Herman Bavinck On The Forsakenness Of Jesus On The Cross

In his article: Who Was Herman Bavinck, and Why Is He Worth Reading Today?, James Eglinton writes: 

Herman Bavinck was a Dutch Christian. He was born in the middle of the nineteenth century in 1854, and he died in 1921. He’s someone that people have become really interested in and aware of outside of the Netherlands in recent years through the translations of some of his theological works. He was a really important thinker.

Herman Bavinck got the forsakenness of Jesus on the cross right:

In the cry of Jesus we are dealing not with a subjective but with an objective God-forsakenness: He did not feel alone but had in fact been forsaken by God. His feeling was not an illusion, not based on a false view of his situation, but corresponded with reality. (Reformed Dogmatics: Sin and Salvation in Christ, Vol. 3, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006, 389)

Christ truly died, entered the realm of the dead, and bore the full weight of sin’s curse until the moment of His resurrection. He experienced the reality of death in all its depth—not only physical death but the forsakenness and judgment our sins deserved. He entered this state so that we would never have to. As the ancient comfort declares: “Christ descended into hell, so that I would not have to go there.” This is the heart of the gospel: that our Savior went to the lowest depths in our place, so that He might lift us to the heights of heaven in His grace. (Sin And Salvation In Christ, 358)

In Gethsemane and on the cross, Christ cried out in deep agony — not just in body, but in soul:

“My soul is very sorrowful, even to death” (Matt. 26:38),

“Now is my soul troubled” (John 12:27),

“My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46).

These cries reveal a suffering that penetrated Christ’s innermost being. Hebrews 5:7–8 says He “offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears,” and “learned obedience through what He suffered.” This was not a superficial grief. It was a true soul-sorrow— deeper than we can comprehend.

Some Roman Catholic theologians have acknowledged this in part, admitting that Christ’s soul may have shared in the suffering by way of sympathy or spiritual sensitivity. But the Reformed confession has always been stronger: Christ bore the wrath of God in His soul. He tasted spiritual death, not because of any guilt in Himself, but because He stood in our place. Yet His soul remained pure. He did not experience the self-condemning guilt or despair that belongs to sinful humanity. Still, His suffering was real, full, and complete. And His state of death—His descent into the realm of the dead—was just as essential a part of His humiliation as His spiritual agony on the cross. These were not separate moments, but part of the one, unified obedience by which He emptied Himself for our salvation. He drained the cup of judgment to its final drop so that there would be none left for us to drink. He tasted death in all its bitterness to set us free—not only from death’s fear, but from death itself. By dying, He destroyed the one who holds the power of death—the devil—and through His once-forall sacrifice, He has perfected forever those who are being made holy (Hebrews 2:14; 10:14). (Sin And Salvation In Christ, 359-360)

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Getting The Cross Right

We must get the cross right! For more on Christ's forsakenness on the cross, please read:

1. A Concern About The Way Pastor Kevin DeYoung Writes About The Cross In His New Daily Doctrine Book

2. The Bible Says The Father Turned His Face Away From Jesus On The Cross

3. Forsaken, Or Felt Forsaken

4. More Thoughts On Being God-Forsaken

5. The Sufferings Of The LORD Jesus Christ On The Cross

6. Forsaken: A Very Unhelpful Chapter On The Cross

7. Did The Father Turn His Away From Jesus On That Cross?

8. A Satanic Reading Of Psalm 22 That Should Be Forsaken

God And The Gospel

To learn more about the great and true Triune God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, His cross, and His glorious Gospel message and everlasting Kingship, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here for free!

Christ Jesus’ Blood Is Greatest Prize!

Christ Jesus’ Blood Is Greatest Prize

Infinite In Worth And Size

Will Never Perish – Always Buys

All For Whom He’d Bleed And Dies

Bore All God’s Wrath And Curse With Cries

But Rose Again – O’er Death He’d Rise

Fear God Who Judges – Knows All Lies

He Is Impartial – God All Wise

He Is Your Father Who Supplies

Your Every Need With Sweet Surprise

Every Sin You Hate – Despise

For Jesus Is Your Greatest Prize!

