Archive for the ‘Separation’ Tag
Did God forsake Jesus?
Filed under: By Bill Winn | Tags: abandoned, Bill Winn, Christ, Church, Cross, eli eli, father, father's day, forsaken, Holiness, holy, Jesus, Love, relationship, Separation, Sin, with
Comments (4) Did God ever Forsake Jesus? Consider these words of Jesus on the Cross, “Eli Eli lama sabachthani?” These words translated are “My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” Did God the Father abandon or forsake Jesus on the Cross? Did the Eternal Father of the Eternal Son really pronounce him accursed? Is it possible that the same Father who declared, “This is my beloved Son in whom my soul delights.” really turned his back on Jesus so that he suffered alone and isolated in his hour of greatest need? Much has been written about this subject so let me throw in on the matter. Let’s look at what the Bible has to say and let our minds be conformed to the mind of Christ .
If we begin with the character and nature of God we will see a clear answer to this question.
Is it possible that the Father forsook Jesus?
In John 1:1 we read; “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God and the Word was with God.” The Greek word for with in this passage indicates a face-to-face, personal, and intimate relationship. Jesus and his Father have eternally been in this intimate face-to-face relationship in the communion of the Holy Spirit. There has never been a time when the Father, Son, and Spirit have not been in intimate loving relationship. The Triune God exists as relationship and is Love. The Father, Son, and Spirit know no other way to be toward one another than to be as Love.
On the Cross Jesus is executing a rabbinic exercise where the teacher begins to quote a Psalm and the congregants there finish it. Jesus is quoting Psalm 22 which begins “My God my God why have you forsaken me?” The Psalm does not end in defeat it ends in victory. The point made by Jesus is victory not defeat or having been forsaken.
Also who is Jesus’ God? What God does Jesus worship? Well Jesus does not have a God he is God with the Father and the Spirit so just on that point alone the idea that Jesus is literally telling us that the Father has forsaken him cannot be accurate. In I Corinthians 12:3 Paul says, “Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says, ‘Let Jesus be cursed!” I would hazard a guess that God the Father speaks by the Spirit. It is not the Father who put Jesus to death on the Cross… it was us. (Heb. 12:3) Consider II Corinthians 5:19 “…that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself…” The word for in there really means in. In John 14:20 Jesus says, “In that day you will know that I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you.” Jesus and the Father mutually indwell one another and the Holy Spirit is facilitating this relationship at all times.
Some argue that because Jesus took on our sin God the Father had to turn his back on him because God cannot have any part with sin. Let us never forget that Jesus is God- co-equal with the Father and the Spirit. If God can have no fellowship with sin how did Jesus eat with sinners, become human, and finally take on all of our sin!
Also ponder this… there is a politician I know of that is on his third marriage. When he married wife number one he said, “I’ll never leave you nor forsake you.” Then he cheated on wife number one with the woman who would become wife number two. When he married wife number two he said, “I’ll never leave you nor forsake you.” Then he cheated on wife number two with the woman who would become wife number three. When he married wife number three he said, “I’ll never leave you nor forsake you.” Well neither wife number two nor three have any basis on which to believe him because of what he has actually done. He has proven that he will in fact leave and forsake. So if the Eternal Father of Jesus would leave and forsake him in his hour of greatest need how can we ever believe that he will never leave nor forsake us?
Let me say with clarity and determination… God the Father most certainly did not forsake Jesus on the Cross and Jesus did not say that he did. This Father’s Day as we celebrate all that is good about our dads let us put away in our hearts, minds, and in our Faith the blasphemous notion that Jesus’ Father ever turned his back on him and let us celebrate that he will never turn his back on us!
~ Bill Winn
The Waiting Father
Filed under: By Craig Kuhlman, Gospel, Love, Perichoresis, Relationships, Trinity, Uncategorized | Tags: Doubt, Fear, Guilt, Home, hopeful universalism, Luke 15:11-32, security, Separation, Shame, Sin, The Waiting Father, unconditional acceptance, union
Comments (6) 
Luke 15: 11-32, for me, is one of the most beautiful passages of Scripture describing our Father’s love for all humanity. It provides each one of us the foundation to stand before our Creator with no fear, no shame, no guilt, and no doubt.
A number of years ago my family and I were flying home from a vacation trip. I entered into a rare moment of deep meditation, lost in my own thoughts. A vision flooded my mind when my mom and I were waiting in the parking lot for my dad. It had been years since I thought about those trips to pick him up from work to take him home. I remembered very clearly, how, as a young boy, I would wait for the doors of the RCA plant to open at the 4 p.m. bell. I eagerly waited to see my dad in the crowd, on his way “home.” I remembered the joy of seeing him. Although it brought a smile to my face, I didn’t know why I was recalling this, until I felt God’s presence speak to me. In that moment, it became clear. I heard God say to me, “that’s how I feel toward you. I get the same joy of seeing you just like you did in seeing your dad come through those doors.” I immediately broke into tears with an awkward hope no one was looking. It became a very touching memory and metaphor of the Love our Father has in seeing and waiting for all of humanity, all of his children, “coming through the doors of life on their way home.” He always smiles with joy at seeing you and me, just as I did, when I saw my dad.
Commentators have called the Parable of the Prodigal Son, many things. The one I love the most is, “The Waiting Father.”
Breaking into the story, when the son requested his inheritance, his father had an amazing reaction. There was no imposition of fear, or shame, or guilt, or doubt. There was no anger, or punishment. He simply gave him what he asked for and let him leave on a trip leading to a life less than zero. The son gathered what he had, left home, and “headed for Hollywood.”
Verse 17 begins with a beautiful line, “When he (the son) came to his senses…” Because of God’s love for His creation He sent His Son to unite us forever and included us (and the entire cosmos) in Union with Him. When Jesus died on the cross, he said, “It is finished.” Our Union in Him is accomplished forever, and is irrevocable. For any one human being to cease to exist, Jesus would have to cease to exist. It is an accomplished fact. Unfortunately, most of humanity is included without a clue, until we come to our senses, believe, and come home. When we do, we find a Waiting Father. A Father who doesn’t wait for a moment, or a few years, or just in this lifetime (as some Christian friends may tell us) but one who will be waiting for eternity, as long as it takes.
In verse 20 we find that Waiting Father (waiting for his son to come home)…”but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him.” The son had worked up a repentance speech to make his way back home into the family just as a hired servant, but his dad didn’t allow him to finish his speech. He restored him to full fellowship in the family as if he never left. His dad didn’t allow sin to separate him from his son. He had been his son, and the relationship with his son had never changed. He had always been his son. But when the son came to his senses and came home, the son’s relationship and fellowship changed toward his Father. His Father never moved, never changed his love for his son, and remained…waiting. For us, just as with the son, it is always our move, because Jesus made the first move toward us when he brought us home.
Just as I would wait with anticipation for my dad, our heavenly Dad waits with anticipation for us. Our loving father waits, and waits, and waits, and will forever wait until all humanity comes to its senses, and comes “home.” While He is waiting, He never loses His sense of joy and feeling toward us, despite what we may think. When humanity comes through those doors, comes home, one by one, our dad will be standing there with open arms.
~by Craig Kuhlman