The Death of Christ.
Zion's Advocate, January 1903, Vol. 42, No. 1, Part 4.
No one can conceive or imagine the depth of suffering which brought forth the cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" God forsaken of God! Wonderful mystery! The only thing we can know about it is that humanity--bleeding, suffering, innocent humanity--was forsaken by Divinity. How dreadful must have been the suffering of the poor Nazarene when left alone on the bloody cross!"Why hast thou forsaken me?" he asked in pitiful accents. What must be the true answer to that impressive question? There was no reason in the Sufferer why the Father should forsake him. Was it that he might die for all the human race merely as an experiment? No; for God tries no experiments. Was it that he should die for all, his death to be applied on conditions to be complied with? Nothing is more preposterous! Why should his Father forsake him merely to give rebels a chance to be saved when the minds of all are enmity against him, are not subject to his law and cannot be? Rom. 8: 7. It is so absurd and unreasonable, as well as unscriptural, to say that the innocent Lamb of God was left to bleed and die alone merely to render it possible for sinners to comply with conditions in order to their salvation, especially since their hearts are filled with hatred and unbelief! If God has proposed conditions upon which to save sinners, and sinners are able to comply with such conditions, then no reason can be assigned for the Son's being forsaken by the Father in the dreadful hour of his death. If one Arminian preacher possessed the talent of all he could not give a sensible or scriptural reason for the awful sufferings of Jesus on such an hypothesis.
Why, then, did the Father forsake the Son? The only reasonable answer is fully and abundantly given by the inspired volume. "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." Isa. 53: 6. "By his knowledge shall by righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities." Isa. 53: 11. All this was said of him prophetically; was it fulfilled? "So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many." Heb. 9: 28. This is a clear and positive answer to the question. He bore all the sins that were laid upon him, which resulted in the justification of all for whom he died. It was for his sheep that he laid down his life (John 10: 15) by which he redeemed them from all iniquity (Titus 2: 14). God is of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity. Habakkuk. 1: 13. Hence as the Son became the sin-bearer of all the people he came to save, and as he was charged with all their crimes, the favor and presence of his Father was withdrawn, and he was left to tread the wine-press alone. This was he who was declared to come from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah, glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength, speaking in righteousness and mighty to save. Isa. 63: 1-3.
A remarkable phenomenon attended the withdrawal of the Father. The sun had just reached its meridian splendor. A clear sky o'er-spread the land. Just then the brilliant sun began to withdraw its light, and darkness soon enveloped the face of the earth. Gloomy night was thus spread, like a funeral pall, over all the land at midday. The third hour (nine o'clock) Jesus was nailed to the cross, the sixth hour (noon) darkness came, and solemn gloom lasted till the ninth hour (three o'clock in the afternoon). The dreadful and wonderful phenomenon signified the obscuring of the Holy One, who was made to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Profound silence must have reigned during these three hours of prevailing gloom, broken only, one might imagine, by the groans of the suffering ones. Of this, however, we have no account. One thing is certain, a terrible battle with satan, sin and death was going on--a battle that seemed for a time to have resulted in favor of these mighty foes. Language cannot describe, neither can imagination picture, this awful scene of darkness, at the close of which broke forth the Saviour's cry, given by the evangelist in the very language in which it was uttered by the Divine Sufferer: "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani."
The sufferings of the Holy One were on the very point of being finished. The light of the sun had burst forth afresh upon the dreadful scene, as if to witness and reveal the fulfillment of all the types and shadows of the law that pointed to the great atonement. "I thirst," was uttered pitifully by those sweet lips that had known no guile. Here was a fulfillment of what David saw by revelation many centuries before, and described by the following words; "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws: and thou hast brought me into the dust of death." Psa. 22: 14, 15. "Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none." Psa. 69: 20.
The meek Sufferer had hung on the cross nearly six hours. The supply of his life's blood was nearly exhausted. Intense heat raged within which produced a burning thirst. There is, perhaps, no greater physical distress than that produced by an insatiable thirst. The rich man in hell, who there lifted up his eyes being in torment, felt this when he called for a drop of water to cool his parched tongue. Many a dying mortal has looked up with gratitude as some kind hand has moistened the dry and fading lips. Nothing else satisfies the craving desire of a thirsty one like pure water, but Jesus received not that priceless blessing. One of them dipped a sponge in vinegar and put it on a reed and reached it to him. This, too, was in fulfillment of what David had said, "They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink."
We now come to the closing scene. The last bitter draught was being swallowed, the last dreadful pang was being endured. Jesus cried with a loud voice. Oh! what a cry that must have been! Words of command from those lips had stilled the raging storm, and smoothed the boisterous sea. From them had issued words of power that raised the dead and words of comfort that proclaimed his everlasting gospel. Now a deep, piercing cry of distress comes from them as the last stroke of infinite justice is laid upon him in the full payment of what all his people owed. Having uttered this cry, he said in tones of exultation, "It is finished" and in words of meek submission, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit," and immediately he bowed his head and gave up the ghost. "It is finished" signifies that the sufferings were ended and the law was satisfied. The sacrifice was over by which the sins of his people were put away, and by which he reconciled them to God and obtained eternal redemption for them. The final address to his Father shows that his presence had been restored to him, perhaps as the last stroke of suffering had passed off. His giving up the ghost showed that the real act of dying was voluntarily performed by him, so that no man took his life from him.
When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the cross of Christ, my God;
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.
See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
His dying crimson, like a robe,
Spreads o'er His body on the tree;
Then am I dead to all the globe,
And all the globe is dead to me.
Were the whole ream of nature mine,
That were a present farm to small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.
J. R. D.
Copyright c. 2005. All rights reserved. The Primitive Baptist Library.
