Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries |
Our Lord's saying on the Cross. Part 2.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
The most dramatic exhibition of the character and nature of God is revealed by the divine love and divine omnipotence in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The seven sayings of our Lord when He was on the cross.
And two others also, who were criminals, were being led away to be put to death with Him.And when they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves. (LUK 23:32-34)
The first statement dealt with the word forgiveness for His enemies.
The second one dealt with salvation, LUK 23:39-42.
LUK 23:43 And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”
The third statement from the cross -
JOH 19:26-27 - dealt with the word compassion.
JOH 19:26-27 When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own {household.}
The point to focus in on is the affection and care that the Lord showed others while going through the tremendous suffering of the cross.
GAL 6:5 For each one shall bear his own load.
He calls her woman, not mother, not out of any disrespect to her, but because mother would have brought in some of the heretical doctrine that we have around today, such as Mary being called the mother of God.
Sometimes, when God removes one comfort from us, He replaces it with another for us.
This was actually a blessing to John because it is a great honor to be utilized by Christ, and to be entrusted with any of that which is His interest in the world.
But nevertheless, even at such a time, TLJC did not consider natural ties as unworthy of His attention.
2CO 5:16 Therefore from now on we recognize no man according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.
MAT 26:56 Then all the disciples left Him and fled.
MAT 26:31 “You will all fall away because of Me this night, for it is written, ‘I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.’”
Compassion = a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another’s suffering or misfortune accompanied by a desire to alleviate the pain and remove its cause.
The Lord is compassionate toward His people and expects them to be compassionate toward others, 1KI 8:50.
LAM 3:22-23 The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Thy faithfulness.
LUK 15:20 “His father saw him, and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him, and kissed him.”
MAT 9:13 “But go and learn what {this} means, ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
MAT 12:7 “But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.”
The fourth statement deals with anguish, MAR 15:34.
This is the time when Jesus Christ “bore our sins in his own body on the tree,”
1PE 2:24.
This was the unspeakable agony of the Cross, the spiritual death prophesied in PSA 22:1.
The fourth cry indicated that He was being judged for us.
God the Father had to pour out all of His wrath, as a matter of justice, upon God the Son, while the HUMANITY of Jesus Christ bore the sins of the world.
The wrath of God did not judge Jesus.
The wrath of God, the justice of God, judged sin.
Jesus Christ did not appease the wrath of an angry God; He satisfied the perfect justice of a holy and loving God. For God so loved the world... John 3:16.
In Romans 1:18 Paul informs us that Jesus Christ did not come to appease the wrath of God. Rather He came to reveal the wrath of God - against sin, not against the Son.
God can have nothing to do with sin.
HAB 1:13 Your eyes are too pure to approve evil,
And You can not look on wickedness with favor.
His death was necessary, and it was made so by the character of God.
But now, at the cross, His righteousness is demonstrated. It is shown publicly.
Jesus Christ offered Himself as the sacrifice in front of human and angelic eyes.
We are shown the indisputable evidence that God is just, righteous - HOLY - and loving and gracious.
EXO 3:5 “Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”
TLJC was accustomed to address God as His Father.
Actually this statement shows us how truly human TLJC was, that He could be forsaken of His God.
He was and is the God-man who has been scourged, and spit upon, and Who has died.
So it was necessary for Him to be both God’s beloved Son and to be forsaken of His Father.
Our Lord Jesus Christ saw all that man had to suffer because of sin and that He perceived the total sum of the miseries brought by sin upon all the past, present, and future generations of the human race.
When the body is suffering it also can affect the mind.
ISA 49:14-15 But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, And the Lord has forgotten me.” “Can a woman forget her nursing child, And have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.”
God did forsake His Son, but He loved Him as much when He forsook Him as at any other period. ISA 53:10But the Lord was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering