Mat 27:45-46 | KingComments | STEP | Everyone has turned against the Lord. Now the creation follows. There is three hours of darkness coming. Every outlook is taken away from Him. He hangs indescribable lonely between heaven and earth. The earth does not want Him and lifts Him up. Heaven now closes itself above Him as well. The darkness is not just an abnormal natural phenomenon, because it is in the middle of the day. This particular darkness is also a sign of what happens in those three hours of darkness. In these hours there is also darkness in the soul of the Lord Jesus. He is burdened with the sins of all who have believed in Him since Adam and of those who will believe in Him until He has established the new heaven and the new earth. He is made sin, the source from which all sins have come forth ( ). Thus the holy God judges everything that has come into creation against His will in His only beloved Son. He did not spare Him ( ). At the end of those hours that are inscrutable for us, the cry sounds: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani”. We cannot fathom the profundity of this exclamation. Christ was always in perfect fellowship with His God. There has never been anything between Him and God. He was God’s Associate ( ) and walked with Him in perfection. The Father has once and again testified of the pleasure He has in His Son ( ). All the time the Lord Jesus has been on earth, He has given God full joy. He, the Son of God, has been the only Man Who has perfectly obeyed all commandments. And He has done so much more. The Son has also been obedient in everything the law does not require. At the same time, the Son not only does what God has asked for obediently, but He also does it out of complete love for the Father. It is His food to accomplish the Father’s will ( ). And this Son, Who has honored God in all things, is made sin by God. God repels Him from Himself as the most horrible object on earth. The sword of His righteousness awakens and strikes Him ( ). After the three hours of darkness in which He was made sin and received God’s judgment on it, He expresses the magnitude and depth of His grief in the most striking way in His question: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” It is one of the few times that the Holy Spirit has rendered a statement of the Lord Jesus untranslated. He adds the translation for us. The fact that the Lord’s lamentation is reflected in the language in which He spoke deepens the feeling of His suffering. In the language of familiarity He expresses His deepest feelings about the rejection He is now undergoing. Everything that people have done to Him, He has tolerated quietly and silently. But now His God has forsaken Him. This is intolerable. God was always with Him. He feels to the depths of His soul that God has turned against Him. He turns to God as His God. God has always been ‘My God’ for Him. The Lord says twice: “My God, My God”. It strengthens the lack of contact with His God. Then he asks why God forsook Him. This also results from His perfection. He also did the will of God in carrying our sins. At the same time God could not have any contact with Him. Sin always brings separation between man and God. That was true in the hours of darkness in full intensity for Christ. We know why God had to leave Him: it is because of our sins that separated us from God. He destroyed that separation by experiencing that separation for Himself. What grace! Bystanders deliberately misinterpret His words. What He calls to God in His greatest need is mockingly interpreted as a call for Elijah. Then there is someone who does feel sorry for Him. Touched by what he sees and hears, this bystander wants to give him a drink to soothe his suffering. At the same time he thus fulfils the word from Psalm 69 ( ). God fulfils His Word in every detail and the Lord Jesus is the fulfilment of it. But His haters know no mercy. They stop the man who wants to give the Lord a drink and continue their mockery. They want to see if Elijah comes to save Him. They have gone through the darkness, but the frightening impressions of it have immediately disappeared when the darkness is gone. This is how many people react to situations of fear. It does not bring them to God, but they go forth in the same ungodliness because for them the situation has changed for the better. Then the Lord calls again and for the last time with “a loud voice”. His ‘loud voice’ indicates that the strength of His spirit is unbroken. Then He yields up His spirit, which indicates that it is a conscious action, wanted by Him Himself. It completes His obedience. Until His death He does everything that is written about Him in the Scriptures. His death is supernatural and is accompanied by the supernatural signs described in the following verses.

‏ Matthew 27:45-46

Forsaken by God

Everyone has turned against the Lord. Now the creation follows. There is three hours of darkness coming. Every outlook is taken away from Him. He hangs indescribable lonely between heaven and earth. The earth does not want Him and lifts Him up. Heaven now closes itself above Him as well.

The darkness is not just an abnormal natural phenomenon, because it is in the middle of the day. This particular darkness is also a sign of what happens in those three hours of darkness. In these hours there is also darkness in the soul of the Lord Jesus. He is burdened with the sins of all who have believed in Him since Adam and of those who will believe in Him until He has established the new heaven and the new earth. He is made sin, the source from which all sins have come forth (2Cor 5:21). Thus the holy God judges everything that has come into creation against His will in His only beloved Son. He did not spare Him (Rom 8:32).

At the end of those hours that are inscrutable for us, the cry sounds: “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani”. We cannot fathom the profundity of this exclamation. Christ was always in perfect fellowship with His God. There has never been anything between Him and God. He was God’s Associate (Zec 13:7) and walked with Him in perfection. The Father has once and again testified of the pleasure He has in His Son (Mt 3:17 ; Mt 17:5).

All the time the Lord Jesus has been on earth, He has given God full joy. He, the Son of God, has been the only Man Who has perfectly obeyed all commandments. And He has done so much more. The Son has also been obedient in everything the law does not require. At the same time, the Son not only does what God has asked for obediently, but He also does it out of complete love for the Father. It is His food to accomplish the Father’s will (Jn 4:34).

And this Son, Who has honored God in all things, is made sin by God. God repels Him from Himself as the most horrible object on earth. The sword of His righteousness awakens and strikes Him (Zec 13:7). After the three hours of darkness in which He was made sin and received God’s judgment on it, He expresses the magnitude and depth of His grief in the most striking way in His question: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

It is one of the few times that the Holy Spirit has rendered a statement of the Lord Jesus untranslated. He adds the translation for us. The fact that the Lord’s lamentation is reflected in the language in which He spoke deepens the feeling of His suffering. In the language of familiarity He expresses His deepest feelings about the rejection He is now undergoing. Everything that people have done to Him, He has tolerated quietly and silently. But now His God has forsaken Him. This is intolerable. God was always with Him. He feels to the depths of His soul that God has turned against Him.

He turns to God as His God. God has always been ‘My God’ for Him. The Lord says twice: “My God, My God”. It strengthens the lack of contact with His God. Then he asks why God forsook Him. This also results from His perfection. He also did the will of God in carrying our sins. At the same time God could not have any contact with Him. Sin always brings separation between man and God. That was true in the hours of darkness in full intensity for Christ. We know why God had to leave Him: it is because of our sins that separated us from God. He destroyed that separation by experiencing that separation for Himself. What grace!

Bystanders deliberately misinterpret His words. What He calls to God in His greatest need is mockingly interpreted as a call for Elijah. Then there is someone who does feel sorry for Him. Touched by what he sees and hears, this bystander wants to give him a drink to soothe his suffering. At the same time he thus fulfils the word from Psalm 69 (Psa 69:21). God fulfils His Word in every detail and the Lord Jesus is the fulfilment of it.

But His haters know no mercy. They stop the man who wants to give the Lord a drink and continue their mockery. They want to see if Elijah comes to save Him. They have gone through the darkness, but the frightening impressions of it have immediately disappeared when the darkness is gone. This is how many people react to situations of fear. It does not bring them to God, but they go forth in the same ungodliness because for them the situation has changed for the better.

Then the Lord calls again and for the last time with “a loud voice”. His ‘loud voice’ indicates that the strength of His spirit is unbroken. Then He yields up His spirit, which indicates that it is a conscious action, wanted by Him Himself. It completes His obedience. Until His death He does everything that is written about Him in the Scriptures. His death is supernatural and is accompanied by the supernatural signs described in the following verses.