"My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?" Series

Something that I read from William Barclay this week kind of helped me to see what Christ did in a different perspective. Christ was separated from his Father to show us that He has experienced the very worst of the human condition. Now we know from scriptures that Christ came and he walked this earth and he experienced every temptation that was common to man. After all Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet was without sin.” I got to thinking about that scripture and the human condition. Christ experienced everything that you and I have experienced in one form or another. As hard as it is to believe that means that Christ would have faced sexual temptation, he would have faced the temptation to do things in a different way then His heavenly Father wanted him to do it. All of us have been tempted to do things our own way instead of doing things the way God would have us to do them. The list of temptations go on and on. You name the temptation and I believe that Christ probably had that temptation in one way or another. Sin hasn’t really changed from Biblical times, Satan just uses new packages for the same old things. It may really look different on the outside, but inside it’s the same old lie and the same old things. But there is one major difference between us and Christ. He never did bite! He never sinned! And as we said earlier, sin brings us separation from God. Being separated from God is the very worst thing of the human condition. Those who choose to walk through life not accepting what Christ did on the cross for us are walking this earth with a separation from God. That is something that up to that point Christ had not experienced. Like we said earlier, we see repeatedly in scripture where Christ went and spent time in fellowship with His Father. I believe it was His dependence upon and fellowship with the Father that strengthened Christ and enabled him to live a sinless life. But Christ had never faced separation from his Father until He who had no sin became sin. And at that moment he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” I believe you can almost sense the separation in His words. He never called his Father, My God. It was always “my Father, or maybe even Abba, which the closest translation is daddy. Yes, you see when Christ was on the cross and he took on himself, your sin and my sin and the sin of the world, he had to feel the filth and the dirt of the world. To someone who was so pure and holy because He was God in the flesh it had to be a total feeling of dirt. But because Christ did take on the sins of the world and because of that sin that He willingly took upon himself, He was separated from His Father because His Father could not abide with sin. The very worst experience of the human condition Christ had now experienced what sinful separation from His Father must be like. So you see Christ really has experienced the very worst that the human condition has to offer. But He paid the price for those sins of ours and now we can be victorious over sin and death just like He was. What a great God we serve! How can anyone question God’s love for us.