A Satanic Reading Of Psalm 22 That Should Be Forsaken

There is a reading of Psalm 22 as it pertains to Jesus' cry of forsakenness on the cross that is much more like Satan's exegesis than faithful, Biblical exegesis. It goes something like this: 

Even though Jesus quoted Psalm 22:1 from the cross ("My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Matthew 27:46), Jesus really had the whole Psalm in view. So He really meant Psalm 22:24: "For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him."

And thus, Jesus was not really forsaken by God at all because when He quoted Psalm 22:1, He really had Psalm 22:24 in mind. This seems to be the view of men like Scott Aniol - see here: Denying Jesus Was Forsaken By God Is A Denial Of The Gospel

Let's consider the problems with this type of exegesis.

1. Jesus Didn't Quote Psalm 22:24 On The Cross

First, let's just state the obvious. As much as some may wish that Jesus quoted Psalm 22:24 on the cross, He didn't. He didn't quote Psalm 22:24. He quoted Psalm 22:1. And Psalm 22:1 clearly demonstrates that Jesus was truly and objectively forsaken by God. This is how faithful interpreters of God's Word have understood this cry throughout the centuries. Consider:

John Calvin:

As our Savior Jesus Christ, when hanging on the cross, and when ready to yield up his soul into the hands of God his Father, made use of these very words, (Matthew 27:46,) we must consider how these two things can agree, that Christ was the only begotten Son of God, and that yet he was so penetrated with grief, seized with so great mental trouble, as to cry out that God his Father had forsaken him. The apparent contradiction between these two statements has constrained many interpreters to have recourse to evasions for fear of charging Christ with blame in this matter. 501 Accordingly, they have said that Christ made this complaint rather according to the opinion of the common people, who witnessed his sufferings, than from any feeling which he had of being deserted by his father. But they have not considered that they greatly lessen the benefit of our redemption, in imagining that Christ was altogether exempted from the terrors which the judgment of God strikes into sinners. It was a groundless fear to be afraid of making Christ subject to so great sorrow, lest they should diminish his glory. As Peter, in Acts 2:24, clearly testifies that “it was not possible that he should be holden of the pains of death,” it follows that he was not altogether exempted from them. And as he became our representative, and took upon him our sins, it was certainly necessary that he should appear before the judgment-seat of God as a sinner. From this proceeded the terror and dread which constrained him to pray for deliverance from death; not that it was so grievous to him merely to depart from this life; but because there was before his eyes the curse of God, to which all who are sinners are exposed. Now, if during his first conflict “his sweat was as it were great drops of blood,” and he needed an angel to comfort him, (Luke 22:43,) it is not wonderful if, in his last sufferings on the cross, he uttered a complaint which indicated the deepest sorrow. By the way, it should be marked, that Christ, although subject to human passions and affections, never fell into sin through the weakness of the flesh; for the perfection of his nature preserved him from all excess. He could therefore overcome all the temptations with which Satan assailed him, without receiving any wound in the conflict which might afterwards constrain him to halt. In short, there is no doubt that Christ, in uttering this exclamation upon the cross, manifestly showed, that although David here bewails his own distresses, this psalm was composed under the influence of the Spirit of prophecy concerning David’s King and Lord. (Commentary on Psalm 22:1)

Martin Luther: 

So then, gaze at the heavenly picture of Christ, who descended into hell [I Pet. 3:19] for your sake and was forsaken by God as one eternally damned when he spoke the words on the cross, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani!" — "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" [Matt. 27:46]. In that picture your hell is defeated and your uncertain election is made sure. (Martin Luther, Luther's Works, Vol. 42, Eds. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969), 105.)

Wilhelmus à Brakel:

Christ did indeed suffer eternal damnation, for eternal damnation, death, & pain consist in total separation from God, in the total manifestation of divine wrath, & all of this for such a duration until the punishment upon sin was perfectly & satisfactorily born." (The Christian's Reasonable Service, 1.591)

Herman Bavinck:

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)

Petrus Van Mastricht:

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) . . . God stopping his ears to all his [Christ's] supplications, turning his face away from him (Theoretical-Practical Theology, Redemption in Christ, Vol. 4, 2023, pages 430, 436).

Matthew Henry:

Yet God forsook him, was far from helping him, and did not hear him, and it was this that he complained of more than all his sufferings. God delivered him into the hands of his enemies; it was by his determinate counsel that he was crucified and slain, and he did not give in sensible comforts. But, Christ having made himself sin for us, in conformity thereunto the Father laid him under the present impressions of his wrath and displeasure against sin. It pleased the Lord to bruise him and put him to grief, Isa. 53:10. (Commentary on Psalm 22:1)

Charles Spurgeon:

Verse 1. "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" This was the startling cry of Golgotha: Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani. The Jews mocked, but the angels adored when Jesus cried this exceeding bitter cry. Nailed to the tree we behold our great Redeemer in extremities, and what see we? Having ears to hear let us hear, and having eyes to see let us see! Let us gaze with holy wonder, and mark the flashes of light amid the awful darkness of that midday-midnight. First, our Lord's faith beams forth and deserves our reverent imitation; he keeps his hold upon his God with both hands and cries twice, "My God, my God!" The spirit of adoption was strong within the suffering Son of Man, and he felt no doubt about his interest in his God. Oh that we could imitate this cleaving to an afflicting God! Nor does the sufferer distrust the power of God to sustain him, for the title used —"El"—signifies strength, and is the name of the Mighty God. He knows the Lord to be the all-sufficient support and succour of his spirit, and therefore appeals to him in the agony of grief, but not in the misery of doubt. He would fain know why he is left, he raises that question and repeats it, but neither the power nor the faithfulness of God does he mistrust. What an enquiry is this before us! "Why hast thou forsaken me?" We must lay the emphasis on every word of this saddest of all utterances. "Why?" what is the great cause of such a strange fact as for God to leave his own Son at such a time and in such a plight? There was no cause in him, why then was he deserted? "Hast:" it is done, and the Saviour is feeling its dread effect as he asks the question; it is surely true, but how mysterious! It was no threatening of forsaking which made the great Surety cry aloud, he endured that forsaking in very deed. "Thou:" I can understand why traitorous Judas and timid Peter should be gone, but thou, my God, my faithful friend, how canst thou leave me? This is worst of all, yea, worse than all put together. Hell itself has for its fiercest flame the separation of the soul from God. "Forsaken:" if thou hadst chastened I might bear it, for thy face would shine; but to forsake me utterly, ah! why is this? "Me:" thine innocent, obedient, suffering Son, why leavest thou me to perish? A sight of self seen by penitence, and of Jesus on the cross seen by faith will best expound this question. Jesus is forsaken because our sins had separated between us and our God. (Treasury Of David On Psalm 22:1)

