For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us? 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NKJV)
We could never fully appreciate the physical pain that Christ endured on the cross. It should humble us to our dying day that He went through that for our sake. And yet, His physical agony pales in comparison to what was happening on the spiritual level.
As Jesus hung on the cross, He uttered something that gives incredible insight into what He was going through on the spiritual level. It was something that wounded Him on a level that we will never be able to fully fathom:
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying... "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46 NKJV)
Christ is doing two things here: He's pointing to the prophecy of Psalm 22 as applying to Him, and He's expressing the sense of spiritual separation from His Father that He was experiencing on the cross. Don't misunderstand. The union between the Father and Son remained intact, but their sense of communion was being disrupted.
Why did Jesus feel so forsaken? Because 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us that all of our sinfulness was placed upon Him. And since God cannot even look at sin (Habakkuk 1:13), something happened to Jesus on the cross that had never taken place in all eternity, something came between Him and His Father...our sin. No physical pain could ever compare to this, because nothing can compare to the sanctity of the bond between the Father and His Son.
We'll never fully appreciate the suffering this produced because we've never known the perfect relationship Jesus shared with His Father-much less the abrupt and absolute sense of separation our sins produced. But it's because He endured such suffering that we don't have to.
Think about it…
What does this passage reveal to me about God?
What does this passage reveal to me about myself?
Based on this, what changes do I need to make?
What is my prayer for today?
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