Why Jesus cried out on the cross, 'Eli Eli lama sabachthani' if He is the Second Person of the Godhead?

In Mat 27.46 we read that Christ cried out in loud voice asking God why He had forsaken Him.  This verse is used by skeptics and cynics to present their case against the Triune God and that Jesus was not one with the Father.  These doubters would argue that if the Father and the Son are one, how could the Father forsake the Son? Is it really possible?  

Let us start with the fact that God forsook Christ on the cross and this forsaking is not exactly the abandonment of the Son but the people whom He had come to save because He replaces us the believers on the cross (1 Pet 3.18).  He bore oursins (1 Pet 2.24, Isa 53.6).  He was made sin for us(2 Cor 5.21).  Isa 53.6 says that our iniquities fell on Him.  1 Pet 2.24, says that He bore our sins in His body on the cross, in order we having died to sins, might live to righteousness by whose bruise we were healed.  1 Pet 3.18 says that ‘…..being put to death in the flesh, but on the other hand made alive in the Spirit.’  In 2 Cor 5.21 says, ‘–Him who did not know sin was made sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.'

The above verses clearly indicate that though it was Christ on the cross, we the believers are actually crucified for our sins with Christ.  Now, Imagine if we were crucified for our sins without Christ's redemptive work, then God’s Holy nature will demand Him to abandon us because of our sins.  Unless and until we obtain forgiveness for our sins and sinful nature before our time comes to an end, we would never have an escape from our condemning crosses.  However, the Lord Jesus took our sins and was made sin for us on the cross.  Now, God’s abandonment of His Son was actually His abandonment of the creation that was under sin.  Simply put, the abandonment of the Father which Jesus suffered was in fact our abandonment, but Hallelujah for Christ who suffered on our behalf.  Isn’t this a mighty and a wonderful plan?  What a wisdom!  Hallelujah!  I have no words to praise our wonderful and great God.  

Next, if the Father and the Son were separate, then it would be sadistic for the Father to punish an innocent Person on our behalf.  However, the Father and the Son are one, so the Father suffered along with the Son on the cross.  This only states how infinitely loving our God is.  Hallelujah.  To understand this further, let us read an illustration.  Imagine your child is fast asleep on your shoulder in a church meeting.  Your arms are paining due to the weight of the child, but your love for the little one makes you ignore your paining arm and you will continue to hold your sleeping child carefully because of your love for him or her.  You just forsook your arm just to keep the child comfortable.  Similarly, the Lord Jesus as the arm of God was forsaken to suffer for us, so that we can be drawn back to the Father once and for all.  Hallelujah.  The fact that the Lord Jesus suffered even this abandonment gives credibility to our great God and how meticulous He is to satisfy His righteous requirement by receiving the perfect sacrifice of the Lamb of God.  Amen

Triune God - Three Essence - One God

      What do you mean by a Triune God?  How does the three, the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit exist as One being?

Honestly, Trinity is a mystery and the Almighty God has to speak to us regarding this mystery to each one of us separately as per own faith structure.  However, this is one of the basic knowledge area, yet most important as a Christian.  We can understand this mystery to a reasonable extent from whatever is revealed to us in the Bible .  Who is our God?  How is He like?  What should we know about Him according to the revelations in the Bible?  Do we know Him as we ought to or are we deceived by the twisting traditions of Christianity that might makes us ignorantly a Tritheist or an heretic by accident?  Let us look at what the Bible has to say about these matters.  

A short prayer before we commence:- 

O Lord, our heavenly Father, I pray in the name of our Lord Jesus to grant us wisdom to understand You in the manner how You want us to understand.  Lord, we thank You for the Bible and its life dispensing words.  May the Spirit enlighten us and help that these seeds would grow to bring forth abundant fruit for You.  Thank You so much.  Amen

  

Psalms 86.10 says, ‘… You alone are God.’  God is one and we worship Him.  We are not polytheists to worship three separate gods.  Isaiah 45.5 says that our God is Jehovah and there is no one else beside Him (Eph 4.6, 1 Tim 2.5, 1 Cor 8.4)

Now, let us who our God is.  In Gen 1.26, we see God referring to Himself as 'Us', 'Our image'.  The pronoun 'Us' and then God being one simultaneously means He is a Triune God.  Triune means three substance or essence in One being.  At this juncture, we need to confess that we are little men who can never understand the Creator with ease.  Trinity is a mystery and we can only rely upon what the Bible has to say about our Triune God and understand to an extent of how much ever has been revealed to us.  In Isaiah 6.8, God uses ‘I’ and ‘Us’ to address Himself and similarly in Gen 3.22 and in Gen 11.7.  Hence, we see that this one God has three substance or essence in the Godhead.

