"My God, My God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?"

ligonier.org The Teaching Fellowship of Calvinist R.C. Sproul ^ | 3/30/15 | Joel Beeke

[SoFloFreeper]

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“My God, My God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?”

from Joel Beeke Mar 30, 2015 Category: Articles

“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?”(Matt. 27:46, KJV).

It is noon, and Jesus has been on the cross for three pain-filled hours. Suddenly, darkness falls on Calvary and “over all the land” (v. 45). By a miraculous act of Almighty God, midday becomes midnight.

This supernatural darkness is a symbol of God’s judgment on sin. The physical darkness signals a deeper and more fearsome darkness.

The great High Priest enters Golgotha’s Holy of Holies without friends or enemies. The Son of God is alone on the cross for three final hours, enduring what defies our imagination. Experiencing the full brunt of His Father’s wrath, Jesus cannot stay silent. He cries out: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

This phrase represents the nadir, the lowest point, of Jesus’ sufferings. Here Jesus descends into the essence of hell, the most extreme suffering ever experienced. It is a time so compacted, so infinite, so horrendous as to be incomprehensible and, seemingly, unsustainable.

Jesus’ cry does not in any way diminish His deity. Jesus does not cease being God before, during, or after this. Jesus’ cry does not divide His human nature from His divine person or destroy the Trinity. Nor does it detach Him from the Holy Spirit. The Son lacks the comforts of the Spirit, but He does not lose the holiness of the Spirit. And finally, it does not cause Him to disavow His mission. Both the Father and Son knew from all eternity that Jesus would become the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world (Acts 15:18). It is unthinkable that the Son of God might question what is happening or be perplexed when His Father’s loving presence departs.

Jesus is expressing the agony of unanswered supplication (Ps. 22:1–2). Unanswered, Jesus feels forgotten of God. He is also expressing the agony of unbearable stress. It is the kind of “roaring” mentioned in Psalm 22: the roar of desperate agony without rebellion. It is the hellish cry uttered when the undiluted wrath of God overwhelms the soul. It is heart-piercing, heaven-piercing, and hell-piercing. Further, Jesus is expressing the agony of unmitigated sin. All the sins of the elect, and the hell that they deserve for eternity, are laid upon Him. And Jesus is expressing the agony of unassisted solitariness. In His hour of greatest need comes a pain unlike anything the Son has ever experienced: His Father’s abandonment. When Jesus most needs encouragement, no voice cries from heaven, “This is my beloved Son.” No angel is sent to strengthen Him; no “well done, thou good and faithful servant” resounds in His ears. The women who supported Him are silent. The disciples, cowardly and terrified, have fled. Feeling disowned by all, Jesus endures the way of suffering alone, deserted, and forsaken in utter darkness. Every detail of this horrific abandonment declares the heinous character of our sins!

But why would God bruise His own Son (Isa. 53:10)? The Father is not capricious, malicious, or being merely didactic. The real purpose is penal; it is the just punishment for the sin of Christ’s people. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Cor. 5:21).

Christ was made sin for us, dear believers. Among all the mysteries of salvation, this little word “for” exceeds all. This small word illuminates our darkness and unites Jesus Christ with sinners. Christ was acting on behalf of His people as their representative and for their benefit.

With Jesus as our substitute, God’s wrath is satisfied and God can justify those who believe in Jesus (Rom. 3:26). Christ’s penal suffering, therefore, is vicarious — He suffered on our behalf. He did not simply share our forsakenness, but He saved us from it. He endured it for us, not with us. You are immune to condemnation (Rom. 8:1) and to God’s anathema (Gal. 3:13) because Christ bore it for you in that outer darkness. Golgotha secured our immunity, not mere sympathy.

This explains the hours of darkness and the roar of dereliction. God’s people experience just a taste of this when they are brought by the Holy Spirit before the Judge of heaven and earth, only to experience that they are not consumed for Christ’s sake. They come out of darkness, confessing, “Because Immanuel has descended into the lowest hell for us, God is with us in the darkness, under the darkness, through the darkness — and we are not consumed!”

