And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Mark 15:33-34
It was noon and suddenly the sky grew dark, Jesus had been on the cross for three hours enduring the excruciating pain and the mocking of the passersby, the chief priests and the soldiers. Jesus had been abandoned by his disciples, his closest friends.
But now something shifted, and the supernatural darkness covers the land.
God turned out the light.
Jesus in those three hours of darkness, became sin for us.
1 Peter 2:24, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”
Isaiah 53:4, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.”
Isaiah 53:10, “Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief.”
It was the will of God to save a people for Himself, and that salvation required a payment a sacrifice. Jesus had to die on the cross, God did not spare His only son.
In Genesis 22, we read about the prophetic foreshadow of the cross as Abraham willingly put his only beloved son on the altar. We know the angel of the Lord stopped Abraham and provided a replacement sacrifice.
On the cross, God did not spare His only son, because Jesus was the substitute. Jesus died on our place.
We know the Romans put Jesus on the cross, the Jewish religious leaders orchestrated his conviction, the people cried out for his death, but ultimately the only one who had the authority to sacrifice the lamb of God was God the Father.
And when the full weight of our sins was felt by Jesus, the Father had to turn away from him, it was Jesus who cried out, “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
We have no words to describe, no glimpse of understanding of the suffering that Jesus endured and the pain that it was for God the Father to sacrifice His only Son.
In those three hours of darkness, Jesus experienced Hell for us. Christ endured all that hell is on the cross. The clearest revelation about hell was experienced on the cross.
Hell has six dimensions to it; conscious suffering, blackest darkness, unleashed demonic powers, the weight of sin, the judgment of God and being separated from the love of God.
The hell of hell is being separated from the love of God, knowing you could have experienced the love of God. Jesus died so that you should not know hell.
Hell is as real as the cross. Jesus entered all the dimensions of hell while on the cross for those three hours.
John Piper said, “no one has ever deserved suffering less, yet received so much”.