Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace

Read: Mark 15:33-39

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Mark 15:34

“By the Cross we know the gravity of sin and the greatness of God’s love toward us.”

—John Chrysostom

IN WORD Are you aware that every crack of the whip on Jesus’ back, every thorn piercing His scalp, every stroke of the hammer and thrust of the spear is what God thought about our sin? Have you considered that every time Jesus struggled to breathe, cried out in thirst, tried to heave His body up against the pull of gravity, it was punishment deserved. Not by Him, of course. By us.

Does that sound harsh? Surely we aren’t all that bad, are we? We’re human, of course, and therefore imperfect; but do we really deserve such punishment?

According to the Bible, we do. And if we really think about it, as well intentioned as we assume we are, we can all recall times that we have shunned the personality of the Holy for something that utterly violated it. On purpose. What cosmic treachery! We’re foolish if we think it was just an innocent mistake and that God will overlook it. Look at the Cross to see what God thought about it.

Jesus knew the answer to His question in verse 34, even as He asked it. He wasn’t seeking the divine reason behind His suffering; He was pointing us to it. The quoted psalm that begins with this cry of anguish (Psalm 22) speaks of God’s deliverance of all His people. That’s the answer. He was forsaken so we wouldn’t be.

IN DEED “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Whenever your faith grows apathetic, whenever your sense of His grace grows dim, whenever your mercy toward others finds its limits, think of that. Contemplate the staggering absurdity of the infinitely Holy suffering the consequences for those who rejected His holiness. Let your cry become: “My God, my God, why haven’t You forsaken me?” and be grateful. Let His grace amaze you and prompt your zealous, passionate worship.