Matthew 27:46
“About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).”
Matthew 27:46 NIV
Jesus has endured our forsakenness on our behalf so that we can be reconciled to God. In fact, the physical suffering of crucifixion was nothing compared to the God-forsakenness Jesus experienced. Reckoning the sin of His children to Christ on the cross.
Jesus didn’t just feel forsaken, He was forsaken. He was making atonement for sin. He was paying the debt of man’s sin. He was meeting the obligation of the law of God, or we can say, God was letting the law take its course. Every violation of the law incurs a debt. This was a judicial punishment the Lord Jesus was receiving.
This is good news for sinners. There is a fountain of life in Christ, free forgiveness in His Name for all who believe. It is by faith we are saved, looking away from ourselves to the gift of God. In Christ we are freed from condemnation and given the favor of God forever. We have no ground for boasting in ourselves, but much ground for boasting in Christ.
When we see Christ forsaken on the cross, we are comforted in our despair. There may be no affliction as great as the feeling of God hiding His favorable countenance. But for the Christian, it is only a feeling of desertion. It is not judicial, but sanctifying. It is God purifying you, or reserving for Himself honor from you by your faith even in despair.
What a humbling verse to read and reflect on. Jesus, on the cross, amidst all of the physical agony and pain that we know accompanied the cross. At least, as best as we can know. I don’t even think we can really fathom all of the physical pain involved in the cross. But, here in this verse we realize that there was a spiritual agony, that was far deeper than even that physical pain that Jesus here was, in a sense, enduring separation from the Father.
The reality is Jesus is at this moment on the cross, He is enduring the judgment, penalty for sin that you and I deserved. It’s not that the Father can’t bear to see what these soldiers were doing to His Son. The reality is the Father can’t bear to see sin, your sin, my sin.
We deserve to be forsaken by the Father, we deserve to be separated from the Father forever. We deserve to be cast out of His presence, that is what we deserve in our sin and our rebellion.
Jesus alone bore the indescribably wrath of Almighty God, which was poured out upon Him in fullest measure. He willingly and obediently bore the accumulated sin of the Christ-rejecting, God-hating, sinful world of man, as the accumulated punishment of all humanity, which we justly deserve, was compressed into those three most bitter hours in time and through eternity. And He did this so that you and I would not perish but have everlasting life.
Indeed, sin has its deadly consequences and sin must be punished, for the wages of sin is death. And the eternal bond which knit together the Father and Son was severed for the first time: "At about the ninth hour of the day." And for three of the deepest and darkest hours of history, Jesus the beloved and anointed Son of God, hung on the Cross as our Redeemer, paying the price in full, for our sins.
God looked away from the Son of His love when He became our sin-substitute, taking the sin and guilt upon Himself in our stead. It was then that He was heard to scream out in bitter anguish: "MY GOD, MY GOD! WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?" Oh yes, Jesus endured the Cross, was made a curse for us, and felt the full flood of God's righteous wrath upon Him, for your sin and for mine too!!!
Praise His Holy Name!!!
Father thank you for this day and for the amazing grace we have in the cross. Lord let Your abundant blessings flow from the windows of heaven over my friend and family today. Lord when we consider the enormity of what You did for us at Calvary, we cannot begin to comprehend what it meant for You to be separated from You as He took the full force of Your justified wrath upon Himself, on account of our sin, and bore the full weight of our transgressions and guilt upon His sinless shoulders. Lord our hearts our unfeignedly thankful and we pray that we show forth our thanks and love, not only with our lips but in our lives by presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice unto You and giving ourselves up to Your service today. Be a blessing.
Father, we love You. Amen !
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