[God] has made His Son the sacrifice; it is a substitutionary offering for your sins and mine. That was why He was there in the Garden sweating drops of blood, because He knew what it involved – it involved a separation from the face of the father. And that is why He cried out on the Cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Commentary on Romans 8:32).
The height of the paradox of this love, the thing that no human mind can encompass, is that when you stand at the foot of the Cross and listen, you hear these words being uttered: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Everyone else had forsaken Him, His disciples had fled and had left Him, but now He cries, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me"? The one who utters that cry is "the beloved", the one who had basked in the sunshine of the eternal love from eternity, without intermission. He reaches a point wherein even He has lost sight of the face and the smile of His Father. And He experienced that for you, for me. If He had shrunk from it we would not be saved, we would not be forgiven, we would not be Christians, we would not be children of the second birth. The "beloved" descended even to that degree of ignominy and died. His body was buried in a grave and a stone was rolled against its door. He descended into hell - "the beloved". He went "into the lowest parts of the earth" - He who had made everything out of nothing. And it was for us, and for our salvation. It is only as we realize who it is who is suffering in that manner that we realize the depth and the intensity of His love toward us. (Read: In The Beloved; Listen: In The Beloved)
He was delivered up by God the Father to bear the full wrath of God Himself against sin. He was delivered up to bear the full penalty of God's holy law upon sin and transgression. That's what He was delivered up to and nothing was withheld. Now, it's an extraordinary thing how people try to detract from this . . . Surely He hath put Him to grief. You can't take it out. If you do you miss the central glory of the cross. In other words we've got to realize this: that our Lord experienced there all the torment and the suffering and the agony that results from the punishment of sin . . . He knew that there was to be a moment when God, having made Him to be sin, God having put our sins upon Him, God His Father was going to smite Him. He was going to strike Him. He would avert His face from Him. And He who had ever looked into the face of His Father and loved Him from all eternity would be separated from Him. And would experience the agony of the grief and the suffering of any soul under the wrath of God against sin . . . God delivered Him up - He didn't spare Him anything. When He put our sins upon Him, though He was His own dearly beloved Son, He didn't withhold any part of the punishment. He poured it all upon Him. Everything that it deserved, He kept nothing back of it . . . He delivered Him up for us all. And He poured the vials of His wrath upon Him. He smote Him! He struck Him! He wounded Him! He bruised Him! He afflicted Him! He's put Him to grief! With nothing at all being kept back. Oh my friends! How important it is that we should take the Scripture as it is! And not allow our philosophies about the Person of the Son or that it was inconceivable that the Father, in His love, should ever do that to His Son, Who was innocent - that's their argument you see - they argue always from the love of God, and they think they understand it, and they think they're making the love of God bigger. Can't you see that they are making it very much smaller? The love of God is as great as this: that He did that to His Son for us! (The Sufferings Of Christ)
What killed Him? The separation from God. "My God, my God! Why hast Thou forsaken me?!" That broke His heart, literally, and He died. Men only crucified Him. What killed Him, what caused His death was the bearing of the punishment of your sin and mine . . . It's God who is doing it . . . to smite Him that we might be forgiven, that we might be reconciled, that we might become the sons of God. (The Mystery Of The Cross)
Have you seen that your sins were laid upon Him? That they were struck, that He was smitten, that God punished your sins in Him, that's why He died - He took upon Himself your sins, and God has dealt with them! He lost the face of God! He died! His heart was broken! Why? He was bearing the punishment of your sins! (Glory In The Cross Of Christ)
