Christ, the helper of man, came
to save sinners. He loved sinners. Yet instead
of their hearts, they gave him a cross. Instead of love, a cup
of gall. Instead of their hands, a thorny
crown. And beneath his cross, there
was not so much as one voice to lay down the testimony. The
man who hangs on the middle cross is he whom my soul loveth. Forsaken by men, or father or
mother, is a sad and a desolate thing. But when we think that
God had restrained and kept back for this time all of his joys
and comforts and sense of love from Christ, How unsearchable
is the thought. We can strain our eyes and gaze
till our sight fails us, yet we shall not perceive the bottomless,
measureless, unfathomable, inconceivable anguish of the Lord Jesus. The anguish of our Savior can
no more be measured and weighed than the sin which needed it
or the love which endured it. We shall only be able to measure
the height of his love by the depth of his grief. There could
be no feeling in the universe more distressing than that of
divine desertion. This is hell. Every human being
is called upon to weep as we view Calvary. Not for him was
the cross on which he bled a tree of shame, but for us. The cross is the throne of grace. Romans 6.23 says, the wages of
sin is death. Yes, physical death and much
more. Spiritual death, penal death. This penal desertion inflicted
on Christ was for the satisfaction of the sins of ours, which deserved
God forsaking us forever in hell. God's forsaking Christ for a
few hours was the equivalent of God forsaking you and I for
eternity. Here we see the awful wages of
sin. spiritual separation. Christ
must suffer, or all humanity must be damned. He received the
wages due his people. All his other sufferings were
but small to this. They bear upon his body. This
desertion was upon his soul. Our guilt became his guilt. Christ
bore the sinner's sin. Therefore, he had to be treated
as he were a sinner. Christ had to feel forsaken of
God, because this is the necessary consequence of sin. He went down into the deep abyss
of our guilt. He descended far down into the
depths of our misery, that he might raise us up to glory. Thank God Christ was my representative
at Calvary. He shall never forsake me, for
he forsook his Son on my behalf. I shall not suffer for my sin. Jesus has suffered to the full
in my stead. He discharged my debt. He was
forsaken that there be no longer any separation between me and
God. You see, our sins cost Christ
an amazing sense of the wrath of God. What an accursed thing
sin is, which crucified the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the great
things that is missing today. And the truth is, you'll never
be found until you're lost. He only finds lost people. You
have to be a sinner and understand your sinnership to see the greatness
of the glory of what happened there at Calvary. I want to invite
you, those of you who see your sinnership, to come to Christ
just as you are, without one plea, believe on Him, and know
assuredly that Jesus Christ, on the tree of the cross, paid
your debt in full. He said, it's finished, it's
accomplished, it's done.