"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

20170226 The Seven Sayings from the Cross- The Payment for Sin.jpg

In Matthew 27:45-47 we learn that three hours later after the events at the cross, noon became like midnight and it was dark into the afternoon hours. At that time the people were living in darkness, and some still are today. Where there is absence of Jesus, there is the presence of darkness. "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven " (Matthew 5:14-16). Once you meet with Jesus in salvation you become the light of the world, pointing people to a savior.

Jesus said at at the cross, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" His words reflect his hopeless and despair at being forsaken by God. God's actions that day were a punishment because of what Jesus had become: Jesus became everything we are so that we could become everything he was. He took every sin we had ever committed and will ever commit, becoming sin himself. God had to look away from sin; Sin is what separates us from God. Jesus's death on the cross was the payment for our sins, so that we may be saved.