The Savior, the Son of God

"The Savior, the Son of God" – Matthew 27:44-50 The Savior, the Son of God He can't save Himself, Since, on the cross, He must die, To the "dead" sinners Mercy cannot come; Alas! Christ, the Son, must exhaust Guilt for the offender to forgive.

Albert Midlane

I. This was true in the Lord's life, and it is true in ours as well.

A. We cannot save others when we try to save ourselves.

1. The religious leaders scoffed at His claim to be the Savior, to be the King of Israel, to be the Son of God.

2. And the thieves also joined in that chorus of curses.

3. Religious guides joined the criminals in despising their God.

4. (Matthew 27:45) All the sufferings and indignities (baseness, cruelty, contempt) that He endured at the hands of men were small compared to what "now came upon Him."

5. "From the sixth hour" (noon) "there was darkness" not only over all the land" of Palestine but also over "His holy soul," and this until the ninth hour (three o'clock in the afternoon).

6. It was at this time that He bore the indescribable curse of our sins.

7. "In those three hours" "the hell we deserved was compressed," God's wrath against all our transgressions. (disobedience, crime, breaking the rules or regulations).

8. We see Him only dimly; we simply "cannot" know what it meant for Him to satisfy all of God's "holy claims against sin."

9. We only know that during those three hours He paid the price, satisfied the debt, and accomplished the necessary work for man's redemption.

10. (Matthew 27:46) About three o'clock in the afternoon He cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi (my God, my God), lama sabachthani? Why hast thou forsaken me?

A. cannot be explained in words, wonderful, divine. B. opinion, press, reduce to less.

11. The answer is found in Psalm 22:3: "Thou art holy, Thou who dwellest among the praises of Israel."

12. Because "God is holy," He cannot overlook sin.

13. On the contrary, He must punish it; and today it is so, God must punish the sin of the one who sins.

14. The Lord Jesus had no sin in Himself, but He took upon Himself the guilt of our sins.

15. When God, as Judge, looked and "saw our sins" upon the "sinless" Substitute, He turned away from the "Son of His love."

16. It was this separation that caused to arise from the heart of Jesus what Mrs. Browning so beautifully called "the cry of the orphan Immanuel."

17. Abandoned! God was able to separate Himself to His very essence; And the sins of Adam have interposed (intruded) between the Righteous Son and Father. Yes, once the

cry of the orphan Immanuel. His universe has shaken. He stood up alone, without echoing: "My God, I am forsaken!"

18. (Matthew 27:47-48) When Jesus exclaimed, "Eloi, Eloi," some of those who were there said that He was calling Elijah.

19. They were just mocking Him.

20. One of them used a long reed (bamboo) to bring a vinegar-soaked "sponge" to His lips.

21. (Psalm 69:21) This was not done as an act of compassion, but by "adding" to His sufferings.

22. (Matthew 27:49) The general attitude was to wait and see "if" Elijah would fulfill the role assigned to him by Jewish tradition: (Malachi 4:5) to come to the aid of the righteous.

23. But it was not the time for Elijah's coming.

24. It was time for Jesus to die.

25. (Matthew 27:50) When Jesus had "cried with a loud voice, He gave up His spirit."

26. The great voice "shows that He died in power and not exhausted."

27. The fact that He "gave up the spirit" distinguished His death from those of others.

28. We die because we must die; He died because He wanted to die.

29. Had He not said: "Do I lay down my life, to take it again?" (John 10:17-18).

30. No one takes it away from Me, but I take it from Myself.

31. I have the power (dominion, power, authority) to put it, and I have the power to take it again.

32. From the universe the Maker, As a man for man, a curse was made. The demands of the law He established, He paid until the end. His holy fingers wounded the plant. Whose thorns His forehead girded The nails that His hands pierced were taken out From secret mines that He had formed. He made the woods from which He sprang The tree on which His body hung (hanging, suspended) On a "wood" cross He died, But the mountain where it was planted was His work. The sky that over His head would turn black (transform) By Him it had been upon the spread earth; (scattered) The sun that his face hid from Him. By His decree in space, it hung; (ordinance) The spear that His precious blood shed In the fires of God, it had been tempered (sobriety, neither cold nor hot) The Tomb in Which His Body Was Laid It was dug into the rock that His hands made. The throne on which He now sits It was His from eternal times. But new glory crowns Him now And all their knees will bow before Him. F. W. Pitk