This week’s guest post comes to us from Will Graham for EvangelicalFocus.com.
Spurgeon’s passion for the old-time Gospel of the Son of God in the midst of an ever-increasingly liberal church-world serves as a grand example for God-fearing evangelical Christians everywhere.
Today, we are going to take a look at his moving sermon on Matthew 27:46 (delivered on Sunday, 2nd March 1890) where Jesus cried out from the cross those most agonizing words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
It was Spurgeon’s great love for the unadulterated, biblical Christ that ultimately drove his powerful preaching ministry.
After a brief introduction wherein the Englishman depicts the scene of the crucifixion, he shared three points which were to be the outline of his cross-centred sermon:
- What our Lord suffered on the cross.
- Why He suffered so.
- What came of His suffering.
1.- What our Lord Suffered on the Cross
Christ’s suffering was not first and foremost physical but of a spiritual nature. Jesus never uttered a word of complaint about his bodily anguish whilst crucified; but He did cry out about the loss of the Father’s presence.
This desertion was, according to Spurgeon, “the lowest depth of the Saviour’s grief”. What could be more dreadful for the blessed Son of God than to be conscious of the Father’s withdrawal?
This concept is hard for us sinners to fully grasp. Since we are all so spiritually lukewarm by nature, most of us go through life without sensing the nearness of the Almighty.
But imagine if we were angels who had spent entire millenniums in the presence of the Most High only to find ourselves lost one day in a forest, far away from the glory of God.
How would we then, as such holy beings feel? Would not we fervently desire to be reunited with our Lord?
And yet, the Lord Jesus Christ was no mere angel. He was the Holy One incarnate, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. Had not the Son of God dwelt in the perfect love of the Triune Godhead even before the angelic host were brought into being?
How must it have been for such a God-enthused Saviour to have experienced one single second of distance from His most precious Father? Would not that moment of separation been a curse worse than hell itself?
It was God who Christ desired. He didn’t shout aloud, “Peter, why have you denied me?” or “Judas, why have you betrayed me?” but “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
It would seem to be that Christ had this act of desertion in mind when He prayed intensely in the Garden, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will but as you will”.
In other words, it wasn’t so much the physical pain as the soul-torment of not experiencing the approval of His God which led Christ to shed drops of blood as He wrestled in prayer.
2.- Why He Suffered So
Jesus, then, was entirely forsaken of His God on the cross of Calvary. A disjointing in the Trinity! How can this be?
But the big question is: why? Why was Jesus forsaken by His God? Why this cold distance within the Godhead? Why? A thousand times: why?
Before proposing his answer, the pastor drew attention to our Lord’s love for Scripture in that He was evidently citing Psalm 22 upon the cross.
“Oh, that we may so love the inspired Word that we may not [only] sing to its score, but even weep to its music!” Before dying, Christ drew comfort from two marvellous means of grace: the Word of God and prayer.
Now, unto the answer! Why was Christ forsaken? It was because He was the sin-bearer. He took the sins of His people upon Himself. He became sin in their stead so that their condemnation could fall upon Him.
Their curse was made His so that they could go free. “Sin was laid on Him, and He was treated as if He had been guilty, though He had personally never sinned”.
Upon the cross, the Father looked upon the Son with no pity. The judge, to fulfil the just demands of the law, had to condemn the vile offender.
“The great Judge of all cannot smile upon Him who has become the substitute for the guilty. Sin is loathed of God; and if, in order for its removal, His own Son is made to bear it, yet, as sin, it is still loathsome, and He who bears it cannot be in happy communion with God”.
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Your partner in ministry,
Nelson
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