WITH God, WITHOUT God, WITH God

Listen to these most significant words from the pen of Rev. Prof. Donald McLeod: “The One Who was with God comes to be without God in order that we should be with God,” taken from his book, From Glory to Golgotha (Christian Focus Publications, Ross-shire, UK, 2002), p.93.  


Christ Jesus, the Saviour of the world, was with God in the beginning, in eternity and enjoyed the most unclouded fellowship with His Father.  That fellowship within the Godhead was reciprocal and unbroken.  They all enjoyed each Other's company.


When man was made from the dust of the earth (in one particular sense man was not created out of nothing, ex nihilo, but was made by God out of pre-existing material, dust and earth) he enjoyed deep and unbroken fellowship with his Creator God.  Out of His goodness and love, God made a helper suitable for Adam, and with whom he could have precious fellowship.  But rather than their mutual fellowship being God-centred, they began to depart from exclusive fellowship with God and listened to the enticing voice of the serpent, satan, who allured them into disobedience.  Man then fell out of fellowship with God while in the Garden of Eden, and a 'new' situation arose which meant that man was no longer with God.


How was this mess to be remedied?  Again, the fellowship within the Trinity worked out a means of salvation for the world, as represented by Adam and Eve (I am not getting into the speculative arguments about the order of the decrees), and the Son voluntarily agreed to become mankind's Saviour.  He was with God in glory, but in order to redeem the world, He would have to leave the glory of heaven and become flesh, live a pure and spotless life, die the ignominious death of the Cross as a common criminal, be buried in a borrowed tomb, rise again the third day, appear to His chosen disciples for a six week period before ascending into heaven and sit down at the right hand side of His Father.  But, and here's the point: when the Son of God died on Calvary, He died bearing in His own body the son of the world (Jn.1:29).  He took your sin and mine with all its shame and disgrace, and was punished to the limit for it.  And on the Cross, you remember how He cried out in utter anguish, in the words of Ps.22:1, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?"  This was an experience that He had never known before.  His fellowship with the Father was always unbroken and the highest pleasure. But now, He has been forsaken by His Father.  For the first time ever, He is without the Father.  Why?  because He was bearing the penalty of your sin and mine.


Amongst the reasons for doing this is that He wanted mankind to be restored to fellowship with His father again.  In the words of John Calvin (1509-1564) "the Son of God became the Son of Man that the sons of man might become the sons of God."  The design was that man's sin would be taken away (Jn.1:29), so that man might again be with God. 


“The One Who was with God comes to be without God in order that we should be with God,” and that forever!  MacLeod got it just right again.