“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46).

Jesus cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” so that we would never have to utter that phrase. Jesus willingly suffered being forsaken by God so that we would never be forsaken by God. Jesus allowed the darkness of Hell to enclose Him because He refused to allow that darkness to enclose all who were given to Him by the Father. What manner of love is this, beloved, that Christ would drink the cup of God’s infinite, eternal, inexpressible wrath in our place so that we might be called the children of the living God?! No price was too high for Him in order to save us from our sins. The Good Shepherd laid down his life for His sheep. Do you see what utter blasphemy it is to say that God has abandoned someone who is trusting in Christ? Sometimes believers “feel” that God has forsaken them … what Martin Luther called the dark night of the soul … but God will never forsake His children because Christ was forsaken in their place. The Apostle Paul wrote in Galatians 3:13: “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”). And again in 2 Corinthians 5:21: “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Let us always remember what Christ suffered in our place so that we might be restored into union and fellowship with God, so that we would never be made to cry out “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Why has God accepted sinners such as you and me? Scripture gives only one reason … God has accepted us because one Friday afternoon, over 2000 years ago, He forsook His Son, our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ, in our place!! Our response to Christ’s work on our behalf is nicely summed up in the words of John Newton:

 

Let us love and sing and wonder, Let us praise the Savior’s Name!
He has hushed the law’s loud thunder, He has quenched Mount Sinai’s flame.
He has washed us with His blood, He has brought us nigh to God.

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