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

It is a cry of real, objective, God forsakenness . . . Jesus felt forsaken because He was, at that moment, forsaken . . . God was angry, at this moment, with His Son. (A Cry, a Curtain, and a Confession, Mark 15:33-39) Kevin DeYoung

I love Pastor Kevin DeYoung's ministry and writing, I strongly commend it, and I thank God for him. I was so excited yesterday to receive the 30 copies of his new book, Daily Doctrine: A One-Year Guide To Systematic Theology that I ordered to give to every family in my congregation. As is my custom, I'm most eager to see what he wrote about the cross in his chapter on Jesus being forsaken by God. But I was very disappointed in his chapter on Christ's cry of dereliction (Day 138, pages 201-202). I will still give the book away to my congregation, but with an added correction I'll write and insert for this particular chapter (Yes! I think it's that important!). Sadly, Pastor Kevin does exactly what he says we should not do: ". . . we never want to lessen the pain and passion of Christ's cry on the cross . . . ." I hope you (and he) will consider why I'm so disappointed and concerned. Here are three reasons:

1. Jesus Was Forsaken By God On The Cross 

Pastor Kevin seems to communicate that Jesus only felt forsaken on the cross and that He was not actually forsaken. He spends much more time telling us what Jesus' dereliction doesn't mean than telling us what it does mean. I agree with him that there was no intra-trinitarian disruption, conflict, or separation - yes, the Trinity was not broken apart in that sense. But in history as the mediator, there is a mysterious sense in which Jesus Christ was truly and objectively forsaken by God His Father on that cross: there's no hope without it! I've written about this point here: Forsaken Or Felt Forsaken?

Furthermore, many theologians in church history agree that Jesus was truly forsaken on that cross. See: More Thoughts On Being God Forsaken

Herman Bavinck was 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)

Joel Beeke is right:

Outside an emergency room in a California hospital is a drop-off box for unwanted babies. The thought of abandoning one’s baby like dropping mail in a mailbox makes us shudder. Yet, when believers feel forsaken, it is like that: a feeling that does not correspond with reality. They lose the sense of God’s presence, but not this presence itself. With Christ this loss was both feeling and fact. He felt forsaken because He was forsaken. He endured the essence of abandonment . . . . (Christ Forsaken!)

Robert Letham (who sort of understands the Trinity) is right:

To fathom the depths of what Christ endured we would need to spend eternity in hell. He was rejected by humankind, abandoned by God, subject to the full curse of the law and more besides . . . He endured the holy judgment of God against the unrighteous. He was made sin. He experienced the fearsome fate of falling into the hands of the living God, who is a consuming fire. He took our place as the guilty, the accursed, the covenant breaker. He was abandoned. He cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (The Work Of Christ, Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1993, 133 & 142-143)

Ligon Duncan is right:

The suffering of David and the people of Israel - rejection, curse, and judgment - were ultimately and consummately experienced by David's greater son, the servant of the Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus experienced Psalm 89:38-45. And by that suffering Jesus restored the throne of David and saved the people of God . . . Psalm 89 gives us hope ultimately because it points us to the one who endured a suffering far beyond anything we will ever know. He was mocked and shamed and forsaken of God, so that we might be God's precious inheritance into eternity.

God's Word is right too: Psalm 88 plainly and clearly teaches us that Jesus was forsaken by God on that cross. See: The Bible Says The Father Turned His Face Away From Jesus On The Cross

2. God Was Angry With Jesus On The Cross

Pastor Kevin appeals to Wilhelmus à Brakel, writing that God was not angry with Jesus on the cross. I've never been able to understand how this is not a denial of penal substitution and the propitiation of God's anger toward sinners. à Brakel is probably following Calvin's unhelpful statement in his Institutes (I've written extensively on Calvin's inconsistency on this here). Thomas Goodwin is a much more helpful guide. Yes, the Father always loved the Son on the cross, but the Father was also very angry with His Son because of our sins imputed to Him. This is the heart of propitiation and the heart of the Gospel. See Goodwin here: Thomas Goodwin On The Father's Love And Anger At The Cross

Here is a small sample of Goodwin on this point:

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?" (Thomas Goodwin, The Works Of  Thomas Goodwin, Volume 4, Chapter 2, Glory Of The Gospel (Tanski Publications: Eureka, California: 1996), 275.)

