DECEMBER 02 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#33 “Eli, Eli lama sabachthani? that is, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46)

 

DECEMBER 02  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#33  

“Eli, Eli lama sabachthani? that is, My God, My God,

 why have You forsaken Me?”  (Matthew 27:46)

LIVING FOR JESUS - Daily Prayer    

JESUS You are the LORD of ALL and Your Words are the only words

 of Eternal Life and as my heart walks daily in Your Word my soul 

feels the spiritual warmth of the Light of the Son as as my body feels

 the physical warmth of the bright sunshine coming down from 

the heavens. Lord it is at these precious moments that I know

 Your Joy and my complete desire is to be “one with You and the Father”!  

Forgive me where I fail in my daily walk through this world as I let my

 selfish soul slip and once again I am “of the world” and not just 

“in the world” — I know this world is not my home so protect me

 from myself and from the evil one, both of which want to keep me

 living in the flesh instead of living in Spirit and in Truth. 

Your Kingdom come, Your Will be done!     

AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus has shared His Last Passover Supper with His disciples

 and Judas has betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver just as foretold 

in Scriptures. When Jesus was led away to the courtyard of the high priest

 for a mock trial all His disciples “forsook Him and fled” and even Peter

 who had sworn to be with Him even unto death had denied Him thrice, 

again just as Jesus said it would happen. 

Jesus even though He was innocent, was wrongfully declared guilty

 and the words of Isaiah the prophet about the Suffering Servant 

were being fulfilled with each blow that Jesus received in that

 dark and evil courtyard. 

The physical pain Jesus had to endure was horrendous but we

 cannot imagine the spiritual pain that Jesus was experiencing

 as He knew that this “Burden” was His to bear and that He must bear it alone! 

In the 3rd grade class that I have the privilege to teach, 

a bright 3rd grader asked me during the lesson of Abraham 

being instructed by God to sacrifice Isaac on the mountaintop, 

“Why would the father kill the son?” And at that point the Holy Spirit 

took over the class and I have never been “spiritually” the same

 since then. The immediate answer given to me through the Holy Spirit

 took us all the way back to Genesis when God Himself

 spoke His first command to Adam, 

“And the LORD GOD commanded the man saying, 

‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 

but of the tree of knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat,

 for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” 

(Genesis 2:16-17) 

These two verses establish some core principles that give us an insight

 into how God has planned for the world and mankind to progress: 

(T1) God gives us instructions that set forth the moral standard we are to live by 

(T2) God makes it very clear that our actions carry with it a consequence 

(T3) God establishes the doctrine of “Freewill” 

which in today’s modern vernacular is called “Choice”! 

What we fail to recognize however is that God is establishing His Character

 with which He will be faithful to display His character

 fairly and equally to all mankind, forever! 

Another nuance which is always passed over is what A. W. Tozer 

in his spiritual gem of a book “The Knowledge of the Holy” writes 

that even though we are free to choose our actions that God has reserved

 the sovereign right to determine the Consequence of our Choice! 

The answer to “Why the father would kill the son?” can be found

 in God’s faithfulness — God established in Genesis that “sin” is when

 we “disobey God” and the “penalty for sin is “death”! 

God demonstrated when Adam and Eve disobeyed God 

that God “sacrificed” an animal

 (I would bet it was a lamb, i.e.

 the forerunner of the Passover Lamb)

 and “covered” Adam and Eve’s shame (guilt) thereby establishing

 the precedent of 

“Substitutionary Sacrifice” and the “covering of sin” 

with the “shedding of innocent blood” !!! — the TRUTH OF GOD 

is that God had a Plan of Salvation before the foundations of the earth, 

and the Plan of Salvation would be a “Substitutionary Sacrifice” 

of His Only Begotten Son who would “shed His Innocent Blood” 

for the “remission of [ALL] sin” 

thus fulfilling the requirement established by God Himself 

with the first act of disobedience that sin must be punished by death

 and the shedding of innocent blood. 

The entire Bible is God demonstrating His Faithfulness and His Justice

 regarding this Initial Principal of God and is summed up by Jesus His Son 

as the Son explains the “motive” of the Father and

 

“Why the Father would kill the Son” — 

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, 

that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.“ 

(John 3:16)

 and … 

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life

 for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.”  

(John 15:13-14) 

Jesus the Son is laying down His life for the same reason the Father 

has allowed it to happen, and in the last words of Jesus to His disciples 

Jesus told us why He and the Father “love” the world —

 “O righteous Father! The world has not known You, 

but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me.

 And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it,

 that the love with which You love Me 

may be in them, and I in them.”  

(John 17:25-26) 

and lastly: 

“Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.” 

(Hebrews 9:22)