Did God Really Forsake Jesus?
Jesus’ cry from the cross has for centuries been
interpreted by the church to mean that the Father forsook Jesus, turned his
face from him and left him to face the cross by himself because God couldn’t
look upon sin. But is that true? Did the Father actually forsake Jesus and turn
his back on him?
As we read those words of Jesus in scripture a seed question becomes planted in
our minds – if he forsook Jesus will he turn away from us? I want to look at
both of those things in this article – did he forsake Jesus and will he forsake
us?
If we take the words of Jesus at face value we might believe that God abandoned
Jesus on the cross, however if we look at other scriptures and understand some
cultural things we actually begin to see something different.
In scripture we find quite a few verses in the Old Testament that seem to
indicate that while God promised not to forsake Israel Deut 4:31 he then goes
back on his word and does forsake them. But does he actually forsake them or
does their sin have consequences; are they are reaping what they have sown?
Here are some of those verses for you to check out – Deut 31:16-18; 1Ki
6:11-13; Neh 9: all esp 30 ,31; Is 59:2; Is 54:8.
Let’s look at how God dealt with Jesus because that has a huge significance for
us and our lives.
Throughout his lifetime Jesus made some interesting claims.
John 10:30, “I and my Father are one.” That reality was never rescinded before,
during or after the cross.
In John 14:9 -11 Jesus says four times that he and the Father are in each
other. v9 “He that has seen me has seen the Father.” 10 “Do you not
believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say
to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does
His works.” 11 “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in
Me.”
In speaking of his coming death, Jesus believed the Father would not leave him
to face it alone.
John 8:28,29 Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man,
then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself…. 29 And he
that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone.
John 16:32, Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be
scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not
alone, because the Father is with me.
Then we come to those famous words on the cross… My God, my God why hast thou
forsaken me (Matt 27:46)
Did God really turn his back on Jesus and forsake him or was something quite
different from what the words seem to imply actually happening. I believe that
something different was happening.
Why?
Because God is good (Mk 10:18), He is love (1Jn 4:8) He is faithful (Deut 7:9)
cannot be false to his word or who He is and His mercy triumphs over judgment
(James 2:13)
Jesus perfectly fulfilled all the law and obeyed all Gods commandments so God
couldn’t go back on his word and forsake Jesus. God said to the children of
Israel that if they obeyed his laws then he would never leave nor forsake them.
Jesus himself believed the Father would
not leave him or forsake him as seen earlier in this article.
Paul says in 2 Cor 5:19 …God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them. God was IN Christ, they were
one, and so he hung there too. The Amplified Bible says it like this “It was
God [personally present] in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to
favor with Himself, not counting up and holding against [men] their trespasses
[but cancelling them], and committing to us the message of reconciliation (of
the restoration to favor).”(AMP)
Although mankind has felt abandoned or forsaken by God since the supposed ly fall,
he was not. Col. 1:21 Even before
mankind was created God made provision for the possibility of the supposed fall,
even then he decided he would never forsake us. Scripture tells us that Jesus
was the lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8)
Jesus, as fallen man, was identifying with us, taking on our sin; our grief,
our confusion and the inaccurate feeling of abandonment by God that mankind had
suffered since the fall. He was not speaking out of his feeling of abandonment,
he knew God was with him, he was speaking out of ours. You might be thinking
but the Bible says our sins have separated us from God and hidden his face from
us (Is 59:2) Note here it is sin that does the separating, sin that hides Gods
face from us making us not able to see him1 not God hiding himself from us
because of sin. It is sin that is the bad guy not God. God has not forsaken or
abandoned us because of our sin.
Another thing that was happening at that point was something that would be yet
another indicator to all present there at the cross, that Jesus was in fact the
Messiah, the long awaited one. A teaching practice in those days was that the
teacher / rabbi would say the first verse (as we know them) of a Psalm or
passage and the listeners would know what was coming, where the teacher was
going by quoting that verse.
