt compassion for a woman I did not even know. Something good was happening in my heart, and I knew that it was happening because of Jesus.

Love had been a stranger to me. My mother had loved me in her own disciplined way, but I had long since broken away from family. From the crowd I ran with, loyalty on the basis of self-interest was the standard substitute for love. Think about the love that you have experienced. Love usually comes with a reason. Your mother loves you because you’re her child. Your spouse loves you because he or she is drawn to something in you. Your friends love you because they enjoy your company.

But Christ loved me without a reason. He cared for me without cause. His love is its own explanation. Christ loves you for no other reason than that. He loves you. I experienced the beginning of that love through my encounter with Jesus on the cross. Here in heaven, I am still discovering the full extent of his love, and the more I discover, the more joy I have.

Whatever your experience of love or the lack of it in your life, there is love for you in the heart of Jesus Christ. I saw this as he prayed for his enemies and as he promised Paradise to me. But that was only the beginning. I was about to discover more.

With all the noise and clamor that had been taking place, I was struck by how little Jesus said. Since the ordeal began, he had spoken only twice. He had called on his Father and prayed for his enemies: "Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing." Then he had spoken to me: "Amen, today you will be with me in Paradise."

Now Jesus looked down at his mother, and in spite of his agony, he raised himself up and drew the breath he needed to speak. "Woman," he said, "behold your son." He wasn't referring to himself, but to a man standing beside her, who I know now to be John, a disciple of Jesus who later wrote the fourth Gospel.

John had stood with Mary and the other women all morning. Now Jesus assigned him the son's duty of caring for his mother. "Woman, behold your son," he said to Mary. Then to John he said, "Behold your mother."

This expression of love made a deep impression on me. The crowd, the Pharisees, the soldiers, and the other thief were all consumed with themselves, as I had also been. But into this hellhole of suffering and self-interest, Jesus brought love. It streamed out of him—to his enemies, to me, and now to his mother.

The death of a son or daughter brings irreplaceable loss to a mother. A grieving mother may have other children, but they can never take the place of the one who was lost. John could care for Mary, but however kind he was, he could never take the place of Jesus. For 33 years, Jesus had been Mary's son, but he was and is the Son of God.

He took on human flesh from his mother so that he could become our Savior. But as he hung on the cross with the blood draining from his body and the life of his flesh ebbing away, the relationship between Jesus and Mary was changing. Mary stood at the foot of the cross crying out, "My son, my son, my son."

But Jesus was saying, "You must no longer think of me as your son. From now on, John is to take that place in your life. Regard him as your son." So how then was Mary to regard Jesus? As her Savior and as her Lord. When the angel told Mary about the son she would bear, Mary said, "My spirit rejoices in God my Savior."

Mary had looked to God as her Savior, and this is how God saved her. Jesus, God's Son, went to the cross and laid down the life he had drawn from Mary. His body was broken. His blood was shed. Mary's son died, and in his death, he became her Savior. Mary lost an irreplaceable son, and she gained an incomparable Savior. Her gain was far greater than her loss.

You already know about the hate that was in my heart, the blasphemy I spoke against Jesus, and the crimes I committed against my fellow man. I was the bottom of the pile, the worst of sinners. But Christ became my Savior, and because of him, I am in heaven today.

Mary was at the other end of the moral spectrum. I cannot imagine a more godly woman than Mary. She was patient, kind, good, and true. A woman of virtue, blessed by God and a blessing to others. And Mary is in heaven today, not because Jesus was her son, but because he is her Savior.

If she looked to Christ to save her, every person who has sought to live a good life must do the same. Here's the amazing thing that I still can't get over. I had lived a life that was as bad as they come. Mary lived a life that was as good as they come. Yet both of us entered into heaven precisely the same way: through faith in Jesus.

In the words he spoke to me and then to Mary, Jesus embraced the worst and the best of humanity and reconciled us both to his Father. So, wherever you are on the moral spectrum, Jesus Christ is the Savior for you.

Two misconceptions keep many people out of heaven. One is that they are too bad to come to Christ, and the other is that they are too good to need him. You may be as wretched as me, as righteous as Mary, or somewhere in between. Wherever you are, don't let the bad or the good you've done keep you from embracing Christ as your Savior.

