My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?
—Matthew 27:46
I thirst…It is finished!
—John 19:28, 30
These words spoken on the cross reveal love in its outflow to men, and in the tremendous sacrifice that it brought to deliver us and give the victory over every foe. They reveal the mind that was in Christ, which is to be the disposition of our whole lives.
“My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?” How deep must have been the darkness that overshadowed Him, when not one ray of light from the Father shone upon Him and He could not say, “My Father”! It was this awful desertion, breaking in upon that life of childlike fellowship with the Father in which He had always walked, that caused Him the agony and the bloody sweat in Gethsemane. “O My Father…let this cup pass from Me” (Matthew 26:39). But He knew it could not pass away, and He bowed His head in submission: “Thy will be done” (verse 42). His love for God and for man caused Him to yield Himself to the very uttermost. As we learn to believe and to worship that love, we, too, will learn to say, “Thy will be done” (verse 42).
“I thirst.” The body of Christ here gave expression to the terrible experience of what it passed through when the fire of God’s wrath against sin came upon Him in the hour of His desertion. He had spoken of the rich man crying out, “I am tormented in this flame” (Luke 16:24). Likewise, Christ uttered His complaint of what He had suffered. Physicians tell us that in crucifixion the whole body is in agony with terrible fever and pain. Our Lord endured it all and cried, “I thirst.” He sacrificed both soul and body to the Father.
And now comes the great word: “It is finished!” All that there was to suffer and endure had been suffered and endured. He had finished the work the Father gave Him to do. His love held nothing back. He gave Himself as an offering and a sacrifice. Such was the mind of Christ, and such must be the attitude of everyone who owes himself and his life to that sacrifice. The mind that was in Christ must be in us, ready to say, “I have come ‘to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work’ (John 4:34).” And every day that our confidence grows fuller in Christ’s finished work, our hearts must more entirely yield themselves as burnt offerings in the service of God and His love.