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Introduction

In Forsaken For Us All Part 2 we will continue to examine the great Messianic text of Psalm 22 together. Our Memory and Meditation Verses for this season, as we prepare to Remember the Crucifixion on Friday April 18th, 2025 are Psalm 22:1-15. This series aims to help improve and guide our Christian meditation. Read Forsaken For Us All Part 1 before going any further if you’d like.

Why Have You Forsaken Me: The Fully Divine-Human Son

Christ Jesus, as the Scriptures teach and the creeds explain (Nicene 325 AD, Chalcedon Creed 451 AD) for our better understanding, is One Christ with two natures. Incarnation is the word we use to describe the union of the two. I said in the first blog that Jesus “felt” forsaken on the Cross. What I want you to keep in view here early in Part 2 of is the truth that the Divine Son, Who is of the same essence as the Father, never felt forsaken, as He, like the Father, does not have “a body, parts, or passions (WCF Ch 2 Sect. 1).” The Divine Son is One with the Father and the Spirit and He possesses, as the Divine person in the One Godhead, aseity, unchangeableness, omnipotence, omniscience, etc. He is fully God and fully man.

Why Have You Forsaken Me: The Fully Human-Divine Son

On the Cross Jesus in His human nature obviously had “a body, parts, and passions.” The Westminster Confession of Faith says in Chapter 8 that Jesus had “all the essential properties and common infirmities” to human beings, yet without sin (WCF Ch 8 Sect 2).” On the Cross, Jesus, God Incarnate, kept his parts (mind & will) and passions (strong emotions) in check. He drew moral power from His Divine nature to never sin in thought, word, or deed throughout His entire life, even while in the greatest agony. The sinless Son of God was nailed to a Roman cross like a common criminal and abandoned by His friends. Yet through His Divine nature He persevered in perfect righteousness, and through His Cross, accomplished salvation for us all. He gave to God what we could not. Righteousness and a sinners death. The God in the flesh died for His enemies. As the old hymns says, “Jesus paid it all, all to Him we owe, sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.”

Identifying With Fallen Creatures

In every way Jesus knows our frame. He made us. He knows our condition as Creator. Psalm 103:14 says, “For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.” However, He also knows our condition as our Incarnate Great High Priest too. Before He passed through the Heavens for us He passed through a life like ours and was touched by everything that touches us.

“Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. ¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. ¹⁶ Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:14-16).”

Modeling Prayer While Suffering

In Forsaken For Us All Part 2, I want consider Psalm 22 and the Cross together. If we do then we get to listen to the Son of God pray as He suffers. If we pay attention we can see a pattern for us to follow. Remember, He is our pattern. To follow Christ is not only to follow in word, but also in deed. The command to follow is not a metaphor. Discipleship is practical. The disciples came and asked Jesus how to pray and He gave them the Lord’s Prayer as an ordinary model. But, what about those times that aren’t ordinary? How are you to pray when you are in prison, or suffering, or in emotional agony, or on your death bed? The first five verses of Psalm 22 provide a pattern to follow for when we feel forsaken.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? ² O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest. ³ Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. ⁴ In you our fathers trusted they trusted, and you delivered them. ⁵ To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame (Psalm 22:1-5).”

The Importance of Historical Theology

In Forsaken For Us All Part 1 I pointed out that Jesus, during His greatest time of suffering praised God (see Psalm 22:3 above). In Forsaken For Us All Part 2, I want to point out the foundation of His praise. It is the historical work of God in the world, or what Christians call Historical Theology. God’s work forms the foundation His praise. “In you our fathers trusted, they trusted, and you delivered them. ⁵ To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame (Psalm 22:4-5).”

Jesus, during His greatest trial, recounted God’s faithfulness to His people in the Old Testament. That should serve as a strong inducement for Christians to regularly read the Old Testament. How can the Holy Spirit support you with truth in times of trial that you do not know? Jesus says in John 16:14 that the Holy Spirit “will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” The Holy Spirit takes from the revealed will of God and helps you understand how you are to live. Then leads you to do it. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God (Romans 8:14).

