God Did Not Forsake Jesus
Video link at the bottom of the page.
1. Introduction
This study will find that God did not forsake Jesus on the cross. Many teachers talk about how God turned His back on Jesus whilst Jesus hung on the cross, quoting, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me” as proof. However, this comes from not realising the Jewish culture of the time. In this study, we will find precisely the opposite; God never forsook Him, instead was inside Him, reconciling the world with Jesus.
2. A Good Father Would Not Forsake Jesus While He Died
A. The Goodness of the Father.
Central to the gospel is the goodness of the Father to His children.
The gospel means- Good News!
And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people.
Matthew 4:23
In this verse, Jesus is preaching the gospel. The gospel includes healing the sick. The character of Jesus is also the character of the Father.
who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
Hebrews 1:3
B. God is Unchanging.
We learnt that God is unchanging in His character. Therefore if God is constant, He must remain fair in His judgements. God is not just to judge His only begotten Son by proclaiming corporal punishment against Him who had not sinned. It also raises whether God will forsake us if He forsook Jesus. If reformed theology is correct and God rejected Jesus, we cannot trust God to keep His promise by never abandoning us.
Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5
It is essential to understand the principle of this teaching because, in the eyes of the seeker, the question is asked: ‘Can I trust a Father who would turn His back on His Own Son?’
3. Would our Heavenly Father Forsake Jesus by Killing Him?
A. Reformed Theology: God turned His back on Jesus!
The teaching that God turned His back on Jesus is a central doctrine in Reformed and some Pentecostal evangelism. This teaching focuses on God’s wrath against sinners because He is infinitely holy, and humankind is essentially evil. Yet the Bible recognises that God sees the goodness of man and, on occasion, will choose someone because they are good (e.g. Cornelius and Job). God being wrathful is hardly news that instils hope of a loving Father in people’s minds seeking the truth.
B. God Punished Jesus – His only Begotten Son!
Reformed teaching also claims that God punished Jesus.
The scripture used to ‘prove’ the theory of God punishing Jesus is Jesus’ comment on the cross: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” We will look at why this is a misinterpretation in Section 5 below.
To punish is to impose suffering, or penalty, or harshly treat someone; to handle roughly, damage or hurt.
So to use the word punish; is a wrong interpretation of propitiation, which means appeasement.
We look at propitiation in Propitiation – Mercy, Not Punishment.
God did not punish Jesus nor punish His children; instead, God disciplines us.
4. If Christ Abides in the Father, How Can the Father Kill Him?
A. The Father was in Jesus.
Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.
John 14:10
In other words, Father God was on the cross with Him as He died. The Father never died because He is a spirit.
God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
John 4:24
B. The Father was in Jesus on the Cross!!!!
that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
2 Corinthians 5:19
Therefore God did not forsake Jesus on the cross.
5. Did the Father Forsake Jesus During His Greatest Time of Need?
A. “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me.”
On the cross, Jesus quoted Psalm 22:1
My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
Why are You so far from helping Me,
And from the words of My groaning?Psalms 22:1
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
Matthew 27:46
As I indicated earlier, reformed and pentecostal theology generally teaches that God forsook Jesus on the cross. However, we need to think through the minds of the Jews whom Jesus was addressing.
B. Jesus Spoke in the Syrian-Chaldaic Language Specifically to the Jews.
The language Jesus used was the Syro-Chaldaic language – the common language used by the Jews in the time of Christ. It is the first stanza of the twenty-second Psalm. He spoke in the Syro-Chaldaic language because He was addressing the Jews.
C. The First Stanza of a Psalm to the Jews was Significant.
It was the practice of the Jews to speak the first words of a Psalm to bring the Psalm to mind. The listeners would then recite the rest of the Psalm. Hebrew and Christian scholars consider as a Psalm about the suffering Messiah.
D. God was Near Jesus on the Cross:
In the same Psalm, David clarifies that God heard him and was looking at Jesus on the cross! That God can look upon Jesus is opposite to everyday reformed and pentecostal theology, where God turns His back on God because He cannot look at sin. God can look at sin. Jesus did!
For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;
Nor has He hidden His face from Him;
But when He cried to Him, He heard.Psalms 22:24
We already know from 2 Corinthians 5:19 that Father was very close indeed!!!
that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
2 Corinthians 5:19
Psalm 22 then says that God did not forsake Jesus.
E. Jesus was FEELING forsaken, He was not forsaken.
Was Jesus telling the truth about feeling forsaken? Of course – Jesus does not lie. He was on the cross in His humanity as well as His divinity. As the Son of Man, Jesus was feeling very much alone. He was dying for humanity’s sins, diseases and torments.
Have you ever felt like God has forsaken you? Yet we know:
Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5
So although He was feeling forsaken, He was not. God did not leave Jesus, and He will never leave you, even though at times it feels like He does.
6. Jesus Experienced the Consequences of Sin.
Besides letting the listeners know that what they were observing was the fulfilment of Psalm 22, He was also experiencing the consequences of sin. One of those consequences is loneliness. Another is discouragement, and another is shame. However, because Jesus never sinned, he did not experience guilt.
7. Abba Father Then Raised Him and Enthroned Him.
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:2
In summary, God did not forsake Jesus on the cross. He will not leave you when you go through your most significant trials. God was in Jesus on the cross, and He is in you too!
© Use by Permission Awakening Impact Ministries/ Dr Neville van Eerten 2022
