Christ was Forsaken so that We Will Not be Abandoned

No one likes to be abandoned, it shows that we are not important, not cared for, not loved. It is a sign of humiliation and a reason for despair. To be abandoned and forgotten by men is bad enough, but the worst form of abandonment is to be forsaken by God. Yet, ever since the fall of man, we are already separated from the holy God because of our sins. Until Christ our Saviour came to redeem us, then mankind has the hope of being reconciled to God. This Good Friday weekend, let us once again remember Christ’s gracious sacrifice for us.

On the cross, Christ suffered abandonment by God.

(Mt 27:45-46) From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). This was the only time Jesus didn’t address God as “Father”. From this, we can get a sense of the distancing between Father God and Lord Jesus. These words from Jesus echo (Ps 22:1) which says, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?”

Now, at the human level, we often pity Jesus due to the immense pain He had to suffer for our sake. But what was worse than the physical torture Jesus went through was that He was also at the same time suffering the full extent of God’s wrath. God’s unrestrained anger was fully poured upon Jesus who took the place of sinners to bear the punishment for sin. If the desertion by His disciples was bad enough, this abandonment by Father God was painful beyond measure for Jesus.

Christ was forsaken so that His people would not be abandoned.

1) Jesus bore the punishment for our sins.

Our holy God cannot go against His righteous character to simply forgive human sins without any punishment, God’s righteous wrath must be appeased. Thankfully, this holy God is also a gracious God. So instead of pouring His wrath on us sinners as should be the case, God poured all His wrath on His Son, Jesus, who also willingly bore the penalty for the sins of His people. But because all the sins of mankind were laid upon Jesus, He carried the most concentrated density of sin, such that although He Himself is sinless, He became the vilest object of wrath in God’s sight on account of human sins. Therefore, the full measure of God’s wrath was on Jesus.

2) God was so sickened by the magnitude of sin laid upon Jesus that He turned His face away from His Son.

In other words, God hid His presence from Jesus. We know that being in the presence of God is the happiest state one can be in, and the opposite of that, having God’s presence withdrawn from a person, brings the greatest agony. But for the sake of our sins, Christ had to suffer the abandonment of God. In fact, separation from God is the greatest curse, and indeed Christ had become accursed because of our sins. (Gal 3:13, ESV) says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”. The extent of God’s grave punishment demonstrates the severity of our sins. Sin is so detestable to God that God would even forsake His Son and let Him become a curse for us. Jesus didn’t just feel forsaken, He was indeed forsaken! Thus, Jesus suffered for our sins alone, forsaken by men and God. For this, we ought to give Him our deepest thanksgiving, greatest love, and unreserved obedience.

3) Because Christ was forsaken for us, believers shall never be abandoned by God.

Because Christ bore the greatest suffering of being forsaken by God, we who put our faith in Christ shall never be abandoned by God. God has said to those who believe in Him, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Heb 13:5). And Jesus Himself told His disciples, “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am…I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (Jn 14:3, 18). So we see that God will not abandon us who put our trust in Christ. Jesus endured being forsaken by God to save us from separation from God.

Jesus was only forsaken temporarily.

The fact that Jesus could still say, “My God, my God” in His anguish, means that He remained confident in God’s plan and character. Jesus knew that in the end God will lift Him up in glory, as (1 Pe 1:21) says, “Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.” We thank God that Jesus was only forsaken briefly but not permanently. With that, we can also have the assurance that whoever trusts in God will also never be abandoned. When we go back to look at (Ps 22), which started off asking “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, the psalm beautifully ends with:

  You who fear the Lord, praise him!
    All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
    Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
For he has not despised or scorned
    the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
    but has listened to his cry for help. (Ps 22:23-24)

May we therefore have the assurance that since we have Christ as our Saviour, who had for a moment in history suffered the most dreadful divine abandonment on our behalf, God will never forsake us!