John Gill: 

he was now deprived of the gracious presence of God, of the manifestations of his love to his human soul, and had a sense of divine wrath, not for his own sins, but for the sins of his people, and was for a while destitute of help and comfort; all which were necessary in order to make satisfaction for sin: for as he had the sins of his people imputed to him, he must bear the whole punishment of them, which is twofold the punishment of loss and the punishment of sense; the former lies in a deprivation of the divine presence, and the latter in a sense of divine wrath, and both Christ sustained as the surety of his people. (Commentary on Psalm 22:1)

Keil and Delitzsch:

The forsakenness of the Crucified One, however, is unique; and may not be judged by the standard of David or of any other sufferers who thus complain when passing through trial. That which is common to all is here, as there, this, viz., that behind the wrath that is felt, is hidden the love of God, which faith holds fast; and that he who thus complains even on account of it, is, considered in itself, not a subject of wrath, because in the midst of the feeling of wrath he keeps up his communion with God. The Crucified One is to His latest breath the Holy One of God; and the reconciliation for which He now offers himself is God's own eternal purpose of mercy, which is now being realised in the fulness of times. But inasmuch as He places himself under the judgment of God with the sin of His people and of the whole human race, He cannot be spared from experiencing God's wrath against sinful humanity as though He were himself guilty. And out of the infinite depth of this experience of wrath, which in His case rests on no mere appearance, but the sternest reality . . . . (Commentary On Psalm 22)

W. S. Plumer:

Christ was innocent and holy, kept the law and perfectly pleased His Father, yet when He took the place of sinners, assumed their guilt and bore their punishment, then the wicked of earth and hell were let loose upon Him, His friends hid as it were their faces from Him, and even His Father left Him without succor from the tormentors, and worse than all without His own comfortable presence. He felt the dreadful sting of sin, the sword of justice, the fire of wrath . . . Christ knew that he was the substitute for sinners and that he was suffering for others. But his human nature was ready to sink under the load of our sins, and under the hidings of his Father's face . . . . (Psalms, (Carlisle, PA: The Banner Of Truth Trust, 2016), 291-292).

Derek Kidner:

Our Lord's cry of dereliction told, it would seem, of an objective reality, namely the punitive separation He accepted in our place, "having become a curse for us" (Gal. 3:13). (Psalms 1-72: An Introduction And Commentary, (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1973), 106).

Iain Duguid:

How could God's only begotten Son be forsaken by the Father? We stand on the threshold of the deepest of mysteries. We cannot say that the eternal fellowship of the Trinity was broken at Calvary - God cannot change. And the blessed communion of the three in one cannot be interrupted for a second. But it remains true that it is God who is forsaken by God here - God in the flesh Who was forsaken. Precisely in the confines of His flesh as a man - that's how Jesus bore this forsakenness . . . God was still His God. He would still cling to God, the very God Who was rejecting Him . . . He was heard and that hearing was vindicated in Jesus' resurrection from the dead. You have to be careful to do justice to both sides of the mystery here as they are contained in this Psalm. Jesus was truly forsaken - He was under the wrath of God in a very objective, very real experience for Him. There was no heavenly dove descending on the cross. There was no light from heaven and voice from the Father: "This is my Son in Whom I love!" on that dark day. There was only darkness. The Father's face truly was turned away from His Son in His humanity. And He suffered the absence of God to the utmost degree . . . Jesus could not see God's love with His eyes. (Abandoned By God)

2. You Should Never Use Scripture To Contradict Scripture

When Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, the devil used God's Word to tempt Jesus:

If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, "He will command his angels concerning you," and "On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone." (Matthew 4:6)

Here, the devil sought to use God's Word to contradict God's Word, ripping Scripture out of context. That is a satanic exegetical move, and that is what interpreters of the Bible are doing when they seek to contradict what Jesus actually quoted in Psalm 22:1 by appealing to Psalm 22:24. 

The following interpreters show us a more excellent way:

R. T. France writes:

The words are, of course, a quotation of the first verse of Psalm 22, a psalm which moves from despairing appeal to triumphant faith, and the Christian reader can, with hindsight, see the appropriateness of this total message. But it is illegitimate to interpret Jesus' words as referring to the part of the psalm which he did NOT echo. As throughout the crucifixion scene, it is the suffering of the righteous man in Psalm 22, not his subsequent vindication, which is alluded to. (Matthew (Tyndale Commentaries))

Leon Morris, D. A. Carson, and Craig Blomberg are helpful on this point as well:

Speaking loudly as He did, Jesus evidently meant the words to be heard. There is no great difficulty in translating Jesus’ words (as Matthew did for his non-Hebrew-speaking readers): My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But understanding what they mean is a much more difficult problem. For some modern readers the words are so shocking and so different from anything Jesus said throughout His ministry that they feel it is impossible to accept them. One way of doing this is to point out that the Psalm that begins in this way goes on to praise God for deliverance as the Psalmist says, "From the horns of the wild oxen you have rescued me . . . in the midst of the congregation I will praise you" (vv. 21-22). The suggestion is made accordingly that in his hour of need Jesus was reciting a psalm that brings comfort and that we are to understand from the words quoted that he went through the whole psalm. To this it may well be retorted that if this was the case almost any other verse in the whole psalm would convey the meaning better than those Jesus actually quotes. But in any case it is perilous to argue from the use of one verse that Jesus was quoting the whole psalm . . . . (The Gospel According to Matthew (Pillar New Testament Commentary)) Leon Morris)

A large number of commentators have interpreted the cry against the background of the whole of Psalm 22, which begins with this sense of desolation but ends with the triumphant vindication of the righteous sufferer. The chief difficulty is that though OT texts are frequently cited with their full contexts in mind, they are never cited in such a way that the OT context effectively annuls what the text itself affirms (Bonnard). If the context of Psalm 22 is carried along with the actual reference to Psalm 22:1, the reader of the gospel is to understand that the vindication comes with the resurrection in Matthew 28, not that Jesus' cry reflects full confidence instead of black despair. (Matthew and Mark (Expositor's Bible Commentary)), D. A. Carson)