Death, let us never forget, is the punishment for sin. And all the pain involved in it is a part of the punishment of sin. All the anguish and the agony, all the sense of separation from God - it's a part of the punishment of sin . . . our Lord experienced that and felt its bitterness and its horror and its agony - absolutely, noting was withheld. You remember the cry: "My God, my God! Why hast Thou forsaken me?!" Forsaken of God! In physical agony - and torment and torture! The statement is that the Son of God there dying upon the cross experienced every section and part and portion of God's prescribed punishment for sin . . . He tasted death. He knew in His own body and in His own soul the final torment of the unbeliever. He passed through this phase of utter separation from God, and realizing all God's abomination and detestation of sin He felt it all in all its fullness that He might taste death for everyone. (The Cross Of Christ)
And He received the punishment that was due to you and to me. That is why He groaned in spirit at the grave of Lazarus. That is why He was sweating great drops of blood in Gethsemane. That is why He cries on the cross: "My God, my God! Why hast Thou forsaken me?!" He was experiencing the wrath of God! His Father's wrath upon your sins and mine was upon Him! The chastisement of our peace was upon Him! By His stripes we are healed! He there is purging sins! His blood is shed, let loose and it washes the sins away! . . . Is it conceivable that the almighty Father would have averted His gaze from His only begotten, dearly beloved Son and have allowed Him to pass through this agony and shame if there were any other way? . . . He turned to the Father and said, "Is this the only way?" He wasn't merely shrinking from physical death. He was shrinking from the bearing of the wrath and the punishment of God and God turning His face away. He said: "Is there no other way?" (The Wonder Of The Cross)
I've got to die! I've got to be separated from my Father! And He wept and He groaned in the spirit, we are told . . . He knows . . . in order to save mankind it means He's got to be temporarily separated from His Father. This is the mystery. (The Mystery Of The Death Of Christ)
But you notice what he says: 'He that spared not his own Son.' He means that God had made it very plain and clear that he was going to punish sin by pouring out upon sinners the vials of his wrath. He was going to punish sin in this way - that men should die. The wages of sin is death, and it means endless death and destruction. And what we are told there by the Apostle is that after he had laid our sins upon his own Son on that cross, he did not spare him ANY OF THE PUNISHMENT. HE DID NOT SAY, BECAUSE HE IS MY SON I WILL MODIFY THE PUNISHMENT. I WILL HOLD BACK A LITTLE, I CANNOT DO THAT TO MY OWN SON. I CANNOT REGARD HIM AS A SINNER. I CANNOT SMITE HIM, I CANNOT STRIKE HIM. HE DID NOT SAY THAT. HE DID EVERYTHING HE HAD SAID HE WOULD DO. HE DID NOT KEEP ANYTHING BACK. HE SPARED NOT HIS OWN SON. HE POURED OUT ALL HIS DIVINE WRATH UPON SIN, UPON HIS OWN DEARLY BELOVED SON. So you hear the Son crying out in his agony, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' and he literally died of a broken heart. John tells us that when the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, 'Forthwith came there out blood and water' (19:34). The heart had burst and the blood had clotted, and there it was - serum and blood clot, BECAUSE HIS HEART WAS LITERALLY RUPTURED BY THE AGONY OF THE WRATH OF GOD UPON HIM, AND BY THE SEPARATION FROM THE FACE OF HIS FATHER. That is the love of God. That, my friend, is the love of God to you, a sinner. Not that he looks passively and says: I forgive you though you have done this to my Son. NO, HE HIMSELF SMITES THE SON. HE DOES TO THE SON WHAT YOU AND I COULD NEVER DO. HE POURS OUT HIS ETERNAL WRATH UPON HIM, AND HIDES HIS FACE FROM HIM. His own dearly beloved, only begotten Son. And he did it in order that we should not receive that punishment and go to hell and spend there an eternity in misery, torment and unhappiness. THAT IS THE LOVE OF GOD. And that is the wonder and the marvel and the glory of the cross, God punishing his own Son, in order that he might not have to punish you and me. (Emphasis mine; The Cross, Pages 80-81)
Getting The Cross Right
1. A Concern About The Way Pastor Kevin DeYoung Writes About The Cross In His New Daily Doctrine Book
2. The Bible Says The Father Turned His Face Away From Jesus On The Cross
4. More Thoughts On Being God-Forsaken
5. The Sufferings Of The LORD Jesus Christ On The Cross
6. Forsaken: A Very Unhelpful Chapter On The Cross
7. Did The Father Turn His Away From Jesus On That Cross?
8. A Satanic Reading Of Psalm 22 That Should Be Forsaken
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