Jesus’ cry at the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” has puzzled many. This is interpreted as Jesus experiencing a separation from the Father while taking on the weight of the sin at the cross. The assumption is that the Father cannot “look upon sin” and so He must “turn his face away” from the Son. There was an unfathomable mystery that took place at the cross, but I am fully convinced that Jesus was never forsaken by God the Father.

Jesus was suffering the penalty for our sin, in our place. He was the sinless lamb who sacrificed his life on the cross to redeem sinful humanity. When He cried out with a loud voice and said “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” He was expressing the deep anguish of the wrath of God being poured out upon Him, the one about whom the Father had previously said, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”. It was the manifestation of God’s hatred of sin that Jesus experienced in that terrible hour. But this does not mean that He was separated from the Father.

Jesus Christ’s shedding of His blood on the cross was an intentional act that would forever bridge the separation between mankind and God. He knew this agony was coming (John 18:4) and He was willingly obeying the Father’s will. In His cry, Jesus still refers to God as “My God”. Jesus was quoting the first line of Psalm 22, an important Messianic psalm. His allusion to Psalm 22 shows that He was fully aware that He was effectively fulfilling the Father’s plan. He was not separated from God the Father while hanging on the cross; He was praying to Him in His agony.

Scripture teaches it is sin that separates man from the Holy God. “Your iniquities have separated you from your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He will not hear” (Isa. 59:1-2). Jesus was born sinless, He lived sinless, and he suffered and died on the cross sinless. He was executed on behalf of the sinful human – The just for the unjust. That was God’s demand for redeeming the sinner -the innocent blood of a sinless man. Jesus bore the full punishment for our sin dying on the cross as a sinless man. Isaiah tells us that God the Father placed the sins of the world on Him at the cross (Isaiah 53:6). Jesus did not become a sinner; He was the perfect Lamb of God who carried our sins and paid the death penalty. He was our substitute, He died in our place. Father’s face was not hidden from Jesus for we know His prayer was answered (Psalm 22:19-21,24). In fact, Luke records that Jesus confidently entrusted His last breath to the Father, “Father, into your hands I entrust my spirit” (Luke 23:46). God the Father did not turn His face away from Jesus. They both were intimately working together to complete the work of redemption that day.

Even when God was pouring out His wrath upon Jesus, He was fully pleased with His beloved Son while carrying out His plan—”The LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; when His soul makes an offering for guilt” (Isaiah 53:10). God hasn’t turned His face away from Jesus; rather, He has looked upon Him and was fully satisfied with His offering. Jesus willingly did this as a part of His Father’s gracious plan to save us.

Finally, here is a plain declaration of Christ’s inseparable fellowship with God the Father: “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me” (John 16:32). In His pre-arrest discourse, Jesus revealed profound truths about His confidence in Father’s unwavering presence with Him to the end.

The Father never left Jesus or forsook Him as He died on the cross in our place. Instead, He was in unbroken communion with his Father, fulfilling the Father’s plan to make an atonement for our sins and to provide salvation for us.