Just as Jesus would have learned to pray and sing many of the psalms in his private and corporate devotional life, so also it is natural for him to quote one here in a situation so parallel to that of his kingly ancestor. What is more controversial is the question of whether Jesus, in uttering this cry of dereliction (or Matthew in recording it), was thereby alluding to the entire psalm, following the common rabbinic practice of citing just the beginning of a given text when a larger, entire passage was in view. This would enable one to interpret Jesus' words as anticipating the same victory described in 27:19-31 even as he uttered his cry of abandonment . . . However, neither Jesus nor Matthew seems to have employed this technique elsewhere, and nothing in the immediate context of Matt. 27 suggests it (though of course elsewhere repeatedly predicted his resurrection, which in fact does occur). So it is probably safer not to assume that Jesus' cry abandonment was simultaneously a cry of faith. Jesus really did sense the absence of his Father, and this is precisely the moment when we should expect him, in his humanity, to be least confident of his future . . . Readers of the Gospels who cannot accept this concept probably reflect an unwitting Docetism - the heresy that Christ was not fully human. Indeed, if one wants to do more with Matt. 27:46 than hear a cry of dereliction, one is better off looking to other uses of Ps. 22:27-31 in the Gospels as a sign of God's judgment . . . Throughout church history, Jesus' cry of dereliction has been identified as the moment of divine abandonment. Jesus, who died to atone vicariously for the sins of humanity, recognized at this point in his suffering that he no longer was experiencing the communion with his heavenly Father that had characterized his life . . . Jesus, as the sin-bearing sacrifice, must endure the temporary abandonment of the Father. (Commentary On The New Testament Use Of The Old Testament, On Matthew 27:46, Craig Blomberg)

You should never use one portion of the Word of God to contradict another portion of the Word of God. When you do this, you are essentially taking away from the Word of God:

Revelation 22:18-19: I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book, and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.

Using Psalm 22:24 to deny Psalm 22:1 is also satanic because it strikes at the heart of the Gospel. If Jesus was not forsaken on that cross, then we will all be forsaken in hell forever and there is no hope of salvation for anyone. We need the true, objective forsakenness of Jesus on the cross! No hope without it!

3. Psalm 22:24 Is About The Resurrection Of Jesus

Psalm 22:24: For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.

This verse does not mean Jesus wasn't forsaken on the cross or that the Father didn't turn His face away from Jesus while He was bearing the wrath and curse of God on the cross. It means God raised Him from the dead! It is clear that there is a movement from rejection and forsakenness to acceptance, salvation, and victory in Psalm 22. But that doesn't mean that Jesus wasn't forsaken on the cross. It means He was forsaken and then God raised Him from the dead. Many faithful interpreters understand the movement of Psalm 22 this way:

John Gill: 

for though he forsook him for a while, and in a little wrath hid his face from him for a moment, that he might bear the whole curse of the law for us; yet he returned again, and did not hide his face from him for even; but when he cried unto him, he heard; cried not only on account of his crucifiers, that God would forgive them; but on account of himself, that he would not be afar off from him; that he would take his spirit or soul into his hands, into which he committed it; that he would deliver him from the power of death and the grave, and loose their bands; in all which he was heard, Hebrews 5:7. (Commentary On Psalm 22:24)

Matthew Henry:

The same that began the psalm complaining, who was no other than Christ in his humiliation, ends it here triumphing, and it can be no other than Christ in his exaltation. And, as the first words of the complaint were used by Christ himself upon the cross, so the first words of the triumph are expressly applied to him (Heb. 2:12) and are made his own words: I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. The certain prospect which Christ had of the joy set before him not only gave him a satisfactory answer to his prayers, but turned his complaints into praises; he saw of the travail of his soul, and was well satisfied . . . (Commentary On Psalm 22:22-31)

Charles Spurgeon:

Before us we have a description both of the darkness and of the glory of the cross, the sufferings of Christ and the glory which shall follow. (Treasury Of David On Psalm 22)

Keil and Delitzsch:

On the other hand, the first portion exactly coincides with the sufferings of Jesus Christ, and the second with the results that have sprung from His resurrection. (Commentary On Psalm 22)

W. S. Plumer:

Piscator: "This Psalm is prophetical. For it contains a prophecy of the sufferings and death of Christ, as also of his resurrection and spiritual kingdom . . ." . . . [On Psalm 22:24]: Every step in Christ's exaltation fills the hearts of the pious with joy and praise. His success is the pledge of their victory. His resurrection makes sure the redemption of their bodies. (Psalms, (Carlisle, PA: The Banner Of Truth Trust, 2016), 290, 300).

Bruce Waltke:

David’s passion and deliverance are a type of Christ’s death and resurrection . . . While hanging on the cross, Jesus employed the psalm’s opening cry of abandonment (22:1; Matt 27:46), and the writer of Hebrews identifies the antecedent of “I will declare your name to my brothers, in the midst of the congregation I will praise you” (22:22) as Jesus (Heb 2:12). The section on praise contains soul-stirring prophecies. This remarkable psalm of Christ’s death and resurrection enjoins the whole Church and all nations to worship the living, triune God. (Commentary On Psalm 22)

John Collins:

However, in view of its prominent place in the crucifixion story, Christian readers have found in it a description of the sufferings of Jesus . . . Matthew presents Jesus as a thoroughly good and faithful person who is brutally and unjustly executed, and mocked by those who should have supported him. But this portrayal of Jesus in light of Psalm 22 allows Christ followers as well to expect some kind of vindication, as vv. 22-31 describe; and they are not disappointed as they read the resurrection account. (ESV Study Bible Notes)

Christopher Ash commenting on Psalm 22:24: 

The burden of our praise is that our sin-bearing Lord, afflicted by our sins, has been heard when he cried with "loud cries and tears" (Heb. 5:7). Let by Christ, we praise the Father that the atoning sacrifice of Christ has been accepted and Christ has been raised from death to demonstrate to us this wonderful assurance (The Psalms: A Christ-Centered Commentary, (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2024).

Iain Duguid preaching on Psalm 22:24:

Jesus was heard. Precisely because of His faithful perseverance in choosing to trust in God, He was heard and that hearing was vindicated in Jesus's resurrection from the dead. (Abandoned By God)

So, the next time someone tells you that Jesus wasn't forsaken on the cross because Psalm 22:24 says so, kindly, gently and with as much love as you can (like when Jesus said these words to Peter) say: "Get behind me Satan. That is a satanic reading of Psalm 22."

We Must Get 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?

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!

It's A Sin For A Church Member To Skip Out On Church

If you are a church member, failing to go to church on the Lord's Day is a sin.

