Forsaken and Salvation
What does it mean to be forsaken by God?
For my independent research, I sought out an answer to a question no one truly wants to know the answer to. To have the Heavenly Father turn away from you, ignore you, leave you alone in this world. Biblically speaking, it has only happened once. To the only person who could handle it, for He is both man and God; Jesus Christ. In his last hour of life, he cries out “Eloi, eloi! Lama sabachthani!” (My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me?) (1) So what does it look like to be forsaken by God?
To communicate my findings, I decided to create a “multi-media event.” I created signs that utilized both verses out of the Psalms and my own discussion. The main idea I wanted to communicate was that to be forsaken by God means to feel the wrath of God. (2) And because Jesus felt the wrath, we do not have to. Which is one of the reasons this verse is not condemning; it’s the idea of the sacrificial lamb. God could forsake us, because let’s face it; we suck. Humans, by nature, are unworthy of God’s love, and He has every right to turn His back on us.
But He doesn’t! God loves us too much! God forsook Jesus because that is the cost of our sin. Jesus felt the wrath for us; which is why we can live now. And proves that God reigns; He overcame sin.
In my initial reading of Mark 15:34, I thought that perhaps God forsook Christ because He couldn’t bear to look at Jesus suffering. Jesus was perfect and sinless. And all of the world’s sin was upon Him. Psalm 22 is a prophetic psalm of the crucifixion; it states the even in the midst of suffering, everyone who fears the Lord still praises Him. “For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him, but has listened to his cry for help.” (1) God had forsaken Christ, but He still heard his cry, and Christ will still suffer for us. (2) Because Christ knew who he was calling to, and so did everyone standing on Golgotha.
My analysis did not take into account that fact that Jesus had to really suffer for our sins. Because the wages of sin is death, but the gift of Christ had to bring us eternal life. In Reverend Lenski’s Interpretation of Mark, he brought up that for God to forsake you, meant you had to feel the wrath of God. Jesus took upon the wrath of God; it was part of the salvation process.
So this means; the lamb of God…
Took the wrath of God…
So we could have the love of God…
Without the death that comes from sin.
That is why Jesus had to be forsaken. It was horrible, and brutal; it caused pain, it caused agony, it caused death. But through this process, it brought life. And therefore, God saw it as necessary.
1) The Holy Bible- English Standard Version
2) Interpretation of St. Mark's Gospel- R.C.H. Lenski
Created about 3 years ago
