“My God, My God, Why Hast Thou
Forsaken Me?”
Mark
Here are three things which I see in these words of lamentation, which fell from the lips of the Son of God, when he was made to be sin for us.
WHAT AN INFINITELY EVIL THING SIN IS! Sin
is such a horrid thing that the holy Lord God cannot tolerate it, even when it
was found upon his darling Son. Whenever God sees sin, he will punish it
without mercy. When the angels fell, God cast them out of heaven and holds them
in chains of darkness until the day of judgment (II
Pet. 2:4; Jude 6). When Adam sinned, he was cursed of God and driven from the
presence of the Lord (Gen. 3). When God looked upon the wickedness of Noah’s
generation, he destroyed the whole world in the flood of his wrath (Gen. 6).
Upon the twin cities of perverseness,
HOW THOROUGH AND COMPLETE WAS CHRIST’S
OBEDIENCE TO THE FATHER AS OUR SURETY! We could never obey God perfectly.
We could never fulfill the demands of the law or the gospel. But Christ met and
satisfied perfectly all the demands of God for his elect. This cry, “My God, my God,” was made at the zenith
of our Lord’s obedience. Christ was obedient even unto death. Our salvation was accomplished both by
his doing and by his dying. His doing is imputed to us for righteousness (Rom.
THE INFINITE DEPTH OF HELL OUR SAVIOR ENDURED! What is hell if it is not being abandoned totally by God? Why was Christ forsaken? Because there was no other way for us to be accepted. Justice had to be satisfied. When the Son of God was made to be sin for us, when our sins were imputed to him, God forsook him and poured out upon him all the fullness of his wrath (Lam. 1:12). God gave him everything our sins deserve. And now, the holy Lord God, accepts all who trust his Son, imputes to us his perfect righteousness, and rewards us with eternal glory for Christ’s sake, giving us all that he deserves.
Don Fortner