“Was the Son forsaken by the Father?”

September 2013 – Grace & Truth Magazine

QUESTION: Some well-known and respected Bible teachers say that the Son was forsaken by the Father. Is this true?

ANSWER: We are treading on holy ground when we consider questions of this nature. It is easy to speak casually or carelessly and thereby give wrong impressions or faulty information about holy things without meaning to do so. To avoid error it is well to stick as closely as possible to the words of Holy Scripture.

The Persons of the Godhead
The Bible teaches us that our God, the only True God, is One God, and yet that there are three Persons ? the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit ? in the Godhead, each with their specific titles and relationships and distinctive roles. Each Person of the Godhead has His special part in the great work of salvation. We want to avoid confusing or confounding these parts. But we should be thankful for the fullness of the work of salvation.

Their Roles in Christ’s Work of Salvation
Among the statements Scripture makes about the distinctive roles of each Person of the Godhead are:

• “And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world” (1 Jn. 4:14 NKJV).
• “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Heb. 9:14).
• “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father” (Jn. 10:17-18).
• “Then Jesus said to them, ‘When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing of Myself, but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things. And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him’” (Jn. 8:28-29).
• “He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, ‘O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will’” (Mt. 26:39).
• “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?’” (Mt. 27:46).

A Seeming Paradox
The Lord Jesus as dependent Man and obedient Son ever pleased the Father in all things and enjoyed full communion with Him who had sent Him into this sinful world to become its Savior. Going to the cross was a part of the pathway the Father had given Him, and it was a part of the pathway He, as obedient Son, took.

As God the Son and as the Holy One of God He could not lightly face the prospect of being made sin (2 Cor. 5:21), and having to face God’s absolute abhorrence of sin. He did not pray to God as God, but asked the Father to let the cup of God’s wrath pass by Him if this would be possible. Notice that He was in perfect fellowship with His Father throughout this ordeal in the Garden of Gethsemane. Even His own will as the holy, dependent Son of Man was submitted to that of the Father.

He submitted to all that was done to Him when taken prisoner in the Garden of Gethsemane, and likewise in each of the mock trials He underwent throughout that dreadful night and early the next morning. He submitted to all the cruelty of the soldiers and to the crucifixion, neither defending Himself nor resisting in any way. He did not answer the taunts of those who reviled Him as He hung upon the cross. He bore God’s wrath during those awful hours of darkness from noon to three o’clock in the afternoon when God, as God, forsook Him, treating Him as though He were sin itself. At the end of those terrible hours we hear His cry, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

Notice, He did not cry, “My Father, My Father, why have You forsaken Me?” He acknowledged God’s holiness, for in the next verses in Psalm 22, where we have His words recorded, it says, “But You are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel” (v.3). God as God had to deal with the sin question. The Lord Jesus as a member of the Godhead was in full agreement with this, while as the holy, perfect, sinless Man He felt most deeply the agony of what it meant to be treated as sin itself, to be forsaken by the thrice-holy God.

Scripture never says that the Father forsook the Son. It does show how fully the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, felt the horror of being forsaken by God while bearing our sins.

The Consequences for Us
In consequence, we who have put our faith in Him and in His work accomplished on Calvary will never be forsaken by God, but will enjoy wonderful fellowship with Him throughout all eternity. But woe to any person who does not receive the Lord Jesus Christ as personal Savior, for such a one will be eternally separated from God in the Lake of Fire with God’s wrath abiding on him forever.

Answered by Eugene P. Vedder, Jr.