1. It's A Sin Against God

When you skip out on church, you are disobeying a direct command from God Himself:

Hebrews 10:24-25: And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

If you are wondering how often you need to meet together so as not to "neglect to meet together" in this verse, consider Hebrews 3:12-13 below where the author says you need exhortation every day. He at least has in mind a frequency that is more than once a week, not less. Also note, Christians met together on the first day of the week and collected money on the first day of every week:

Acts 20:7: On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.

1 Corinthians 16:1-2: Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.

Go to church at least every Sunday.

2. It's A Sin Against Your Pastors/Elders

When you skip out on church, you are disobeying your pastors who require Lord's Day church attendance for the glory of God and for the good of your soul. God commands you to obey your leaders:

Hebrews 13:17: Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

3. It's A Sin Against The Body Of Christ

The church body needs you. You are called, as a Christian, to obey all the "one another's" in Scripture and to meet together to love and encourage one another. If you are a church member, often you make membership promises like this: 

I accept the responsibility for this church’s upbuilding, and to this end I commit myself to wholeheartedly support this church in its local and world-wide ministry with my time, abilities, and possessions.

When you skip out on church, you are breaking these commitments and promises to your fellow church members and sinning against them.

4. It's A Sin Against Yourself

You can sin against yourself. For example, suicide is self-murder. When you skip out on church, you are sinning against yourself because you are neglecting the very means of grace that God has ordained to keep you far away from sin and very close to Jesus. You need the encouragement of the saints to make it to heaven:

Hebrews 3:12-13: Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

5. It's A Sin That Can Lead To Church Discipline

The number one reason Olney Baptist Church has had to excommunicate church members (church discipline - see Matthew 18:15-17 and 1 Corinthians 5) is because of a failure to attend church regularly. This means that a non-attending, unrepentant church member is removed from the membership roll, warned that the church can no longer affirm their profession of faith in Jesus, and warned that their soul is in serious trouble.

6. But What If I'm Missing Church Because I'm Serving?

Briefly, don't be a Martha, be a Mary: 

Luke 10:38-42: Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her."

7. Two Caveats 

A caveat is "a specific detail or rule that limits a general statement." So here we go:

1) Pastors understand that people get sick, women have babies, your cousin is getting baptized at the church down the street, sometimes emergencies arise, there are shut-ins who can't get out of their homes and shut-in type situations, and sometimes you go out of town (but find a good church if you go out of town and attend!). You are not sinning when you miss church for really good reasons like these. But some good questions to ask yourself are:

a. Is this (whatever it is) really a good reason to miss church?

b. Do things always seem to come up during those two hours of church on Sunday mornings?

c. Do I always get sick during those two hours of church?

d. If I treated showing up at my job like I treated showing up at church, would I get fired?

e. How hard am I working to schedule things and reschedule things so that Lord's Day worship is #1 on my priority list?

f. Am I really making God the first priority in my life, not only on Sundays, but in everything in my life (my time, money, job, relationships, free time, hobbies, etc.)?

g. Is my heart posture toward church attendance: "I really want to be there, and it's one of the greatest joys and priorities of my life because God and His people are the greatest joy and priority of my life!"?

Consider these questions. Pray about them. Ask the Lord to search your heart. Repent if you need to. Receive His grace, love, and forgiveness. And by God's mercy, start pursuing Him with all your heart.

2) You can go to church every Sunday and still not know God. God wants your heart for Him above all. Jesus says:

Matthew 15:7-9: You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;  in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men."

Churches can be filled with false converts. For many, they won't know they are false converts until the day of judgment when Jesus will say:

Matthew 7:21-23: Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?" And then will I declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness."

You must trust in Christ alone to be justified before God. Church attendance will not justify you. But those who have been truly justified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to the Bible alone, for the glory of God alone will delight to obey God, obey their pastors, love their fellow church members, and do what is best for their relationship with Jesus. And that means, they will delight to go to church every Sunday if at all possible. It will be their joy!

You have 168 hours in a week, and God is worthy of every one of them. And He's especially worthy of those two for church. Church should be what you cancel everything else on your calendar for to make sure you are there. Church should be what you prepare for on Saturdays. Church should be the Christians delight, not drudgery.

I hope to see you at church this Sunday!

8. More On Church Membership And Church Attendance

a. The Necessity Of Church Membership For Genuine Christians: Why You Should Be A Church Member

b. 31 Biblical Reasons You Should Go To Church

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!

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

Sadly, in recent years, I've seen a denial of these glorious words of the song "How Deep The Father's Love For Us":

How great the pain of searing loss –

The Father turns His face away,

As wounds which mar the Chosen One

Bring many sons to glory. (Stuart Townend)

Critics wrongly argue that the Father didn't turn His face away. Let me use Jesus' words: You are wrong, and you don't know the Scriptures. This is the heart of the Gospel. If the Father didn't turn His face away from Jesus on that cross, then He will turn His face away from sinners in hell forever. Have you not read Psalm 31, Psalms 88 and 89, and all the Psalms? 

I am set apart with the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more, who are cut off from your care. You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths. Your anger lies heavily upon me; you have overwhelmed me with all your waves . . . Why, O LORD, do you reject me and hide your face from me? . . . I have suffered your terrors and am in despair. Your anger has swept over me; your terrors have destroyed me. Psalm 88:5-7, 14-16

Thomas Schreiner is right on Psalm 88:

God as v. 14 says hid his face from Jesus Christ at his death. The worst thing Jesus experienced was being abandoned by God. The fellowship he always enjoyed with God was severed. That was the most difficult aspect of Jesus’ sufferings. (Dark Nights and Days: Psalm 88)

Ligon Duncan is right on Psalm 88:

The suffering of this psalm ultimately points to the sufferings of Jesus . . . Jesus's words and life attest to these very sufferings on the cross [the sufferings of Psalm 88]. (When Pain Is Real And God Seems Silent: Finding Hope In The Psalms, Pages 28-29; Duncan preaches Psalm 88 and Psalm 89. Bryan Chapell has an excellent sermon on Psalm 88.) 

