Palmarum Wednesday - Devotions in Exile The Fourth Word of Christ from the Cross

Palmarum Wednesday - Devotions in Exile  
The Fourth Word of Christ from the Cross 


          Forsaken For Our Sake

Matthew 27:46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachtani?"  that is "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.)

           How many fathers would leave their only child – the child they love – in the middle of train tracks and unable to move, with a train coming? None would! Yet, that is exactly what God did. God the Father knew what was coming, indeed, you might say that He tied up His only begotten Son so that He might not even move Himself out of the way of the train that was coming. You remember how Jesus had prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.” (Lk. 22:42)
It was the will of the Father to give up His only Son to death. He gave Him up not just to any death, but to the death of being cursed on a tree. Yes, cursed on a tree. God spoke to Israel giving this command,“If a man has committed a sin deserving of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, his body shall not remain overnight on the tree, but you shall surely bury him that day, so that you do not defile the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance; for he who is hanged is accursed of God.” (Deut. 21:23)
When looking at these words of our Lord in conjunction with all of God's Word recorded in Scripture, we see the answer to the question Jesus asks from the cross. It is all about you! It is all about me! It is all about every person born of the seed of Adam…as sinners we deserves the wages of sin. As sinners, we deserve death, we deserve to be cursed, that is, we deserve eternal separation from God.  That is what it means to be accursed of God, cut off from God for eternity. We deserve to be forsaken by God.
          Now you see the love that God had (has) for us. He was willing to sacrifice His own Son for you. The Father wills that the Son pays the price for our sinfulness, He allows Him to endure what we deserve. As the Son took into His own flesh our sins and the curse that we deserve, the Father forsook Him on the cross.
          God turned His back on His only begotten Son that day on the cross so that you would not be forsaken for eternity. He loved His Son, but God's love for you, even in your sinfulness is just as great.
          I know that somewhere in your thoughts you have wondered (maybe you even said it out loud) why has God forsaken us? Why has God allowed this plague to come upon us? What did we do to deserved to be confined, forsaken to be alone, and to be so terrified as to not know what is coming next?
          We could talk about our sinfulness, and what we truly deserve from God, and the coronavirus would be a fitting, if not even a bit mild form or punishment for our sins.
          But you are not forsaken by God. God allowed His only Son to suffer on that cross to pay the price for your sinful condition – and mine. We are unable to save ourselves from our own sins, so the ransom price had to be paid for us, God’s own Son paid that ransom price. He was forsaken that we might never be.
          What a remarkable sacrifice God made! He made that sacrifice for you – out of love for you. He did this for you that you might be His own dearly loved child now, and for eternity.
          Gratefully, we can come before our Father in heaven and thank Him for His love for us. We can beg Him to give us strength in these days. Seeing our Father's actions toward Christ in this light, gives us a true understanding of His awesome love for us. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom. 5:8) Christ was forsaken by His Father for our sake – for you sake.
          God truly desires our presence with Him for eternity, for which we gladly give thanks and praise to His Holy Name.
  
PRAYER:   Lord God, Heavenly Father, let me ever see Your love for me with open eyes, that You gave your only begotten Son as the atoning sacrifice for me.  Thank you for making me one of Your chosen heirs of heaven through Christ Jesus. Amen

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