Those words “My God, my God why have you forsaken me” are a quote of the first
verse of Ps 22 – the prophetic, messianic, psalm of deliverance written by
David that begins with that cry but goes on to say that God hasn’t despised him
or his cry, he has not hidden his face from him, he has heard when he cried to
him; and the passage ends with the declaration “they shall come and proclaim
his righteousness because he has done it!“ In other words “It is
finished” he has delivered us! David is telling us ahead of time that the
Father will not turn his face from Jesus and Jesus refers the Jews back to that
passage of deliverance by using this phrase.
Most of those Jews listening would know that Jesus was referencing the entire
passage especially any Pharisees or Sadducees there. They knew their scriptures
and were familiar with the Messianic prophecies. For those that heard this cry
aright, they would have heard that Jesus did not feel forsaken; they would have
heard that he was proclaiming hope and deliverance.
Yes there were some who did not get that, who thought he was crying out to
Elijah but those possibly were not even Jews and while we can’t know that for
sure we do know that there were many people there from different nations. Any
Jew listening would have known that Eli means “My God” not “Elijah” so they
would not be likely to have made that comment.
Now to the other question – will God forsake us? I recently received an email
from a woman who wrote that she had been through a hard time over the last few
years, losing their business and much more in the economic crash. A friend had
that day given her a verse (to help her make sense of her circumstances). It
was Isaiah 54:8 – In anger I turned away from you for a moment etc.
As his children, does God get angry with us and forsake us this side of the
cross?
No he doesn’t ever forsake us, not for any reason!
What about when we sin?
In Jesus God forgave every sin even future ones. To be honest, when Jesus died,
every sin you or I would commit was a future sin. And God forgave us ahead of
time! Even when you do sin today you are already forgiven and there is no
condemnation (Rom 8:1). God cannot condemn you, to do so would mean he would
have to discount Jesus work on the cross. He cannot turn his back on you – to
do so would be to deny his word and he would have to take back his forgiveness,
making him a liar. You are forgiven, totally, eternally already forgiven!
My thoughts are that those verses from Isaiah have no place in a New Covenant
believers life other than to show us how different our covenant is to the old
Covenant that God had with the Jews.
As New Covenant believers in Christ it simply isn’t true of us in our
relationship with the Lord. He will never leave us, forsake us or turn his face
from us because of anger toward us!
He says in Matt 28:20 Lo I am with you always, even to the end of the world.
And in Heb 13:5 …for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
Scripture is clear that we are now joined to God in such a way that we are one
spirit with him – 1Co 6:17. God cannot separate Christ or us from himself – we
are now in Him and one spirit with him.
Nowhere in the New Testament does it say that God will or does forsake us. That
God will forsake us is a strategically planted lie of the Devil who delights in
blinding us to the truth in scripture and the truth of who God is. He will
never leave us nor forsake us. He will not turn his back on us or abandon us in
our hour of need just as he did not abandon Jesus.
God’s promises to us of his continuing presence, goodness and provision for
every area in our lives are too numerous to mention here, but I want you to
know that if bad things do happen to you or you do sin, God has not and will
not ever leave you or forsake you. He longs to give you peace, wisdom and
strategy for your circumstances and to turn your circumstances into good for
you (Rom 8:28) because that’s who he is and that’s what he has promised!
We
look at this in the light of Eternal Identity and I’ve asked the question
before. When did God ever forsake us since we were created in Him from the
beginning? NEVER!!
New Living Translation So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and
do not panic before them. For the LORD your God will personally go ahead of
you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you." Deut. 31:8
Hebrews 13:5 Young's Literal Translation (YLT)
5 Without covetousness the behavior, being content
with the things present, for He has said, `No, I will not leave, no, nor
forsake you,'
Since Christ was in God, One,
there was no departure. Same with us we are in Christ, never forsaken.
So what of……. God will never
leave us or forsake us do we not understand?
I and my Father are One!
