Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me

Q: What does the Bible say about Jesus being forsaken by God?

The Bible states that Jesus was forsaken by God as He bore the weight of our sins, exemplified in Mark 15:34. In Mark 15:34, Jesus' cry, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' illustrates the profound agony He experienced as our substitute, bearing the wrath of God for our sins. This moment reflects the severity of our sin and the incomprehensible price that Christ paid on the cross. Jesus was made to be sin for us, experiencing abandonment to fulfill the divine justice required for our salvation. As the perfect sacrifice, His suffering and forsakenness were essential to reconcile us with God, allowing us to be accepted through His merits. Theologians throughout history, including Martin Luther, have wrestled with the depth of this mystery. The gravity of Christ's forsakenness signifies not only His suffering but also the depths of our sinfulness, revealing that our salvation comes at a great cost—the sacrifice of God's Son. Therefore, understanding this moment helps us grasp the magnitude of God's love and the seriousness of sin, which could only be addressed through Christ's suffering and sacrifice.

Q: How do we know Jesus’ sacrifice was necessary for salvation?

Jesus' sacrifice was necessary because sin required divine punishment, which only He, being both God and man, could bear. The Scriptures teach us that sin creates a separation between God and humanity, demanding justice and satisfaction. Hebrews 10 articulates that the blood of animals could never take away sins, emphasizing that only a perfect sacrifice could atone for our transgressions. Jesus' role as our Surety perfectly connects with this necessity; He was both fully God and fully man, uniquely qualified to bear the penalty for our sins as our substitute. In Romans 5:19, we see that through Adam's disobedience, all were made sinners, but through Christ's obedience, we are made righteous. By His sacrificial death, Jesus fulfilled both the justice and mercy of God, providing a means for our sins to be forgiven. His death was not just an example of love; it was the fulfillment of God's covenant promise made before the foundation of the world. Thus, His sacrifice is the only sufficient means of redemption, affirming that without it, we would remain eternally separated from God.

Q: Why is understanding Jesus’ obedience important for Christians?

Understanding Jesus’ obedience reveals the perfection required for our salvation, which He fulfilled on our behalf. Jesus’ obedience is paramount in understanding the fullness of our salvation. Theologically, His obedience to God's law was as essential as His death on the cross. In Philippians 2, we see that Jesus became obedient unto death, highlighting that His entire life was a perfect fulfillment of the law. This obedience was necessary so that His righteousness could be imputed to us, as stated in Romans 5:19 where we see that through one man's obedience, many are made righteous. For Christians, this means that our acceptance before God does not rely on our imperfect obedience but is wholly dependent on Christ’s perfect obedience. Recognizing this truth provides believers with deep assurance and confidence in their standing before God—our righteousness is not derived from our works, but from Christ’s flawless obedience. Thus, understanding Jesus’ obedience invites believers to rest in the completed work of Christ rather than relying on their performance.

Q: What does 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' mean for believers?

'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' signifies Christ's suffering and the serious consequences of sin, emphasizing our need for His grace. This profound statement by Jesus encapsulates the depth of anguish He experienced forsaken by the Father while bearing the sins of humanity. It emphasizes the reality of spiritual death as a consequence of sin and illustrates the immense sacrifice made for us. For believers, this moment is both sobering and hopeful; it reveals the holiness of God concerning sin and His righteous demands while simultaneously showing the lengths to which God would go to reconcile us to Himself. Through Christ’s forsakenness, believers can understand the gravity of sin and the great love of God, who provided a means for reconciliation through His Son. This cry also serves as a source of comfort for Christians in their own suffering. Just as Jesus experienced abandonment and pain, believers can find solace in knowing that their Savior understands their trials and deep sorrows. It shows that even in the darkest moments, God is working out His divine plan, and through Christ’s suffering, we have confidence of His unconditional love and the promise of redemption.

preach to you from this statement by our Lord Jesus as he suffered the wrath of God as our shariter when he was made to be sin for us. We have the text before you in Mark chapter 15 and verse 34. The Son of God cried with a loud voice, My God, my God, while hast thou forsaken me. The horrid load of all my guilt was on my Savior's leg. With sin and shame and darkness he for me was once arrayed. While bearing all the wrath of God, forgive, he prayed for me. In love embrace my wretched soul and gave his life for Oh love, amazing love, in Christ God's darling Son, He freely gave His life for me, a sinful, left-young daughter. What can be said concerning this statement by the Son of Man? Believe it, I do. Explain it, I can't. Preach it, I do with gladness. Understand it, I don't. Don't even pretend to.