God And The Gospel

To learn more about the great and true Triune God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, His cross, and His glorious Gospel message and everlasting Kingship, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here for free!

Petrus Van Mastricht On The Forsakenness Of Jesus On The Cross

Jonathan Edwards once wrote that Peter van Mastricht’s systematic theology was the best thing ever written in the history of the world, except, of course, for the Bible. --- Joel Beeke

After reading the chapter in this book, "The Death Of The Mediator", Petrus Van Mastricht has become one of my favorite writers on the cross! He gets the cross right and clear! See more from Joel Beeke on why you should read Van Mastricht here: 3 Reasons Pastors Need to Read Petrus van Mastricht. This is a fascinating interview with Kevin DeYoung and Todd Rester, the man who is translating Van Mastricht from Latin and Dutch into English: Petrus Van Mastricht's Theoretical Practical Theology with Todd Rester.

Petrus Van Mastricht got the forsakenness of Jesus on the cross right:

It was extremely bitter for the Mediator, if you would devoutly think of his agony in the garden of Gethsemane, his bloody sweat, his head lacerated with thorns, his beatings, his pierced hands and feet, his wounded heart, his desertion by God, his supplications as if in vain, without access to the Father. (Page 81)

Thus by his own spiritual death, Christ: (1) was deprived of the joy and delight which his soul had been able otherwise to draw from the enjoyment of God and the fullness of grace, because having become sin for us, at the same time he had to become an object of divine wrath (2 Cor. 5:21 with Ps. 22:1-2; Isa. 53:10). (Page 413) 

Therefore, he undertook eternal death, from which it is said that he was made a curse (Gal. 3:13), and as a sign of this, he willed to be hung upon a cross. But he accepted this eternal death only with respect to its essentials, and by no means with respect to those circumstantials which accompany it in the damned. And what then are the essentials of eternal death? I respond, As regards the poena damni, the pain of loss, it is the separation from the gracious presence, sight, and enjoyment of God as the highest good; as regards the poena sensus, the pain of sense, it is the intolerable torture of soul and body (Matt. 25:41; 2 Thess. 1:9). Therefore if the Savior sustained both of these, he certainly sustained the essentials of eternal death. But he did sustain them: first with respect to the pain of loss, when he was forsaken by the Father, stripped for a time of all sense of spiritual consolation and joy, and compelled to lament, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me!" (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34 from Ps. 22:1) . . . . (Page 414) 

(2) What did he suffer?

What he suffered; not some light affliction, but the greatest of all evils, the highest affliction of all, death, and not only one kind of death, not only natural death, which we sometimes read is sought and desired by men, because it brings them deliverance from pressing evils, and an entrance into a better life (2 Cor. 5:1-2; Phil. 1:23); but in addition spiritual death, wherein deserted by God, exceeding sorrowful, even to death, he walked in darkness and saw no light (Isa. 50:10) (Page 430)

. . . it must altogether be remembered that all those things which he endured externally in his reputation, in his goods, in his body, also by analogy, he endured internally and spiritually: for example, when he was deserted externally by all his disciples, we should consider also that he was deserted by God, by his own heavenly Father; when he was delivered up bodily into the hands of the Gentiles, at the same time he was delivered up spiritually by God into the power of the hellish torturers; when he was condemned to death, first by the ecclesiastical court, then by the civil court, bodily, at the same time he was condemned spiritually, before the divine tribunal; when his head was crowned with thorns, his face defiled with spit, his body torn apart by whips, and that by men most vile, he suffered by analogy the same things in his soul spiritually; when his body was crucified naturally, his soul was also crucified spiritually. And in this way we should proceed through each and every part of his suffering, so that we may perceive and represent the weight and gravity of his suffering more distinctly . . . By whose initiative he endured all those things both inwardly and outwardly . . . he endured the same things from God , from his God, from his very own Father, from his own heavenly Father, inasmuch as he is the one who not only permitted all those things to be inflicted (Acts 4:28), but he himself inflicted them (Isa. 53:6, 10; Zech. 13:7), from which the gravity of each suffering increased immensely. (Pages 430-431) 

