Now from noon until three, darkness came over all the land.<\/p>\n
At about three o\u2019clock Jesus shouted with a loud voice, \u201c<\/span>Eli,<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n Eli, lema sabachthani?<\/i><\/span>\u201d That is, \u201c<\/span>My God, my God, why have<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n you forsaken me<\/i><\/span><\/span>?\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/b>Matthew 27:45,46 <\/span><\/span>NET<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Most of us are familiar with the anguished words that Christ spoke during His crucifixion.<\/p>\n Have we really considered exactly what was meant by those words? Let’s imagine that Christ<\/p>\n knew the answer to the question, but the reason He posed it was so we would answer it. Three<\/p>\n important elements are involved here: first, the fact that He was forsaken\u037e second, the reason<\/p>\n He was forsaken\u037e third, what that has to do with us. The Father and the Son had been in perfect<\/p>\n harmony through all eternity past, communicating with each other on a level we can’t even<\/p>\n begin to understand. It must be somewhat like the way our minds communicate with our<\/p>\n hands. If an object is coming toward your head, your hand instantly reacts to block it. That is<\/p>\n just a fraction of the why The Father and The Son communicate. All the while you have been<\/p>\n reading this, you have been breathing without giving any thought to it. How frightening would<\/p>\n it be if suddenly your lungs refused to listen to your mind’s request to breathe? Again, just a<\/p>\n small example of what it was like for the Father to forsake His Son. Think about legions of<\/p>\n angels, poised and ready for command from the Father to rescue His Son, but the command is<\/p>\n never given. There was a whole lot going on at the spiritual level, during that terrible Friday,<\/p>\n that we cannot even begin to comprehend\u037e and all the while Satan was rubbing his hands<\/p>\n together, thinking he had actually defeated God.<\/p>\n Why was Jesus forsaken??? Stop and think about it….<\/p>\n Surely he took up our pain<\/p>\n and bore our suffering,<\/p>\n yet we considered him punished by God,<\/p>\n stricken by him, and afflicted.<\/p>\n But he was pierced for our transgressions,<\/p>\n he was crushed for our iniquities\u037e<\/p>\n the punishment that brought us peace was on him,<\/p>\n and by his wounds we are healed.<\/p>\n We all, like sheep, have gone astray,<\/p>\n each of us has turned to our own way\u037e<\/p>\n and the LORD has laid on him<\/p>\n the iniquity of us all.<\/p>\n He was oppressed and afflicted,<\/p>\n yet he did not open his mouth\u037e<\/p>\n he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,<\/p>\n and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,<\/p>\n so he did not open his mouth.<\/p>\n By oppression and judgment he was taken away.<\/p>\n Yet who of his generation protested?<\/p>\n For he was cut off from the land of the living\u037e<\/p>\n for the transgression of my people he was punished.<\/p>\n He was assigned a grave with the wicked,<\/p>\n and with the rich in his death,<\/p>\n though he had done no violence,<\/p>\n nor was any deceit in his mouth.<\/p>\n Yet it was the LORD\u2019s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,….<\/p>\n Isaiah 53:410<\/p>\n NET<\/p>\n Because, because, the LORD laid on Him the iniquity of YOU! Yes you! He died for YOUR<\/p>\n sins. If you were the only one that needed salvation, He would have died for you. His suffering<\/p>\n would have been just as great, if it was only for your sins that He was suffering<\/span><\/span>. \u201cWhat do<\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n you think? If someone owns a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not<\/p>\n leave the ninetynine<\/p>\n on the mountains and go look for the one that went astray? And if<\/p>\n he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice more over it than over the ninetynine<\/p>\n that<\/p>\n did not go astray.\u201d <\/b><\/span><\/span>Matthew 18:12,13 <\/span><\/span>NET<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Your sins are just as detestable, offensive, grotesque as the next person’s.<\/p>\n \u201cCome, let\u2019s consider your options,\u201d says the Lord.<\/p>\n \u201cThough your sins have stained you like the color red,<\/p>\n you can become white like snow\u037e<\/p>\n though they are as easy to see as the color scarlet,<\/p>\n you can become white like wool.\u201d <\/b><\/span><\/span>Isaiah 1:18 <\/span><\/span>NET<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cfor all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.\u201d <\/b><\/span><\/span>Romans 3:23 <\/span><\/span>NET<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFor the one who obeys the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.<\/p>\n For he who said, ‘<\/span><\/span>Do not commit adultery<\/span><\/span><\/i>,’also said, ‘<\/span><\/span>Do not murder<\/span><\/span><\/i>.’Now if you do not<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n commit adultery but do commit murder, you have become a violator of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n James 2:10 <\/span><\/span>NET<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Sometimes it seems that we feel comforted thinking it was because of the murderer and the<\/p>\n pedophile that He did His greatest suffering. NOT SO! The redemption for your sins came at a<\/p>\n great price.<\/p>\n Why was Christ forsaken? So you would not be! He will n e v e r leave us.<\/p>\n \u201cTherefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father<\/p>\n and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded<\/p>\n you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.\u201d <\/b><\/span><\/span>Matthew 28:19,20 <\/span><\/span>NET<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI give them eternal life, and they will never perish\u037e no one will snatch them from my<\/p>\n hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can snatch<\/p>\n them from my Father\u2019s hand. The Father and I are one.\u201d <\/b><\/span><\/span>John 10:2830<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n NET<\/p>\n \u201cI will not abandon you as orphans, I will come to you\u201d <\/b><\/span><\/span>John 14:18<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Why was Jesus forsaken:<\/p>\n Because Christ became sin and the Father cannot look upon sin.<\/p>\n Because The Father willed it<\/p>\n Because Jesus, through the Father, opened the way so none of us would ever be forsaken by<\/p>\n Him.<\/p>\n Are you among those who are of the fold of Christ, or are you one of those who are still lost?<\/p>\n Come into the fold\u037e Jesus is waiting.<\/p>\n To The Glory Of God<\/p>\n Author’s note: Everywhere the word <\/span><\/span>you is <\/span><\/span><\/i>used here, it included me also. I am just another<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n undeserving soul lost in trespasses and sin, redeemed by the blood of The Lamb, a free gift<\/p>\n that I do not deserve, nor could I ever earn it. I am, like everyone else, totally dependent on<\/p>\n God’s abundant Grace for my salvation.<\/p>\n \u201cThanks be to God for his indescribable gift!\u201d <\/b><\/span><\/span>2 Corinthians 9:15 <\/span><\/span>NET<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Now from noon until three, darkness came over all the land. At about three o’clock Jesus shouted with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” That is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Matthew 27:45,46 NET Most of us are familiar with the anguished words that Christ spoke during His crucifixion. Have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jacksonstreetbaptistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jacksonstreetbaptistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jacksonstreetbaptistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jacksonstreetbaptistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jacksonstreetbaptistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jacksonstreetbaptistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":583,"href":"https:\/\/www.jacksonstreetbaptistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582\/revisions\/583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jacksonstreetbaptistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jacksonstreetbaptistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jacksonstreetbaptistchurch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}