The more I study, the dying agonies of the Son of God as our substitute, the more I realize how utterly incomprehensible they are. The things recorded in this one statement by our Savior, while it is beyond the comprehension of any man, it contains and expresses greater volumes of gospel truth than all that is written in all the commentaries and theology books back there in my study. Martin Luther, I've often told you, studied this text one time for hours. He sat at his desk and read it and meditated on it and cross-referenced the passages dealing with it.

And when he finished, he sat down and closed his Bible, hit the desk with a thud, and he said, My God, God forsaken of God. No man can understand that. And no man can. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. was forsaken by God his Father and our Father, his God and our God, when he was made to be thin for us, so that we might be forever accepted of God by the merits of his blood and his perfect righteousness.

Now I want to show you three things in this text of Scripture, and then I will try to answer the question why. First, This text says a great deal about our sin. Oh, the exceeding sinfulness. Now, once in the end of the world, we read, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Why? Why did the Son of God, why did that one who is himself God, come into this world in human flesh?

Why did he assume our nature that he might put away sin? because you and I, all of us, are sinners. We are by nature sinners, but that's not the greatest problem. We are sinners by choice and by deliberate effort and action with every breath we take from the time of conscious awareness of what sin is. We choose evil and despise good. That's our nature. That's what we are.

All has sinned and come short of the glory of God, but there's indescribably more in that statement than most people understand. When the apostle tells us by inspiration that we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God, not only did we sin in our father Adam, but we have every one of us willfully with every breath we have drawn from the days we came into this world and until the day we leave this world, it'll be this way. We have transgressed God's holy law in every point. The heart of man is enmity against God. That's the reason for rebellion. That's the reason for all the ungodliness there is in this world.

You young people strike out at mom and dad. I'm going to have my way. I'm going to do my thing. You strike out at law. You say I don't got no right to do this. You strike out at every form of authority. You say you got no right to require this of me. Strike out at employers for one reason. Because you hate God. That's the reason. You hate God. and you hate everything that resembles God in this world, which is the following thing, despise the idea that you are not God.

That's the nature of man. We sin not in order that we become sinners, but rather we sin because we are sinners. That's the nature of man. Not only are we all sinners, and not only have we sinned and do we sin continually, but sin is the cause of all the sickness, all the grief, all the heartache, all the sorrow, all the pain, all the bereavement, all the suffering, all the death there is in this world. A few weeks ago, Audrey Grace was going through a little bit more difficulty with some congestion and sickness. And I wrote to faith and I said, one of the greatest evidences and demonstrations of human depravity, the universality of depravity, is the sickness of those godless babies. Why do they get sick? Because they're sinners. If there weren't sinners, there wouldn't be any sickness. If there wasn't corruption within, there'd be no corruption without. Sin is that which brought the curse, and sin is that which brought all things related to the curse that is upon mankind and upon the earth.

I got a letter last week from a man. His mother's died, and he wrote to me very concerned. He said, For as long as I can remember, it's been a believer, faithful woman. And I've been asking God to heal her and he's not gonna heal her. It's become obvious she's gonna die. Why? And I wrote it back as gently as I possibly could, with as much understanding and sympathy as I could possibly muster for someone I have no knowledge of.

And I said, your mother is sick and she's dying because your mother is a sinner. Now that's the fact, that's the fact. If she is, as you have indicated, a believer, her death will soon make her completely well. But the cause of the sickness, the cause of the death, the cause of the sorrow is sin. So horribly evil is sin that it cannot be put away by anything anybody does except God himself. And even that, Merle, only by the sacrifice of his son. That's what we read in Hebrews chapter 10.

Our Lord Jesus said, because the blood of goats and calves could never take away sin, a body hast thou prepared me. When he was born in the womb of the virgin, the virgin birth is more than just a doctrine. When we declare that Jesus Christ was born in the womb of the virgin, we're telling you that he was conceived immaculately by God the Holy Spirit in the virgin's womb, especially God prepared a special body for him by which he might redeem sinners such as we are. A body without corruption, a body without depravity, a body without sin. And so the Lord Jesus came into this world, a body prepared for him, joined his soul to that body, and lived in this world for us, and died under the penalty of God's law as our substitute to put away sin.

Not all the blood and beast on Jewish altars slain could give the guilty conscience peace or wash away the stain. Those high priests would go in every year and make sacrifices. On the Day of Atonement, they'd offer the Paschal Lamb. Every morning, they'd get up and offer sacrifices. Every night, before they go to bed, they'd offer sacrifices. They'd keep the lights burning constantly in the tabernacle and in the temple.