Christ deserted and denied by the whole world, by friends as well as enemies, even by God . . . God stopping his ears to all his [Christ's] supplications, turning his face away from him (Pages 435-436)

The second descent of Christ's soul shall be, not into a place, but into the infernal state, wherein he experienced infernal things, or infernal punishments, in his soul . . . that infernal state is plainly attributed to Christ's soul, when it is said both that he was forsaken by God (Matt. 27:46), and that he labored under the sense of divine wrath and anger (Rev. 19:15 with Matt. 26:39, 42), and that by these things his soul was exceeding sorrowful, even to death, that is, eternal or infernal death (Matt. 26:38). (Page 462)

(5) with respect to his soul, into the infernal state and condition (Ps. 88:4-6), wherein he was deserted by God his Father (Matt. 27:46), and tortured with the pains of death, that is, of infernal death (Matt. 26:37-38; Acts 2:24), and he was made the curse itself (Gal. 3:13) (Page 468) 

If (8) anguish of soul and spiritual desertions, his soul was exceeding sorrowful for his own, even to death (Matt. 26:37-38); abandoned by his Father for his own, he cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Ps. 22:1; Matt. 27:46). And all these things the Redeemer accepted for this purpose, that he might deliver his own from them all (Isa. 53:5). (Page 643)

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Getting The Cross Right

We must get the cross right! For more on Christ's forsakenness on the cross, please read:

1. A Concern About The Way Pastor Kevin DeYoung Writes About The Cross In His New Daily Doctrine Book

2. The Bible Says The Father Turned His Face Away From Jesus On The Cross

3. Forsaken, Or Felt Forsaken

4. More Thoughts On Being God-Forsaken

5. The Sufferings Of The LORD Jesus Christ On The Cross

6. Forsaken: A Very Unhelpful Chapter On The Cross

7. Did The Father Turn His Away From Jesus On That Cross?

8. A Satanic Reading Of Psalm 22 That Should Be Forsaken

God And The Gospel

To learn more about the great and true Triune God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, His cross, and His glorious Gospel message and everlasting Kingship, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here for free!

Christ Jesus Is Our Life And Light!

Christ Jesus Is Our Life And Light

We Wish To See Him Day And Night

He’s Son Of Man Whose Glory’s Bright

He’s Lifted Up To Die With Fright

Under God’s Curse And Wrath And Might

He Died And Rose To Then Invite

All Nations to Him – Trust, Delight

Now We Must Follow – Die Contrite

Believe In Him Who’s Out Of Sight

For Then We Will Be Sons Of Light!

God And The Gospel

To learn more about the great and true Triune God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, His cross, and His glorious Gospel message and everlasting Kingship, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here for free!

Christ Jesus Can New Wine Create!

Christ Jesus Can New Wine Create

He’s God And Man So Bow Prostrate

He Is All Glorious – Signs Await

So You’ll Believe – Oh Christ Is Great

But His Hour Would Come Not Late

Where On That Cross They’d Desecrate

He’d Die For Sinners – Bear God’s Weight

Of Wrath And Curse – Humiliate

But Then He Rose – Killed Death And Hate

By Faith Alone We’re Just – Elate

All Because Christ Does Create

Oh Praise His Name – Believe – Don’t Wait!

God And The Gospel

To learn more about the great and true Triune God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, His cross, and His glorious Gospel message and everlasting Kingship, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here and here for free!

11 Ways God Commands The Death Penalty

 

God's Word commands the death penalty in various ways and for various purposes throughout Scripture. And these commands all support the fact that the Bible teaches the just use of the death penalty by the state (civil magistrate).

1. God gave the death penalty to Adam and Eve for eating the forbidden fruit (on the day you eat of it, you shall surely die).

