[00:00:00] Welcome to Faith in Focus from the Book of Mysteries by Jonathan Cahn, The Immanuel Paradox. Something I don't understand. When Messiah was dying, he said, My God, why have you forsaken me? Why would he have said that? Would it have been better, said the teacher, if he hadn't said that? Would it have been more fitting or more glorious if dying on the cross was easy for him,
[00:00:28] if it was not excruciating? And if he was not overwhelmed, that's the point. It cost him everything. It was the ultimate sacrifice even for God. It's all the more glorious. It's the love of God. But how could he be forsaken? Remember, he was dying in our place. He became sin. He made himself the focal point of all judgment.
[00:00:54] So, he had to be separated. It's part of judgment. Separation from God. And there's another reason. A beautiful reason. Did it ever occur to you? The paradox? What do you mean? He said, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But who is it that is uttering such words? The one saying, My God, why have you forsaken me? Is God.
[00:01:22] God is the one asking God why God has forsaken him. God forsaken by God? A cosmic paradox. And he's speaking those words in our place. The one saying those words is Emmanuel. God is with us. So the one asking why God is not with him is. God is with us? Why is that an awesome thing? Because it means this. When you come to the darkest moments of your life,
[00:01:51] when you feel God has forsaken you, even then he will be with you. When you cry out, My God, why have you forsaken me? God will be right there saying those words with you. When you feel infinitely far away and separated from God, God will be there feeling just as infinitely far away and separated from God with you.
[00:02:15] That it was God himself saying those words in our place means that even if you were forsaken by God, God would choose to be forsaken from God with you. And thus, you will never be forsaken. If God was with us, even when he was separated from God, then there is nothing in this world or beyond it, nothing in this age or in the ages to come, that will ever separate you from the love of God in him who is the love of God
[00:02:45] and who will be with you always and forever. The mission. Remember those times in your life when you felt farthest from God. Now ponder this. God was there feeling just as far from God with you, so nothing will ever separate you from the love of God. Isaiah 43, 2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And when you go through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you.
[00:03:15] When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched. The flames will not set you ablaze. Matthew 27, 46 About the ninth hour, Jesus cried out in a loud voice, Eli, Eli, Lima Sabachthani! Which means, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Matthew 28, 19-20 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,
[00:03:44] baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age. Romans 8, 35-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written,
[00:04:13] For thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,
[00:04:42] shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Emmanuel, 1-2 Thank you for joining me on Faith and Focus. Remember, these insights are inspired by Jonathan Cahn's The Book of Mysteries. Until next time, may you find strength in the revelation of his love. For the next time, may you find strength in the way that he is in Christ and a holy life. And so I will not be able to separate us from the world.