All of those things showing these two things. Number one, God demands that sin be punished. A sacrifice must be made. And number two, no sacrifice we make will ever take away sin. That's what those ceremonies constantly said. Nothing we do will ever take away sin. No matter how costly, no matter if it is divinely appointed, no matter how serious, no matter how sincere we are, what we do can never give the guilty conscience peace.

Because what we do cannot wash away sin. It cannot. But I'll repent. Repentance won't wash away sin. But I believe, believing won't wash away sin. But I have great faith, great faith won't wash away sin. Nothing but the blood of Jesus Christ can put away sin.

And he, having put away sin, sat down on the right hand of God himself. How come? Because now by his blood he has perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now that's what I see in the text concerning our sin. It is such a horribly indescribably infinite evil against God, that it cannot be put away except by the sacrifice of a man who is himself God.

Now then, let me show you something about our surety. I hear the son of God as he hangs upon the cursed tree, cry my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And as I hear those words fall from the lips of our Emmanuel, I see something of the complete perfection of Christ's obedience to the Father, as I've shown up there.

Now, we recognize that there is no sense at all in which the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God the Son, is secondary or subordinate to God the Father. We understand that. We are Trinitarian. We worship one God in the Trinity. or triunity of his three sacred persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are equal in divinity, equal in eternality, equal in all things without exception. They are one, one God.

And yet, in the covenant of grace, for the accomplishment of our redemption, for the saving of our souls, there is a voluntary subordination within the persons of the sacred trinity. The Son voluntarily becomes Jehovah's righteous servant and the Holy Spirit voluntarily becomes that comforter who is sent into the world by the Son of God as he ascends up into heaven having accomplished redemption for us. So that our Lord Jesus Christ in the covenant of grace became our surety as Jehovah's servant and willingly, voluntarily made himself subject unto his father's will. Now here, as our Savior comes to the end of his days, we hear him cry, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

And thus he comes to the ultimate, complete perfection of his obedience. You see, we could never obey God perfectly. We could never do God's will completely. I could not fulfill the demands of God's holy law and neither could you. But the Son of God became our surety in the covenant of grace and performed in our stead as our federal head, as our legal representative, as our substitute. Everything that God required of us, everything. Turn to Romans chapter 5, Romans chapter 5. I received another letter earlier this week, and the fellow said, where do you get the idea of churitorship and federal headship in the word of God? As in Romans 5, verse 19.

Right here it is, just plain as does on your face. Whether you like it or don't, whether you approve or disapprove, we have senators, elected legal representatives in the Senate of the United States, who this past week represented every one of us. What they did, we did in them representatively. Now whether you like it or not, it's irrelevant. It's a matter of law. It's a matter of law. They represent you, legally. They stand in your stead, legally.

They are your federal heads. Well, in a far, far greater sense, we have two federal heads. All men, by nature, are in Adam, so that when Adam sends, we send in him. Whatever he did, we did in him. So I don't like that. Take it up with God. That's the way it is.

Romans chapter 5 verse 12. Then the Lord Jesus Christ, the last Adam. He is that one who's the representative of God's covenant, chosen people, the elect of God. And here in Romans chapter 5 and verse 19, this is how the apostle Paul declares Christ's obedience.

For as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. That is, we legally were constituted sinners by Adam's disobedience. So by the obedience of one shall many be made legally constituted righteous. Jesus Christ, the righteous one, is that one who obeyed God for us so that his righteousness is imputed to us.

These words, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? are the words of the Son of God in the zenith of his obedience to the Father. He was obedient unto death. Apostle Paul in Philippians 2, as he describes the humiliation of the Son of God, he says he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. That means, Rex, from the time that he took his oath before God as our sheriff there, he said, lo, I come to do thy will, O my God, He became God's obedient servant. And he was obedient with every breath he drew until he finally breathed his last breath and gave up the ghost. Obedient unto death.

You see, we are saved. We are redeemed. We are justified. We're accepted with God, not only by the dying of the Lord Jesus, but also by the doing of the Son of God. His doing was as necessary as his dying. It is not enough merely that we have a satisfaction for sin. It is not enough merely that we have an atonement for sin.

