Works (Vol 1) - Sibbes - XX - Christ's sufferings for man's sin

Required reading
The Works Volume 1 by Richard Sibbes (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read the discourse entitled 'Christ's sufferings for man's sin'.

My summary
Today's sermon is on Matthew 27:46: 'And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?'

Firstly Sibbes looks at what it means that Christ was forsaken.  He shows us:
(i) in what sense Christ was forsaken (not God's love, union or grace; but comfort and joy);
(ii) in what parts he was forsaken (body and soul);
(iii) upon what ground he was forsaken (his two natures);
(iv) to what end he was forsaken (to satisfy God and bring us home again to God).

Secondly Sibbes teaches us that Christ was very sensible of being forsaken.

Thirdly we observe that Christ, in his greatest extremities, had a spirit of faith in God's:
(i) unchangeable nature;
(ii) manner of dealing;
(iii) support.

Fourthly we notice that Christ doth not only believe, but vents his faith by prayer.  We are encouraged to do the same for ourselves and others in times of trouble.

What grabbed me
Yet another great sermon.

I love trying to grasp what it meant for Jesus to suffer.  Thus I enjoyed moving statements from Sibbes like this one: 'The sweeter the communion is with God the fountain of good, the more intolerable and unsufferable is the separation from him; but none had ever so near and sweet a communion with God as Christ our Mediator had, for he was both God and man in one person, the beloved Son of his Father. Now the communion before being so near and so sweet unto him, a little want of the same must needs be unsufferable. Things the nearer they are, the more difficult the separation will be ; as when the skin is severed from the flesh, and the flesh from the bones, oh, it is irksome to nature ; much more was Christ's separation from the sense of his Father's love. Those that love, live more in the party loved, than in themselves. Christ was in love with the person of his Father, and lived in him. Now to want the sense of his love, considering that love desires nothing but the return of love again, it must needs be death unto him. '

We just cannot imagine what Christ went through.  And it was for us...

Next week's reading
Commence the discourse entitled 'The church's visitation' by reading sermons I and II.

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.