Tuesday, July 1, 2003
It was a great day for a high school football game - and I was on the sidelines, helping out our local team. Meanwhile, my 12-year-old son was playing a pickup game of football on a nearby field. I was surprised to see him heading my way, holding his arm, and then, obviously wincing with pain. He'd been tackled and had fallen on his arm. It was so badly broken that the bone was protruding from his skin. So we rushed him to the emergency room where I had some of the more agonizing moments of my life, as I watched the doctor struggle to set my son's multiple fracture. I'll tell you, he was a tough boy, but he was in great and obvious agony. It might as well have been me the doctor was working on.
Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "When God Couldn't Bear to Look."
As a father, it really hurts to watch the son you love suffer - a feeling God knows all too well, and on a level I could never comprehend. Because His one and only Son Jesus went through unbearable agony, dying an excruciating death on a cross. He wasn't crucified for things He had done. He died for things I have done...even things you have done. In the Bible's words, "Christ died for our sins" (1 Corinthians 15:3).
The Bible records the reaction of the Father as His Son bore all the pain, not only of death by crucifixion, but of all the hell of all the sin of all the human race. In Matthew 27:46, our word for today from the Word of God, Jesus cries out these words from the cross: "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?" In this moment of unspeakable agony, God the Father has turned His back on God the Son.
Why? Because the Father couldn't stand to see His Son suffer this way?No. The answer to Jesus' question is in something we learn about God in Habakkuk 1:13 - "Your eyes are too pure to look on evil." That's what was going on in that unthinkable moment when God the Father turned away from His suffering Son. Jesus was carrying every evil thing I've ever done - every sin every person has committed from the beginning of time. In the words of the Bible, Jesus "bore our sins in His body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24). God is holy, unable to even look at sin, even when it's His one and only Son that is carrying it.
So God turned His back on His Son so He would never have to turn His back on you. That's His amazing love. If you think somehow you'll be able to make it to God any way other than totally trusting in His Son, look at that cross. If God turned His back on His own Son when He had your sin, what hope can you possibly have if you leave this life still carrying the sins of your life unforgiven? Your religion, your Christianity, your goodness can't possibly get you into heaven. Only Jesus can do that. Only Jesus died to do that. Your only hope is what He did on the cross for you.
So you have nothing more important to think about other than this. "Has there ever been a time when I consciously gave myself to Jesus, believing that He - and He alone - can forgive my sin, make me right with God, and take me to heaven?" If not, let this be the day when you finally act on the total sacrifice Jesus became for you. If you're ready to finally belong to this One who is your only hope, then I'd like to send you my booklet about beginning your personal relationship with Him. It's called "Yours For Life." Just let me know you want it.
On the day you stand before the Father, He will want to know one thing - "What did you do with My Son?" And you can point to this day as the day you said, "Son of God, I'm Yours!"