By Steven Gledhill for FREEdom From MEdom Project. At it’s conclusion is a performance from a Gospel Music legend
Where is Jesus today? Is He on the cross? No, He’s not there? Is He in the tomb? He’s not there either. Is He on the throne of grace? Oh Yes, there He is!
Jesus Christ sympathizes with our condition that leads to complex difficulties, not only because we have a sin addiction but because we are under the law of sin. We learn obedience because of consequences we suffer under the impact of sin. According to Scripture, this was the experience of Christ as well.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin…He can have compassion on those who are unaware and going astray, since He himself was also subject to weakness…Jesus, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to God who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, learned obedience by the things which He suffered. Hebrews 4:15 (NIV), 5:2, 7-8 (NKJV)
The Bible tells us that Jesus learned obedience by the things which he suffered. One aspect to learning obedience through suffering is having to suffer the consequences of, 1) your own mistakes and, 2) enduring the consequences as an inhabitant of a world dominated by sin, or in other words, subject to the “law” of sin.
In our condition of human flesh we will definitely die. The body of Jesus was obedient to the law of sin, just as yours and mine is. Jesus needed rest and food in order to survive. Had he not died by way of execution, he would have died of old age, or from disease or injury. The physical body of Jesus would have declined and decayed as ours does as we get older, even though he did not sin, because he was affected by, even under the authority of, if you will, the law—the mandate—of sin. As we as human beings obey the law of gravity as a constant inevitability, we learn to obey the constant inevitability of sin by what we suffer at its hand. Jesus learned this as well by the way he suffered as a human being. The Bible tells us that Jesus was subject to weakness, and that he learned obedience by the things which he suffered, which I was the result, or consequence, of his weakness as a person of flesh. In other words, Jesus would, in his body and mind, be subject to the forces of natural laws.
I cannot know what kind of sacrifice this was on the part of Christ. I’d be lying if I said I understand how Jesus “humbled himself and became nothing” in order to share in our human experience. Jesus was obedient in his humanity to remain committed to serving us in human form to the extent that he would die sacrificially on a cross as the payment for your sin and mine. He would then rise up from the dead as the precursor of our resurrection from the graveyard of our sin.
Overwhelmed
Jesus was so stressed and overcome about the immeasurable beatings that would be levied against him; the unbearable pain of dying on a cross to take into him our sin disease, the immeasurable tragedy of being separated from God his Father, that he sweat blood. Jesus had a deep sense of helplessness and despair, to the point that death itself was less painful than what he would have to endure through the events leading up to it, ultimately hanging by spikes on the cross.
He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Matthew 26:37 (NKJV)
“My soul is overwhelmed by sorrow, even to death.” Matthew 26:38 (NKJV)
As he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was in such agony and torment that even when the angel appeared to strengthen him, he sweat blood. His physiological and psychological condition was such that blood came through his pores and dripped to the ground. Jesus was already shedding his blood.
“Then an angel appeared to Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. hen His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.” Luke 22:43-44 (NKJV)
We see in the garden and at the cross that the heart of Jesus bleeds for us. I think his Gethsemane experience reflects the phenomenal compassion that it took for him to go through with all of it. Anyone else executed by crucifixion was done to them by force. Jesus did so willingly by choice.
Jesus, the physician for sinners
This incredible sacrifice; who is it for? It is for you and for me. Who are we? We are sinners addicted to self-centered sin. Jesus hung out with sinners, according to what we see in Scripture.
Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Jesus to hear Him.And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, “This Man receives sinners and eats with them.” Luke 15:1-2 (NKJV)
Now it happened as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples. “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those do who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice. ’For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” Matthew 9:10-13 (NKJV)
We are all sinners! We are addicted to sin. We are sick with the sin disease. We are in bondage to it.Jesus died so that we would be forgiven of our sin and freed from our bondage to its addictive power and control.
There he was, in the middle of that huge crowd hanging on a piece of wood, with open wounds rubbing against it every time he would push against the spikes driven through his ankles in order to catch a breath. I don’t mean to sound redundant but you need to see this picture. And yet, until the very end he was not even thinking of himself.