2. God instructed Noah to carry out the death penalty in Genesis 9:6: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image."

3. Under God's perfect, righteous, holy law, He commanded the death penalty for numerous offenses, over and over again.

4. God carried out the death penalty directly, over and over again, on His enemies and the enemies of Israel.

5. God carried out the death penalty on His own people for their sin.

6. Every time someone dies in this world (over 60 million people every year), God testifies His approval of the death penalty (the wages of sin is death).

7. In the New Testament Church, God carried out the death penalty on Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5). (Let's not claim to be more loving and merciful than God).

8. In the New Testament, God carried out the death penalty on Christians in Corinth who were misusing the Lord's Supper (1 Corinthians 11).

9. The Apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, said that if he had done anything deserving of death, then he should die: "If then I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything for which I deserve to die, I do not seek to escape death. But if there is nothing to their charges against me, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar." (Acts 25:11).

10. The Holy Spirit of God, through the Apostle Paul, proclaims that the power of the sword is given to the state (Romans 13). Swords aren't used for "time out." They are used for death.

11. God will punish unrepentant sinners with eternal punishment forever in hell to the praise of His glorious justice, and this punishment is called the second death. (Revelation 20:14)

We all deserve the death penalty and eternal death in hell for our sins.

Flee to Jesus Christ Who is the God-Man Who died on that cross for sinners. He took the death penalty that we deserve! He took the curse, wrath, and judgment of God that we deserve for our sins upon Himself. But then He rose up from the dead and ascended into heaven to rule and reign forever! He is the resurrection and the life! He is the only One Who has conquered death! He said:

I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? (John 11:25-26)

Please repent and believe in Him and be saved!

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life! Jesus (John 3:16)

God And The Gospel

To learn more about the great and true Triune God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, His cross, and His glorious Gospel message and everlasting Kingship, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here and here for free!

Christ Jesus Came – Was Born Prepared!

Christ Jesus Came – Was Born Prepared

A Perfect Mind And Sober Dared

To Hope Supreme In God Nor Erred

But Spotlessly Obeyed And Shared

In God’s Pure Holiness Declared

Yet On That Cross The Son’s Not Spared

But Bore God’s Curse And Wrath Despaired

He Lost All Hope Because He Cared

To Give You Hope From Sin Repaired

He Rose Alive – You’re Saved – Prepared

To Be Holy, Hope, And Squared

All Your Accounts With God Declared

By Faith Alone You're Righteous Paired

With Obedience Prepared

By His Spirit Strong – Not Scared

All Because Christ Was Not Spared

Oh What A Savior – None Compared!

God And The Gospel

To learn more about the great and true Triune God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, His cross, and His glorious Gospel message and everlasting Kingship, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here and here for free!

John Wesley On The Forsakenness Of Jesus On The Cross

John Wesley got the forsakenness of Jesus on the cross right:

Forsaken - Withdrawn the light of thy countenance, the supports and comforts of thy spirit, and filled me with the terrors of thy wrath: this was in part verified in David, but much more fully in Christ. (Notes On Psalm 22:1)

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? - Our Lord hereby at once expresses his trust in God, and a most distressing sense of his letting loose the powers of darkness upon him, withdrawing the comfortable discoveries of his presence, and filling his soul with a terrible sense of the wrath due to the sins which he was bearing. Psalms 22:1. (Notes On Matthew 27:46)

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me - Thereby claiming God as his God; and yet lamenting his Father’s withdrawing the tokens of his love, and treating him as an enemy, while he bare our sins. (Notes On Mark 15:34)

God was the principal cause of all his sufferings, tho’ mens sins were the deserving cause. (Notes On Isaiah 53:10)

And he is the propitiation - The atoning sacrifice by which the wrath of God is appeased. (Notes On 1 John 2:2)