How stupendous is the love of God! Indeed, our hearts so overflow with love that we respond, “We love him, because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

This post was originally published in Tabletalk magazine.

[Elsie]

You forget about Rev 11 and those prophets? You don't accept prophets today do you?

(I see you are at the boiling point...)

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In conclusion let us summarize this grand key, these “Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet”, for our salvation depends on them.

1. The prophet is the only man who speaks for the Lord in everything.
2. The living prophet is more vital to us than the standard works.
3. The living prophet is more important to us than a dead prophet.
4. The prophet will never lead the church astray.
5. The prophet is not required to have any particular earthly training or credentials to speak on any subject or act on any matter at any time.
6. The prophet does not have to say “Thus Saith the Lord,” to give us scripture.
7. The prophet tells us what we need to know, not always what we want to know.
8. The prophet is not limited by men’s reasoning.
9. The prophet can receive revelation on any matter, temporal or spiritual.
10. The prophet may advise on civic matters.
11. The two groups who have the greatest difficulty in following the prophet are the proud who are learned and the proud who are rich.
12. The prophet will not necessarily be popular with the world or the worldly.
13. The prophet and his counselors make up the First Presidency—the highest quorum in the Church.
14. The prophet and the presidency—the living prophet and the First Presidency—follow them and be blessed—reject them and suffer.

I testify that these fourteen fundamentals in following the living prophet are true. If we want to know how well we stand with the Lord then let us ask ourselves how well we stand with His mortal captain—how close do our lives harmonize with the Lord’s anointed—the living Prophet—President of the Church, and with the Quorum of the First Presidency.

Ezra Taft Benson

(Address given Tuesday, February 26, 1980 at Brigham Young University)     http://www.lds.org/liahona/1981/06/fourteen-fundamentals-in-following-the-prophet?lang=eng

[Elsie]

I'm curious though, as to just what work you might do in life that would make you worthy of the one thing ONLY GOD CAN ACCOMPLISH and He offers as Grace to the unworthy?

I'm curious as to whether SP is WORTHY enough to enter a Mormon Temple.

He(?) seems quite reluctant to say; one way or the other.

[betty boop]

And speaking of lunatic asylums, the rantings of angry atheists conjure up those very scenes to my mind. Jeepers...

It seems that the subject of the "lunatic asylum" has popped up in some of my recent posts. But the subject has been much in my thoughts recently.

I am not a certified professional practitioner in the field of psychology. However, I do have considerable experience interacting with psychiatric patients. During my college years, I worked summers as a nursing assistant at a state psychiatric hospital, in chronic disturbed, rehabilitation, and acute care settings. My heart was especially in my service in Chronic Disturbed. In general, these patients were appallingly "self-absorbed," wholly self-contained and self-restricted within the parameters of mind entirely isolated from any concept of a "world" outside or beyond "self." Some were entirely incapable of engaging in conversation with another, simply because they couldn't "see" that another was out there, trying to relate with them. Indeed, ultimately what these patients lacked was any concept of "self" at all. Thus it was utterly impossible for them to recognize the "selfhood" of another, so to have a "conversation."

Among other things, they could not be trusted with taking basic care of themselves. Often enough, some proved to be a danger to themselves, or to others. Making them tractable usually involved massive, regular doses of psychotropic drugs.

Anyhoot, at the age of eighteen, I was first placed into a situation where, every work day, I stepped over the threshold of First to Second Reality, and then had to get back to First Reality again at the end of my shift. I had absolutely no presuppositions or prejudices that could "help" me negotiate such foreign territory. I was deeply impressionable, however. I learned so much from these experiences. Oh, the stories I could tell!

But that would be to propose yet another invidious sidebar to this thread!!!

Anyhoot, to sum up, the "atheist model" seems to recall certain aspects of my experiences of decades ago. For it seems to me that to reject God is a willful act of personal self-isolation, of personal self-immersion in one's own Self — or perhaps better to say, EGO. Such a self is closed to real experience....

Thanks to such folks, the "lunatic asylum" model has been transported to society in general....

