Never Alone

Janie and I met as teenagers.

She walked with me through my infertility, and I supported her through her years of singleness. We both became ministry wives, then mothers. Janie seemed to be made for mothering. She was the one I turned to when my son was little and I was unsure how to deal with diaper rash or what to do about teething.  

I celebrated with her when she called me to tell me the good news: baby number three was due in November. But, four months later, the phone rang with the news that her baby was dead. He had died in the womb—had stopped moving and growing without notice. 

Living out of state, I couldn’t be with Janie in the hospital when she delivered her lifeless son and made friends with a grief that I hope never to meet personally. The next day, though, I sat in her living room and wept with her. I gripped her hands but didn’t know how to help to hold her grief. She spoke first. “I’m so grateful I don’t have to go through this alone,” she said to me. “Jesus suffered on the cross alone so that I would never have to suffer alone.” 

I was paralyzed by her confession. I had come to offer compassion and hope, but now I sat dumbfounded by the truth she had spoken. How had I missed this huge piece of what was accomplished at the crucifixion? The segregation of man and God was resolved at the cross when Jesus bore the full brunt of God’s wrath for our sin. And because it was finished then and there, the redeemed will never, ever experience that separation. 

Janie didn’t suffer alone, because Jesus suffered in her place on the cross. This is grace upon grace—the gift of presence upon the gift of salvation. Jesus accomplished both at the cross. The apostle Paul affirmed this truth with poetic punch: 

He did not even spare His own Son but offered Him up for us all;
how will He not also with Him grant us everything?
Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect?
God is the One who justifies. 
Who is the one who condemns?
Christ Jesus is the One who died, but even more, has been raised;
He also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.
Who can separate us from the love of Christ?
Can affliction or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
As it is written: Because of You we are being put to death all day long;
we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.
No, in all these things we are more than victorious through Him who loved us.
For I am persuaded that not even death or life, angels or rulers,
things present or things to come, hostile powers, height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord! (Rom. 8:32–39) 

Grieving with hope, my friend spoke gospel truth to me that day while her life broke apart around her. She wasn’t alone in her suffering. God was with her—really with her—in every moment of her grief, because Jesus had climbed on the cross alone, borne her sin alone, and died alone. His resurrection meant that she had hope for her own resurrection. And she could hope for the resurrection of her baby boy, for whom there is no pain or suffering anymore—only light and life with Christ. 

Jesus’s solitary suffering cannot be overstated, for in it is the great exchange that takes place for the redeemed. Each of us must answer for this deep, sin-wide chasm between ourselves and the God who made a way to bridge the chasm. There are only two options. Either we bear the weight of our own sin in an eternity that will be forever divorced from His loving presence, or we believe that the forsakenness of Christ alone on the cross was enough for our redemption so that we may enjoy the presence of God both now and forever. 

Do you believe not only that you need Jesus’s payment for your sins but that His payment is enough for you and for the deepest need of your heart? You do not have to face an eternity alone without His loving presence, and you do not have to walk through suffering alone. Jesus suffered the brunt of God’s wrath so that you might know the presence of that same God who is both fire and fury as well as faithfulness and love. We couldn’t bridge the chasm—but it was always His plan to be the bridge Himself. It was always His plan to lay down His life and take it up again.  

Our hope is upheld by the power of the resurrection. 

__________________________

This is an excerpt from my book, The Promise is His Presence: Why God is Always Enough. Order your copy today. 

The segregation of man and God was resolved at the cross when Jesus bore the full brunt of God’s wrath for our sin. And because it was finished then and there, the redeemed will never, ever experience that separation. Share on X

Photo by Kristina Tripkovic on Unsplash