If Jesus was God, then why did he cry out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?

This question continue to puzzle the minds of many people out there, who are genuinely seeking to know the truth as it is in Jesus. But am also not ignorant of the fact that others, simply ask this question merely out of prejudice against the deity of Christ. In their attempt to discredit the authenticity of scriptural evidence of the deity of Christ, they ask questions like this; if Jesus is God as the Christian's claims, then why did he cry out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me? Others also ask, if Jesus was truly God, then how can God be forsaken? Unitarians are part of those who reject the biblical doctrine of the trinity and affirm that God is only one person. They are a sect that rejects what the bible teaches about the true deity of Christ. They claim that Jesus Christ is not God in human flesh and that he is not equal with God. A typical example of unitarians are the Jehovah's witnesses. They are infuriated when we claim that God is one, but eternally exists has three distinct persons, namely the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 13; 14).

 We believe in what the bible teaches concerning the deity of Christ, that he is co-equal with the father in every respect, see (John 10; 30). Learn this, there is subordination within the economy of the trinity, because of the plan of redemption. The Son voluntarily took on a human nature and submitted himself to the authority of the father, so the work of our salvation could be effected. The father sent forth the Son and not vice versa, see (John 3; 16). The Son came on earth as a Man, primarily to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10: 45).  The role of the Son does not in anyway denotes inferiority to the father in essence, for in his divine nature he is equal to the father, but in respect to his human nature, the father was greater than him. It was because of Man's redemption that God the Son came on earth as a Man to redeem man unto God, for it is written: who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross  (Philippians 2: 6-8).

When you carefully study the life of Jesus, you will realize that as a Man, he was always in fellowship with the father. He communed with the father more often, and he relied completely on him for strength to fulfill his ministry, he did nothing without the father. Prior to his incarnation, in eternity past he enjoyed an unbroken fellowship with the father. Why will Christ cease to fellowship with God the father because he has taken on flesh? On earth, the incarnated deity was in close intimacy with his father even though he condescended to take on flesh. Jesus Christ was perfect in Godhood and Manhood, he was and still is theanthropos, see proof text (John 1; 1, 14, Colossians 2; 9). The father never left Jesus during his incarnation, except on one occasion that Jesus cried out and said: About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27: 46). So the question is, why did Jesus cried out," My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me? On the cross, Jesus out of pain and anguish, he cried out to another person of the Godhead, namely God the father. His cry and feeling of abandonment shows that Jesus was truly human like us, though he was God manifested in the flesh. He was forsaken as a Man, not as God, for as God he cannot be forsaken but as a Man he was. When Jesus called the father, My God, My God, it does not mean he is not God himself, but rather, he was calling out to another member of the trinity, because he was temporarily forsaken by him. 

John MacArthur, an excellent bible teacher wrote this: When Christ was forsaken by the Father, their separation was not one of nature, essence, or substance. Christ did not in any sense or degree cease to exist as God or as a member of the Trinity. He did not cease to be the Son, any more than a child who sins severely against his human father ceases to be his child. But Jesus did for a while cease to know the intimacy of fellowship with His heavenly Father, just as a disobedient child ceases for a while to have intimate, normal, loving fellowship with his human father". When Jesus was crucified on the cross in his darkest hour, God the father forsook him. For the first time, he was rejected by his father, he lost the presence of his father around him. He who always enjoyed an uninterrupted koinonia, enjoyed deep intimacy with the father in a way and manner that angelic beings and we humans cannot easily fathom, for the first time lost the sense of his father's presence around him.

 Why did the father do that to his beloved Son? Why did he reject his only begotten Son on the cross? The answer is that, God loves us so much that he forsook his own Son on the cross for our sake. On the cross, Jesus in his own self bore the sins of our entire life in his own body (1 Peter 2; 24), he was made sin for us (2 Corinthians 5; 21). God in his wrath against sin, punished sin in the body of Jesus (Romans 8; 3). Jesus exhausted the wrath of God against sin on the cross, that through his substitutionary death, he might pacify the ire of God against us. Jesus Christ experienced separation from the father that elicited his cry, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me? God in his grace forsook Jesus, so that you and I will never be forsaken throughout eternity. Because God forsook Christ, today we have this promise: For He Himself has said, "I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,"(Hebrews 13: 5). We have this assurance that God will never leave us nor forsake us, because of the substitutionary death of Christ on the accursed cross. God forsook Christ that he might accept us to himself for all eternity. God also left Christ and punished sin in his body, so that you and I might not be punished for the same sins that our substitute was punished for. Today, we have this promise: Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). We have been placed literally beyond the reach of condemnation, because of the death of Christ in our stead.

 Christ has also been perfected through suffering, therefore he has become a faithful and merciful high Priest who can be touched with the feeling of our weaknesses, for he himself has been tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4; 15). As our sympathetic High Priest, he understands us perfectly when begin to feel as though God is far from us, and when we are grieved within our soul, he stands ready to succor us, so we might not be overwhelmed by it (Hebrews 2; 18). Precious Reader, it is imperative to know that when our blessed Lord cried out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me? He was also actively fulfilling a Messianic psalm, penned down by king David centuries before. These are the prophetic words of the psalmist: My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning (Psalms 22:1). The pains and dereliction Jesus experienced from the father made him cry out, My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me? His cry fulfilled a well known Messianic prophecy and that proves that Jesus Christ is none other than the Messiah himself. My fellow brethren in Christ, let us give ourselves continually to sound doctrine and we will not be moved by cavilers who cavils against the truth of God's word. God bless you 

                      A thought to ponder

 Jesus exhausted the wrath of God against sin on the cross, that through his substitutionary death, he might pacify the ire of God against us

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