Or so it seems to me, for what it's worth.

Thank you so very much, dearest sister in Christ, for your wonderful essay/post, and kind words of support!

[betty boop]

Life is about service.... IF you are no good to somebody THEN you are worthless to everybody..

Just lovely, dear 'pipe!!!

Yet to some, this "service" business might sound very abstract. Instead, I would argue that it ultimately consists in the very humble acts of caritas, of love of one's neighbor as oneself.

Yet I am often struck nowadays by people who seem to suggest that "the neighbor" is defined as "the person who is just like me, who thinks as I do."

To me, "the neighbor" is the person who is standing "right next to you," with whom you are communicating in some fashion, by whatever means.

"Service" to this neighbor consists in showing respect towards such a person — a person who very well may be unalike to us — so to honor the sovereign dignity that the Creator endows in every person made in His Image.

If we restrict the definition of "neighbor" to just those people who are "like us," who "think as we do," then how do we avoid drawing the scathing recriminations that Eric Voegelin drew down against the German established church, in the run-up to WWII and the holocaust?

Voegelin said that the German Church at that historical time had been utterly reduced to the status of "social clubs for like-minded families." Implying that defense of moral order was the last thing on their minds at the time. Such that a tyrant like Hitler could have been elected in what was clearly, objectively a democratic election. Obama's Justice Department would have approved of it, I'm sure.

I loved this:

Satan serves worms, God makes Butterflys.

Ain't it the truth, dearest 'pipe!!!

HUGS!!!

[hosepipe]

Anyhoot, to sum up, the "atheist model" seems to recall certain aspects of my experiences of decades ago. For it seems to me that to reject God is a willful act of personal self-isolation, of personal self-immersion in one's own Self — or perhaps better to say, EGO. Such a self is closed to real experience....
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Indeed; to reject God (in whatever degree) is to make YOURSELF God to that degree...

The metaphorical "Throne" of God MUST be inhabited...
and it will be... with accompanying religion created or absorbed..

Amazing how basic THAT is... being human can be pretty lonely unless you're NOT crazy..

[hosepipe]

Bonus; https://www.dropbox.com/s/56bn4hf24448pxa/TLP.avi?dl=0

[betty boop]

Just to let you know, dearest 'pipe, that on your suggestion, we played Jackie Evancho's "Our Father" at my mother's wake, last June. And also, Evancho's haunting rendition of the "Il Nome," of the opera, Turnandot.

My Mom was an opera lover, right down to the ground. I feel so sure that she would have deeply appreciated the musical selections played during her "visiting hours." So very largely inspired by you, my very dear friend.

Thank you from heart!!!

[editor-surveyor]

.
The “ninth hour” is not noon, it is 3:00 pm at that time of year (equinox).

[hosepipe]

Nessun Dorma: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzSfx2IKafs

[SoFloFreeper]

yes. if you see the original source, that is apparent. the formatting on my post makes the first sentence look like part of the article.

thanks. :)

[editor-surveyor]

.
>> “The Devil was cast down when?” <<

.
Not yet!!!

He will be cast down in the middle of Daniel’s 70th week. The war in Heaven has not yet happened. All mention of it is future prophecy, it all happens during the first half of the 70th week.

This is something that has to happen soon.
.

[MHGinTN]

Hmmm, something about that sound, tears in these old eyes ...

[betty boop]

Yep. That's the one, "Nessun Dorma," misidentified by me as "Il Nome."

We had to choose between the Luciano Pavarotti rendition, or Jackie Evancho's. The song is written for tenor voice. Nonetheless, as much as my mother was a passionate, life-long fan of Pavarotti, we chose Jackie's rendition, a soprano. (We played his "Donna E Mobile" at Mom's wake, just to keep him in the picture.)

I gather Evancho was around age 15 when she recorded this. It brings tears to my eyes every time I hear her sing it.

Thank you, dearest friend!

[hosepipe]

I gather Evancho was around age 15 when she recorded this. It brings tears to my eyes every time I hear her sing it.

