Matthew 27:46, ?Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? That is to say, My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me??
This scripture really made me think. It made me think because of the statement mentioned by Christ Himself about the Father. And it is an interesting statement because if you think about Jesus says to the Father why have thou forsaken me.
That?s strange to me because wasn?t it God that said He would never leave us nor forsake us? If God said that He would never leave us nor forsake us would it be different for Jesus? Or maybe just maybe we as a people have yet to truly understand the significance behind Christ crying out to the Father My God my God why hast thou forsaken me. I have a few questions that I would like to ask:
What is Gods response to sin?
What is mans reaction to sin?
And I believe when we understand and respond to those two questions then we will see that Christ rescued us from sin.
Gods response to sin. God hates sin to the very fullest extent. The Bible tells us that God is so Holy that He can not even look upon sin and because He is so holy, God must show people that He is unpleased with it. I want to take a walk through certain parts of the Bible and sight for you where God has dealt with sin, past tense, and how He will deal with sin, future tense.
And we can take a look from the very beginning of time, the Garden of Eden. In the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3), Adam and Eve sinned, Genesis 3:23 God banished both of them from the Garden. God dealt with the sin.
Genesis 6:5 tells us that mans wickedness was so horrible that He had to flood the Earth wiping everything away except eight people, seven pair of clean animals, two pair of unclean animals, and seven pair of every kind of bird. God dealt with sin.
Or how about the well known cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom, a place that was so evil God told Abraham that if he could find just ten righteous He would spare the whole city. Genesis 19:24 reveals to us that the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah. And what you have to realize is the fact that God wiped out everything, not just a couple of buildings or a house or two, but instead He wiped out everything. Every person every animal every building, plant, and tree. God dealt with sin.
When the Bible gives an account as to what Abraham saw, it says that he saw dense smoke rising from the land. Or how about Gods response to sin in the future of all mankind.
When, in the book of Revelation where God opens the Lambs book of Life. If your name is not found you will be cast into the lake of fire, and this is known as the second death. These are just a few examples of how God did deal with sin and how He will deal with sin. God will and has judged, forsaken, and punished in response to mans sin. But we know through the Bible that Gods response to sin has led to mans reaction to sin.
Man does indeed understand sin. Man is not ignorant when it comes to understanding sin. Maybe most people do not know the Bible scripture about sin. But if they do not know the stand point from the Bible then they at least know what the law is and if not the law and all else fails then they at least have their conscience.
One out of those three areas man understands when they have done wrong. So an excuse, ?I did not know that the Bible says do not steal or should I say, ?borrow? pens, paper, and rubberbands from the work place for my house?, does not cut it.
Because think about it, you know its wrong because you hid it. If you did not truly know that it was wrong you would have done it in the open rather than wait until no one was looking.
Why do kids hide when they are doing something wrong?
Let me give you an example. My son Luke is a year old and one day when my wife and I were in the living room, Luke found himself into the kitchen trash. He quietly exited the kitchen and came into the living room, behind a couch where he could not be seen, to cosume his found treasure of moldy bread. Why did he hide? Because he knew what he did was wrong, no one had to remind him of that.
Lets go back to Genesis for a moment. When Adam and Eve ate of the fruit and sinned what was there first response? They recognized that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Why? Because they knew they were wrong. Who told them that they were naked? No one but themselves.
David recognized that he had messed up. How do we know, because when Bathsheba told David that she was pregnant what did David do? He tried to cover it up.
The psalmist new about sin, as matter of fact he did not even try to act ignorant about sin rather his reaction to sin was hiding Gods word in his heart so that he would not sin against God.
Or how about another person that would indicate the fact that man is not ignorant to sin. A man by the name of Paul tells us that the wages of sin is death. Mans reaction to sin is the fact that you either try to hide it or you prepare yourself to overcome it. You either understand it or try to act ignorant, but no matter the way you slice the pie Gods response is still the same, He will forsake judge or punish, and possibly all three.
But ultimately you will be separated from God. Now that we know how God responds to sin, and mans reaction to sin, now I believe that we will better understand how Christ rescued us from our sin.
Why does Jesus, the one that told us that he would be with us even to the end of the world, cry out, ?My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me? Was it because His hometown did not accept him? Or maybe because His family rejected him. Or how about the fact that His disciples went there own way when Christ was taken captive. The answers to these questions are no!
Christ was crying out to the Father! But why? Why would God the Father, the one that had sweet union with Christ now abandon Him? I mean this is the Christ that was loved by the Father before the creation of the world, the Christ that was glorified before the creation of the world. And not only was this the Christ glorified, honored, and loved all before the creation of the world but this is also the Christ that walked the Earth and while He was here God said twice, once when Christ was baptized and the other on the Mount of Transfiguration, ?this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.?
As a matter of fact Christ even fulfilled the scripture from Isaiah which says, ?Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased?(Matthew 12:18). Why was there this separation between the Father and the Beloved Son?
Because of the sin! Because of the sin that we talked about in the first point. And because God is unable to even look upon sin God had to turn His back to His son. You see this is where we are rescued this is the part of history that we should be shouting about because we need to remember that without the shedding of blood there can be no remission of sin.
So you see Christ crying out to the Father, ?Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? That is to say My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken?? was because the sins of the entire world had just been placed on the cross with our Savior. These were the sins of the world, past, present, and future.
Every lie ever told, every murder, every adulterer, every adulteress, every bit of unbelief, every bit of envy, pride, and hatred was laid upon the Savior of the world. The separation that would have endured for an eternity for us was replaced with the separation between the Father and the Beloved Son for but a moment in time, all for us. We were separated by sin but rescued by Christ.
His cry my liberation.
His cry my sanctification.
His cry my consecration.
His cry my adoration.
His cry my restoration.
His cry my salvation.
Christ cried out to the Father why hast thou forsaken me so that we would not have to cry for an eternity. Christ took the weight of sin all upon Himself to pay the debt off for you and I. And because He was willing to do this you and I can have a chance to enter into Heaven to live with the one that was willing to trade places with you.
