"Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias. And straightway immediately one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink. The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him. Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost (actually dismissed His Spirit)"—Matthew 27:45-50.

Verse 46 will suffice for the text. It is one of the most heart-rending laments found in all the Book of God. "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani," meaning, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" You can search the Bible from Genesis to Revelation and you will not find a cry more pungent, more heart-rending than this cry.

You will notice in the Scripture that I read that from the sixth hour until the ninth hour there was darkness over all the land. The sun went down at noon; not a star could be seen and the moon did not give any light. There had NEVER been such a day, there never HAS been such a day since, and there never SHALL be a day like the day when the PRINCE OF LIFE was SLAIN. And just before the ninth hour the Lord Jesus cried out these memorable words: "My God, my God! why hast thou forsaken me?" This is the only time in the three and half years that Jesus preached, walking about the cities, on the roads of Judea and Samaria, that He ever complained about anything.

In Isaiah 53:7 we read two things said about the Master: one was that He was like a "sheep before his shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth," and the other in the first part of the verse it says that He was as a "lamb being led to the slaughter. He didn’t open His mouth. They buffeted Christ; they spat upon Him and they spoke all manner of evil against Him; they challenged Him to resort to His Divinity by coming down from the cross. But when the darkness finally descended upon this scene, when the curtain of God was slowly drawn and darkness descended upon the earth, Jesus complained.

Peter tells us in 1 Peter 2:23 that: "Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not . . ." Jesus never did resort to getting revenge, retaliation. But now in this august scene of death, in this picture of the degradation of sin itself, when God finally looked away, Jesus complained: He cried out in His agony and suffering, "My God, my God! why hast thou forsaken me?"

It was at this point that Jesus was entirely ALONE. It is altogether possible for men to be alone and yet be in the presence of ten thousand; their minds and hearts far removed from the crowds about them. Jesus was far removed from the crowds that trampled upon each other around His cross. They came in long streams up Golgotha’s Hill to witness this august, sublime and yet awful scene. He was ALONE. This was the loneliest moment that Jesus ever spent in His thirty-three years upon the earth. This was the moment that He was treading the wine press of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God, and treading it ALONE.

Yet men get the idea, sometimes, that they can assist, that they can help God to save them when it was Jesus, and Jesus ALONE, who paid the debt. It was Jesus, and Jesus ALONE, who went to Calvary’s Cross and died thereupon. It was Jesus, and Jesus ALONE, who tread the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God: NONE but HE.

"But now once in the end of the world bath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was ONCE offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation."—Hebrews 9:26, 27, 28.

Christ bath appeared (not somebody else, not anything else), but Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. He went ALONE, I tell you, and every time that men get the idea that there is something that they can do, that there is some overt act that they can perform, it is an INSULT to God. WHY do you think that Christ drank the last bitter dregs of the cup of everlasting sorrow in Gethsemane and upon the cross, if a MAN can help to do anything about it? HE died, and He died ALONE.

You might ask me this morning: "Brother Pastor, why was it that Jesus cried out, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’"

I’ll tell you why: fellowship with the Father had been broken. Jesus had now come to take the place of the sinner. He could not address God as "Father" but as "God"; for in that moment He had upon Himself the sins of all those whom God had given Him in the Covenant of Redemption. He was taking THEIR place, dying under THEIR sins; thus, the only way that He could address the Father God was as God, "My God." Fellowship with God had been severed when Jesus died.

I have often said, and I honestly believe it to be true, that one of the reasons that darkness descended upon the whole earth, one of the reasons that the sun went down at noon, was because God looked AWAY. No longer did He look upon the dying body of His Son. No longer did He look upon the blood that streamed from His side, His hands, feet, and from His wounded brow; He looked away and darkness came. Fellowship with God was broken. God cannot look upon sin with any degree of allowance, so He looked away from Christ.

You might say, "But, Brother Cox. Jesus did not sin."

TRUE. Jesus knew no SIN (2 Cor. 5:21; 1 John 3:5; Heb.4:15). Christ did not sin, but in that moment when the Divine Son of God died upon Calvary’s Cross, a world of sin was upon Him: God cannot look upon sin so He looked away from His Son.

His cry is heart-rending because of a number of things, but primarily, it is heart-rending because no one came to comfort Him in the dying hour. Before, when Jesus was lonely, angels came to minister to Him. In Matthew 4:1-11, when Jesus was tempted forty days and forty nights, and when at last He drove the Devil from His presence, angels came and ministered unto Him. Yonder in Gethsemane when He fell upon His face and prayed until the blood came from His face, until the pores of His skin opened and the blood came, we notice in Luke 22:43 an angel came down and comforted Him; but now when He is drinking the last bitter DREGS, now when He is going the last MILE, now when He is DYING on Calvary’s Cross, no angel came to comfort Him; no angel came to strengthen the Divine Son of God. No man came to offer Him a drink of water; instead they gave Him vinegar to drink. The angry mob walking all around the cross, throwing every kind of slur, making every kind of accusation against Jesus, throwing this and that into His face, none would offer one word of comfort, hope or cheer. Heart-rending? YES.

Bless your hearts, I say as tenderly and kindly as I know how this morning: if the crucifixion of Jesus for your sins doesn’t mean very much to you there is something out of place with you and out of sorts in you. Like the old hymn that says: "You mean to tell me, Lord, Lord, all this suffering of Calvary for ME, a frail, insignificant human being, that is alive today and dead tomorrow," and the answer comes echoing back: "It WAS." It was for ME He died. No wonder that Paul said in Galatians 2:20, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who LOVED ME, and GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME."

