Turned His face away

I was recently asked a great question. I use the expression, "God turned His face away" from Jesus, while Jesus was bearing our sin on the Cross. The question was posed to me, in conjugation with Psalm 22. Psalm 22 opens with the line Jesus quotes on the cross, "my God, my God, why have your forsaken me". But this Psalm later includes in verse 22, a line where David proclaims God not turning His face away, and in fact turning His face to him. So in connection with this Psalm, I was asked what I mean and the theological ramifications of the phrase, "God turned His face away" from Christ. Here was my answer...

First, the words, "God turned His face away" are very important words. This line comes right from the song we sing, "How Deep the Father's Love for Us". Back [God turning His back on Jesus] and face are just different parts of a body (which God the Father does not have so it is a metaphor), so I would be ok with the exchange of words. 

Second, these exact words are not used in the Bible. But this image of God turning Himself away from His Son, is taught, by being implied, inferred, and alluded to in multiple verses all throughout the Bible (Isaiah 59:2, Habakkuk 1:13, Matt. 27:46, Mark 15:34, etc.) as well as the theology behind God, sin, and salvation. 

Third, Psalm 22 is a Psalm of David. This psalm applies to David. Jesus simply uses a line from the opening verse to make His teaching point clear on the cross. Yes this Psalm does foreshadow some of Christ and it is used by the New Testament writers to demonstrate Christ. But its direct application is David. So the use of this Psalm in the New Testament is showing how Christ is like David, but David is not like Christ in that God never once turned away from David and always came to him in his need, unlike He did with Christ during the atonement. This means Psalm 22:24, applies to David, but becasue of Jesus' mission, does not apply to Christ on the Cross. 

Fourth, I do not believe, nor ever believed....1)During the atonement of Christ, God or Jesus ever gave up being God, 2)During the atonement of Christ, the Trinitarian nature of the Godhead ceased to exist (God is eternally a holy Triune Godhead), 3)During the atonement of Jesus, God never ceased to be omnipresent (God is eternally omnipresent), 4)we can ever fully and perfectly express what took place in the Triune Godhead during the atonement of Jesus because it is a mystery and we are not infinite (we are finite beings held to limits) like the Triune Godhead is.

Lastly, here is what I do believe and teach concerning the Gospel and the atonement of Jesus Christ...

I believe the Bible (Isaiah 52:13-53:12, Galatians 3:13, 2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 John 4;10, Romans 8;32, and more verses than I can count) and the historical orthodox teaching of the church, teaches the Penal Subsitutionary Atonement of Jesus. This means that in the physical blood sacrificing death of Jesus, He substituted himself for me, you, and uncountable numbers of other people, by taking on Himself their sin and paying in himself the full and satisfying penalty and punishment for their sin, and in exchange God gave us Christ's perfect righteousness. This doctrine of the atonement has multiple implications...

-Christ Jesus bore our sin on the Cross.

-Christ bore the punishment for our specific sin on the cross.

-God's holy, zealous, anger, and wrath against the specific sin was poured onto Christ bearing our sin.

-God the Father was completely and perfectly satisfied in his holiness/justice for the punishment of the sin Christ bore.

-God cannot look (with grace, love, mercy, goodness, favor) onto sin and looks at sin in his justice, righteousness, anger, and holiness.

-Christ was completely alone during his suffering on the cross (absent of God's love, grace, favor, mercy, goodness and care)

-Christ was in "hell" while He was on the cross.

-Christ did all this willingly, lovingly, and submissively for us.

-This was the mission of Christ, that God the Father perfectly planned and the Holy Spirit perfectly applies.

So when I teach, God turned His face away from Christ, while He was on the Cross, this is what I mean...

While Christ was bearing our sin, God turned his grace, mercy, love, favor, and goodness away from Jesus and instead turned his holy, righteous, anger and wrath against Jesus (the sin bearer), which burned against Christ until His punishment for the sin was perfectly, completely, and fully satisfied. For the first time and only time in history, Jesus was not in a beautiful, loving, grace-filled, good union with His father, becasue for the only time in history, Jesus was not righteous before God. 

It is a dangerous thing to be a sinner in the hands of a holy God. And during Jesus atoning death, this is exactly what he was. So when I say and teach, God turned His face away, which I always will because the Bible makes it very clear, this is what I mean.