And also this offering up himself was so sweet a smelling sacrifice to God (as Eph. V. 2), that although God expressed never so much anger against Christ as when he hung upon the cross, yet he was never so well pleased by him as then . . . . (Thomas Goodwin, Christ Our Mediator, (Sovereign Grace Publishers, Grand Rapids: 1971), 136.)

Mark Jones is right:

Let us remember the salient fact that the Father would soon abandon His beloved Son in Whom He found such delight . . . In relation to His death on the cross, God was never more pleased with His Son than when He was most angry with Him. (Knowing Christ, Page 82)

Stephen Wellum and Donald Macleod are right: 

In saying that the Son bears the Father's wrath for us, we must never forget that the unity of the triune persons remains unbroken. Macleod rightly notes: "Even while the Father is angry with the Mediator, the Son is still the beloved and still fully involved in all the external acts (the opera ad extra) of the Trinity." (Christ Alone: The Uniqueness of Jesus as Savior: What the Reformers Taught...and Why It Still Matters (Five Solas), Page 209)

God's Word is right: Psalm 89 is very clear that God was angry with His Anointed One on that cross: 

You have been very angry with Your Anointed One. Psalm 89:38

Ligon Duncan is right:

One Final Hope: The Gospel Of Jesus Christ . . . Ultimately, we'll never appreciate this psalm fully until we see how it points to our Savior. "But now you have cast off and rejected; you are full of wrath against your anointed" . . . Psalm 89:38-45 is a picture of the dashed hopes of the people of God. They were promised that David and his line would reign forever, but now that promise seems to have failed . . . This description of David and his line cannot be exhausted by the experiences of David and his sons. Instead, these words are true, in the fullest sense, of David's greater son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Read more here: The Bible Says God Was Angry With Jesus On The Cross

When I first became aware of men who (wrongly!) say God was not angry with Jesus on the cross, I asked my Systematic Theology professor, Dr. David VanDrunen, about this error. He wrote me this helpful comment:

. . . it seems difficult to make sense of Jesus saying that he would drink of the cup (since in the OT "the cup" was the cup of wrath against the wicked) or of the terminology of propitiation if God's anger wasn't upon the Son in some important way. I agree with you that there's mystery here, although I think the explanation can be reasonably clear if we distinguish the eternal intratrinitarian relationship of Father and Son (in which it's impossible to think of one being angry with the other) from the historical relationship between the Father and the incarnate Son. Still mysterious, to be sure, but if we locate God's wrath against Christ in the latter we can avoid problems with our Trinitarian theology.

3. Jesus Was Damned By God On The Cross

Finally, Pastor Kevin argues that the word "damnation" should not be used to describe what Jesus suffered on the cross and calls on Francis Turretin as a witness. But Turretin also wrote: 

If Christ is called "a curse," why cannot damnation be ascribed to him? (Francis Turretin, Institutes Of Elenctic Theology, Vol. 2, Trans. George Musgrave Giger, Ed. James T. Dennison, Jr., (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 1994), 356.)

Furthermore, à Brakel (and many others!) used "damnation" to describe Jesus' sufferings (Note he also wrote of Jesus enduring "total separation from God"):

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." (Wilhelmus à Brakel. The Christian's Reasonable Service, 591.)

Many others have used "damnation" to describe Christ's sufferings on the cross. See here: Is It Biblical To Say Jesus Was Damned By God On The Cross?

Martin Luther is a good example (Happy Reformation month, by the way!):

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.)

Hallelujah! What a Savior!

God doesn't merely send sin to Hell. God doesn't merely punish sin in Hell. God punishes sinners in Hell. And God didn't merely punish sin in His Son on that cross. Our sins were imputed to a man with a true human body - the God-Man Jesus Christ - and He suffered and died on that cross and God punished His own Son Who was made sin on that cross. Disembodied sin didn't die for us on that cross. Jesus, Who was made sin and Who knew no sin, was punished for us and died for us on that cross. And as some old writers have written, what Jesus suffered for us on that cross is even more horrible that what damned sinners suffer in Hell:

