Together - Daily DevotionalSample

Jesus cries from the cross - Forsaken 

In the midst of His pain and suffering Jesus was clearly thinking of scripture to help Him express His thoughts and emotions.  In today’s reading Jesus quotes directly from Psalm 22 where David expressed his feelings of being abandoned by God.  This is called a Messianic psalm as it is prophetic of the saving Messiah who would come to rescue Israel and it contains a poetic picture of the crucifixion (Psalm 22:12-18).

Jesus cry of being forsaken is an example of what is known as the “Divine Exchange of the Cross”. For example, Jesus was forsaken that we might always experience God’s presence, He was made sin that we might be made His righteousness, He was punished that we might be forgiven, He was rejected that we might be accepted, wounded that we might be healed and so on.

We have seen that our iniquities separated us from God, but in bearing and being forsaken for our sin, Jesus re-established the intimacy of our relationship with our Father so we can affirm with the scripture, “God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’” (Heb.13:5).

Now nothing can ever separate from God’s love revealed in Jesus (Rom.8:38-39).

Prayer: Thank You Jesus that because of You I will never be forsaken by my Father but always experience His love