 

In John 14.23 and 17.11 we see that the Father and the Son are one and existing at the same time.  Further in Mat 28.19 we understand that the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit has one name.  The verse doesn't say 'in the names of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit', but 'in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit'.  This means that the three have one name and they exist as one. How the functionality of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit is experienced by us can be understood from the words of Andrew Murray, ‘In the Father we have the unseen God, the Author of all.  In the Son of God revealed, made manifest, and brought nigh; He is the Form of God.  In the Spirit of God we have the indwelling God: the Power of God dwelling in human body and working in it what the Father and the Son have for us…. What the Father has purposed, and the Son has procured, can be appropriated and take effect in the body of Christ only through the continual intervention and active operation of the Holy Spirit.’

Now let us delve further. 

All three are God

The Father is God (1 Pet 1.2, Eph 1.17).  The Son is God (Heb 1.8, Joh 1.1, Rom 9.5).  The Spirit is God (Acts 5.3-4). 

All three are eternal

The Father is eternal (Isa 9.6).  The Son is eternal (Heb 1.12).  The Spirit is eternal (Heb 9.14). 

All three are exiting at the same time

In Joh 14.16-17, we see that our Lord is promising us a Comforter, who is the Spirit of reality, by asking the Father.  Again, in Eph 3.14-17, Apostle Paul is saying that he is bowing his knees unto the Father…. To be strengthened by the Power of His Spirit into the inner man…. That Christ may make His home in our hearts.  Similarly, in 1 Cor 12.4-6 also we can clearly affirm that the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit are existing at the same time. Many Christians have no problem understanding until this point.

Now let us read further, 

Son is the Father; Father and Son are one.  In Isa 9.6, we understand that the Son, undoubtedly the Lord Jesus Christ, is the Mighty God, Eternal Father.  Here the Son is the Father and He is the Mighty God.  In John 10.30, 14.8-14, we read that the Father and the Son are one. 

Next, in 1 Cor 15.45, 2 Cor 3.17, we understand that the Lord Jesus is the Spirit.  He is the life giving Spirit and we enjoy freedom in the Spirit.

All three are in us

Eph 4.6, says that the Father is in us. In John 14.20, Col 1.27, 2 Cor 13.5, we read that the Lord is in us.   Then John 14.17 says, that the Spirit of reality shall be in you and thus the Spirit is in us. 

Hence, at the point the Trinity becomes a mystery.  In John 1.1 we see that the Word of God who is Jesus, was from the beginning; He was with God and He was God.  The Lord Jesus is the Spirit (2 Cor 3.17).  Heb 1.8-9, the Son is addressed as God, then God is referred to as His God.  This is why it is mystery.  In Rev 1.4, 4.5 and 5.6, we the one Spirit is called the seven Spirits.  Thus this mysterious Triune God is not for a terminology or for teaching, but for our experience and enjoyment. 

In Mat 3.16-17, we understand co-inherence and co-existence of Father, Son and the Holy Spirit in the Godhead.  In Rev 1.4-5 & Eph 3.14-17, we further confirm this co-inherence and co-existence. 

In the simplest words, the Triune God can be understood by the burning lamp.  The oil, the lamp and the light that it shines forth cannot be separated.  The Father as the source of all is like the oil, the Son is the burning lamp, the expression of the unseen God.  The light travels from the lamp, not visible to our eyes, but when it falls on things, it exposes, it reveals this unseen light cast forth from the lamp is the Holy Spirit.  The Father is formless, limitless, infinite Spirit, the source of all.  His expression, or the form is the Son and the power of God that is from the Son which convicts, exposes, reveals things in the world is the Holy Spirit.  Amen

Summary

We see Jesus as the Father in Isa 9.6, Father and the Son as One, the Son and the Spirit are one.  All the three are One.  In the Godhead, we have the Father, Son and the Spirit and they dwell as one Being in us today.  To say that the Lord Jesus as an eternal Father is distinct from the Father is saying that we have two Fathers.  This is heretical.  Apart from this if the three essence are considered to be distinct and somehow, the traditions portrays that the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit cannot be the other essence to be experienced by us, then we fall in the danger of becoming a tritheist meaning we believe in three gods which is again heretical.  In simple words, Father is the Son, the Son is Father; the Son is the Spirit, the Spirit is the Father and the Father is the Spirit all at the same time as one Being is our Triune God.  Amen