Christ’s Passion

Christ’s Passion

At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Matthew 27:45-46

It wasn’t until I began attending a church that affirms the Apostles Creed each Sunday morning that I ever gave much thought to the fact that Jesus actually experienced hell. Together with our human father, Adam, we should be the ones going to hell for our sins. But Jesus suffered in our place. He experienced hell so we could experience heaven. The physical torture that Jesus experienced was awful enough, but far worse for him was becoming in his soul the sin that he hated. Second Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (NIV).

Michael Horton writes, “He who was the truth would become the world’s most inveterate liar. He who was too pure to look upon a woman to lust would become history’s most promiscuous adulterer.”^a It is no wonder that Jesus, as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane with such agony of spirit that sweat drops of his blood fell to the ground, told his disciples that his soul was crushed with grief to the point of death.

Later on the cross, Jesus spoke the words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” If we choose to believe in his provision for us, we will never have to speak those words ourselves. Jesus became God’s enemy in hell so we could become God’s friends, singing “Hallelujah, what a Savior!”

Father,

We can never thank you enough for sending Jesus to be our Savior. Amen.