Timothy Keller is right on Psalm 88:

The end of Psalm 39: God's face is turned away. The end of Psalm 88: darkness. Losing God's face; darkness. Does that sound familiar to you? Matthew 27:45: "From the sixth hour to the ninth hour, darkness came down over all the land. At the ninth hour, Jesus Christ on the cross cried: 'My God! My God! . . . Why have You forsaken Me?'" . . . Jesus got the total darkness that Heman thought he was getting. When Jesus went to the cross, He was abandoned. Really. Not just subjectively. "My God! My God! Why hast Thou forsaken Me?" On the cross, Jesus Christ really got the wrath of God. Not just I felt the wrath. He actually got the wrath of God. Everybody abandoned Jesus so only Jesus Christ of all the people who have ever trusted God as Savior, only Jesus Christ - darkness really was His only friend. His disciples had left Him; His people had left Him, His Father had abandoned Him - darkness was His only friend. You know why? He was taking the sins upon Himself that we've committed . . . but Jesus took the darkness so that when you believe in Him, your sins are forgiven. Or put it another way: Jesus Christ experienced darkness as His only friend so in your darkness you can know that Jesus is still your friend. He's still there. Jesus was truly abandoned so that you will only feel abandoned, and you can know that God's still there. He's not going to abandon you. No matter what you've done wrong, because of what Jesus Christ has done - He's taken the penalty. It all fell on Him. It all fell on to His heart. (Timothy Keller, How To Deal With Dark Times, Accessed 06 FEB 2024).

For more on Psalm 88, see: The Bible Says The Father Turned His Face Away From Jesus On The Cross

And on Psalm 89, see: The Bible Says God Was Angry With Jesus On The Cross

The Father Did Turn His Face Away: Our Only Hope

Petrus Van Mastricht was right:

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)

John Owen was right:

The principal object of meditation, in our preparation for this ordinance, is the horrible guilt and provocation that is in sin. There is a representation of the guilt of sin made in the cross of Christ. There was a great representation of it in the punishment of angels; a great representation of it is made in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; and both these are proposed unto us in a special manner, 2 Pet. 2:4–6, to set forth the heinous nature of the guilt of sin: but they come very short,—nay, give me leave to say, that hell itself comes short,—of representing the guilt of sin, in comparison of the cross of Christ. And the Holy Ghost would have us mind it, where he saith, "He hath made him sin for us," 2 Cor. 5:21. "See what comes of sin," saith he, "what demerit, what provocation there is in it." To see the Son of God praying, crying, trembling, bleeding, dying; God hiding his face from him; the earth trembling under him; darkness round about him;—how can the soul but cry out, "O Lord, is this the effect of sin? is all this in sin?" Here, then, take a view of sin. (Sacramental Discourses, Page 76)

John Flavel was right:

. . . it was a penal desertion, inflicted on him for satisfaction for those sins of ours, which deserved that God should forsake us for ever, as the damned are forsaken by him. So that this cry (as one observes) was like the perpetual shriek of them that are cast away for ever: this was that hell, and the torments of it which Christ, our surety, suffered for us . . . It was a desertion that was real, and not fictitious. He does not personate a deserted soul, and speak as if God had withdrawn the comfortable sense and influence of his love from him; but the thing was so indeed . . . Did Christ never make such a sad complaint and outcry, till God hid his face from him? Then the hiding of God’s face is certainly the greatest misery that can possibly befall a gracious soul in this world. When they scourged, buffeted, and smote Christ, yea, when they nailed him to the tree, he opened not his mouth; but when his father hid his face from him, then he cried out; yea, his voice was the voice of roaring: this was more to him than a thousand crucifyings. (The Fourth Excellent Saying Of Christ Upon The Cross, Illustrated)

Jonathan Edwards was right:

God withdrew his comfortable presence from Christ, and hid his face from him, and so poured out his wrath upon him, as made him feel its terrible effects in his soul; but yet he knew at the same time that God did not hate him, but infinitely loved him. He cried out of God's forsaking him, but yet at the same time calls him "My God, my God!" knowing that he was his God still, though he had forsaken him. (Christ's Agony)

Matthew Henry was right:

God hid his face from him, and for awhile withdrew his rod and staff in the darksome valley. God forsook him, not as he forsook Saul, leaving him to an endless despair, but as sometimes he forsook David, leaving him to a present despondency. Thirdly, He let out upon his soul an afflicting sense of his wrath against man for sin. Christ was made Sin for us, a Curse for us; and therefore, though God loved him as a Son, he frowned upon him as a Surety. These impressions he was pleased to admit, and to waive that resistance of them which he could have made; because he would accommodate himself to this part of his undertaking, as he had done to all the rest, when it was in his power to have avoided it. (Commentary On Matthew 27:46)

Charles Spurgeon was right:

Christ in that hour took all our sins, past, present, and to come, and was punished for them all there and then, that we might never be punished, because he suffered in our stead. Do you see, then, how it was that God the Father bruised him? Unless he had so done the agonies of Christ could not have been an equivalent for our sufferings; for hell consists in the hiding of God's face from sinners, and if God had not hidden his face from Christ, Christ could not – I see not how he could – have endured any suffering that could have been accepted as an equivalent for the woes and agonies of his people (The Death Of Christ)

Then comes the "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Here we behold His human soul in anguish, His inmost heart overwhelmed by the withdrawing of Jehovah's face, and made to cry out as if in perplexity and amazement. (Christ's Words From The Cross, Page 6)

Martyn Lloyd-Jones was right:

[God] has made His Son the sacrifice; it is a substitutionary offering for your sins and mine. That was why He was there in the Garden sweating drops of blood, because He knew what it involved – it involved a separation from the face of the father. And that is why He cried out on the Cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Commentary on Romans 8:32).

Everyone else had forsaken Him, His disciples had fled and had left Him, but now He cries, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” The one who utters that cry is “the beloved,” the one who had basked in the sunshine of the eternal love from eternity, without intermission. He reaches a point wherein even He has lost sight of the face and the smile of His Father. And He experienced that for you, for me. ("In The Beloved")

The Puritan, Thomas Goodwin, wrote of how Jesus suffering the curses mentioned in Job 13:24:

Why do you hide your face and count me as your enemy? 

In his book, Of Christ The Mediator, Goodwin wrote:

A bloody battle was now towards, and therefore it was a black day; Christ was to encounter with the utmost power of darkness, and therefore the field he fights it out in is darkness. Two things were due unto us for our sins:

1. Pœna damni, the loss of God's favour, and a separation from God and all good, even to a drop of water.

2. Pœna sensûs, the curse and wrath of God. Other things are but either circumstances or consequents of suffering these in those who are sinners. We have them both mentioned; Job 13:24, "Wherefore hidest thou thy face" (says he to God; there is the punishment of loss and privation), "and holdest me for an enemy?" (There is the punishment of sense). These two are the substance of the pains in hell, and do now both fully meet in Christ. (Page 471)

Ben Edwards shows that both Charles Hodge and A. A. Strong understood that God turned His face away from Jesus on that cross:

Charles Hodge describes the experience of Jesus as the "hiding of his Father’s face . . . anxiety, fear, a sinking of the heart . . . the loss of the divine favour . . . the depressing and overwhelming darkness."

