Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Forsaken by the Father

Matthew 27:45-50 (ESV) Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. [46] And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" [47] And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, "This man is calling Elijah." [48] And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. [49] But the others said, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him." [50] And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. “My God, my God, Why have you forsaken me” So the other day I have Mormon ask me if Jesus is God then why does he cry out “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me! While he is on the cross? I’m always a bit dumbfounded that people think this is a clever question. I mean I know they don’t believe the Trinity, but before I discounted something like that I’d atleast examine what it was that Christians have believed for two thousand years, before I went ahead and rejected it. God is three in one. So while Jesus is God, of which there is only one, He is not the only one who is this One God. So for the Christian there is no real mystery here, Jesus is referring to the Father as God. He is not the Father, The Father is not on the Cross, Jesus is, the Son, who is God with the Father. There you have it. Jesus is forsaken by the Father here, that is death, the judgment of man. Sin is death, death is sin. Our death is God forsaking us as sinners. It is an act of judgment. This is why Jesus needed to die. It is why God needed to become a man and die for us on the cross. It is why we need to die in jesus, be baptized to rise and walk in the newness of life in Jesus. Jesus needed to die that we might live. .

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