Jesus was passionately focused on others. Jesus prayed for others while on the cross. Perhaps he was praying for the soldiers that nailed him down, or the Jewish priests that brought him to the place of his death. Perhaps he was praying for the multitudes looking on, either mourning his fate or mocking it; or for those he would consider friends that felt betrayed and denied knowing him. Maybe Jesus was referring to us; you and me, who willingly choose our self-centered wants over what God has for us. Jesus, moved with compassion, humbly asked God…
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34 (NKJV)
Forsaken
Jesus must have understood at some point that the sin of the world had entered him. It must have been dreadful. Our sin carried within him our dissatisfaction, our pain, our anger and rage, our frustration, and our resentment and bitterness. Our sin filled the person of Jesus with our shame, our regret, our loneliness, our depression, and our failure. Ultimately, Jesus was profoundly connected to our failure, our isolation, our alienation, our desperation, and our despair. It must have left a bitter taste in his mouth, a fowl smell in his nostrils, and perhaps the screams of demons in his ears. It must have been dreadful and gut-wrenching. He may have seen unspeakable filth in his imagination, and felt paranoid sensations from his insides. We cannot even imagine what Jesus experienced.
Then finally, when it didn’t seem anything could be worse, the unthinkable occurred. Jesus felt all alone. He sensed that the one sure thing he could count on was missing. Where did his Heavenly Father go? Jesus felt abandoned by his Father, and cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken he?”This is first time we see Jesus responding to his own need as a man. Suddenly, something was missing in his spirit. All along the way, amidst the disappointment, discouragement and even despair, he felt his Father’s presence. God’s Spirit had been alive in him. No matter how treacherous the road of his ultimate destination would become, Jesus walked in the affirmation of his Father’s love and approval. As close as Jesus was to Mary his mother, their bond paled in comparison to the unique bond he had with God his Heavenly Father at this time in his adult experience.
In that moment, Jesus was in the deepest, darkest and most unbearable place of desperate need. He was feeling his insides pulled down by gravity against the nails in his hands and feet.(Note: According to a television documentary regarding archeological evidence of Roman crucifixions, an ankle and foot were discovered with a nail side-to-side through the ankle, suggesting that Jesus’ legs and feet may have actually straddled the trunk of the cross.)He could barely withstand the collapse of his torso causing him to literally suffocate as he attempted to push up to breathe. In the moment he took our sin into his being, Jesus needed his Father to be there for him now more than at any other time.
Something, or should I say, someone seemed to be missing.
Where was he? Where was God? Why was he not there?
“Father, I need you so much!”
“Where are you?!”
“Why?!”
“Why now?”
“O God, it hurts!”
“Not now, Father!”
“Please, come back to me!”
“Why did you leave me alone like this?”
“I can’t take it anymore!”
“Make it stop!”
“Please, take me home!”
Jesus was a human being like you and like me.
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” Mark 15:34 (NKJV)
When Jesus needed the support of his Father more than at any other time, as he experienced something he was not familiar with, he no longer sensed the presence of his Father. We can know for certain that this was unfamiliar territory for Jesus because he cried out emphatically, “My God, Why?!”
I wonder if just maybe this was not part of the “plan”. Of course it had to be this way, but…I wonder if God the Father had every intention to be right there for his Son Jesus. Why would God forsake his only Son?I wonder if God the Father, in the moment that Jesus took our sin into his body, was himself in deep anguish?
Had God abandoned his Son to the point that he didn’t even hear his cries for help?
Does God forsake sin as a matter of divine law or principle?
Consider this I was taught growing up that God cannot be in the presence of sin. It is almost as though sin is to God what kryptonite is to Superman, or sunlight is to Dracula. Superman and Dracula become less of what they are in the presence of these adversaries. Sin and the evil within it do not make God any less of who he is. There is no doubt that God finds sin to be utterly offensive and is repulsed by it and saddened by its effects against his creation. But if God is bigger and more powerful than evil and our addictive sin, why would he have to turn away from it?
, that perhaps it is not God forsaking his Son, but that perhaps Jesus, having been consumed with our sin, abandoned God his Father as you and I abandon fellowship with God when we submit to MEdom. Think about it. That is what we do when we are consumed with addictive sin. It so affects us spiritually that we don’t even hear God when he calls out to us. Adam had sin in him and God called out to him, “Adam, where are you?” (Genesis 3:9)Adam forsook God in his sin against God. There was consequence for Adam’s sin, but God did not forsake Adam. I think it is possible that Jesus was so defiled by our sin, that he could no longer remain connected to God. I think it is the sin in the soul of the humanity of Jesus that broke the fellowship between Jesus and his God, not necessarily God breaking fellowship with his Son. While his body lay in the tomb, the sin absorbed into the soul of Jesus would experience condemnation.
Jesus likened the time between his death and resurrection to spending three days and nights in the belly of a great fish.
