by jimwalton » Sun Mar 15, 2020 11:16 am
Martin Luther had the same thought. He said, "God forsaken by God—who can fathom that?"
It meshes with the idea of the Triune God in that though the Father and the Son are of one essence, they are two separate Persons who can be separate in their actions. The Father can send the Son, according to His power, and the Son can be incarnated according to His nature without dividing the divine essence. For instance, in Quantum Mechanics, there's a principle called superposition, where a particle can exist in two states simultaneously. While I wouldn't want to press the analogy too far, the similarity is still intriguing.
The Son in His physical state (the person of Jesus) addressed the Father as if the Father were in a different place, a separate being even though Jesus acknowledged that the two still shared the same essence (Jn. 10.30).
We can make sense of it this way:
1. Jesus says it to illustrate the depth of his suffering. The Bible says he was dying for the sins of the world: Isa. 53.4-5, 12; 1 Pet. 2.24; 2 Cor. 5.21. God can't look on sin, so Jesus uses the Psalm to illustrate the depth and depravity of human sin and the horror of His suffering
2. He was ontologically divided from God the Father. While the Father and the Son are of one essence, they are two different persons, and God’s "separation" from him shows the judgment of sin.
3. By quoting the first line of Ps. 22 it signifies that God is abandoning him (subjecting him) into the hands of his enemies: death and hell. Legally and theologically speaking he has removed the covenantal blessings from Jesus and is casting him away as an object of his wrath (2 Cor. 5.21; Gal. 3.13).
4. In the Psalm, David expresses agony to the point of death, but ultimately he is delivered and God is glorified. He is "forsaken," but then restored. So also for Jesus. He was inviting all to understand his divine mission.
5. It points us to the explanation of his cry and his death, the holiness of God (Ps. 22.3), and to a prophecy of his death (Ps. 22.6, 7, 8, 12-17).
Martin Luther had the same thought. He said, "God forsaken by God—who can fathom that?"
It meshes with the idea of the Triune God in that though the Father and the Son are of one essence, they are two separate Persons who can be separate in their actions. The Father can send the Son, according to His power, and the Son can be incarnated according to His nature without dividing the divine essence. For instance, in Quantum Mechanics, there's a principle called superposition, where a particle can exist in two states simultaneously. While I wouldn't want to press the analogy too far, the similarity is still intriguing.
The Son in His physical state (the person of Jesus) addressed the Father as if the Father were in a different place, a separate being even though Jesus acknowledged that the two still shared the same essence (Jn. 10.30).
We can make sense of it this way:
1. Jesus says it to illustrate the depth of his suffering. The Bible says he was dying for the sins of the world: Isa. 53.4-5, 12; 1 Pet. 2.24; 2 Cor. 5.21. God can't look on sin, so Jesus uses the Psalm to illustrate the depth and depravity of human sin and the horror of His suffering
2. He was ontologically divided from God the Father. While the Father and the Son are of one essence, they are two different persons, and God’s "separation" from him shows the judgment of sin.
3. By quoting the first line of Ps. 22 it signifies that God is abandoning him (subjecting him) into the hands of his enemies: death and hell. Legally and theologically speaking he has removed the covenantal blessings from Jesus and is casting him away as an object of his wrath (2 Cor. 5.21; Gal. 3.13).
4. In the Psalm, David expresses agony to the point of death, but ultimately he is delivered and God is glorified. He is "forsaken," but then restored. So also for Jesus. He was inviting all to understand his divine mission.
5. It points us to the explanation of his cry and his death, the holiness of God (Ps. 22.3), and to a prophecy of his death (Ps. 22.6, 7, 8, 12-17).