Our sins were the procuring cause of all his sufferings. His sufferings were the penal effects of our sins. "The chastisement of our peace," the punishment necessary to procure it, "was" laid "on him," freely submitting thereto: "And by his stripes" (a part of his sufferings again put for the whole) "we are healed"; pardon, sanctification, and final salvation, are all purchased and bestowed upon us. Every chastisement is for some fault. That laid on Christ was not for his own, but ours; and was needful to reconcile an offended Lawgiver, and offering guilty creatures, to each other. So ‘the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all’; that is, the punishment due to our iniquity. (The Doctrine Of Original Sin)

We see then, what unspeakable advantage we derive from the fall of our first parent with regard to faith; - Faith both in God the Father, who spared not his own Son, his only Son, but "wounded him for our transgressions," and "bruised him for our iniquities:" and in God the Son, who poured out his soul for us transgressors, and washed us in his own blood . . . For who does not apprehend the force of that inference drawn by the loving Apostle: "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another" If God SO loved us, - observe, the stress of the argument lies on this very point: SO loved us, as to deliver up his only Son to die a cursed death for our salvation. Beloved, what manner of love is this wherewith God hath loved us; so as to give his only Son, in glory equal with the Father, in Majesty co-eternal What manner of love is this wherewith the only-begotten Son of God hath loved us so as to empty himself, as far as possible . . . as to divest himself of that glory which he had with the Father before the world began; as to take upon him the form of a servant, being found in fashion as a man; and then, to humble himself still further, "being obedient unto death, even the death of the cross!" If God SO loved us, how ought we to love one another! But this motive to brotherly love had been totally wanting if Adam had not fallen. Consequently, we could not then have loved one another in so high a degree as we may now. Nor could there have been that height and depth in the command of our blessed Lord, "As I have loved you, So love one another." (God's Love To Fallen Man)

Hallelujah! What a Savior! 

Getting The Cross Right

We must get the cross right! For more on Christ's forsakenness on the cross, please read:

1. A Concern About The Way Pastor Kevin DeYoung Writes About The Cross In His New Daily Doctrine Book

2. The Bible Says The Father Turned His Face Away From Jesus On The Cross

3. Forsaken, Or Felt Forsaken

4. More Thoughts On Being God-Forsaken

5. The Sufferings Of The LORD Jesus Christ On The Cross

6. Forsaken: A Very Unhelpful Chapter On The Cross

7. Did The Father Turn His Away From Jesus On That Cross?

8. A Satanic Reading Of Psalm 22 That Should Be Forsaken

God And The Gospel

To learn more about the great and true Triune God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, His cross, and His glorious Gospel message and everlasting Kingship, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here and here for free!

Christ Jesus Is Your Great Salvation!

Christ Jesus Is Your Great Salvation

Chosen Seed Before Creation

Prophesied The Incarnation

Through Christ’s Spirit Operation

The Cross Foretold – His Condemnation

He Suffered, Died, Bore Your Damnation

This Is Called Propitiation

He Rose Up For Justification

His Glories Praise With Adoration

It’s All Good News For Celebration

Jesus Saves From Every Nation

Amazes Angels – Inspiration

What A Savior – Great Salvation!

God And The Gospel

To learn more about the great and true Triune God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, His cross, and His glorious Gospel message and everlasting Kingship, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here and here for free!

Thomas Goodwin On The Forsakenness Of Jesus On The Cross

Thomas Goodwin spoke more often at the Westminster Assembly than any other delegate. I've already written about his faithful teaching on the cross here: Thomas Goodwin On The Father's Love And Anger At The Cross

Thomas Goodwin got the forsakenness of Jesus on the cross right:

That he, that is God blessed forever, should be made a curse, this you have in Gal. 3:13. That he, that is, 'the Holy One of Israel,' should be made sin, aye, and what is more, he that cannot endure sin, for nothing is more contrary to the holiness of God than sin, and yet 'he that knew no sin was made sin,' this you have in 2 Cor. 5:21. That God should never be more angry with his Son than when he was most pleased with him, for so it was when Christ hung upon the cross, God did find a sweet-smelling savour of rest and satisfaction even when he cried out, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' (The Works Of  Thomas Goodwin, Volume 4, Chapter 2, Glory Of The Gospel (Tanski Publications: Eureka, California: 1996), 275)