God demands righteousness. God demands obedience. God demands perfection. And the Lord Jesus came here to live before God as our representative to do what we could never do in all the perfection of his obedience. And it is that doing of the Son of God which is imputed to us for righteousness. When the thing was proposed to him in heaven, he said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O my God, yea, thy law is written in my heart. And so this doing of the father's will was as necessary to our salvation as his dying as our substitute. And even when he was totally forsaken by the father, he remained completely obedient.

Do you now trust him? Right where you are, let me ask you, Can you, right now, cast your soul on the merits of the Son of God? Can you? You say, well, preacher, I took care of that when I was a little boy. If that's the case, I'm afraid you never have taken care of it. That's right. That's right. I took care of that when I was 20 years old. If that's the case, I'm afraid you've never taken care of it. No, no. We don't base our hope of acceptance before God on something that happened yesterday or this morning. What are you basing on? Right now, here I am, a sinner. I cast my helpless, guilty, doomed, damned soul on the merits of the Son of God.

I trust Him. Now then, that being the case, Bobby Estes, all that He did is mine. And if you trust Him, all that He did is yours. Everything. All His obedience is our obedience. We obeyed in Him. Just exactly as you and I cast a vote in the Senate this past week in the person of Mitch McConnell, we in the person of the Son of God obeyed the Father's will perfectly in the full perfection of manhood all the days of a man's life. That's righteousness. That's righteousness.

Now then, these words also express the great perfect complete faith of the God-man as our substitute. We are justified by the faith of Jesus Christ. By the faith of Jesus Christ. That's what Paul says in Galatians 2. What on earth does that mean? Our Lord Jesus, Gary, lived on this earth in perfect faith as man. He believed God just like we believe God, only particularly. We couldn't We never could believe God perfectly. We never could believe him as he ought to be believed.

But the son of God, I say he did. He said, my God, my God, in the midst of his greatest trial, in the midst of his greatest agony. Robert Murray McShane made this statement on this passage of scripture. He said, faith is believing the word of God. Not because we see it to be true or feel it to be true, but because God says. Now that's a profound statement. Faith is not believing this book because we can get some scientific or logical or historical evidence and say, now we see that it's true. Faith is not believing God because, well, I feel it so. No, no, no, no. Feelings are deceiving. What is faith?

Faith is believing the word of God because God said it. That's all. That's all. Here is the Lord Jesus Christ, forsaken by his father, cast into outer darkness, suffering the hell of God's wrath, and yet he believed God. He said, thou wilt not leave my soul in hell. He didn't feel it. He couldn't see it, but he believes it and cries, my God, my God. Like Job of old, he said, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Now child of God, this is our surety.

We are often unbelieving. We are often distrustful. How often it is that we have just the slightest thing come up and we fret and worry. We don't believe God. And yet we're saved by faith. By the merit of our faith? Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Sometimes folks say, well, I, you know, I don't have enough faith. If you think you've got enough, you ain't got anyone like that. Well, what are you talking about, Pastor? Steve, I don't trust my faith in Christ. No. I trust his faith as my servant. You understand that? His obedience, his faith, his belief in God, not my belief in God. I cling to him. I rest to him. Sometimes we have some assurance of faith. Sometimes we have just a little faith. Let me see if I can illustrate it for you. Somebody said, well, you know, if you don't have assurance, then you don't have faith. I ain't too sure about that.

That woman with an issue of blood, she comes with a trembling hand. And she says, if I could just touch the hem of his garment, I'd be made whole. And she touched the hem of his garment and tried to hide herself. But she was made whole just like that.

Peter, when he was walking on the water, the Lord Jesus said, Peter, come to me on the water. And Peter began to walk across the water. The waves of a storm raging around him. He walking on water. And that's not a joke. That's so. He's walking on water coming to the Son of God. Just as the man with confident faith walks through the storms of this world unshaken as he believes Christ, walking to Christ. And then we get to looking at the storms. We get looking at the sea.

Now, Peter still had faith, but he didn't have a lot of assurance then. He was sinking. And he cries, Lord, save me, I perish. But he still had faith. It is not the measure of our faith that saves us. The object of our faith is what saves us. And the object of our faith is the Son of God. These words, my God, my God, are words of great exemplary love and devotion as well. You see, loving, devoted hearts sweetly surrender to the will of God, even when it is adverse to our nature and contrary to what we think we desire.

Job lost everything. Boy, that's a, that's a sweeping statement, isn't it? He didn't really lose anything, but it looked like he lost everything. So the preacher, he lost his son. God gave him twice as many as he had before. He lost his daughters, God gave him twice as many as he had before. But he lost his wealth, God gave him twice as much as he had before. But he lost his name, God gave him twice as good a name as he had before. He lost his wife, he said why don't you trust God and die? God gave him twice what he had before.

