Bearing the Sins of the World
My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning?
This is a messianic psalm foretelling an element of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
The psalm begins with the words that Christ spoke as He was dying (Matthew 27:46). Some at the crucifixion that day thought Christ was calling for the prophet Elijah when He spoke these words (verses 47-49).
But He spoke these words because the Father had temporarily separated Himself from Jesus. At this point in time the sins of the world—past, present and future—were placed on Jesus’ record (1 Peter 2:24). And since sin separates us from God (Isaiah 59:2), the sins of humankind temporarily separated Jesus from the Father. This account shows the enormous consequences of sin—that it is so abominable to God that He would even separate from His beloved Son because of it.
Yet, as Christians, we can take comfort knowing that Christ thoroughly understands what it is like to be human—to experience pain, to be afraid and to experience abandonment—because of the things He experienced on our behalf (Hebrews 4:15).
To learn more about what we can learn from Jesus Christ’s last recorded words, read “Seven Last Sayings of Jesus.”
Tomorrow on the Daily Bible Verse Blog: “Direct Access to the Father.”