“For as Jonah was for three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be for three days and three nights be in the heart of the earth.” Matthew 12:40 (NKJV)
We have a tendency to ignore those three days and nights. Our focus is on the cross and resurrection, but what about the three days in between when Scripture tells us that our sin was condemned in the human soul of Christ?
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh. Romans 8:3 (NKJV)
Let’s look at the story of Jonah for a moment. Let’s see for ourselves how his selfish, though understandable choices serve as an example of how we choose to minimize our pain and discomfort. Jonah chose a course for his life that was in opposition to the will of God. The consequence of his choice not only brought grief and suffering to his own life but affected the lives of those touched by him along the way.
The men were exceedingly afraid and said, “Why have you done this?”For the men knew that he (Jonah) fled from the presence of the Lord, because he told them so. Then they said to him, “What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?” – For the sea was growing more tempestuous. And he said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will be calm for you. I know that this great tempest is because of me.”Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to land, but they could not, for the sea continued to grow more tempestuous against them. Therefore they cried out to the Lord and said, “We pray, O Lord, please do not let us perish for this man’s life…” So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days and three nights. Jonah 1:10-15, 17 (NKJV)
We need to consider Jonah’s description of what that was like. Jonah felt as though he had died and gone to hell, the Bible tells us. He cried out to God from the depths of his grave in the belly of the whale and God rescued him from the pit of death and destruction.
From the inside of the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said, “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me.I said, ‘I have been banished from your sight; yet I will look again to your holy temple. The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me; seaweed was wrapped around my head. To the roots of the mountains I sank down; the earth beneath barred me in forever. But you brought my life up from the pit, oh Lord my God.”And the Lord commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. Jonah 2: 1-6, 10 (NIV)
I can only imagine what Jonah must have experienced. In the belly of a whale for three days and nights must have felt like hell. It must have been pitch black in there—utter darkness. There was seaweed and likely scores of fish and a whole bunch of cold water. However, Jonah did not belong in the belly of the whale. Jonah’s presence there did not agree its stomach. Ultimately, Jonah, a disobedient prophet of God would look to the holy temple of God and vow to serve him. He would be restored by God and brought up from the depths of the grave into new life.
What happened to Jesus after he said, “It is finished” and died? Where went the soul of Jesus the man once his body was dead? Is it possible that the human soul of Jesus, having been infected by the sin of mankind, was condemned to a kind of hell, one that Scripture refers to as Hades? Did Jesus actually incur in his human experience condemnation of his soul of flesh? If so, it would be a human experience of the worst kind. It would imply that Jesus can even sympathize with all who are ultimately condemned to hell by their sin.
Look at what Jesus says to John in the book of Revelation.
“I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen (so be it).And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.” Revelation 1:18 (NKJV)
I believe this is most revealing about what happened to Jesus during the time between his death and his resurrection. His resurrection was not merely resurrection from his physical death, but resurrection from condemnation by way of our sin in him. As Jesus took our sin into himself, he was condemned.
For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh. Romans 8:3 (NKJV)
The Apostle Paul said of wanting to know Jesus,
I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so, somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Philippians 3:10-11 (NIV)
We need to realize that it is in his human experience that Jesus came to sympathize with our weakness, our vulnerability, our inner conflict, and our discomfort. The realization of the power Christ’s resurrection comes from understanding where he came from because of what he suffered. Jesus submitted himself to unimaginable suffering, falling from the heights of divinity to the depths of condemnation. Can we even begin to imagine condemnation? I imagine that Jesus experienced the horror of the worst of human suffering. I also imagine that Jesus experienced the horror of the worst of human need and want: greed, lust, rage, bitterness, fear, pride, jealousy, covetousness, and gluttony. I imagine that while he experienced the pain of victims, he also experienced and the sickness and horror of villainous depravity. But as condemned, he took it all so that we could be free from personally arriving at such a destination. Our sin was condemned in the human suffering of the soul of Jesus Christ. Let us fellowship together in appreciation of the sufferings of Christ as we attain to the resurrection from the dead.
We, like Jonah, have chosen to go our own way by choosing a course that is sinful. Our sinful course, like Jonah’s disobedience, carries the consequence of disruption, chaos, destruction and ultimately our death. Choosing a course of selfish sin not only drags us down, it takes others in our life down with us, no matter how hard they try to bail us out.
