Ben Gatrelle

Why Have You Forsaken Me? Part 2

Review Part 1, Let God's Truth Rule Your Heart where we see how Christ on the cross was once again being an example to us in how we should not let our emotions or feelings rule over us and lead us to places contrary to the truth of God.

When we hear a doctrine or teaching we should not just accept it without first reading the Bible and researching and praying about it. Paul writes to Timothy, the younger minister, and tells him to "study to show thyself approved, rightly dividing the Word of Truth." As you read this article, my prayer is that you will come to it with an open mind and, testing it with prayer, determine if I am "rightly dividing" God's truth about Christ on the cross, God's purpose for Him, God's nature and how he deals with a world filled with the sinful acts of sinful humanity.

Let's begin by looking at Jesus on the cross. It's the central event in the history of the world through which God openly triumphed over Satan, where he bruised the head of the devil, whereby he reconciled the world to God. "...having forgiven you all trespasses; Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it [the cross]" (Colossians 2:13-15).

The cross is the triumphal moment of all of the works of God. It is the pivotal corner around which the whole world turns. Revelation 13:8 says Christ was "the lamb slain from the foundation of the world." He was made to suffer and die the death of the cross. Hebrews 2:9-10 says, "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." This is what it was all about. Jesus was born to die on the cross.

And he came to the cross obedient to the will of the Father. "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 is set down at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:2). He didn't care about the shame and condemnation of the cross, because of the joy before him, because through this act he brought many sons (us) into glory (right relationship with God). Yet the scriptures say that everyone who hangs on a tree is cursed.

"He [Messiah] is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted" (Isaiah 53:3-4).

He was despised and rejected by men and WE hid our faces from him. We thought he was rejected by God "stricken, smitten, afflicted." But Isaiah doesn't say that he was actually rejected by God. In fact it says the complete opposite. Rather than being rejected by God, it was God's pleasure to sacrifice Christ on the cross. "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed... Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief" (Isaiah 53:5, 10).

It pleased the Lord to bruise him?!? All of the affliction, all of the sins of the world on him, all of the wounding, the pain and suffering and death and God merely calls it bruising? This phrase should remind you of the first Messianic prophecy from Genesis 3. "And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed... And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel" (vs 14-15).

Isaiah says that we hid our faces from Christ. We despised him. We rejected him. We condemned him. Our sins were laid upon him, and he who knew no sin, somehow in some mysterious way, became sin for us. He took on the curse of sin and became the sacrifice, perfect in all his ways, and paid the price for our sin, even the death on the cross.

Yet there is a common belief in the church that the Father looked away from Jesus on the cross, because, the teaching goes, Jesus had all the sins of the world on him and the Father couldn't look at Jesus with all that sin. To determine if this is a true statement we must see what the scriptures say about how God sees and deals with the sinful acts of sinful humanity. What does the scripture actually say about God seeing sin?

Jude 1:15 "[The Lord comes] to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him."

Genesis 6:5 "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."

Psalm 7:11 "God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day."

Psalm 28:3-5 "Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbors, but mischief is in their hearts. Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavors... Because they regard not the works of the LORD, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up."

How can God see the wickedness of men, be angry with the wicked every day, how can he judge the ungodly, if he cannot see sin? Has God seen your sins and the need for an atoning sacrifice? Has God seen the sins of individuals, of groups of people, of one nation, or in one place? In one time or through all time? The answer from scripture is that God sees all sin. Every sin that all mankind has done or will ever do is before God. In his foreknowledge he saw our sin from the foundation of the world. Individually and collectively. He knew that there could be no reconciliation without the sacrifice. To say that Christ "became sin for us" (2 Corinthians 5:21) should not be a reason why God the Father had to look away.

An important question to ask is, does the scripture say anywhere that God the Father turned away from Jesus on the cross? Was he forsaken? The answer is in Psalm 22 which Jesus was referencing on the cross when he quoted the first verse crying out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

In Psalm 22 Christ cries out to God, be not thou far from me, haste thee to help me, save me, deliver me, and then he begins to praise God. Why? "For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard" (vs 24). It specifically says God did NOT hide his face from Christ on the cross.

We esteemed him stricken and smitten of God according to Isaiah. We assumed God rejected him. We despised him. We turned our face away and assumed God would do the same. But NO! It pleased God to do this. God planned it all, saw it all, watched it all, put it all on the Son of God, the incarnation of God in the flesh, and won the battle. He was "justified in the Spirit [and] seen of angels" (1 Timothy 3:16).

Revelation 12: 7-11 "And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceives the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation [because of the cross], and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ [manifest in his selfless sacrifice on the cross]: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death."

Jesus was the victorious sacrifice for all sins for all time. It was clearly a difficult time for him. Even in the garden leading up to the cross he knew it would be difficult and asked the Father to deliver him. I believe that Jesus knew the scriptures about himself. On the cross Christ, like us in times of emotional stress, was feeling like God had forsaken him and turned his face away, but the Father brought this Psalm to mind to remind Jesus that he was not forsaken. He was walking in God's perfect will, and God had his hand upon him.

The truth is that God did not forsake Christ, nor has he forsaken you.