Something Old & Something New

God is still at work in the world today and has been since the time of the Apostles. Now, through historical theology we can recount God’s faithfulness from the Old Testament, New Testament, and from the post-apostolic era too. Our praise can account for the lives of the first martyrs after the Apostles. Men like Polycarp and Ignatius, as well as all the saints in between. We can lift up our thanksgiving to the Father for the exaltation of the Divine son in through every epoch of human history. We can praise Him for His faithfulness in all generations.

Since His Ascension Jesus has been placing His enemies under His feet through the mouth of His Church. He has gone out “conquering and to conquer (Revelation 6:2).” Jesus tells us in Matthew 13:52 that “every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.” God’s store house is full of ancient wonders for you to behold. However, it is plenty of modern gems in it too. The Church is full of stories of faithfulness. A good place to start is with Foxes Book of Martyrs. Another good book about a specific time and place in church history is A Cloud of Witnesses.

Mingling Faith With Truth

I do like the word mingling. It gives you the idea of pouring and stirring, mixing things together so that they are inseparable. It is a good word picture for faith that helps us go beyond mere acknowledgement. Acknowledgement holds the cup of truth and admires it, but never mixes it up and drinks it down. Acknowledgement has an admiration for God and His word, but not a taste for it. Listen to the Westminster Confession of Faith Chapter 1 Sect 3:

“We may be moved and induced by the testimony of the Church to an high and reverent esteem of the holy Scripture; and the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole (which is to give all glory to God), the full discovery it makes of the only way of man’s salvation, the many other incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection thereof, are arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the Word of God; yet, notwithstanding, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth, and divine authority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts.”

There are many a bad churchmen who are good theologians. Troublers in Israel who are people captivated “by heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole” but who have not mingled faith with their knowledge and live by acknowledgement and not faith. You know them by their fruits, not their confession.

Spirit-Filled Faith Drinks, Dies, & Lives

We may think wonderful thoughts about God and His Word and still not be mingling faith with it. For that we need the Holy Spirit. The Westminster Divines make it clear above, “yet, notwithstanding, our full persuasion and assurance of the infallible truth, and divine authority thereof, is from the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the Word in our hearts.” Thus, to pray as Jesus prays on the Cross is not impossible but it takes mingling faith with the Word, trusting fully in its truth and God’s goodness, yielding ourselves to the leading of the indwelling Holy Spirit. You see, Jesus is practicing Romans 6 for all to see on the Cross, establishing the pattern for His followers to walk in after Him, in their own trials with sin.

Following The Pattern of Complaint With Praise

“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.⁷ For he that is dead is freed from sin Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: ⁹ Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. ¹⁰ For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. ¹¹ Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God . (Romans 6:6-11; 13).”

The Cross is not just a way salvation. It is also the pattern for sanctification too. On the Cross, as Jesus suffered he acknowledged His feeling of being forsaken, but he did not stay on that thought. He countered it with praise based on the truth that God had delivered the fathers when they called. “Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. ⁴ In you our fathers trusted they trusted, and you delivered them. ⁵ To you they cried and were rescued; in you they trusted and were not put to shame (Psalm 22:1-5).” Next time you are suffering and lifting up your complaints add to them praise for God for all His works from the OT, NT, Post-Apostolic era, and your own life. You can, in suffering, count your many blessings, name them one by one.

Forsaken For Us All Part 3

In Forsaken For Us All Part 3 we will return to scenes from the Cross. David will see Jesus do something else as He suffers. He will recount the events as they happen before the Lord, calling God to witness their injustice.

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Go in peace to love and serve the Lord,

Pastor Jeremy

Additionally, you can read our previous Series Christ, His Church, & Marriage if the mood strikes ya!