Jesus Christ, a fisher of all mankind fished us out. We were going down. But he took our sin overboard into the depths of hell on our behalf. For three days and nights, Jesus, all alone, having broken fellowship with the Father over your sin and mine became lost in the pit. After three days in the belly of condemnation, hell got a stomach ache, because once Jesus the Son was restored by his Father, he no longer belonged there. Scripture tells us that the grave could not hold Jesus as he was exalted from the depths of condemnation to the heights of his throne as God. Just like a Jonah was rejected by the whale and thrown up and out of the whale, so was the restored Savior resurrected from the depths of hell. The human soul of Christ left hell empty-handed, having disposed of our sin there.
Because of what Jesus has done for us the key to passing from condemnation in our addictive sin into new life is only through Jesus. As the Scripture says, only Jesus Christ has the keys out of condemnation. We are condemned by our sin and must believe that Jesus is our Savior who can unlock and open the way to free us from condemnation.
And you He (Jesus Christ) made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world. Ephesians 2:1-2a (NKJV)
For the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ has freed us from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that is was weak in the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin; He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:2-4 (NKJV)
These verses clarify what I believe Jesus is telling us in Revelation 1:18.The only path to freedom from condemnation is through a relationship with God committed to Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul wrote in these Scriptures that because of the law of sin, we would all die since we do not measure up, and our sinful flesh condemns all of us, since we have all sinned. God, in realizing that we would all perish in our flesh according to the law of sin, and desiring that none perish, made a way of condemnation for sin so that we could live in fellowship with him.
Remember, there had to be a sacrifice for our sin. It was all necessary.
According to Scripture, it was mandatory that a blameless blood sacrifice be offered once and for all so that you and I could be back into agreement with God. Jesus would become the sacrificial lamb for our sin. Jesus voluntarily submitted himself to take on our flesh, coming down from heaven, giving up all he was and had as God, and laying on that altar, shedding his blood, as the lamb sacrificed for your sin and mine.
Jesus is Risen, Jesus is King!
Remember that the disciples, like most of his followers, did not believe that Jesus would rise from the dead. It is my opinion that they may have very well figured Jesus not to be who he said he was, and even felt betrayed by their friend. They lost with their dear friend their hope for a better life. They did not have spiritual discernment or spiritual faith to believe that Jesus was dying intentionally as the heavenly requirement to forgive their sins in order to restore them under grace back into fellowship with God. Their faith had diminished. All they could comprehend in their distress and sorrow was that their dreams of being an independent people had been dashed—their hopes shattered.
Then something amazing would unfold. But it wouldn’t come easy to them.
Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, Jesus appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast out seven demons. She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept. And when they heard that Jesus was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe. Mark 16:9-11 (NKJV)
The eleven disciples of Jesus did not believe Mary Magdalene. Why not? Jesus told them he would arise from the grave on the third day, and it was the third day. Why would Jesus appear to Mary first? Perhaps because Mary still had hope as she went to treat his dead body in the tomb. The hearts of the eleven remaining disciples were hardened in their grief and unbelief.“They mourned and wept,” the Bible says. I agree that they mourned the loss of a friend they dearly loved. They mourned their fate without Jesus leading them to their promised land where they would live freely, no longer held captive by their oppressors.
Later Jesus appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. Mark 16:14 (NKJV)
So when did the disciples believe that Jesus was the Christ risen from the dead to be their King everlasting?
Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.”When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. John 19:19-20 (NKJV)
One of the eleven, Thomas, takes a lot heat from preachers, today, for doubting the authenticity of the risen Christ until he put his fingers into the nail holes in Jesus’ hands. However, it does not appear that any of the disciples believed that it was him who had died and was now alive standing in front of them until they saw the physical evidential proof of the resurrection of Christ with their own eyes.
After Thomas puts his fingers into the hand of Christ, and reaches and puts his hand in to his side, he believes, drops to his knees and proclaims,
“My Lord and my God!” John 20:28 (NKJV)
Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John 20:29 (NKJV)
Through the sacrifice of Jesus, our sin is removed as far as the east is from the west, the Bible says. You might say that while Jesus experienced condemnation for the sin of all mankind, that for three days, he took inventory of our sin. God, then, resurrected his Son from the dead of sin into life, and exalted him, having defeated sin once and for all. Jesus was exalted into his rightful position as God to be our Higher Power. God does the same for us who turn away from addictive sin and are committed to him by faith. Prayerfully and fearlessly, in the presence of our Lord Jesus, we can examine ourselves, taking inventory of who we are in relation to who Christ is today as God with all authority.
Jesus asks you today,
“What do you believe about me?”
“What proof do you need?”
