When God Damns

WHEN GOD DAMNS
PSALM 22:1

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?


In the name of Christ:

Today words don’t mean what they used to mean. We have either redefined words or have grown cold and callous to their meaning. Damnation is one such word. In our society, damnation has lost its meaning and power. For some, damnation is a pipe dream, a fairy tale, something that will never happen. For these people, they have redefined sin and right and wrong. What used to be called a common truth is now a falsehood or called into question. Sin, therefore, no longer is viewed as sin, but as a choice. Take, for example, homosexuality. The Bible defines it as sin, and yet our culture has redefined it as a lifestyle choice. What used to be wrong is now viewed as right.
It happens in subtle ways as well. God states in His Word that we should not harbor anger or resentment against someone else. However, in these days, people willing hold grudges and makes excuses as to why they should continue to hold a grudge. Anger becomes justified, and the words and actions which proceed are excused, because we must understand how angry a person can get.
Words mean things. In anger, today people curse in the name and under the guise of freedom of speech. Our culture has thrown away words which mean nothing to the people who use them. Damnation is one such word. I don’t say damnation or damn to get a charge out of you or to shock you. Damnation is very real. This Holy Week and the events which took place on Good Friday is all about damnation. God’s damnation is real and justified.
God is justified in threatening damnation. The Holy God created all and it was declared good. Mankind, though, has sinned and spoiled the relationship that was given by God. Sin has entered the world through the disobedience of one man, Adam, and sin and death has spread to everyone. God threatens to punish all who transgress His Holy Word and Will. The soul that sins will most certainly die. The wages of sin is death. Death affects everyone. But death is not damnation.
God would have been justified to damn Adam and Eve, but He didn’t. He banished them from the Garden of Eden, and punished them and their offspring with death. But God did not damn them. God did not damn Adam and Eve’s son Cain, the one who killed his brother Abel. God spared Cain, was merciful to him. Oh, God was would certainly be justified in damning Cain, but God did not. Instead, God placed a mark on Cain so that Cain’s life would be spared. Cain still died because of his sinfulness, but God did not damn Cain.
This can be said of every human being. God is justified in damning His creatures who have sinned, and seeing that all have sinned, God would be justified in damning us! But God did not and does not. At least, not now, for God is patient and wills that all come to know of His love in Christ. God is love and loves all. That is why He gave His one and only Son, Jesus to be the Savior from God’s damnation. At the right time in human history God sent His Son Jesus, to be born of the Virgin Mary, to live and keep God’s Law for each and every sinner, and then, as a result of Christ’s perfect life, God chose to punish His Son instead of punishing His creation.
This is what God did to His Son Jesus, on the cross. This is why Jesus cried out those words from the cross: My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? To be forsaken of God means that God withdraws Himself from the sinner. It means that the sinner is all alone to face the white hot wrath and anger of God. It means that God damns, really damns, sin and the sinner in His Son Jesus Christ. God damned Jesus so that you would not be damned, but forgiven. For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, but that whoever believes in Jesus will not perish but have eternal life.
On that First Good Friday, God damned Jesus. He damned His Son. When God damns the day light turns black. When God damns sinners and the Devil quake. When God damns, the earth shakes. When God damns the earth and all of creation turns silent. No one can stand, when God damns. So Jesus stands, in the place of every sinner. For Jesus took all of God’s punishment, all of the damnation we and sinners so justly deserve. Just listen to these words: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? [2] O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. [3] Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. [4] In you our fathers trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. [5] To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame. [6] But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. [7] All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; [8] "He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!"
When God damns Jesus stands, in our place as our Substitute and Savior.
Jesus took it all and died on the cross, willingly, never doubting God’s mercy and justice. This is truly God’s gift. This is truly Good News, that we have a loving God, who spared not His own Son but freely damned Him so that we might be saved. And we are! For God accepted Jesus’ sacrifice, and Jesus rose three days later, to defeat sin, Satan, and death, for you and for all!
This is what the Bible means when it says that Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for all, that we might know God’s love for all in Jesus. Yes God is good; He is gracious, all on account of His Son Jesus Christ. And so we give thanks to the Lord, for He indeed is good, His love lasts forever, because of His justice poured out on the cross.
Amen