This is true love: Cold, naked, bleeding, in unimaginable pain, with the weight of the sins of the world upon his soul, Jesus, the man, on the cross, did an incredible thing. In the midst of his confusion, brought on by the experience of sin for the first time, Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Notice his words carefully – “My God, My God”. In the supreme example of trust and obedience, he called out to his God, your God and my God, the Father in heaven. He still chose to believe his Father in heaven was his God. In his confusion (“why?”), brought on by the first experience of sin, experiencing abandonment by the Father for the first time in his life, he called Him “My” God. And not only that statement of trust and belief. Just before he died, he did another incredible thing. He did not simply die from the cruelest of human punishments, the cross. No, he gave up his life. Notice what the scriptures say. After saying, “It is finished,” he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. The bowing of his head was not because he had already died, and his body simply went limp. No, he bowed his head in trust and obedience to the one who created him. Then he gave up his spirit, entrusting it to the One who had abandoned him for the first time in his life. Is there not a better example of trust and obedience? This was wrong, terribly wrong, that an innocent man, one who had never sinned, would have the weight of the sins of the world placed upon his soul, and be abandoned by God because of it! And yet, in the midst of this terrible ordeal, Jesus expressed utter trust and obedience to God, that God would still be his God, and that, because his God was good, he could, after being abandoned, entrust his spirit to the One who had just abandoned him! Oh, what glory! The glory of the cross! The glory of the only begotten of the Father, entrusting his spirit to one who had just abandoned him! Going back again to the Father, saying, in effect, do what you will with me, I will still trust you! Because of his trust our sins have been forgiven by the Father! Because of his faith, the Father has given us eternal life! Jesus said, before the cross, “The reason the Father loves me is that I lay down my life – only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This is the command I received from my Father.” (John 10: 17, 18) The apostle John tells us, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.” (1 John 3:16)
