The Cry of The Damned

Something has been moving me all week.  "MY GOD MY GOD WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME."  This is what John Stott calls "the cry of the damned."  That is what a person, utterly separated from God, feels in the pathos.  As Jesus entered the garden he became so distraught that He sweat great drops of blood.  This is not like the Jesus I know who bids demons to the outer abyss by His authority, carries the children in His arms, and calms the storm with a single sentence from His lips.  Why all the sudden at the juncture of His mission and mandate is He flailing and crashing and burning out?  Jesus said, "Father if at all possible let this cup pass from me."  What cup is He talking about?  It's the cup of the fierceness of the wrath of the God Almighty-- who only the one separated by God is worthy to drink.  That would be Russell Johnston's cup.  That was my cup.  He drank my cup down to the last dregs.  The language the Old Testament uses for that cup is scorching sulfur and fire, topped off by hurricane winds.  Jesus downed that for me in a single shot. It started in the garden as He sought strength by solitude and prayer only to have silence thrust into His face. The normal rhythm of hearing from His Father for the last 33 years of His sinless life was not working.  He knew it was coming as He told His disciples over and over again what manner of death he would die and what manner of life He would rise.  But there in the garden He shuddered for the first time as He felt a feeling so alien--separation from His Father.  Even still the Father sent His angels to strengthen Jesus, to make it through the agony of what lied ahead. As His quivering flesh was pinned the cross of calvary, the culmination was, "MY GOD MY GOD WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME!"  He became sin that knew no sin, so that I may become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Those, however, were not the final words.  The final words were, IT IS FINISHED!!!   

 All hail, all hail to Jesus the savior of my soul!  Jesus is worthy of all praise, and glory for He is the only King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  The wages of sin is death, and as John Piper would say, "the wisdom of God has ordained a way for the love of God to deliver us from the wrath of God, all the while upholding the justice of God." There was only one way my soul could be saved and that was by God laying down his perfect life for my ridiculously unfaithful, unholy, irreverent, blasphemous, self-exalting life.  Are we ashamed of the gospel?  Jesus is worthy of my worship.  Michael Jackson does not belong on a list of names with Jesus.  You've got to be kiddin' me.  He desperately needed the provision of Jesus.    Sigh......  If there is one thing we, the children of God, should be doing, it is to express the glory of God with every fiber of our being.  As prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, there is one thing we should never lack--passion.  I do lack that at times, but thank God for Jesus who has a perfect sanctifying patience.  God give me more passion, for You.  

By the way, I have to commend Michael Jackson because Jesus said, "Would that you'd  be either hot or cold!  So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot or cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16).  Oh, make me more passionate and winsome and definitive!