(This message series is inspired and excerpted from He Loves Me! by Wayne Jacobsen.)
In the Darkest Moment . . . Trust
“You will trust God only as much as you love him. And you will love him not because you have studied him; you will love him because you have touched him—in response to his touch…Only if you love will you make that final leap into darkness. “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” – Brennan Manning in Lion and Lamb
Forsaken Son?
“Perhaps Jesus’ most puzzling words from the cross were in his cry of utter loneliness and despair, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Theologians have grappled with those words for centuries trying to sort out what was happening between Father and Son at that moment. Could the Faithful One be unfaithful to his Son? Of course not. Even when Jesus told his disciples that they would all leave him alone, he said he would not be alone for the Father was with him. I don’t believe for a minute that the Father forsook the Son. But there could be a vast difference here between what God did and what Jesus perceived. Jesus undoubtedly felt forsaken but that doesn’t mean that he was.” (p.126)
Have you ever felt forsaken? (forsaken: to renounce or turn away from entirely)
“Perhaps Psalm 22 holds a clue here since Jesus used the same words that David penned there. Read these excerpts from that Psalm as David vacillates between his security in God’s love and his fear that he had lost it:
- “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? …Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One.”
- “I cry out by day, but you do not answer… Yet, our fathers…trusted and you delivered them.”
- “But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people…Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you…”
- “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint… (Yet) he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.”
David eloquently described the torrent of emotions that sin produces in us, overwhelming us with emptiness and making us feel abandoned. But he also affirms that God is there nonetheless and in the end will have his way even through our agony.” (p. 127)
This is not an old covenant reality.
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. [19] For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. [20] Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. (Romans 7:18-20 ESV)
” When Jesus became sin for us he entered into the full shame, darkness and bondage of that sin. It is likely at the moment on the cross when God’s wrath was consuming the sin he had become, that he couldn’t even see the Father with whom he had shared fellowship through all eternity. Sin blinded him and he felt as if God had forsaken him. But that is the difference between the perception of sin and the reality of God.”
(p. 127) Where does the darkness seem to surround you and make it difficult to understand what God is doing in you—and through you?
Out of the Depths
“It is not long after his cry of abandonment that he offered the greatest demonstration of trust in the history of the world; “Father into your hands I commit my spirit.” to the Father he could not see; to fulfill a plan that had long since faded from view.
In utter despair and loneliness, Jesus did what Adam and Eve could not do living in the most pristine and beautiful of gardens. He trusted his Father. He committed his entire being into his Father’s hands and in doing so breathed his last. The horror of the cross had reached its end. Sin had been consumed and his body spent. But his dying breath affirmed a heart of trust beyond comprehension. Now death’s barrier had been crossed in a state of absolute trust and surrender. The power of death would be conquered, too.” (p. 128)
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. [7] For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—[8] but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8 ESV)
“…By inserting himself between us and our destruction God wanted us to know that we could trust him about anything. When the reality of the cross sinks home, the enemy’s wedge is dislodged.
No longer do we need to hesitate to trust this incredible Father and his intentions toward us, especially when we lose sight of what God is doing in our lives, or question his seeming inactivity. Instead of doubting him, we can assume he’s doing something greater than our expectations might allow for and continue to walk with him instead of separating our self from him.” (p. 129)
If you woke up tomorrow morning with the same trust in God that Jesus has, what would be different? What would be the same?
The Faith of Jesus
” Few versions of the Bible translate Galatians 2:20 exactly as it appears in the original Greek. Paul wrote: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
The vast majority translate it, “…the life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God.” They cannot conceive of what Paul might have meant by living by the faith of Jesus. So they translate it as “faith in the Son of God” since a number of other scriptures talk about the importance of putting our faith in him. But Paul is talking about something different here. There is no ambiguity in the original language about the distinction between where our faith might be directed and to whom it belongs. It is clearly the latter. In other words, Paul is saying he lives off of Jesus’ faith, not by mustering up enough of his own.
What great encouragement that provides! How often do you feel weak in faith? Try as hard as you might to believe, belief still escapes you. How do you muster up what you already lack? While they may be right, it is rarely helpful when people tell us we just need to trust Jesus more. Of course that’s true, but how do I trust him more than I already do?” (p. 129)
Focus on the words of a prayer requesting the faith of Jesus, that you could pray the next time you stand in the darkness, feeling overwhelmed by the circumstances of a life lived in a broken world.
” Now we can live as loved people. No longer oppressed by the need to appease God we are free to live in his love and as we’ll see, that can completely transform everything about the way we think and live.
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20 Author’s Translation)” (p. 131)
For Your Personal Journey:
” Where is it easy for you to trust God, and where is it difficult? How can Jesus’ example encourage you to trust God when he seems the most distant from you? Since it is his faith we want to live by, ask Jesus to teach you how to grow in trust and how to fix your hope on him in a way that runs deeper than your circumstances or feelings.” (p. 131)
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