Minister of Education Reports        

Words from the Cross                    

            It is interesting how the Words recorded in God’s Scripture communicate to people great truth. For instance our Lord’s cry from the cross as recorded in Matthew 27:46 communicates His speech as the average person heard it on that awful day. Mark records His words as they were actually spoken, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” (15:34) This is translated correctly “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” I have heard some people incorrectly preach that the Lord’s faith in who He was and what He was called to do waivered at that point. If you ever should hear such a thing, don’t you believe it for one minute. It is simply not true.

            When the Lord used the Word Eloi, He was using a very specific word related to the character of the Persons of the godhead. His appeal centered on the character of God as the One in whom all strength resides. As His life blood poured out and the strength of the human frame was depleted, He also emptied Himself for a time of the power and strength that resided in His Person as God. As the Great High Priest, He was supervising His own sacrifice for your sin and mine. But even as He accomplished redemption He was also looking forward to His future role for those who would trust in Him. In these days He is the one Mediator between God and man.

            In His words from the cross He reached back across time to a seemingly obscure event that occurred as Abraham returned from rescuing Lot and others carried away captive from Sodom and Gomorrah. Upon Abraham’s return, the King of Salem, Melchizedek, came out to bless him. There it records that this Mechizedek was the priest of the Most High God. (Genesis 14:18) The Name for God used at that point was the very same Name that our Lord Jesus Christ called out from the cross. Many people think that this King and priest who blessed Abraham was none other than an Old Testament appearance of the Lord.

            Lest anyone should think this was a coincidence they need only to read the Book of Hebrews to discover the exciting meaning of these events. For our Lord is the One without beginning or ending or limitation of days. The same One who gave Himself a sacrifice for sins is the One who bridges the gap between God and man, and He is the One to whom we who are redeemed cry out Eloi, My God of strength; My God! my strength! For we stand not in our strength but in His strength which overcomes both sin and the grave.