Monday, March 2, 2009
Psalm 22:1 "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, And from the words of My groaning?"
FORSAKEN BY GOD
Most of us are familiar with these words from the Gospels where we hear Jesus speaking them from the cross. But the verses above were recorded more than 1000 years before Jesus spoke them from the cross, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit -- foretelling just how great the suffering of our Savior would be -- being forsaken by God.
We might wonder, "How could a just and loving God forsake His only begotten Son at such a time?" The answer to that question is found in the love -- and the justice of God. Remember that Jesus was standing in the place of condemned sinners under the divine judgment of a just God. Paul reminds us that God made Jesus, who was perfect and sinless, "to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21).
In order for God's justice to be satisfied, the full and complete payment for our sins had to be made. Jesus came to make that full payment. As our Substitute, Jesus had to bear upon Himself the total punishment for all our sins.
God was able to deliver Jesus, but wouldn't. This is what His justice demanded -- that the full payment for sin be made. Because our Savior suffered our hell and our abandonment by God, we can be confident that we will not suffer that same abandonment. The result of His suffering and sacrifice is that we have been delivered. When we cry out to God He hears us and He answers us. And most important of all, we can be sure that through faith in Him we will not suffer the agony of hell and abandonment by God, but will live with Him forever in the kingdom of heaven!
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for making the full payment for our sins to ensure that we might never be abandoned by God! Amen.
Lord, should fear and anguish roll darkly o'er my sinful soul,
Thou, who once was thus bereft That Thine own might ne'er be left,
Teach me by that bitter cry in the gloom to know Thee nigh.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 174:4)
