[continued]
So now we can look at our Lord’s cry of dereliction.
‘Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the sixth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” Which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”‘ (
Mark 15:33-34).
We will first look at the supernatural darkness that came over the land. There are several places in the O.T. where darkness denotes God’s wrath and judgement, especially connected to the ‘day of the Lord,’ e.g.
Joel 2:31;
Amos 5:18-20;
Zephaniah 1:14-15 and particularly
Isaiah 13:9-11 (quoted in
Mark 13:24-25). so the darkness indicates the righteous anger of God, but against whom? The Lord Jesus Himself tells us that it is against Himself as the sin-bearer.
‘Then Jesus said to them, “All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written, ‘I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered'”‘ (
Mark 14:27). The quotation is from
Zechariah 13:7 and makes it perfectly clear that God Himself is the One who will strike the Shepherd. The Lord Jesus was made sin, and God’s righteous anger against sin was poured out upon Him instead of us, with His full knowledge and consent.
We now come to the dereliction of Christ. As I have said elsewhere, I cannot possibly accept that
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me” can possibly be read as “My God, My God, You haven’t forsaken Me.” Nor can I accept that David, who is described as a prophet in Acts 2:30, was actually a false prophet in that he made an error in Psalm 22:1 (c.f.
Deuteronomy 18:20-22). Nor is it a case of ‘God forsaking God’ any more than God prays to God (e.g.
John 17). The Son prays to the Father, although the Father does not pray to the Son, and on the cross, the Father temporarily forsakes the Son.
I know that some people find this hard to accept, but it must be true because the Holy Spirit has preserved His words for us.
“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning? O My God, I cry in the daytime, but You do not hear; and in the night season, and am not silent” (
Psalms 22:1-2). Although it was 3 o’clock in the afternoon, it was the ‘night season’ for darkness had fallen upon the land, as if to hide the shame of the God-man made sin. For those hours, as a Man, He was quite literally God-forsaken. To be sure, we need to be careful here. We must not suggest that the Father was not present at Calvary for the very good reason that He is Omni-present.
‘”Do I not fill heaven and earth?” Declares the LORD’ (
Jeremiah 23:23-24; c.f.
Psalms 139:7-12). Rather it means that the Son, who had enjoyed the constant and closest possible relationship with His Father, now lacked completely any sense of His presence until the sun appeared once more and He cried,
“It is finished!” The Greek word
tetelestai can also mean, ‘It is paid’ (c.f.
Matthew 17:14) or ‘it is accomplished (c.f.
Luke 9:31). In fact, our Lord’s cry meant all those things. The ransom was paid in full, reconciliation between Man and God was accomplished, and His suffering was about to be ended. This agrees with
Psalms 22:21b;
'You have answered Me.' The Father heard the Son's cry and deemed that atonement had been made
This forsaking of Christ is an integral part of the atonement. Christ
‘is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him.’ His is a complete salvation. I shall not be condemned for my sins because Christ was made sin for me. I shall not suffer the pains of hell because Christ has suffered them on my behalf on the cross. I shall not be shut out from the presence of God (
2 Thessalonians 1:9) because Christ was shut out from the felt presence of His Father on my behalf.
