THE QUESTION THAT NEVER DIES
--Matthew 27:46 (27:45-54)
Psalm 27:10 assures us, "Though father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me"; but, in all likelihood, everyone of us has experienced times when we have felt as if we have been forsaken by God. This is true for both individuals and nations. Isaiah 49:14 is a case in point for Judah:
But Zion said, "The Lord
has forsaken me,
the Lord has forgotten me."
In the aftermath of "911" many felt God had abandoned our Country and questioned His goodness.
On September 13, 2001, Billy Graham’s evangelist, daughter Anne Graham Lotz was interviewed on the CBS Early Show by Jane Clayson. Clayson asked her, "I’ve heard people say, those who are religious, those who are not, ’if God is good, how could God let this happen?’"
Graham Lotz replied:
I say God is also angry when He sees something like this.
I would say also for several years now Americans in a sense
have shaken their fist at God and said, "God we want You out
of our schools, our government, our business; we want You out
of our marketplace." And God, Who is a Gentleman, has just
quietly backed out of our national and political life, our public
life. Removing His hand of blessing and protection. We need
to turn to God first of all and say, "God, we’re sorry we have
treated You this way, and we invite You now to come into our
national life. We put our trust in You." We have our trust in
God on our coins, we need to practice it.
[SOURCE: http://www.annegrahamlotz.com/static/uploads/Early_Show_9-13-01.pdf]
Yes, God is a Gentleman. He never forces Himself on any person or nation, and
there comes a time for both individuals and nations to repent and confess,
"God, we ’re sorry we have treated You this way, and we invite You now to come
into our life." God will only "remove His hand of blessing and protection from nations and individuals who turn their backs on Him and choose to "go their own way" without Him.
Jesus, Who never sinned and always remained faithful and obedient to His Father even came to the point He too questioned, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me." He truly understands our recurring "Question that Never Dies."
“It was a mountain one-room school house with severe unquestioned standards. The noon recess was ended and the teacher was interrogating the class with regard to the disappearance of Sally Jane’s lunch. After a few minutes of verbal threats and demands, a sob was heard. It was little Billy--a thin, undernourished child. His family was the poorest of the poor.
"Did you take Sally Jane’s lunch?" demanded the teacher.
Yes, sir," mumbled Billy through his tears. "I was hungry."
"Nevertheless, you did wrong to steal and you must be punished," declared the teacher. As the teacher removed the leather strap from its place on the wall, Billy was ordered to the front of the room and told to remove his shirt. The arm of the teacher was raised over the bent and trembling form of little Billy.
"HOLD IT, TEACHER!" shouted a husky voice from the rear of the room. It was Big Jim striding down the aisle removing his shirt as he came. "Let me take his whipp’n," he begged.
“The teacher was aghast, but knowing that justice must be demonstrated, he consented and laid the belt to the back of Big Jim with such force that even the stronger boy winced and his eyes watered. But Billy never forgot the day that Big Jim took his place [--James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) pp. 34-35.].”
Jesus became our Big Jim when He took our place on the Cross. The Bible says in I Peter 3:18, “For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. . .” Gordon Jenson’s 1972 Southern Gospel Song “I Should Have Been Crucified” lays it on the line:
I was guilty with nothing to say
And they were coming to take me away
When a voice from heaven was heard that said
Let him go take Me instead
And I should have been crucified
I should have suffered and died
I should have hung on the cross in disgrace
But Jesus, God’s Son took my place
That crown of thorns, a spear in His side
and all the pain it should have been mine
Those rusty nails were meant for me
Oh but Christ took them and let me go free
And I should have been crucified
I should have suffered and died
I should have hung on the cross in disgrace
But Jesus God’s Son took my place.
Yes Jesus God’s Son
Oh Jesus God’s Son
For Jesus God’s Son took my place.
[--Gordon Jensen, “I Should Have Been Crucified, in Country and Western Gospel Hymnal, Volume Four, comp. and arr. David Culross (Nashville: The Benson Company, Inc., 1989), 60-61.]
In becoming our substitute for sin, Jesus was forsaken by God the Father for six hours that Good Friday. My brothers and sisters, “That’s Amazing Grace!”
Why did God the Father forsake His Son on the Cross. As Jesus hung on the Cross, He was abandoned by His Father. Jesus faced the Cross alone, because God The Father and God The Son love us so. As the old Gospel Song “Ten Thousand Angels” affirms: “He died alone for you and me.” Jesus volunteered to die in our place, as an act of selfless love. He testifies in John 10:17-18, “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from My Father.”
At the Cross of Jesus we are confronted with the holiness of God. Holiness is the distinguishing character trait of God. God is holy; He is perfectly pure and without sin. The Holy God and King of the Universe stands in stark contrast to us human beings, for we “. . . all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. . .”