As it was all the wrath of God that lay upon Christ, so it was wrath aggravated, in divers respects beyond that which the damned themselves do suffer. (He then gives three reasons why! See this article at the end for the reasons!) (John Flavel, The Seven Utterances Of Christ On The Cross)

Yea, and by reason of the incapacity of the damned in hell to take in the full measure of God's wrath due to them for their sins, therefore their punishment, though it be eternal, yet never satisfies, because they can never take in all, as Christ could and did, and so theirs is truly less than what Christ underwent. And therefore Christ's punishment ought not in justice to be eternal, as theirs is, because he could take it all in a small space, and more fully satisfy God's wrath in a few hours, than they could unto all eternity. (Thomas Goodwin, Christ Our Mediator, (Sovereign Grace Publishers, Grand Rapids: 1971), 285.)

Conclusion 

Beloved, if Jesus was not truly and objectively forsaken by God on that cross, then we will be forsaken by God in Hell forever. If God was not angry with His Son on that cross, then He will be angry with us forever in Hell. And if God did not damn His own Son on that cross, then we will be damned in Hell forever. But Jesus was forsaken! Jesus did drink the cup of God's anger! Jesus was damned in our place! And God raised Him up from the dead so that we will never be forsaken! We will never bear God's anger! And we will never be damned! If you repent and trust in Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, according to the Bible alone, for the glory of God alone, you shall be saved!

Pastor Kevin Has Gotten It Right Before

I miss the Kevin DeYoung who preached on Christ's cry of dereliction in Mark 15 and said what first introduced this article:

It is a cry of real, objective, God forsakenness . . . Jesus felt forsaken because He was, at that moment, forsaken . . . God was angry, at this moment, with His Son. (A Cry, a Curtain, and a Confession, Mark 15:33-39)

Amen Pastor Kevin! Hallelujah! What a Savior!

I hope and pray you and Pastor Kevin will consider these concerns of mine. May we get the cross right for the glory of King Jesus, for the good of His church, and for the salvation of lost sinners!

More Articles On The Cross

1. "American Gospel" Gets It Right explores who killed Jesus Christ and whether or not it's accurate to say God damned Jesus on the cross.

2. Forsaken, Or Felt Forsaken explains the nature of Christ's forsakenness on the cross.

3. More Thoughts On Being God-Forsaken lists numerous faithful and trusted scholars, teachers, and preachers' teachings on the forsakenness of Jesus on the cross.

4. Thomas Goodwin On The Father's Love And Anger At The Cross shows one very prominent and faithful Puritan's thoughts on how God the Father's love and His anger intersect at the cross.

5. The Bible Says God Was Angry With Jesus On The Cross explores what Psalm 89 teaches us about what Jesus suffered on the cross.

6. The Bible Says The Father Turned His Face Away From Jesus On The Cross explores what Psalm 88 teaches us about what Jesus suffered on the cross.

7. Samuel Rutherford On The Father's Love And Anger At The Cross shows another prominent Puritan's teaching on how God the Father's love and anger converge at the cross.

8. Is It Biblical To Say Jesus Was Damned By God On The Cross? answers that question with numerous faithful voices from Church history.

9. The Sufferings Of The LORD Jesus Christ On The Cross seeks to explore the different ways God's Word describes Christ's sufferings on the cross and what they mean in their Old Testament context.

10. John Calvin: Jesus Both Became A Curse AND Was Cursed By God On The Cross describes Calvin's convictions on Jesus' cursed death on the cross.

11. Dr. Klaas Schilder On The Sufferings Of Christ highlights the Dutch theologians thoughts on the horrors of what Jesus endured on the cross for His people.

12. Opposing Calvin’s Inconsistency On The Cross, The Father’s Anger Toward The Son, And The Heart Of The Gospel explores John Calvin's thought on penal substitution.

13. A poem about the sufferings of Christ: The Day The Father Was Angry With His Son

14. A new hymn celebrating what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross: Christ Our Substitute

15. Derek Rishmawy has written a very helpful article affirming the classic doctrine of God and Biblical trinitarian theology as it relates to Christ's sufferings on the cross.

16. Dr. S. M. Lockridge wrote a wonderful poem about the cross that also looks forward to the resurrection called, "It's Friday, But Sunday's Coming!"

17. We Must Get The Cross Right For The Glory Of King Jesus!

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 with a free, 3 day trial.