A. H. Strong believed that Jesus endured "the hiding of the countenance of God" and explicitly rejects the idea that the forsaking of God or hiding of his face was only subjective and not absolute. (Why I Will Still Sing About Christ Being Forsaken: A Response to ‘Neither Forsaken nor Estranged from God.’)

Sinclair Ferguson is right: 

His [Christ's] death is everything that death truly is . . . alienation from the face of the Father. (The Holy Spirit, Page 104)

In a powerful article and sermon on the curse motif of the cross, R. C. Sproul pointed out that what Jesus suffered on the cross was the exact opposite of the blessing of Aaron in Numbers 6:24-26:

The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

R. C. Sproul was right:

The supreme malediction would read something like this:

"May the Lord curse you and abandon you. May the Lord keep you in darkness and give you only judgment without grace. May the Lord turn his back upon you and remove his peace from you forever."

When on the cross, not only was the Father's justice satisfied by the atoning work of the Son, but in bearing our sins the Lamb of God removed our sins from us as far as the east is from the west. He did it by being cursed.

You can watch his powerful sermon on this here:

In another article, The Crucifixion And Old Testament Prophecy, R. C. Sproul wrote:

God is too holy to look on iniquity, so when Christ hung on the cross, the Father, as it were, turned His back. He averted His face and He cut off His Son. Jesus, Who, touching His human nature, had been in a perfect, blessed relationship with God throughout His ministry, now bore the sin of God’s people, and so He was forsaken by God . . . On the cross, He was in hell, totally bereft of the grace and the presence of God, utterly separated from all blessedness of the Father. He became a curse for us so that we one day will be able to see the face of God. God turned His back on His Son so that the light of His countenance will fall on us. It’s no wonder Jesus screamed from the depths of His soul.

Richard Phillips is right:

God blesses us because he cursed Jesus as he was bearing our sins. Instead of showing his face to Jesus, the Father turned his face away, so that his Son cried in horror, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:46). Jesus then received in his spirit the full fury of the wrath of God for our transgression, paying in full the penalty for our sin. Only in this way could God turn a shining face in acceptance of us sinners, having put our sins on the cross of his Son.

Daniel Doriani is right:

When Jesus drank the cup of wrath, the Father turned away from him. This turning, this temporary separation from the Father, was the second thing he feared. (Matthew)

Mark Dever, while preaching about the Father forsaking the Son on the cross, references the excellent and Biblical line in question from the song they had just sung during the church service, "How Deep The Father's Love For Us":

How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory!

Later he says, "Christ was forsaken, so that we will never be." Then Dever quotes this puritan prayer from The Valley Of Vision:

Christ was all anguish that I might be all joy,
cast off that I might be brought in,
trodden down as an enemy
that I might be welcomed as a friend,
surrendered to hell’s worst
that I might attain heaven’s best,
stripped that I might be clothed,
wounded that I might be healed,
athirst that I might drink,
tormented that I might be comforted,
made a shame that I might inherit glory,
entered darkness that I might have eternal light . . .
expired that I might for ever live.

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

Yes! The Father turned His face away! And that is our only hope! No hope without it!

Get 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

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!

J. C. Ryle On The Forsakenness Of Christ On That Cross

In his expository thoughts on the Gospels, J. C. Ryle writes:

Let us observe, in the first place, the remarkable words which Jesus uttered shortly before His death, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" There is a deep mystery in these words, which no mortal man can fathom. No doubt they were not wrung from our Lord by mere bodily pain. Such an explanation His utterly unsatisfactory, and dishonorable to our blessed Savior. They were meant to express the real pressure on His soul of the enormous burden of a world's sins. They were meant to show how truly and literally He was our substitute, was made sin, and a curse for us, and endured God's righteous anger against a world's sin in His own person. At that dreadful moment, the iniquity of us all was laid upon Him to the uttermost. It pleased the Lord to bruise Him, and put Him to grief. (Isaiah 53:10.) He bore our sins. He carried our transgressions. Heavy must have been that burden, real and literal must have been our Lord's substitution for us, when He, the eternal Son of God, could speak of Himself as for a time "forsaken." Let the expression sink down into our hearts, and not be forgotten. We can have no stronger proof of the sinfulness of sin, or of the vicarious nature of Christ's sufferings, than His cry, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" It is a cry that should stir us up to hate sin, and encourage us to trust in Christ. (Matthew 27:46)

Get 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

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 Listened And Accepted Instruction!

Christ Jesus Listened And Accepted Instruction

My King – He’s So Great And Needs No Introduction

He Grew In All Wisdom And Stature Production

Never Needed Reproof But Caused All Sin Obstruction

God’s Holy, Pure Temple Who’s Under Construction

Never Strayed From God’s Word But Obeyed In Perfection

Yet Died As A Curse Bearing All God’s Rejection

Then Rose Up Alive – Our God Resurrection

Now By Faith Alone You Are Just Through Connection

Through Union With Christ To God Your Protection

Now In Humility You Gladly Receive His Correction

And Grow In All Wisdom Showing Forth Your Election

All Because Of Christ Who Gives Life New Direction

He’s Your All And Your Boast And Your Life Resurrection!

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!

Matthew Henry On The Forsakenness Of Christ

Matthew Henry, probably best known for writing a commentary on the whole Bible, got the cross right!

From his commentary on Matthew 27:46:

(3.) What the complaint was—My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? A strange complaint to come from the mouth of our Lord Jesus, who, we are sure, was God's elect, in whom his soul delighted (Isa. 42:1), and one in whom he was always well pleased. The Father now loved him, nay, he knew that therefore he loved him, because he laid down his life for the sheep; what, and yet forsaken of him, and in the midst of his sufferings too! Surely never sorrow was like unto that sorrow which extorted such a complaint as this from one who, being perfectly free from sin, could never be a terror to himself; but the heart knows its own bitterness. No wonder that such a complaint as this made the earth to quake, and rent the rocks; for it is enough to make both the ears of every one that hears it to tingle, and ought to be spoken of with great reverence.

