While I was in Hot Springs for the Cornerstone graduation we had a very good time of fellowship which at one point included a time of singing. One of the songs we sang was “It is Well.” The words of that hymn have come to mean a great deal to me as I have learned of the circumstances under which they were written. For those unfamiliar with the story, “It is Well” was written by Horatio Spafford as he dealt with the loss of his 4 daughters. Some sources cite that Spafford had actually lost his son just a few short years earlier. Even so, this man could still say “Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,It is well, it is well, with my soul.”
As we were singing this song, I was thinking about the loss that was felt by Horatio and his wife. From the depths of his grief, Horatio turned to Christ and the truth of His accomplishment on the cross. What a humbling thought. As I just meditated upon these things I began to think about God and specifically how He relates to loss. Hebrews 4:15 tells us that “we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are.” This is often related to the fact that Christ was tempted and yet without sin as the verse obviously states, but I believe that it goes further than that. The high priesthood of Christ has to do with compassion for our weakness; it has to do with the sympathy of understanding that can come only by experience. It is a comfort to know that when we struggle with sin and temptation, Christ has struggled in the same way and knows the difficulty of residing in a weak flesh. But what about the times when we are dealing with loss? Does He really know what we are going through? Has He been there? The answer is without question: YES!
To understand the parallels between God and man in feeling loss, we must first articulate the perception of loss. In short, what makes loss so emotionally traumatic is the reality of separation. We cannot bear to lose someone because of the fact that we are separated from them. In our grief it might be easy for us to turn away from God saying “He may understand suffering but He doesn’t know what it’s like to lose someone.” On the contrary, throughout the Bible we see that God has experienced loss and He has experienced it to an extent that we will never know. The greatest example of this is the sacrifice of Christ. Matthew 27:46 says that “Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” As Jesus hung on the cross, He was separated from the intimate fellowship of the Father because of the sins that He bore. Just as no human is corporeally changed in death, neither was Jesus any less God as He died on the cross. Just as we do not cease to love those whom we lose, neither did God cease to love Christ as He took upon Himself the penalty of our sin. But, just as we are separated from the fellowship of those we love by physical death, so was Christ separated from the Father as the sins of men were laid upon His shoulders. Isaiah 53:5 tells us that Christ “was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.” It was because Jesus bore our sins that He was separated from God the Father; His fellowship with the Father had been severed by the weight of sin.
Have you ever considered what Christ’s sacrifice truly encompasses? The physical aspect of Christ’s suffering is enough to make us quiver but what about His loss of fellowship with God? The intimacy of the relationship between God the Father and Christ goes so much deeper than anything a human has ever known, yet God still allowed it to be broken. Severance from the presence of God was part of the punishment that Christ had to bear for our sin; it is a part of what makes sin so horrible. So, just as we experience the severance of a relationship as a result of death, so God’s relationship with His Son was broken by the weight of our sin upon Him. He experienced that loss so that our losses can be restored. When we lose someone dear to us, we can have a confidence in knowing that our Lord knows what we are going through because He has experienced a loss far greater: being severed from the presence of God. It is because Christ was forsaken that we never will be.
As we see our own losses in light of the cross, they pale in comparison. As believers, we will never have to know what severance from the presence of God is like; we will never have to know more than temporal separation; we will always have that intimate relationship with Christ. Jesus Christ knew the ultimate loss so that we would never have to. To me, that puts it into perspective.