God’s holy character and our sinful nature are absolutely, entirely incompatible. Holiness and sin are like oil and water, the two simply can never mix. Our Holy God is so pure that His eyes cannot even look upon sin.
The prophet Habakkuk testifies in Habakkuk 1:12 that God is his Holy Lord:
“Are You not from of old,
O LORD my God, my Holy One?”
Then in verse thirteen he elaborates on God’s holiness by testifying:
“Your eyes are too pure to behold evil,
And You cannot look on wrong doing.”
When Jesus took our place on the cross, He carried the burden of sin for every human being throughout all history, as Isaiah 53:6b decisively declares:
“. . .the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.”
As Jesus cries, “My God, my God, why have You Forsaken Me,” He is carrying the burden of sin for all humanity from Adam, through you and me, to the end of time. The Holy eyes of His Father are “too pure to behold evil.” He can never “look on wrong doing,” so at the Cross God The Father temporarily had to turn His eyes away from Jesus while He paid the penalty for all our sin.
Jesus was forsaken by God The Father in order that you and I would never have to be forsaken by Him. Because Jesus was forsaken, we can stand on the promise of God in Deuteronomy 31:6, Joshua 1:5, and Hebrews 13:3, “. . .for He has said, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will stand by you and me giving us support, encouragement, hope, strength, peace, and victory through every tribulation, temptation, trouble, sorrow, sickness, hurt, agony, pain, and suffering we ever face, because Jesus became our substitute “At Calvary.” Rebecca St. James expresses it so powerfully in her contemporary Praise song “Amazing Love”:
I’m forgiven,
because You were forsaken,
I’m accepted, You were condemned,
and I’m alive and well your spirit is within me,
because You died and rose again.
(I’m forgiven)
I’m forgiven,
because You were forsaken,
and I’m accepted, You were condemned,
and I’m alive and well your spirit is within me,
because You died and rose again.
[--http://www.lyricsdownload.com/rebecca-st-james-amazing-love-lyrics.html]
You and I can be forgiven, because Jesus was forsaken, accepted because He was condemned.
Jesus took our place and paid the penalty for our sin, but you and I must personally receive Him as our Lord and Saviour, repent of sin, and be born again to be a Christian and to have eternal life. Being baptized or joining a Church every makes anyone a Christ. To be a Christian and have eternal life, “You must be born again.” There is no other way of salvation, as Jesus make crystal clear in John 3: 3: “I assure you, unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God.” The Bible says in Romans 10:13, “For ‘whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved’ (NKJV); “For, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved’” (NRSV); “For ‘Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved’” (NLT).
“A beggar stopped a lawyer on the street in a large southern city and asked him for a quarter. Taking a long, hard look into the man’s unshaven face, the attorney asked, "Don’t I know you from somewhere?" "You should," came the reply. "I’m your former classmate. Remember, second floor, old Main Hall?" "Why Sam, of course I know you!" Without further question the lawyer wrote a check for $100. "Here, take this and get a new start. I don’t care what’s happened in the past, it’s the future that counts." And with that he hurried on.
"Tears welled up in the man’s eyes as he walked to a bank nearby. Stopping at the door, he saw through the glass well-dressed tellers and the spotlessly clean interior. Then he looked at his filthy rags. "They won’t take this from me. They’ll swear that I forged it," he muttered as he turned away.
"The next day the two men met again. "Why Sam, what did you do with my check? Gamble it away? Drink it up?" "No," said the beggar as he pulled it out of his dirty shirt pocket and told why he hadn’t cashed it. "Listen, friend," said the lawyer. "What makes that check good is not your clothes or appearance, but my signature. Go on, cash it!"
“The Bible says, ‘Whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.’ That promise is a ‘negotiable note’ of infinite value. And as sinners, all we need to do is ‘exchange’ it by faith for eternal life. Don’t let the ‘tattered clothes’ of your past keep you from cashing God’s ‘check’ of salvation [--“Salvation: Conditions of—Cash the Check.” Bible Illustrator Deluxe for Windows 3.0, Vol.1, version 3.0; 4/1986.11; available from: www.quickverse.com and from: www.parsonschurc.com.].”
Jesus paid the penalty for your sin and mine when He became our substitute on the Cross, but His death is our “negotiable note” that we must “cash.” If you would be a Christian and go to heaven, you must open the door of your heart and invite Jesus to be your personal Saviour and Lord in response to His invitation in Revelation 3:20, “Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with Me.” Ina Duley Ogdon explains in his hymn:
You must open the door,
You must open the door,
When Jesus comes in, He will save you from sin,
But you must open the door.
Will you open the door of your heart this morning and “exchange” Jesus’
“negotiable note” by faith for eternal life? From the instant you do, The One once forsaken on the Cross will “never leave you nor forsake you.”
