Forsaken by His Father

[Daily Devotional]

Forsaken by His Father 

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Matt. 27: 46. 

He [Jesus] was betrayed by a kiss into the hands of His enemies, and hurried
to the judgment hall of an earthly court. . . . The angelic host beheld with
wonder and with grief Him who had been the Majesty of heaven, and who had
worn the crown of glory, now wearing the crown of thorns, a bleeding victim
to the rage of an infuriated mob, fired to insane madness by the wrath of
Satan. Behold the patient Sufferer! Upon His head is the thorny crown. His
lifeblood flows from every lacerated vein. . . . 

Behold the oppressor and the oppressed! A vast multitude enclose the Saviour
of the world. Mockings and jeerings are mingled with the coarse oaths of
blasphemy. . . . Christ, the precious Son of God, was led forth, and the
cross was laid upon His shoulders. . . . Thronged by an immense crowd of
bitter enemies and unfeeling spectators, He is led away to the crucifixion.
. . . He is nailed to the cross, and hangs suspended between the heavens and
the earth. . . . The glorious Redeemer of a lost world was suffering the
penalty of man's transgression of the Father's law. He was about to ransom
His people with His own blood. . . . 

Oh, was there ever suffering and sorrow like that endured by the dying
Saviour! It was the sense of His Father's displeasure which made His cup so
bitter. It was not bodily suffering which so quickly ended the life of
Christ upon the cross. It was the crushing weight of the sins of the world,
and a sense of His Father's wrath. . . . The fierce temptation that His own
Father had forever left Him caused that piercing cry from the cross: "My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" 

In His dying agony, as He yields up His precious life, He has by faith alone
to trust in Him whom it has ever been His joy to obey. . . . Denied even
bright hope and confidence in the triumph which will be His in the future,
He cries with a loud voice: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit"
(Luke 23: 46). He is acquainted with the character of His Father, with His
justice, His mercy, and His great love, and in submission He drops into His
hands. 

>From God's Amazing Grace - Page 170