The Promise Kept
Adam spared; Jesus forsaken
Genesis 3:14-15, 20
The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her Offspring; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”… The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. (ESV)
St. Matthew 27:45-46
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (ESV)
Prayer
Lord, You were here forsaken
That we might be received on high;
Let this hope not be shaken.
(ELH 337:6)
In Christ Jesus, who was forsaken that we might be spared, dear fellow redeemed.
“I do not know you.” These are the most sobering words in all of Scripture. In the days leading up to his crucifixion, Jesus preached to the people. One of the parables he told was about the ten virgins who were waiting for the bridegroom. Five were wise and had oil ready for their lamps; five were foolish and unprepared for the coming of the bridegroom. When the five foolish returned from getting oil, they knocked on the door, but the bridegroom said, “Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.”
None of us know what it means to be forsaken by God. Not even Adam and Eve knew what it was like to be abandoned by God. They faced the consequences of sin, endured pain, hardship, even a murdered son, but still, they were not forsaken by God. Only the damned know what it means to not know God—to be devoid of his presence, his mercy, his love.
Jesus endured the cruelest form of punishment. The Romans didn’t invent crucifixion, but they did perfect it. It was a punishment saved for the worst types of criminals, not even used on Roman citizens. And here was Jesus, the only innocent man to ever live, free from sin and any wrong, treated as if he were a no-good murderer, insurrectionist, and criminal. Yet, despite the horrendous, shameful, and painful treatment he endured at the hands of the Roman soldiers and the cruel bystanders, the worst punishment he received is expressed in these words, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
Jesus cried out fulfilling the words King David prophesied a thousand years before his life (Psalm 22). Jesus was abandoned by God. How can this be? We can define the words, but we cannot possibly understand the gravity of their reality, nor do we want to. But we can answer the question, “Why was Jesus forsaken by God?”
The prophet Isaiah writes, “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear” (Isaiah 59:2). Our sins separated us from God. The Lord is holy and righteous, he can’t stand in the presence of sin. This is why sinners can’t come to God. Our sin separates us from God and all that is good.
Every single one of us deserves to be forsaken by God. Not only are we born in sin, but every day of our lives we have added to our sins. No one can claim innocence. Not Adam and Eve, not you and me. So, imagine the joy and wonder of Adam and Eve, when after they had sinned against God, “The LORD God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.’”
Who is God’s enemy? Who does he condemn? Adam and Eve? No! The serpent! God condemns and curses the devil who tempted Adam and Eve. Their enemy was also God’s enemy. He was on their side. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her Offspring; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” By the woman, the one who the devil had so mislead into unbelief, God would use to bring a Savior. In the very first Gospel promise, God made the miraculous nature of our Savior’s birth clear—“Seed of a woman.” The Jews ordinarily referred only to man’s seed. This was no ordinary birth, as Isaiah foretold, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14).
Immanuel means “God with us.” Jesus was both true God and true man, the only begotten Son of God born of the virgin Mary. He came to crush Satan’s head. He came to defeat the devil. But now Jesus was dying on the cross. Oh, how the devil must have thought he had won, as Jesus was dying and crying out to God from the cross. The devil thought that he had won. To the world, the cross was no victory. It’s defeat. It’s failure. That is, until we realize that to save us, Jesus had to endure what we deserved. Our sin deserved punishment. We could not be saved without the satisfaction of sins.
Jesus stood in the place of sinners—you and me. We deserved this. If you don’t think your sins are that bad, that serious, that deserving of hell, then consider the sacrifice that was required for you to be saved. As the hymnist puts it:
Ye who think of sin but lightly
Nor suppose the evil great
Here may view its nature rightly,
Here its guilt may estimate.
Mark the Sacrifice appointed,
See who bears the awful load;
’Tis the Word, the Lord’s anointed,
Son of Man and Son of God.
The cross shows us the greatness of our sin and the punishment it deserves. Yet, at the exact moment when God shows us the severity of our sin, he also shows us the greatness of his love for us. The cross is our comfort, because on the cross Jesus took the punishment that you and I deserve. Jesus was mocked, beaten, crucified, and abandoned by God, so that you would never have to be. By all worldly standards, Good Friday is not a good day. But we can call our Lord’s suffering and death good because they were for us and our salvation. In fact, Christ wants his cross to bring you immeasurable comfort, as Scripture says, Jesus “who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2). While we all deserve to be forsaken by God, we now know that we need never be forsaken because Christ, our dear Lord Jesus, was forsaken in our stead.
The Gospel, the message of sins forgiven, gives us a joy which surpasses all understanding. It’s this same joy that caused Adam to name his wife, Eve. Did it ever strike you as strange that Eve was not given a name until after the fall into sin? If she was given a name after the fall, one might expect a rather unflattering name given to her by her husband. But what does he call her? “The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living” (Genesis 3:20). By giving her this name, he expressed his hope in the future Seed of the woman, who would crush Satan’s head. Eve’s name strengthened his own faith and comforted Adam with the thought that he believed in life even when all nature had become subject to sin and death. He had hope in the midst of death. The Holy Spirit had enlightened Adam to see the promise God had given.
Without God’s promise, Adam would have never been able to give such a wonderful name to the woman who had offered the forbidden fruit to him. Without God’s promise, you and I would never be able to have hope in this life. Without God’s promise, we would either live in constant fear of death or die knowing the consequences our sin brings. However, we have God’s promise. The Seed of the woman crushed Satan’s head—our enemy is his. What’s more, God’s promise has been kept. Jesus has come. Our Lord Jesus came to save sinners, forsaken by God in our stead, so that we would never need to be.
Our Savior’s death is the reason we can have comfort in the midst of death. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). God loves you and wants you to be known by him, which is why he instituted the sacrament of Holy Baptism, that we might be joined to Christ’s death and his victory, and made children of God, “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).
As we look to our Savior on the cross, we must acknowledge that it is our sin that sent him there. Yet, as we see him, we have comfort that he is our Savior, who has borne our sins, carried our griefs, and taken our punishment so that we might have peace with God. It is finished. Your sins are forgiven. Jesus has taken the sting of death for us. For the Christian, death is now a doorway to heaven, which is why our Lord Jesus promised life to the thief on the cross, and also to you and me. His death is our gain. As we sing (ELH 332:2),
O sorrow dread!
Our God is dead,
He paid our great redemption.
Jesus’ death upon the cross
Gained for us salvation.
Now, we wait and look with hope to the empty tomb. Amen.