My dear readers,

Forsaken by God!

The Word of God gives us seven last sayings of Christ on the cross before He died. One of them is in Mark 15:34: “And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” The parallel passage is in Matthew 27:46: “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” In Mark, Christ said the words in Aramaic-Aramaic-Hebrew-Aramaic, whereas in Matthew, Christ’s words are in Hebrew-Hebrew-Aramaic-Aramaic. The meaning is the same. Christ most likely uttered the words at least twice, as recorded by Matthew and Mark.

The time was the sixth hour, i.e. at noon. Darkness was over the whole land until the ninth hour, i.e. 3.00 pm. The whole land probably referred to the land of Israel. At the ninth hour, Jesus cried, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” This cry is also recorded in Psalm 22:1: “To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?” “To be forsaken” is “to be left helpless.”

In the context of Psalm 22, David grieved because of the persecution he faced from his enemies, like King Saul, who wanted his life. David was innocent, for he did nothing wrong to deserve the ire of the king. Likewise, Christ was innocent, even more so than King David, for Christ was born perfect and lived a perfect life in accordance with all of God's laws and demands. The persecution and crucifixion He endured were the greatest injustice any man could ever experience. Christ came to this world, allowed Himself to be led as a lamb to the slaughter, and fulfilled all of God’s prophecies. Therefore, the words of Christ, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” must be understood in the light of Christ's perfect submission to the heavenly Father’s will.

The eternal love, unity and fellowship between God the Father and God the Son can never be broken or diminished, even in the slightest. The Father-Son relationship can never be hurt or broken, not even in the slightest. This is the premise that must determine how Mark 15:34 should be interpreted.

Jesus addressed God not as “My Father, My Father,” but “My God, My God.” It is not a focus on the Father-Son relationship that prompted Christ to cry out in His moment of great, unimaginable grief as He hung on the cross alone. This cry of “My God, My God,” emphasises a Creator-creature relationship. God the Creator unleashed His wrath on God the Son, who, at that moment in time, carried on His broken body the sins of the world. Wasn’t Christ introduced to us from the beginning of His ministry, at His baptism by John the Baptist, as “the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world?” (cf. John 1:29). It is an emphasis of Christ’s salvific ministry when He took on flesh and blood as revealed in Hebrews 2:14-15: “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; ¹⁵ And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” The devil’s work deceived Eve, who gave Adam the forbidden fruit to eat. The moment Adam ate the forbidden fruit, he plunged all humanity into sin, resulting in death for all humanity as the divine justice of the holy God.

The result of sin is death. The removal of sin restores life in man. Other than angels, only man is capable of sinning against God, for he was made in God's image. Adam, as the federal head of mankind, decided for all humanity. His failure became humanity’s failure to have free will to decide. The result of Adam’s sin is aptly described in Romans 5:12, 18: “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: . . . ¹⁸Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.”

All of mankind is conceived in sin. The moment man begins to exist inside his mother’s womb, he already has original sin inherited from Adam. The evidence is that babies inside the mother’s womb can die. Once sinful man enters the age of accountability, he begins to commit wilful sins to add to his original sin. Two options result from this. Find a perfect person without sin to take upon him all of sinful mankind’s punishment; or sinful mankind faces God's punishment for the sins they commit against Him. The punishment is death and hell, and ultimately, to be cast into the Lake of Fire, a place of great torment and pain for eternity.

God provided the perfect One, without sin, in the Person of His only begotten Son, whom He sent to take on flesh and blood and be exactly like man. To be born like a man and be without sin, Jesus Christ was conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost who came upon Mary as recorded in Luke 1:35: “And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” Christ lived a perfect life in absolute obedience to all of God’s laws on sinful man’s behalf so that when He died for man’s sin and rose from the dead for man’s justification, all who believe in Christ can enter heaven. Not only can man be delivered from the penalty of sin, which is death and hell, they can also be delivered from bondage to sin.

All believers will have the strength and power from God through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to overcome the dominion of sin. In Christ Jesus, they can experience the peace of God in their hearts and be freed from the guilt of sin. When Jesus Christ was on the cross and cried, “My God, My God, why has thou forsaken me?”, it was in light of this work of redemption. He bore the sins of the world upon Him as the God-man. The forsaking, i.e. abandonment, was not the breaking of fellowship or relationship with God but about God not lifting a finger to help or defend or stop Christ’s enemies from persecuting and hurting Him, knowing that He was perfectly innocent. Having examined Christ thoroughly, Pilate publicly declared three times that he found no fault in Christ.

God the Father permitted His only begotten Son to endure the shame and the pain until death on the cross to provide and offer the perfect substitute to suffer and die in sinful man’s place. If sinful man unconditionally surrenders his life and humbly receives Christ as his Lord and Saviour from his heart by confessing his sins before God, God will forgive and save him and wash away all his sins. It will be as if he had never sinned in his entire life. Romans 10:9-11: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. ¹⁰For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. ¹¹For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.”

Since Christ is the God-man who suffered,
died and rose from the dead, His death is of infinite value. From the moment Adam sinned, and when God pronounced the judgment against the old serpent, and that the seed of a woman would bruise the head of the serpent, and in turn the serpent would bruise His heel, God the Father knew that Christ’s coming to earth would culminate in His suffering and death. When that day came, God watched from heaven and permitted all the pain, shame and suffering the sinless Christ had to endure to save man. This was the only way to save sinful man from his sins, and to destroy the work of the devil who deceived Eve and that resulted in Adam’s fall and plunged humanity into sin. If Christ did not come, all human beings would find themselves in hell when they die. There would be no exception. No human would enter heaven, and all would justly be cast into hell according to the divine justice of God.

The nature of man’s sins against God is so heinous and grievous that the only way to deliver him from his bondage to sin is for God's only begotten Son to be forsaken by God as He was dying in our place so that God will not forsake anyone who sincerely believes and receives Christ as Lord and Saviour.

It should be every believer’s God-given response to never forsake God in all that he does, and to live only for Christ and never for himself. The reason is he has experienced the significant impact of God forsaking His only begotten Son so that God might not forsake him! No truly born-again believer should be so ungrateful!