In great pain and agony hanging on the cross, Jesus cried out his fifth statement, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Many have interpreted this statement as Jesus receiving the sin of mankind on himself, and therefore God could not look upon his son. However, did God really forsake his son, or was Jesus pointing us to Psalm 22 as being the fulfillment of this psalm? At this time the psalms did not have numbers, so Jesus was quoting the first verse of this particular psalm in order to point out that his death was not a haphazard decision but a fulfillment of the Word of God. The Bible establishes Christ as the supreme sacrifice for sin; he was found without sin, and therefore, the right to become the sacrifice for the sin of the world. Jesus took on the penalty of death for the sins of the world.

Jesus, after being brutally beaten and finally nailed to the cross, cries out, "I thirst!" In his state of dehydration the Roman soldier responded by giving him a sponge of vinegar and gall. If all the statements Jesus made on the cross are covenantal, then Jesus must also be pointing us to something deeper. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." On the cross Jesus was pointing us to his ardent desire to establish true righteousness once again, and then declare those who believed in him as righteous.

Looking down at his mother, Jesus says, "Woman, behold thy son! Behold thy mother!" Naturally, we know that John took Mary in to his household and took care of her the rest of her life. However, if we are looking at all the statements as covenantal then is there something deeper Jesus wanted to communicate to us. We have to look back at the first promise God made regarding the Messiah. God told Eve that Satan's defeat would come from her seed, referring to Jesus. Mary was the end of a long line of woman that God used to bring forth this seed. Therefore, Mary, at the end of the line of promise, brought forth the Messiah, and from the Messiah would come new birth for all who believed in Jesus. This statement is symbolic of what God does for those who believe: we are born in the spirit.

Once the original sin had been forgiven, there was nothing to stand in the way of man being reconciled back to God. Only the sacrifice of Jesus could accomplish this. As he hung between two thieves on the cross, one reviles him and the other asks that Jesus remember him in paradise. Jesus, then turns to the thief and makes his second statement, "Verily, I say unto thee, Today, thou shalt be with me in paradise." Once the law of God was satisfied by the righteous Christ, the mercy of God could then be given, and we are seated with Christ in heavenly places.

Can you believe that Jesus can do something in your life outside of the realm of impossibilities? Don’t stand in the doorway of unbelief with the promises of God buried in the grave. There is a groaning in the heart of God for you to simply come into agreement with His plan for your life.

Many of us probably have a room in our house where we keep all our junk—an office, the garage, etc. Since we already see that room as dirty, we let it continue being dirty and even add more junk to it. A lot of us, if we are are honest, think we are dirty. It's easier to believe we are unclean, than it is to believe we are righteous. We aren't partially righteous in Jesus and then we complete it through our own righteousness. We are fully righteous through our faith in Christ's finished work on the cross. When you truly see how clean you are in Christ, you won't so easily add sin to your life. Don't call unclean what Jesus calls clean.

The benefits of God's love are not earned by our performance. Many of us have been taught that God is angry at us and we have to love him before he will love us, but scripture tells us clearly that he first loved us. If he didn't, why would he send his son Jesus to die for us? When we understand that God loves us it casts out all fear and gives us peace.