In these last hours on the cross, the steely-eyed hatred that filled my heart when the day began melted like snow on a warm afternoon. Something had changed inside of me. I knew that Jesus had made me a different person. The heart that had been filled with bitterness now felt compassion. The mind that had been hostile to Jesus now trusted and believed in him. The will that had been hell-bent on pursuing my own way now desired more than anything to honor Christ.

I never experienced anything like this before. The religion I was brought up with attempted to change me from the outside in. Do these things, and you will be a good person. It never worked. All I can say is that when Christ's word went into me, my heart changed, and I believed. I now understand why Jesus spoke of this inner change as being born again. I was changed from the inside out.

So here we were, a scoundrel on the cross and a saintly woman standing below, and both of our lives changed forever by Jesus Christ.

Steve Hiller: It’s really a powerful invitation from the thief to put your trust in Jesus. You’re listening to a special edition of Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith, the reading of Heaven, How I Got Here, as read by actor Stephen Baldwin. And Colin, I think that chapter on love is so helpful to see how the thief, who was so far from Jesus, needed to have a relationship with him, but so did Mary, his mother, this godly woman. And I think it’s so helpful in our understanding that no matter how bad you may be or how good you are, you still need Jesus.

Colin Smith: Yeah, and the picture of the representatives, as you like, of the very worst and the very best both there at the cross and both looking to Jesus Christ. You know, Mary must have been one of the most godly women who has ever lived, and yet she says that God is her Savior. She says this in the Magnificat, her famous song, where she says, "My spirit rejoices in God my Savior."

Well, here's what was happening at the cross. She'd known Jesus as the son to whom she had given birth, and on the cross he is becoming the Savior about whom she was singing. And he's the Savior of the very best and the very worst of everyone who will put their trust in him.

Steve Hiller: I hope that that is something that you have done, that you have put your faith and your hope and your trust in Jesus. Maybe as you’ve been listening to this broadcast, you’ve come to the point where you realize that you’d like to do that, but you still have questions about that, or you’d like to talk with one of our staff members first, or maybe have someone pray with you. I hope you’ll contact us here at Open the Bible. Our toll-free number is 1-877-OPEN-365. That’s 1-877-673-6365, or you can reach us through our website, openthebible.org.

We’re listening to this special edition of Open the Bible. It’s actor Stephen Baldwin and the audiobook version of Heaven, How I Got Here: The Story of the Thief on the Cross, based on Pastor Colin’s paperback book of that same title. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to send you not just a copy of that paperback book, but three copies of a new graphic novel based on that book. It’s our way of saying thank you for your financial support. You can find out more or give online at openthebible.org. Again, that’s openthebible.org. Again, here’s Stephen Baldwin with Chapter 6.

Stephen Baldwin: Chapter 6: Darkness. Noon. What in the world just happened? Did I black out? No. One minute the sun glared down on us, and the next we were plunged into complete darkness. Not slowly, like on a stormy day, but instantly. Complete darkness. We went from midday to midnight in a moment.

It was the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced. My first thought was God's judgment must be falling on the soldiers who had struck and nailed Jesus, or maybe on the people who had mocked him, or on the leaders who had condemned him. But that didn't happen. All of them slept in their beds that night and woke to continue their lives the following day.

The judgment of God was falling on someone else that day. And now I know who it was. Jesus, the Son of God, was about to die. Jesus himself was coming under the judgment of God.

The crowd had been quite sure that they were on God's side and that he would affirm their condemnation of Jesus. If they were right, trusting Jesus would turn out to be the greatest mistake of my life. My head spun with questions about what just a few hours earlier I had come to believe.

Then Jesus’ agonizing cry broke right through all of my questions. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" I felt a gut-wrenching anguish as these words echoed through the eerie darkness. Had God abandoned Jesus? This terrified me. I had put my trust in Jesus, and he had promised Paradise to me. But if God had forsaken him, what hope was there for me?

My new faith was being stretched to the limit. When doubts crowd in and you find yourself in darkness, go back to what you know about Jesus. That's what I did, and it got me through. I didn't know much about Jesus, but it was clear to me that his suffering was a travesty of justice. That was why I said to the other thief, "We are receiving our due reward, but Jesus has done nothing wrong."

I rehearsed this truth to myself. This man has done nothing wrong. Why would a man who had done nothing wrong find himself under the judgment of God? Why would a man who had done nothing wrong be crucified on a cross, the most hideous method of death ever devised? I now know the answer, and the more I think about it, the more astonishing I find it to be.

