He was without any comforts of God — no feeling that God loved him — no
feeling that God pitied him — no feeling that God supported him. God was his
sun before — now that sun became all darkness… He was without God — he
was as if he had no God. All that God had been to him before was taken from
him now. He was Godless — deprived of his God. He had the feeling of the
condemned, when the Judge says: “Depart from me, ye cursed,” “who shall
be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and
from the glory of his power.” He felt that God said the same to him. Ah! This is
the hell which Christ suffered. The ocean of Christ’s sufferings is
unfathomable… He was forsaken in the [place] of sinners. If you close with him
as your surety, you will never be forsaken… “My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me?” [The answer?] For me — for me.
— Robert Murray McCheyne
#jesus #love #suffering #love