In that he is God as well as man, therefore he must needs be able for any undertaking, be it never so hazardous. If it had been possible for his Father to have forsaken him (as he complained that for a time he did), and afford him no succour, no support, but leave him to himself, nay, do his utmost against him, and make known against him the power of his wrath (as indeed he did), yet he is able alone to uphold himself, for that the 'fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily in him,' Col. 2:9, and therefore there was an impossibility of miscarriage, as you have it, Acts 2:24, 'It was not possible that he should have been held under the pangs of death.' If anything would have held him, it would have been death and hell; for then his power was put to it to raise himself; but it was impossible that he should be held by them, because he was God. It is one of his great names, Isa. 9:7, that he is the mighty God: therefore he is mighty and able to save himself and others. (Of Christ The Mediator, Page 122)

Thus when it is said, that Christ was made a curse, not only in bodily miseries, but in his soul also, the meaning is not that the hypostatical union was dissolved, or the influence of divine grace restrained, but only, that in regard of comfort he was 'forsaken' of God, and felt the fearful effects of his anger due to our sins, without sin and despair. (Of Christ The Mediator, Page 461)

Though enemies persecute us and have their wills of us, yet we are said not to be forsaken, as 2 Cor. 4:9, 'Persecuted, but not forsaken;' that is, though left in the hands of men, yet not forsaken by God; so that forsaken is put in opposition to being left to the persecutions and power of our enemies. But Christ is not only said to be left to the power of enemies, but to be forsaken by God himself, which how it could be, I shall afterwards explain. And this was the extremity of his emptying, emptying to nothing, as Dan. 9:26, 'Messiah shall have nothing,' that is, nothing left to comfort him; so his cutting off is expressed. (Of Christ The Mediator, Pages 472-473)

He might look upon himself as a Son, and a Son performing an obedience to his Father, even in suffering his wrath, and never pleasing him more than now, and in that respect most beloved of him; and yet withal, as a surety for sinners, and so punished, and in that respect he might apprehend God for the present angry, and full of wrath against him, as being made sin and so a curse for us, yet so as to the end that he might be well pleased with sinners in him. And both these differing apprehensions of his did Christ accordingly express in that one sentence, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' He speaks it as apprehending himself a Son still, and united to God, and beloved of him, and yet forsaken by him, and, as a surety, accursed. (Of Christ The Mediator, Page 480)

But there was another principle in him, and that was present sense of the impressions of God's anger: his mind by sight or vision seeing nothing else, and his will by the impressions on it feeling nothing else. (Of Christ The Mediator, Page 481)

For, when CHRIST complained, "My God! my God! why has you forsaken me" (when as great an eclipse, in regard of the light of God's countenance, was upon his spirit, as was upon the earth,) yet he never obeyed God more; was never more strongly supported, than at that time; for then he was obeying to the death. (A Child Of Light Walking In Darkness)

Hallelujah! What a Savior! 

Getting The Cross Right

We must get the cross right! For more on Christ's forsakenness on the cross, please read:

1. A Concern About The Way Pastor Kevin DeYoung Writes About The Cross In His New Daily Doctrine Book

2. The Bible Says The Father Turned His Face Away From Jesus On The Cross

3. Forsaken, Or Felt Forsaken

4. More Thoughts On Being God-Forsaken

5. The Sufferings Of The LORD Jesus Christ On The Cross

6. Forsaken: A Very Unhelpful Chapter On The Cross

7. Did The Father Turn His Away From Jesus On That Cross?

8. A Satanic Reading Of Psalm 22 That Should Be Forsaken

God And The Gospel

To learn more about the great and true Triune God, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, His cross, and His glorious Gospel message and everlasting Kingship, please watch American Gospel: Christ Alone. You can watch the full documentary here and here for free!