With four days left till we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, it’s the perfect time to reflect on the cross. To do that, let’s look at some of Jesus’ words from the cross. Probably the most familiar ones actually come from Psalm 22:1 – “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” The opening cry of this psalm gives us a glimpse into the deep suffering that Jesus endured for us.
From these words we can see that the real pain and suffering wasn’t so much the physical beating He endured, even though that was horrific. It also wasn’t the pain of having spikes driven through His hands and feet nor was it the agony of slowly suffocating to death. Neither was it the emotional pain from the rejection of and ridicule He faced from those he was pouring His life out to save.
No, the real suffering was being forsaken by God for our sake. In taking our sin upon Himself, Jesus experienced the horror of becoming our sin, the punishment for our sin and the abandonment of God in our sin. In that dreadfully awesome yet gloriously redeeming moment Jesus was truly all alone bearing the weight of sin, the wrath of God and the withdrawal of the Father’s love and acceptance. And He did it so that we would never be forsaken.
Take a moment and tell Jesus how grateful you are for His willingness to suffer in your place.
From these words we can see that the real pain and suffering wasn’t so much the physical beating He endured, even though that was horrific. It also wasn’t the pain of having spikes driven through His hands and feet nor was it the agony of slowly suffocating to death. Neither was it the emotional pain from the rejection of and ridicule He faced from those he was pouring His life out to save.
No, the real suffering was being forsaken by God for our sake. In taking our sin upon Himself, Jesus experienced the horror of becoming our sin, the punishment for our sin and the abandonment of God in our sin. In that dreadfully awesome yet gloriously redeeming moment Jesus was truly all alone bearing the weight of sin, the wrath of God and the withdrawal of the Father’s love and acceptance. And He did it so that we would never be forsaken.
Take a moment and tell Jesus how grateful you are for His willingness to suffer in your place.
Posted in devo