Note, [1.] That our Lord Jesus was, in his sufferings, for a time, forsaken by his Father. So he saith himself, who we are sure was under no mistake concerning his own case. Not that the union between the divine and human nature was in the least weakened or shocked; no, he was now by the eternal Spirit offering himself: nor as if there were any abatement of his Father's love to him, or his to his Father; we are sure that there was upon his mind no horror of God, or despair of his favour, nor any thing of the torments of hell; but his Father forsook him; that is, First, He delivered him up into the hands of his enemies, and did not appear to deliver him out of their hands. He let loose the powers of darkness against him, and suffered them to do their worst, worse than against Job. Now was that scripture fulfilled (Job 16:11), God hath turned me over into the hands of the wicked; and no angel is sent from heaven to deliver him, no friend on earth raised up to appear for him. Secondly, He withdrew from him the present comfortable sense of his complacency in him. When his soul was first troubled, he had a voice from heaven to comfort him (Jn. 12:27, 28); when he was in his agony in the garden, there appeared an angel from heaven strengthening him; but now he had neither the one nor the other. God hid his face from him, and for awhile withdrew his rod and staff in the darksome valley. God forsook him, not as he forsook Saul, leaving him to an endless despair, but as sometimes he forsook David, leaving him to a present despondency. Thirdly, He let out upon his soul an afflicting sense of his wrath against man for sin. Christ was made Sin for us, a Curse for us; and therefore, though God loved him as a Son, he frowned upon him as a Surety. These impressions he was pleased to admit, and to waive that resistance of them which he could have made; because he would accommodate himself to this part of his undertaking, as he had done to all the rest, when it was in his power to have avoided it.

[2.] That Christ's being forsaken of his Father was the most grievous of his sufferings, and that which he complained most of. Here he laid the most doleful accents; he did not say, "Why am I scourged? And why spit upon? And why nailed to the cross?" Nor did he say to his disciples, when they turned their back upon him, Why have ye forsaken me? But when his Father stood at a distance, he cried out thus; for this as it that put wormwood and gall into the affliction and misery. This brought the waters into the soul, Ps. 69:1-3.

[3.] That our Lord Jesus, even when he was thus forsaken of his Father, kept hold of him as his God, notwithstanding; My God, my God; though forsaking me, yet mine. Christ was God's servant in carrying on the work of redemption, to him he was to make satisfaction, and by him to be carried through and crowned, and upon that account he calls him his God; for he was now doing his will. See Isa. 49:5-9. This supported him, and bore him up, that even in the depth of his sufferings God was his God, and this he resolves to keep fast hold of. (Commentary On Matthew 27:46)

From his commentary on Mark 15:37:

Toward the close of this darkness, our Lord Jesus, in the agony of his soul, cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? v. 34. The darkness signified the present cloud which the human soul of Christ was under, when he was making it an offering for sin. Mr. Fox, in his Acts and Monuments (vol. 3, p. 160), tells of one Dr. Hunter, a martyr in queen Mary's time, who, being fastened to the stake, to be burnt, put up this short prayer, Son of God, shine upon me; and immediately the sun in the firmament shone out of the dark cloud, so full in his face, that he was forced to look another way, which was very comfortable to him. But our Lord Jesus, on the contrary, was denied the light of the sun, when he was in his sufferings, to signifying the withdrawing of the light of God's countenance. And this he complained of more than any thing; he did not complain of his disciples' forsaking him, but of his Father's, 1. Because this wounded his spirit; and that is a thing hard to bear (Prov. 18:14); brought the waters into his soul, Ps. 69:1-3. 2. Because in this especially he was made sin for us; our iniquities had deserved indignation and wrath upon the soul (Rom. 2:8), and therefore, Christ, being made a sacrifice, underwent as much of it as he was capable of; and it could not but bear hard indeed upon him who had lain in the bosom of the Father from eternity, and was always his light. These symptoms of divine wrath, which Christ was under in his sufferings, were like that fire from heaven which had been sent sometimes, in extraordinary cases, to consume the sacrifices (as Lev. 9:24; 2 Chr. 7:1; 1 Ki. 18:38); and it was always a token of God's acceptance. The fire that should have fallen upon the sinner, if God had not been pacified, fell upon the sacrifice, as a token that he was so; therefore it now fell upon Christ, and extorted him from this loud and bitter cry. When Paul was to be offered as a sacrifice for the service of saints, he could joy and rejoice (Phil. 2:17); but it is another thing to be offered as a sacrifice for the sin of sinners. (Commentary on Mark 15:34)

Get 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

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’ Plans And Purpose Stand!

Christ Jesus’ Plans And Purpose Stand

All Guided By His Sovereign Hand

Though Man Does Plan And Rights Demand

Christ Rules And Reigns O’er All The Land

All Other Hope Is Sinking Sand

For Christ Would Die Just As God Planned

He’s Cursed And Crushed Told Beforehand

But Rose Alive – On Death He’d Stand

His All Authority Expand

So Trust The King Who’s Good And Grand

When You Can’t Fathom What He’s Planned

Hope In His Mercy-Heart And Hand

For All Events He Does Command

All For Your Good – Love Understand

All Other Hope Is Sinking Sand

All Other Hope Is Sinking Sand!

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 Owen On The Forsakenness Of Jesus On That Cross

John Owen got the cross and the forsakenness of Jesus on the cross right. Come and see:

For the curse was upon him, Gal. 3:13, "He was made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." Give me leave to say, Jesus Christ saw more into the nature of the curse of God for sin than all the damned in hell are able to see; which caused a dreadful conflict in his human soul upon that prospect. Secondly. It arose from hence, that the comforting influences of the union with the divine nature were restrained. Jesus Christ was in himself "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;" but yet, all the while, there were the influences of light and glory from the divine nature to the human, by virtue of their union; and now they are restrained, and instead of that, was horrible darkness, and trembling, and the curse, and sin, and Satan, round about him; all presenting themselves unto him: which gave occasion to that part of his prayer, Ps. 22:12–21, "Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog. Save me from the lion's mouth," etc. There was the sword in the curse of the law, and the dog and the lion, or Satan, as it were, gaping upon him, as if ready to devour him; for it was the hour and power of darkness, dread and terror. Besides, there were cruel men, which he compares to "the bulls of Bashan," which rent him. This caused that terrible conflict. Thirdly. It was from the penal desertion of God. That he was under a penal desertion from God is plain: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" And when I say so, I know little of what I say; I mean, what it is to be under such penal desertion. For the great punishment of hell, is an everlasting penal desertion from God. Fourthly. It was from the unspeakable extremity of the things that he suffered; not merely as to the things themselves which outwardly fell upon his body, but as unto that "sword of God which was awakened against him," and which had pierced him to the very soul. The advantage which he had in his sufferings by his divine union, was that which supported and bore him up under that weight, which would have sunk any mere creature to nothing. His heart was enlarged to receive in those pains, that dread and terror, that otherwise he could not have received. And notwithstanding all this, as I showed before, Christ kept up his faith in reference to his person, and kept up his faith in reference to his cause; and a great example he hath given unto us, that though the dog and the lion should encompass us, though we should have desertion from God and pressures more than nature is able to bear, yet there is a way of keeping up faith, trust, and confidence through all, and not to let go our hold of God. (Sacramental Discourses, Pages 31-33)

