The Suffering Savior
Psalm 22:1–18
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Psalm 22:1

THE SUFFERING ONE cries out to God, believing that he has been forsaken by him, asking why he has been forsaken, and asserting that God is silent. He receives no answer (see Matt. 27:46).

The idea that Jesus could be forsaken by God has been so disturbing to so many people that various theories have been invented to explain it. Some have supposed that Jesus was referring to the psalm only to call attention to it, as if to say that what he was suffering was what the psalm describes. Others have argued that Jesus felt forsaken, when in fact he was not. In the final outcome, of course, Jesus was not forsaken. This is what the psalm as a whole shows. However, according to the teaching of the New Testament, Jesus was indeed forsaken by God while he bore the sin of his people on the cross. This is the very essence of the atonement—Jesus bearing our hell in order that we might share his heaven. To be forsaken means to have the light of God’s countenance and the sense of his presence eclipsed, which is what happened to Jesus as he bore the wrath of God against sin for us.

How could this happen? How could one member of the eternal Trinity turn his back on another member of the Trinity? I do not know. I cannot explain it. But I believe that this is what the Bible teaches, so great was the love of God for us and so great was the price Jesus willingly paid to save us from our iniquities.

Now I ask, is this atonement, so poignantly described, for you? The hymn writer Charles Wesley asks:

And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior’s blood?
Died he for me, who caused his pain?
For me, who him to death pursued?

That possibility was so wonderful to Wesley that he composed his entire hymn around it, describing such love as “amazing” and the death itself as a “mystery” beyond the ability even of angels to fathom. Wesley knew that it was indeed for him that Christ died and that his only hope of salvation lay in that atonement.

’Tis mercy all, immense and free;
For, O my God, it found out me.

The question is whether it has found out you. Have you trusted in Jesus personally? Will you do it? All you have to do is tell him that you trust him, saying, “Thank you, Jesus, for dying for me. I am ready to follow you as my Lord and Savior.” If you will pray that prayer, you will find that Jesus has indeed made atonement for your sins. He was forsaken so you might never be forsaken. He bore your sins so that you might not have to suffer for them.

Taken from Come to the Waters by James Boice ISBN 9798887790954 used with permission from P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg NJ 08865

Scripture quotations are from the ESV (the Holy Bible English Standard Version) copyright 2001 by Crossway a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.