Bless your hearts, He died for ME. I helped plait the crown of thorns that adorned His brow; I helped drive the spikes into His quivering hands and feet; I wielded the spear that plunged into His quivering side: I KILLED the Prince of Life with my SINS.

He died in vindication of the law. The breaking of the law had to be paid for, and Christ died in the vindication of the law. Ezekiel 18:4 and 20 says "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Now Jesus died; He is the GUILTLESS, but He was the One who died for the GUILTY. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Across the ages, the thundering of Sinai comes to us: "The soul that SINNETH it shall DIE." Jesus died in vindication of the law. He paid it all. "All to Him I owe; sin had left its crimson stain; He washed it white as snow," so goes the old hymn. He paid it ALL.

When those Israelites stood in the shadow of Mount Sinai and heard the thundering and the roaring thereof, saw the brilliance and radiance of God reflected in the face of Moses, they never forgot that august scene; thus, coming to us thundering across the ages from Sinai is the voice of inexorable justice and judgment, saying, "The soul that SINNETH it shall DIE." It MUST. But amazing grace stepped in and saved a wretch like me. Jesus paid our sin debt. Oh, bless His name this morning; He paid our sin debt.

You know, we used to sing an old hymn that says: "The old account was settled long ago." Brother, it WAS—at Calvary. WHERE? At Calvary. Jesus paid the debt; He paid for my sins; Jesus died in payment of my sins: He paid the sin debt and the debt was cancelled. As Brother Freeman always says, "There was no devil left unconquered; no sin left undestroyed and no debt left unpaid when He died."

Brother, that is the truth: He paid it all; every last farthing was paid. That is what Paul meant in Ephesians 1:7, "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." Jesus paid for our sins, and it is an insult to God for men to think that they can do something whereby they can make themselves acceptable in the sight of God, other than what Christ has already DONE.

"But to him that worketh not, but believeth (that word believeth means the one who does nothing but believe) on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin."—Romans 4:5-8.

Wonderful, isn’t it? WHO is the man to whom the Lord will not charge sin? He is the man who has done nothing but believe in Christ. That is what He said. Done nothing more or nothing less than just to believe in Christ; he is a blessed man, indeed he is; for the old sin debt was cancelled out and the blood has washed him and made him as white as snow.

You notice He said in Ephesians 1:7, "We have redemption through his blood; we have forgiveness of sins through his blood." It’s His blood!

How do you reach the blood of Christ? Romans 3:25 tells you in plain English; there is no guess work about it: "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his BLOOD, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God." That’s HOW—faith in His BLOOD. I didn’t say it; God’s Word said it.

I love Isaiah 1:18; this is what God had in mind: "Come now, and let us reason together saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

Jesus paid it, don’t you seep in His blood. In Revelation 1:5, the Apostle John tells us, "Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our SINS in his own BLOOD." I tell you—this morning, beloved, with all the fervor of my heart and soul that it’s the blood of Christ that redeems, sanctifies, purifies, washes and makes men clean in His sight and as white as the driven snow; it’s the BLOOD, the blood. May God help you to see that this morning; it’s the BLOOD. If you have not believed in the blood, you are LOST. It takes FAITH in His BLOOD.

When Jesus cried out, "My God! My God! why hast thou forsaken me?" the justice of God was SATISFIED. God’s justice had to be met and His justice satisfied. God never has saved a man at the expense and sacrifice of His justice. Justice was meted out, NOT upon the GUILTY, but upon the GUILTLESS, yet justice was meted out just the same.

I imagine, this morning, I can see Christ as He walked up Calvary’s Hill, as they stretched His body upon the cross, nailing Him upon the tree. Mercy and Justice are standing there. Mercy is saying, "Surely, surely, at the last moment God will intervene and spare His Son: it’s His SON."

But Justice stands there with his sword all gory and red and says, "Justice must be met; justice must be executed."

Is there no mercy; is there none to intercede? NONE. Is there no mercy to be shown? NONE. Thus, the sword of Divine Justice pierced the Son of God and took His life, and He died in payment of our sins to satisfy the justice of God. "He shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be SATISFIED" (Isa. 53:11).

The PURPOSE of God was finished now. There in the 19th chapter of the Gospel of John, verse 30, "Jesus cried with a loud voice, It is FINISHED, and having said this, he delivered up his spirit." "I have finished what I came to do," said the Master. "I came to do that which thou gayest me to do, and now I have finished it; I have finished the job; it is over and done: I have redeemed those whom thou gayest me in the Covenant of Redemption."

Talk about the sin question—it is finished. He PAID for it. Luke 28:46—a marvelous verse. After all that suffering, after all the darkness upon the earth, after the Son of God finally said, "It is finished," God’s justice had been satisfied, the law had been vindicated and sins paid for, Jesus said, "Father (now it is Father; no longer "My God"), into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23:46). Fellowship with the Father had been restored; but it was AFTER Christ had paid the debt, satisfying the JUSTICE of God, and vindicating the law.

May I ask you this morning, dear friend, what are you trusting for your salvation? Are you going to trust anything other than the blood of Christ? If you do, you are lost. "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through FAITH in his BLOOD, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God: to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness; that he might be JUST, and the JUSTIFIER of him which BELIEVETH in Jesus" (Rom. 3:25, 26).

It is the BLOOD of Christ that redeems, sanctifies, saves, purges and makes us acceptable in the Beloved. Are you trusting the blood this morning? If you are not, I would to God, ere you leave this building, you would trust in the blood of Christ, walk down this aisle saying, "Brother Cox, I am under the blood. I am trusting implicitly in the blood of Christ and in His blood ALONE for salvation."

May God help you to do that. Amen.