>“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Matthew 27:46
“Let me say this, if Jesus was not really forsaken on the cross you are still in your sins. You have no redemption. You have no salvation. Because the whole point of the of the cross is that if Jesus is going to bear our sins and bear the sanctions of the covenant.
Let me ask you this, what was the sign of the old covenant? Circumcision. Talk about primitive and obscene signs. Why did the Jew cut off the foreskin of his flesh? …The Jew was saying ‘Oh, God! If I fail to keep everyone of the terms of this covenant may I be cut off from you, cut off from your presence, cut off from the light of your countenance, cut off from your blessedness, just as I have now ritually cut off the foreskin of my flesh!’
Do you understand that the cross is the supreme circumcision? Because when Jesus takes the curse upon himself, so identifies with our sin that He becomes a curse, God cuts Him off!And justly so, because at the moment that Christ takes upon Himself the sin of the world [b]that figure that is on the cross is the most grotesque most obscene mass of sin concentrated in the history of the world. And God is too holy to even look at iniquity and when Christ is hanging on the cross the Father, as it were, turns His back, He removes His face, He turns out the ligh, He cuts off His son, and so here is Jesus bearing the sin, it’s touching His human nature who has been in perfect blessed relationship with God throughout His ministry, now gone.
I have heard a million sermons about the nails and the thorns, and granted the physical agony of crucifixion is a ghastly thing, but there have been thousands of people who have died on the cross and who have had more horrible painful excruciating deaths than that. But only one has received the full measure of the curse of death. I doubt that Jesus is even aware of the nails and the spear, He was so overwhelmed by the outer darkness. Dear friends, on the cross Jesus is in Hell! Right there. Totally bereft of the grace and presence of God, utterly separated from all blessedness of the Father. He becomes a curse for you, so that you someday will be able to see the face of God. So that the light of his countenance will fall on you, God turned His back on His Son. No wonder He screamed, He screamed from the depths of His soul.” ~R C Sproul
“His sufferings were far from consisting in mere corporal perpessions and afflictions, with such impressions upon his soul and spirit as were the effects and issues only of them. It was no more nor less than the curse of the law of God which he underwent for us: for he freed us from the curse ” by being made a curse,” Gal 3:13″ ~John Owen
The whole of it evinces the truth of Christ’s human nature, that he was in all things made like unto his brethren; that he had an human soul, and endured sorrows and sufferings in it, of which this of desertion was not the least: the heinousness of sin may be learnt from hence, which not only drove the angels out of heaven, and Adam out of the garden, and separates, with respect to communion, between God and his children; but even caused him to hide his face from his own Son, whilst he was bearing, and suffering for, the sins of his people ~John Gill
“Had there been no deeper and more awful sufferings, it would be difficult to see why Jesus should have shrunk from these sorrows, and used such a remarkable expression. Isaiah tells us, (Isa 53:4,5) “He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” He hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, Gal 3:13, he was made a sin-offering, 2Cor 5:21 he died in our place, on our account, that he might bring us near to God. It was this, doubtless, which caused his intense sufferings. It was the manifestation of God’s hatred of sin to his soul, in some way which he has not explained, that he experienced in that dread hour. It was suffering, endured by him, that was due to us; and suffering by which, and by which alone, we can be saved from eternal death” ~Albert Barnes
“Why hast thou forsaken me? We must lay the emphasis on every word of this saddest of all utterances. “Why?” what is the great cause of such a strange fact as for God to leave his own Son at such a time and in such a plight? There was no cause in him, why then was he deserted? “Hast:” it is done, and the Saviour is feeling its dread effect as he asks the question; it is surely true, but how mysterious! It was no threatening of forsaking which made the great Surety cry aloud, he endured that forsaking in very deed. “Thou:” I can understand why traitorous Judas and timid Peter should be gone, but thou, my God, my faithful friend, how canst thou leave me? This is worst of all, yea, worse than all put together. Hell itself has for its fiercest flame the separation of the soul from God. “Forsaken:” if thou hadst chastened I might bear it, for thy face would shine; but to forsake me utterly, ah! why is this? “Me:” thine innocent, obedient, suffering Son, why leavest thou me to perish? A sight of self seen by penitence, and of Jesus on the cross seen by faith will best expound this question. Jesus is forsaken because our sins had separated between us and our God.” ~Charles Spurgeon
“Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
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.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.” (Isaiah 53:4-11)