Jesus was the Son of God, and on the cross, he suffered the judgment that was due to me. The crowd was sure that Jesus was under God's curse, and in a sense, they were right. He was under God's curse, but the curse did not fall on him for his own sins. He had none. He came under the curse for the sins of others. He endured my judgment so that I could enter into his reward.

Even here in heaven, I still can't get over this. My sin was laid on Jesus. The guilt of my theft, my blasphemy, and my godless, selfish life was lifted from my shoulders and transferred onto him. He bore my sins. They were laid on him.

More than that, he took all the sins of every person who would trust in him. He carried their guilt and judgment in full. The cumulative weight of this is unimaginable to me. Only Christ could have borne it. And this was the reason why he was pierced and crushed. It was for sinners like you and me.

Without Jesus, I would have carried my sins into my death and emerged on the other side to face the Almighty. All that I had endured at the hands of men would only have been a prelude to what I would have suffered at the hand of God. But Jesus carried my sins into his death so that I should not carry them into mine. I suffered the judgment of men, but through Christ and all that he endured in the darkness, I was saved from the judgment of God.

That's why I'm in heaven today. Some say that I trusted Christ at the last moment, but the way I look at it, I trusted Christ at my first opportunity, and that's what you should do. Trust him now.

Steve Hiller: It’s a really powerful invitation from the thief to put your trust in Jesus. You’re listening to a special edition of Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith, the reading of Heaven, How I Got Here, as read by actor Stephen Baldwin. And Colin, before we talk about putting our trust in Jesus, I want to back up just a little bit. I think it’s important for us to understand the fact that Jesus bore all the sins of those who would put their trust in him. He carried our sins into his death so that we don’t have to.

Colin Smith: Yeah, it’s the most amazing and central truth really in the gospel. And he actually endured everything that hell is on the cross. I mean, if you think about what hell is as it’s described to us in the Bible, he endured all of it, all of its dimensions. What is hell? It involves darkness, and there was this great darkness that Christ was plunged into during these hours on the cross.

It’s conscious suffering. It involves bearing sin. It’s being under the judgment of God. It’s in the presence of the demonic and dark powers, and it involves being separated from the knowledge of the love of God himself. And Jesus endured all of that. That’s why he says, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" He’s in hell on the cross.

Steve Hiller: And yet the thief did not have to experience that. We don’t either. He gives us that invitation that we heard a few moments ago. He said, "Put your trust in Jesus. Trust him now." For the person who’s thinking about that today, what’s the next step?

Colin Smith: Yeah, I just want to press this to you. Jesus Christ endured hell on the cross so you need never know what that is like. And you can put your trust in him as the thief did. The thief said to Jesus, "Remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus responded to that simple request. You could come to Jesus Christ. You could put your trust in him. You could ask him to save you. And this is why he went to the cross in order to bring that gift freely to us. It’s a most marvelous gift. Why would anyone not come and put their trust in Jesus Christ?

Steve Hiller: Well, if you’d like to talk with someone about doing that today, I do hope you’ll contact us here at Open the Bible. You can call us at 1-877-OPEN-365. That’s 1-877-673-6365, or you can connect with us through the website, openthebible.org.

Open the Bible is a listener-supported ministry. It’s your generosity that allows us to bring you the program each day. And as you give a gift of any amount, we want to send you not just a copy of Pastor Colin’s book, Heaven, How I Got Here: The Story of the Thief on the Cross, but in addition to that, three copies of a brand new graphic novel based on this story. It’s great for younger readers and visual learners. You can find out more when you visit our website, openthebible.org. That’s openthebible.org. For Pastor Colin Smith, I’m Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening, and I hope you’ll join us next time.

Colin Smith: This is Pastor Colin, and I want you to know about a resource that will help you in your devotional life. It’s called Open the Bible Daily. My colleague Pastor Tim Augustine takes what you hear on Open the Bible, and he edits it into daily bite-sized chunks that you can read in your devotional time in less than three minutes. Every day, you’ll find a verse of scripture, a short teaching from God’s word, and an application that you can carry with you through the day. People who use this tell us that they read it every day, and I think that if you try it, you’ll love it too. For more information, visit openthebible.org/daily. That’s openthebible.org/daily.