The principal object of meditation, in our preparation for this ordinance, is the horrible guilt and provocation that is in sin. There is a representation of the guilt of sin made in the cross of Christ. There was a great representation of it in the punishment of angels; a great representation of it is made in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; and both these are proposed unto us in a special manner, 2 Pet. 2:4–6, to set forth the heinous nature of the guilt of sin: but they come very short,—nay, give me leave to say, that hell itself comes short,—of representing the guilt of sin, in comparison of the cross of Christ. And the Holy Ghost would have us mind it, where he saith, "He hath made him sin for us," 2 Cor. 5:21. "See what comes of sin," saith he, "what demerit, what provocation there is in it." To see the Son of God praying, crying, trembling, bleeding, dying; God hiding his face from him; the earth trembling under him; darkness round about him;—how can the soul but cry out, "O Lord, is this the effect of sin? is all this in sin?" Here, then, take a view of sin. (Sacramental Discourses, Page 76)

We know what is in the curse, even all the anger and wrath that a displeased holy God can and will inflict upon sinful creatures to all eternity . . . Why, saith the apostle, "He hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us," Gal. 3:13. By undergoing and suffering the curse of the law, he redeemed us from it . . . Pray remember that we are now representing this infinite effect of divine wisdom in substituting Jesus Christ in our room, to undergo the wrath and curse of God for us. (Sacramental Discourses, Pages 90, 92-94)

And you may observe, that the apostle uses the very same words in respect of Christ's sufferings that [Peter] uses in respect of the sufferings of the damned angels, Rom. 8:32, [2 Peter 2:4], "God spared him not." And when he would speak of the righteousness of God in inflicting punishment upon the sinning angels, he doth it by that very word, "God spared them not." So that whatever the righteousness of God did require against sinners, Christ therein was not spared at all. What God required against your sins and mine, and all his elect, God spared him nothing, but he paid the utmost farthing. (Sacramental Discourses, Page 92)

The head of Christ's sufferings was in the divine desertion, whence he cried out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" It is certain Christ was forsaken of God; he had not else so complained,—forsaken of God in his soul. How? The divine nature in the second person did not forsake the human; nor did the divine nature in the third person forsake the human, as to the whole work of sanctification and holiness, but kept alive in Christ all grace whatsoever,—all grace in that fullness whereof he had ever been partaker: but the desertion was as to all influence of comfort and all evidence of love from God the Father (who is the fountain of love and comfort), administered by the Holy Ghost. Hence some of our divines have not spared to say, that Christ did despair in that great cry, "My God, my God," etc. Now, despair signifies two things: a total want of the evidence of faith as to acceptance with God; and a resolution in the soul to seek no farther after it, and not to wait for it from that fountain. In the first way Christ did despair,—that is penal only; in the latter he did not,—that is sinful also. There was a total interception of all evidence of love from God, but not a ceasing in him to wait upon God for the manifestation of that love in his appointed time. Remember, Christ was thus forsaken that his people might never be forsaken. (Sacramental Discourses, Pages 126-127)

There were sufferings positive in his soul, when he was made sin and a curse for us, and had a sense of the wrath and anger of God on his soul. This brought those expressions concerning him and from him: "He began to be sore amazed, and said. My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." He was "in an agony." I desire no more for my soul everlastingly to confute that blasphemy, that Christ died only as a martyr, to confirm the truth he had preached, but the consideration of this one thing: for courage, resolution, and cheerfulness, are the principal virtues and graces in him who dies only as a martyr; but for him who had the weight of the wrath of God and the curse of the law upon his soul, it became him to be in an agony, to sweat great drops of blood, to cry out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" which, had he been called to for nothing else but barely to confirm the truth he had preached, he would have done without much trouble or shaking of mind. (Sacramental Discourses, Page 127)

Surely it was a close and strong trial, and that immediately from his Father, he now underwent; for how meekly and cheerfully doth he submit, without any regret or trouble of spirit, to all the cruelty of men and violence offered to his body, until this conflict being renewed again, he cries, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" And this, by the way, will be worth our observation, that we may know with whom our Saviour chiefly had to do, and what was that which he underwent for sinners; which also will give some light to the grand query concerning the persons of them for whom he undertook all this. His sufferings were far from consisting in mere corporal perpessions and afflictions, with such impressions upon his soul and spirit as were the effects and issues only of them. It was no more nor less than the curse of the law of God which he underwent for us: for he freed us from the curse "by being made a curse," Gal. 3:13; which contained all the punishment that was due to sin, either in the severity of God's justice, or according to the exigence of that law which required obedience. That the execration of the law should be only temporal death, as the law was considered to be the instrument of the Jewish polity, and serving that economy or dispensation, is true; but that it should be no more, as it is the universal rule of obedience, and the bond of the covenant between God and man, is a foolish dream. Nay, but in dying for us Christ did not only aim at our good, but also directly died in our stead. The punishment due to our sin and the chastisement of our peace was upon him; which that it was the pains of hell, in their nature and being, in their weight and pressure, though not in tendence and continuance (it being impossible that he should be detained by death), who can deny and not be injurious to the justice of God, which will inevitably inflict those pains to eternity upon sinners? It is true, indeed, there is a relaxation of the law in respect of the persons suffering, God admitting of commutation; as in the old law, when in their sacrifices the life of the beast was accepted (in respect to the carnal part of the ordinances) for the life of the man. This is fully revealed, and we believe it; but for any change of the punishment, in respect of the nature of it, where is the least intimation of any alteration? We conclude, then, this second act of God, in laying the punishment on him for us, with that of the prophet, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all," Isa. 53:6: and add thereunto this observation, that it seems strange to me that Christ should undergo the pains of hell in their stead who lay in the pains of hell before he underwent those pains, and shall continue in them to eternity; for "their worm dieth not, neither is their fire quenched." (The Death Of Death, Pages 64-65)

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

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!