“My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?”

David Eldridge

In Matthew 27:46 Jesus cries out, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Some have queried as to why Jesus would say “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me.” Let us look into God’s word to see what caused Jesus to say such a thing as he hung upon the cross.

Jesus bore the sins of all mankind on the cross. Peter states that Jesus, “…bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness — by whose stripes you were healed” (I Peter 2:24). With all the debate lately concerning who was responsible for the death of Jesus, Peter says it was all mankind. Jesus truly, “Suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God” (I Peter 3:18). The blood of bulls and goats under the old law could not remove sin (cf. Hebrews 10:4). So, Jesus died on the cross bearing the sins of those who had lived before and those who would come afterward (us) as the perfect sacrifice (Hebrews 9). We are all personally responsible for the death of Christ having committed the sins for which He died. Note that on the cross, Jesus, who was without sin, bore the sins of all mankind.

God can have no fellowship with sin. In Isaiah 59:2, the prophet says, “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.” Sin separates us from God. Furthermore, John declares that God, being the light of righteousness, can have no fellowship with the darkness of sins or those in sin (I John 1:6,7). God can have no fellowship with sin or those who bear sin in themselves.

“My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Understanding the reasoning behind this statement from the cross rests upon realizing the above mentioned points. Jesus, while on the cross, was bearing the sins of all mankind. God can have no fellowship with sin. Hence, God had to forsake, for a short duration, His only begotten Son while he was on the cross because of the sins we have committed. The darkness that prevailed over the earth seems to symbolize this turning away of the Light (God the father) from His Son in darkness. Let us appreciate this great sacrifice and continue in sin no longer lest we “crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame” (Hebrews 6:6).