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October 14    Today’s Reading: Mark 15-16

“My God, My God, Why hast Thou forsaken Me?”

Mark 15:34

 

O my soul, be astonished and bow in humiliation, as you hear the Savior’s cry of untold agony and woe, when He was made sin for me and was abandoned of His Father, because of my transgressions made His! Here are three things which I see in these words of lamentation, which fell from the lips of the Son of God, when He was made to be sin for us.

 

Infinitely Evil

What an infinitely evil thing sin is!Sin is such a horrid thing that the holy Lord God cannot tolerate it, even when it was found upon His own darling Son. Whenever God sees sin, He will punish it without mercy. When the angels fell, God cast them out of heaven and holds them in chains of darkness until the Day of Judgment (2 Peter 2:4; Jude 6). When Adam sinned, he was cursed of God and driven from the presence of the Lord (Genesis 3). When God looked upon the wickedness of Noah’s generation, He destroyed the whole world in the flood of His wrath (Genesis 6). Upon the twin cities of perverseness, Sodom and Gomorrah, God poured out fire and brimstone (Genesis 19). And when God saw sin upon His darling Son, His only-begotten, well-beloved Son, He forsook Him!

Be warned.If God finds sin on you, He will destroy you forever in hell, without mercy! Flee to Christ, who alone can cleanse you of all sin!

 

Complete Obedience

How thorough and complete was Christ’s obedience to the Father as our Surety! We could never obey God perfectly. We could never fulfil the demands of the law or the Gospel. But Christ met and satisfied perfectly all the demands of God for His elect. This cry, “My God, My God,” was made at the zenith of our Lord’s obedience. Christ was obedient even unto death. Our salvation was accomplished both by His doing and by His dying. His doing is imputed to us for righteousness (Romans 5:19). His dying made atonement for our sins (Romans 5:11). Even when He was forsaken of God, our Surety remained obedient. This cry is an expression of Christ’s perfect faith in God. As a man He believed God and showed us what it is to believe Him. “Faith is believing the Word of God, not because we see it to be true, or feel it to be true, but because God said it” (M’Cheyne). We are often unbelieving. But our Surety never doubted God, even when He was forsaken of God. And this cry is an expression of exemplary love and devotion. Here is love and devotion unrivaled. Hanging upon the cursed tree, without one drop of mercy, one smile from heaven, or one comfort for His soul, our great Christ loved the very God who forsook Him!

 

Infinite Satisfaction

The infinite depth of hell our blessed Savior endured! — What is hell if it is not being abandoned totally by God? Why was Christ forsaken? Because there was no other way for us to be accepted. Justice had to be satisfied. When the Son of God was made sin for us, and our sins were justly imputed to Him, God forsook Him and poured out upon Him all the fulness of His holy wrath (Lamentations 1:12). God gave Him everything our sins deserve. And now, the holy Lord God, accepts all who trust His dear Son, imputes to us His perfect righteousness, and rewards us with eternal glory for Christ’s sake, giving us all that He deserves; because, as He was made sin for us, chosen, redeemed sinners, all who trust the Lord Jesus Christ, are made the righteousness of God in Him!

 

 

 

 

 

Don Fortner

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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