Mark 15:31-34 In the same way the chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked him among themselves. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him. At the sixth hour darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” — which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” are words that reveal the heart of God's gift to the world. He was allowing Jesus, his beloved Son, to take the punishment for every sin mankind had committed or ever would commit. Through Jesus' suffering and death on the cross, God made a way for every person to enter into an intimate relationship with him as a his child, joint heir with Christ. Sin, without eradication, always causes death, eternal separation from God. In the Garden of Eden, the serpent lied when he said eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil would not cause death: “You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4-5) From that time on, all people would experience biological death, but worse than that was their separation from eternal life, which meant they would never be with an eternal God. Jesus could have saved himself that day on the cross. He could have called down a multitude of angels to spare him this agonizing death. All of heaven would have responded; for Jesus, the Christ, is the bright and morning star of all that is, and was, or ever will be. As we read in God's Word, Jesus says, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. (Revelation 22:13) He is the light and life of all that exists--bread to the hungry and water to the thirsty. Jesus had the authority to call down the heavenlies on his behalf, but as He often told his disciples, I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. (John 6:38) And his Father's desire was to put an end to Satan's work and to make a way to life eternal for his fallen creation. Jesus kept his eyes on his mission to make a way to heaven for all who would believe in him. Jesus paid the price to erase our debt and to satisfy the righteousness of God.
God cursed the serpent in the garden after the temptation and fall of Adam and Eve: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15) He was saying, I will put a block to your advances to the woman's offspring. You will not be able to tempt her offspring or deal with them as if they were mere animals as you are. I will make them living spirits, who will have eternal life; and Jesus, my Son, will accomplish this feat. He will pay the price for their waywardness. He will make them alive, for his Spirit will reside in them. Those who have placed their trust in him will be sons and daughters of the Most High, no longer living out their biological lives under the fear of eternal death. Adam and Eve lived in a pristine environment, sinless, because they did not know anything other than God and his companionship, but sin broke that condition of an intimate relationship with God as his created beings. No longer would God commune with human beings in the cool of the evening. But God had a plan, and his plan for humans was greater than this relationship. Through Jesus Christ his Son, the Creator of all things, God planned for divinity to be placed in his sons and daughters through the abiding Holy Spirit, the blessed Comforter. Jesus promised his followers, And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever — the Spirit of truth. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. (John 14:16-17 & 26 No longer would humans hide from God in fear or only hear him occasionally, for now they would be holy temples where God through the Spirit constantly abides, giving them wisdom, guidance, knowledge, and peace.
Jesus could have come down from that place of torture and death, but if He had, the grand plan of making us sons and daughters of the Most High would have been thwarted. God's plan of bringing children into his intimate family as coheirs with his eternal Son would not have materialized. On the cross, Jesus fulfilled every requirement for mankind to enter into the household of God. Jesus paid the COMPLETE price for our deliverance from darkness into light. We no longer hide from God as Adam and Eve because of our disobedience. We no longer have limited periods of fellowship with God, for we are always in his presence because of the Holy Spirit within us. The devil deceived Eve when he said she would not die if she ate of the tree of Good and Evil. He said, Surely, your life with Adam's will go on forever. Even though we were made in his image, the power of knowing good and evil led us to rebellion and death. As humans, we naturally fix our lives on ourselves, creating our kingdom for our good. Seeking what is best for us, not what is best for others skews life towards conflict and violence. The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. (Genesis 6:5-6) God's pain became the pain of the cross when He sent Jesus to Earth as a propitiation for our sins. Through Jesus, God made us holy and righteous, even when our natural inclination is self-serving and sometimes violent. Jesus' sacrifice made us alive, even though sometimes our deeds seem to be those of the dead. Jesus paid for it all on the cross. He definitely blocked the old serpent's pathway to our destruction; through his death, He crushed the serpent's head. We will not die, for Christ is alive in us. As Paul told the church, And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. (Romans 8:11) Jesus cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? This question uttered in horrible agony can be reverently answered by those who accept the gift of his grace. God sent his Son to the cross for the sake of the lost, FOR YOU AND ME! He gave us the privilege to abide in his household forever in His perfect presence, in harmony and peace. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
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