The Lord Jesus died on the cross for our redemption, and He was persecuted by man mainly in the first three hours of His crucifixion. In the last three hours of His crucifixion Christ was judged by God for our sins. He was made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21) and He bore our sins (1 Pet. 2:24), taking the place of sinners(1 Pet. 3:18). It was at this time that the Lord Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Psa. 22:1).
The persecution and mocking coming from man alone was enough suffering for the Lord Jesus – but we see that even the Father left Him on the cross…. How can this be? How did the Father leave Christ on the cross?
Did God really leave Christ on the cross?
First of all, the Father never left the Son – the Father was always with the Son, and the divine essence was always in Christ (He was conceived of the human essence and the divine essence). But when the Lord Jesus began His ministry on earth, the Holy Spirit as the power, the anointing from God, came upon Him to clothe Him for His work. This economical Spirit departed from the Lord Jesus on the cross since He was made sin for us. I think one of the greatest sufferings the Lord had to endure on the cross was not just the physical or the psychological suffering (which He endured from the people) but the spiritual one, the removing of God’s economical Spirit…
Our God is so wise, and His economy is so marvellous! In His economy God became a man in the person of the Lord Jesus – Jesus Christ was born of a human virgin with the divine essence mingling with the human essence. Even from His birth, the Lord Jesus was both God and man, having both the divine essence and the human nature. At His baptism in the Jordan river by John the Baptist the economical Spirit of power came upon Him (Matt. 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; John 1:32), and the Lord started His work on earth with many signs and wonders.
Christ accomplished an eternal redemption on the cross
On the cross Christ took upon Himself all the sins of mankind and was even made sin in the eyes of God – therefore God the Holy cannot dwell with a sinner, so He removed His economical Spirit from the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus offered Himself to God through the eternal Spirit as a perfect sacrifice for our sins (Heb. 9:14). God accepted His sacrifice and removed the economical Spirit from Him. But as He was dying on the cross, Christ was still a God-man – He had the divine nature in Him. This is why His death is eternally effective!
If the Lord Jesus had died only as a man, His death could have a limited effectiveness; but the Lord died as a God-man and His death has an eternal effectiveness! The Lord’s death has an eternal power for our redemption. A perfect man can redeem himself at the most, but a God-man who died as the perfect sacrifice for sin and the Substitute for man has a death that is forever effective! Whenever we believe into the Lord Jesus, His death is being applied to us in time – the effective death of Christ which destroyed the devil, the world, sin, the flesh, and every negative thing in the universe, is being applied to us in time when we believe!
The Lord Jesus as a God-man died on the cross for us and His death accomplished eternal redemption with eternal power and effectiveness! His redemption is eternal since it has the divine and eternal element in it – and can be applied at any time when someone repents and turns to the Lord. Praise the Lord for the eternal redemption He accomplished on the cross! [sharing inspired from the life-study of Mark, as quoted in Morning Revival on the Crystallization-Study of Psalms(1).]
Thank You Lord for the eternal redemption You accomplished for us on the cross! Thank You for dying for us as the God-man who became our Substitute. We praise You for such a wise replacement of all the sinners with Christ! Lord, we have no merit in ourselves – our merit and our standing before God is in the eternal redemption Christ accomplished for us on the cross! Thank You Lord for this eternally effective redemption!