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Nope she was 11/12 then.... she just turned 15 Apr 9, 2015..

my fav: https://www.dropbox.com/s/cont03w1so0om42/JeTaime.avi?dl=0

You might appreciate THIS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycn-2s02FpQ

[Alamo-Girl]

You never cease to amaze me, dearest sister in Christ! Thank you so much for sharing your special insights.

For it seems to me that to reject God is a willful act of personal self-isolation, of personal self-immersion in one's own Self — or perhaps better to say, EGO. Such a self is closed to real experience....

So very true!

[Alamo-Girl]

Yet I am often struck nowadays by people who seem to suggest that "the neighbor" is defined as "the person who is just like me, who thinks as I do."

To me, "the neighbor" is the person who is standing "right next to you," with whom you are communicating in some fashion, by whatever means.

Precisely so, dearest sister in Christ:

But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?

And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.

Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?

And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise. - Luke 10:29-37

[VietVet]

“Eli, Eli! Lama sabachthani?” is also the first line of one of the Psalms (I can't recall which one) which includes such images as the Psalmist being scourged and his enemies casting lots for his clothes. Nevertheless, the Psalmist concludes that the Lord is just and He will do Rightousness in the end. So it is possible that Jesus was quoting, not lamenting.

[betty boop]

Just loved the "Dormi Jesu!"

Jackie Evancho is simply amazing.

[StormPrepper]

Stormprepper It is my opinion, based on decades of Biblical reading,

I relied on the Holy Ghost to teach me as promised by Jesus. And He proved to me what He said was true. I didn't have to spend decades as reading my Bible. I went to God. Which is what James says to do. Jesus said it is your Father in Heaven that reveals truth...

That is the one source of information and truth that will not fail.

that to deny that Jesus saves the moment you believe on Him is blasphemous.

I don't say this often because whatever you believe is your business, but what you just said is straight from the devil. And it will damn you at the judgement.

And that is the essence of why Mormonism/Smithianism does not comprehend The Gospel of Jesus Christ.

This is just ignorant. Jesus raised up a prophet, which was the plan from the beginning, and personally directed the restoration of His Church. The mission of the Church is not some vain worship, but to prepare people to meet God per His instructions.

So, yes, I think we can comprehend the TRUE gospel of Jesus Christ.

I'm curious though, as to just what work you might do in life that would make you worthy of the one thing ONLY GOD CAN ACCOMPLISH and He offers as Grace to the unworthy?

You've confused several totally separate principles here.

The truth is, Jesus gives grace to the repentant. Who then follow His instructions. Although not perfect, we through His atonement become worthy of His grace. But He, Jesus is has the final say of who He saves.

You're confusing "unworthy" with "not perfect". Not perfect means you will fail to be perfect from time to time, God knowing this allows us to repent and start over and renew our covenant.

God explains this perfectly in the Book of Mormon:
Alma 12:24
"...nevertheless there was a space granted unto man in which he might repent; therefore this life became a probationary state; a time to prepare to meet God; a time to prepare for that endless state which has been spoken of by us, which is after the resurrection of the dead."

Being worthy means you're on the path, you repent, and keep the commandments. You won't be perfect at it in this life, but you have to be on the path doing the best you can.

I'm curious though, as to just what work you might do in life

Not "a work" but all the works that I'm commanded to do. You're judged by your works. Everything from paying tithing, teaching my family the gospel, taking the sacrament weekly, serving in the Church, doing good to others, etc... and above all, enduring to the end of your life being faithful.

Being on the path gets your name put into the Lambs book of Life.

In Luke 13 Jesus explicitly says what He's going to say to those that claimed to believe on Him, but went down their own path, "begone, I never knew you."

Without those works, starting with baptism by authority and receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, when the books of our life are opened at the judgement, we will be found to not be worthy of His grace.

Lastly, those works change our hearts. We have to develop the attributes and mind of Christ in order to live with Him and His Father. We have to have charity... and you only get that through serving others as Christ did.

[hosepipe]

https://www.youtube.com/user/topshotus?feature=results_main