John 19:28 “After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), ‘I thirst.’ 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, ‘It is finished,’ and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
One of the most grueling passages in the Bible is found right before the death of Christ, where He cried out, “…with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'” (Matthew 27:46) This is perhaps one of the most significant moments in Scripture, where the sin of all mankind was placed upon Christ, and God turned His back upon His Son because He could not look on sin with pleasure. This would have been the only time in history that there had been a separation in the Trinity, and it was our sin that caused it and it was Gods’ grace that allowed it!
If you study the crucifixion passages closely, you will find little written about Satan. As a matter of fact, when Christ was on the cross, it was not Satan that put Him there, but it was your sin that put Him there. Also, when Christ was on the cross, it was not the wrath of Satan that He was enduring, but it was the wrath of God that He was enduring. Therefore, when Christ cried out, “…it is finished”, He was announcing that He had just endured the wrath of God, which apart from His substitutional sacrifice, was reserved for you.
Take a moment and allow these gospel truths to sink into your heart and mind. God did not simply send Christ as your rescuer from Satan, but He sent Christ to rescue you from Himself. It says in Romans 5:9, “…since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.”
One of the core ingredients of the Gospel is that Christ absorbed the wrath of God on your behalf so that you would not have to absorb it. And this is love, “…not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (I John 4:10)