Everything, everything. Well what did Job do in the midst of all his trials? when everything seemed to be gone when he was covered from head to foot with boils and he was ashamed and he was naked and he was helpless and destitute he had lost everything to the eye of flesh. What'd he do? He bowed his head and worshipped God. He said I came into this world naked and I wouldn't leave this world naked and it doesn't make much difference what goes on in between.

Eli had two sons who were priests in Israel Two sons he raised to be priests. Two sons who took the priest to the office and used it in the most vile manner possible to reprobate sons. And his sons behaved as they did because Eli was an indulgent father and would not discipline his sons. That's what God told him. And he said, now Eli, I'm going to kill your boys and it's your fault. I'm going to kill them and it's your fault. You indulged them. You didn't teach them to fear my name. You didn't teach them to sanctify me.

And this is how Eli responded. It is the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good. That's love and devotion. The Shunammite, whose son had died, when the prophet came and said, is it well with the child? When the child was barely laid in the grave, this is what he said. It is well with the child. Everything's all right.

God's in control. God's in control. But here is love and devotion unrivaled, hanging upon the cursed tree, forsaken by God, his father and our father, his God and our God, without one smile from heaven, without one drop of mercy, without one comfort for his soul, with all the horrendous agonies of hell crushing his very soul. The Lord Jesus Christ loves God, even the God who now forsakes. He doesn't cry out, oh cruel, merciless God. Oh no. He says, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Now then, I see something here also about our sin offering. You see, it's not enough that we recognize our sin. It's not enough merely that we confess our sin. It's not enough that we become obedient or have righteousness. God still demands satisfaction. If Sammy Wall or Sammy Wall's children, Sammy Wall's wife or Sammy Wall's parents would come into the presence of God, you've got to come with a sin offering that God will accept. It's the only way you can come. It's the only way you can come. And here's our sin offering. The Son of God hangs upon the cursed tree and cries, my God, my Why hast thou forsaken me?" When the Lord Jesus was made to be sin for us, he suffered all the consequences of sin as our substitute to the full satisfaction of justice. He suffered the wrath of God for us in all his mediatorial offices as prophet, priest, and king.

Emmanuel suffered in every part of his body. His head, his cheeks, his back, his hands, his feet, his side, every part of his body was made to be a place for torment and agony. Our great Redeemer suffered at the hands of the devil as well as the hands of men. In Psalm 22, he said to the Father, save me from the lion's mouth. And our Lord suffered at the hands of all sorts of men.

He suffered at the hands of Pilate the Roman, the Jews, the high priests, the scribes, the harlots, the drunkards, and he suffered at the hands of his friends who betrayed him with a kiss, his beloved disciples who denied him with an oath, and all of his disciples who in the hour of his greatest agony forsook him. He was derided by the thieves crucified with him. He was derided and mocked, spit upon, and crucified. by many who were the objects of his love. There he was dying for many who dip their hands in his blood. But the depth of his suffering, the hell he is found here in the sufferings heaped upon him by God the Father. And he cries, my God, why?

Who is this one forsaken? Your son whom you just a while ago said this is my beloved son in whom I'm welcome. Me your servant who has come to this place because of my obedience to you. Who forsook him? My God. Our Lord said is it nothing to you? Oh ye that pass by behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me. in the day of his fierce anger. What did the Lord God do with his darling son? Oh, the infinite abyss of hell the Lord Jesus waded through to satisfy the justice of God for us. Without one comfort from God, without any mercy from God, without any acceptance, not even a hint of acceptance from God, without God, he endures the wrath of God for us.

Now why? Because he agreed to it before the world began. He set his face like a flint to go up to Jerusalem. This is what he had sworn he would do as our covenant surety. He had assumed total responsibility for his people and for our sins. And now he's come to pay our debt. Why was he forsaken? Because he was made to do sin for us. who knew no sin, that we might be made a righteousness of God. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Amen.

Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me

What does the Bible say about Jesus being forsaken by God?

How do we know Jesus’ sacrifice was necessary for salvation?

Why is understanding Jesus’ obedience important for Christians?

What does 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' mean for believers?

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Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me

What does the Bible say about Jesus being forsaken by God?

How do we know Jesus’ sacrifice was necessary for salvation?

Why is understanding Jesus’ obedience important for Christians?

What does 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' mean for believers?

Sermon Transcript

About Don Fortner

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