This cry of Jesus from the cross is very personal. Yet, it is in behalf of all humankind. Jesus cried out to his Father as he did on all occasions prior throughout his ministry. As the eternal Son of God, he had always known fellowship within the Trinity. There had never been any occasion or reason for separateness until when he cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
In the first part of this question Jesus showed his affinity to the Heavenly Father. He demonstrated his personal relationship on a divine plain. If this were not so, Jesus could never be identified as the Messiah. For all verses in the Bible that align Jesus to the love of God he must be seen as the one sent from heaven. No one else could fill this position of eternal affection for his creation. The first Adam was the ambassador of sin. The second Adam was the ambassador of forgiveness. Within the depths of his heart our Lord calls out to the One that chose him to be the only one who could reconcile sinful man to the divine God.
But his cries, were not a statement, not a complaint, but a question. Like all of us who are so tempted in problematic times, he asked why. Was it a surprise to Jesus that he found himself separated from God? Was it something he did not take into consideration when in the history of eternity, he agreed to be the Christ? Neither of these are the case! We must remember that Jesus took our place on the cross. He experienced the extreme of punishment so that we would not have to experience it. As part of his murder, Jesus probably knew ahead of time that terrible things were going to happen to him.
On the cross Jesus experienced the separation, from any form of blessing or presence from the eternal Father. He suffered for us in extreme form. At the moment he cried out, Christ took our position of what it would be like in hell with eternal punishment. Those people who reject salvation and find themselves in hell experience an absence of any form of God’s presence. This is beyond our capability to realize what that would be like on this side of death. This is also something we do not want to realize on the other side of death. A total and complete unawareness of God that we so easily take for granted in this life will be absent in hell.
Try to comprehend what bounty we enjoy because of God’s goodness as we walk our paths in this world. Anything and everything that is good for us comes from God. Any form of rescue or solution comes from God. The air we breathe, the food we eat, the beauty we see, the fellowship of others, the warmth of the sun, the fascination of the stars, and the joy of our hearts all comes from God. In hell these things will not be present. The one who denies Jesus is the one that will cause himself to be separated from any and all of God’s blessings while in hell.
Since Jesus has taken place on the cross and has experienced punishment against sin in our behalf, no wonder that he cried out, “…. Why have you forsaken me?” It was a strange experience for him to have a cloud of separation between him and the Heavenly Father. While taking our place on the cross, he experienced that for us. He knew what it would be like in hell to be separated from anything that is divine. He experienced the magnitude of what it would be like to be cut off completely from God in our behalf. He cried out for all to hear the question he asked whose answer was within our own thoughts and heart. The lesson we can learn from these few words of Jesus on the cross are dynamic. Hell is a place of absolute and total separation from God and any blessing he has provided on earth. In that brief moment Jesus knew what it was like as a substitute for us in every way possible.
Christian Writer 