The True Gospel

            “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46 NKJV)

Before I came to the point of giving my life to Christ, I spent a lot of times going up to altar calls and saying the “sinners prayer”. I had struggled continuously with sexual addiction to an extremely high degree. Truth is I was just wanting God to fix me but not really willing to truly and fully repent of my sin. I liked it too much at that point. I didn’t realize Jesus wasn’t going to save me if I truly didn’t want Him, which is true. I thought I was wanting Him, but not really bad enough to give Him everything.

The thing is, I didn’t really understand the full gospel. I’ve seen the movies of Jesus dying on the cross but I've always looked at it like anyone can go and die on a cross, wear a crown of thorns, and have nails driven into his hands. Some of it was because those movies really didn’t show an accurate view of the reality of the true pain Jesus went through.

There is a quote from a British journalists that witnessed something very horrifying and it describes a little about the type of brutality that Jesus went through. This is what he said...

[1] "I had arrived in Ramallah at about 10.30 in the morning and was getting into a taxi on the main road to go to Nablus, where there was to be a funeral that I wanted to film, when all of a sudden there came a big crowd of Palestinians shouting and running down the hill from the police station.

I got out of the car to see what was happening and saw that they were dragging something behind them. Within moments they were in front of me and, to my horror, I saw that it was a body, a man they were dragging by the feet. The lower part of his body was on fire and the upper part had been shot at, and the head beaten so badly that it was a pulp, like red jelly.

I thought he was a soldier because I could see the remains of khaki trousers and boots. My God, I thought, they've killed this guy. He was dead, he must have been dead, but they were still beating him, madly, kicking his head. They were like animals.

At the same time, the guy that looked like a soldier was being beaten and the crowd was getting angrier and angrier, shouting "Allah akbar" - God is great. They were dragging the dead man around the street like a cat toying with a mouse. It was the most horrible thing that I have ever seen…

It was murder of the most barbaric kind. When I think about it, I see that man's head, all smashed. I know that I'll have nightmares for the rest of my life.

According to scripture, this is what it was like on a very light level of what the Lord Jesus went through, physically anyway.


What I didn’t understand is what went on behind the scenes. You know, that nobody sees in the spiritual realm. God’s word says that He cannot look upon evil (Habakkuk 1:13), but Jesus Himself didn’t only have our sins put on Him to bear, He BECAME sin! He who is holy became that of which is very unholy! That is why God the father turned away from His only son! The ONLY one with love for Jesus turned from Him. How lonely He must have felt. To be separated from God is hell! I’m not necessarily suggesting that Jesus went to hell even though what it says in Matthew 12:40, but to be separated from the only one that truly has love for you must have been utterly lonely that with all this torment and pain and becoming sin, He might as well been in hell. Also, since God knows no time (Psalm 102:12, 27), when He suffered it was like eternity for Him just like hell would be for us.

Let’s think about this for a moment. Think about the physical brutality of having your beard ripped right out of your face (Isaiah 50:6) and the kind of lashings He endured that filleted His body wide open all over His entire naked body (Matthew 27:28) to the point of it looking like red shredded hamburger hanging from it. He was completely naked with no clothing of protection for the most sensitive private areas to be lashed as well!

Then the part where He became sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). Have you ever done something so bad you feel absolutely horrible about it? Think of the horror and torment that would follow a crime so horrendous. Jesus didn’t only die for those sins, He became that! He became that for you to be free! And He also had to suffer the agony and torment that kind of sin would follow. When the Father looked down at Him, it wasn't like He was seeing a holy son of God. He saw a horrible, wicked, filthy sinner, even though Jesus made no sin Himself was worthy of the full wrath of hell! But it wasn’t for that one murder or even two. It was for billions and billions. Think of that agony for one murder and multiply that billions of times.

Now, think about if you were a young child with your daddy or mommy in a foreign third world communist country that had murderers and torturers all around you wanting to devour your flesh like a mountain lion. All the sudden your mommy, who loves you like no one else could, abandons you with such anger to be left all alone! Imagine how all these things would feel all at the same time. And that doesn’t even come close to describing what our loving Lord Jesus went through on the cross at Calvary for you!!!

I know this is not typically how we might look at the cross but isn’t it true when you really look at scripture and consider there is no exaggeration in God’s Word. It happened just like that. Please consider how this should affect your outlook on What Jesus means to you. He loves you so much He gave His life for you! Receive it!

[1] “I'll have nightmares for the rest of my life” By Mark Seager - http://gluefox.com/kontr/israel/ramallah.shtm