JOSEPH W. TKACH
PASTOR GENERAL

June 1988

Dear Friend:

Thank you for your question concerning Matthew 27:46 and whether or not the Father really forsook Jesus.

Yes, God DID forsake His Son while He hung on the cross. It is important to understand why.

Except for Jesus Christ, all humans have sinned (Rom. 3:23). Sin, the breaking of God's law, requires the penalty of death: "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6:23).

Sin also cuts one off from God: "Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him" (John 9:31, RAV). Isaiah wrote: "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear" (Isa. 59:1-2, RAV).

Nevertheless, when one does repent -- change, turn around, go the right way, and overcome -- God will hear and answer that person's request.

Did Jesus sin? Is that the reason the Father cut Himself off from His only begotten Son who poured out His blood and finally died on the cross? No, not at all.

Jesus was perfect. He never sinned. Notice: "For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth" (I Pet. 2:21-22). Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God, willingly took on our sins and, by His shed blood and death, suffered the penalty of sin for us.

While He was on the cross, Jesus bore the sins of all of humanity, paying the penalty for them. Therefore, Jesus was cut off from God while on the cross because sin separates man from God. If God the Father was going to accept Jesus' one supreme sacrifice as payment for the sins of all mankind, He had to turn His back on the sinbearer -- Jesus. He had to forsake Jesus and let Him pay the full penalty for our sins.

God so loved the world that He was willing to cut Himself off from His perfect, loving, and obedient Son so that the Son could bear the sins of the world. How great and wonderful God's love is toward us!

But, remember, God forgives and applies Christ's sacrifice to only those who have truly repented, those who are willing to turn from their evil ways, the very ways which made Christ's supreme sacrifice necessary. Christ came to save man FROM his sins -- not IN his sins.

Why did Jesus ask the question He asked? Didn't He know that God had to turn His back on Him and forsake Him while He was carrying the sins of the world?

Certainly, Jesus fully realized that God had to forsake Him if the world were going to receive an atonement for its sins. This was one of the reasons Jesus came into the world (John 3:16-17). Why, then, did He ask the question? The answer is that by so doing He fulfilled prophecy.

David too, in a time of trouble, cried out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?" (Ps. 22:1).

These words, spoken by a man after God's own heart hundreds of years before the crucifixion, prophetically applied to Christ. They foreshadowed the utter anguish Jesus felt when God the Father forsook Him.

Whenever we may assist you with your study of the Bible or in Christian living, please let us know. It is a pleasure to serve you.

PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE DEPARTMENT