"The Hope of Glory" Conclusion: "Forsaken - Never Forsaken"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe… 

"The Hope of Glory"      

Conclusion: "Forsaken - Never Forsaken"  

    

   

    

    To the degree our Lord Jesus Christ was forsaken on the cross of Calvary, born again believers in Him will never be forsaken.

    "My God, My God why hast Thou forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46).

    "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5).

    Against an eternal backdrop of perfect communion with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus experienced complete abandonment as God poured out His wrath against sin upon His beloved Son.  In that dark hour, our Savior experienced sorrowful depths of aloneness beyond all others.  "Why art Thou so far from helping me, and from the words of My roaring?" (Psalm 22:1).  

     How dark and how sorrowful was Calvary for the Lord Jesus?

    "He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (II Corinthians 5:21).

    "Made to be sin."  The Apostle Paul's portrayal extends Christ's sufferings beyond His bearing of our sins.  On the cross, the Lord Jesus became what He was not in order to redeem us into that which God would have us to be.  What would this have meant in the pristinely pure heart of a perfectly righteous being?  Indeed, as terrible as were our Lord's physical and emotional sorrows, the spiritual reality of Calvary transcends all.  Made to be sin and forsaken accordingly - this was the price paid for the promise that rings through the ages and into the hearts of all who receive by faith its glorious benefit.

   "But none of the ransomed ever knew how deep were the waters crossed, 

nor how dark was the night our Lord passed through e'er He found His sheep that was lost."

 ("The Ninety and Nine," Elizabeth Clephane).

    From the condemnation of being "alienated from the life of God" to being "accepted in the Beloved" - this constitutes the freest gift ever given, purchased by the highest cost ever remitted (Ephesians 4:18; 1:6).  "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee" forever flows on the current of "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?".  Thus, we believe and affirm the indwelling presence of God through Christ not only as the means of experiencing His enabling, but of gratefully appreciating the sacrifice that made possible the gift of Himself to our hearts.  Again, to the degree He was forsaken, we will never be forsaken.  This is the wondrous love of God in Christ, and the freely given life of God in our hearts.

"It pleased the Lord to bruise Him.  He hath put Him to grief."

(Isaiah 53:10)

"I am with you always."

(Matthew 28:20)

Weekly Memory Verse

    "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

(II Corinthians 3:18)

  

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