Q. Was sin-bearing only on the cross, when the Lord said “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Yet when Christ expired, God was not then hiding His face from Him; for He said, “Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit;” still atonement is in the blood. How would you reconcile this? Did Christ pass through death to undergo God's judgment on man, (namely, “the wages of sin is death,") and to conquer him who had the power of death, even Satan (Heb. 2)? Then how would this be reconciled with “He died for me and He shed His blood for me?” Would it be right to say Christ died for us under the chastening hand of God? would it not do away with atonement if, Christ died under the chastening hand of God? It would almost be saying that God had not accepted the work, would it not? The hiding of God's face was removed before death. W.
A. It is an all-important principle for a Christian that his responsibility as well as privilege and joy is to believe, without pretending to “reconcile". This is always a question of his spiritual capacity, which we may not always discern to be small. It is often enough for his own satisfaction, without expecting to silence gainsayers, or even to meet the difficulties of other minds. Many a thing passes human comprehension. But in all cases a saint is called to accept cordially and without question on the warrant of God's word.
Now as to the subject-matter raised, it is equally certain that in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark our Lord is seen on the cross suffering for sin and our sins, and uttering that cry of deepest anguish under the sense of God's face, then first, then only, hidden from Him: “My God, My God, Why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Here then in the true Sin Offering; but Luke presents Him subsequently saying, “Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit.” This is rather the Burnt Offering and the expression of conscious acceptance; not His soul realizing His holy horror and infinite suffering in bearing the divine judgment, but the outpouring of His confidence and unclouded enjoyment of His relationship. John lets us know His calm and divine satisfaction in His dying words: “It is finished"; and He dismissed His spirit, for He had title, He alone, to lay down His life and to take it again. Some of these inspired declarations unbelief stumbles at, if not at all. The believer receives them all adoringly as suited to the fullness of Christ.
Negative judgments in these questions are dangerous, for before we deny we ought to know all that God has revealed, Do we flatter ourselves thus? To say that Christ's death was judicial is to oppose many scriptures ignorantly: as Rom. 4:25, Rom. 5:6-10, Rom. 8:32; 1 Cor. 1:23; 1 Cor. 2:2; 1 Cor. 15:3; 2 Cor. 5:21; 2 Cor. 13:4; Gal. 3:13; Heb. 1:3; Heb. 2:9, 10, 14, 17; Heb. 9:12, 14, 16, 23-28; Heb. 10:10, 12, 14, 19, 20; 1 Peter 1:19; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Peter 3:18. This surely suffices. His death was much, very much more, but it was in the profoundest way the Sin Offering, and what in the Holy One can be judicial if this be not? The notion is a rash one-sided expression of such as are jealous of Christ's glory; but one truth must not be sacrificed to another. All that is revealed has supreme claims on our souls, and all is perfectly harmonious in Him Who is the Truth, and in the written word, which perfectly reveals all to us, whose simple place is to believe, and then in due time to understand. “Chastening” is an un-meet and unscriptural word for Christ, and especially for His death. Analyzing His work is almost as perilous as dissecting His person. “The right faith is that we believe and confess—that we worship.”