Recently I received a church paper with an article under the title, “When the Omnipresent God Was Absent.” The first paragraph opens with the assertions: “God is everywhere. He is in Heaven and on earth.” This paragraph and all of the second specifies a host of places where God is present on earth. The second paragraph closes, “But there was one place where God was not.” The remainder of the article is devoted to this heading: “The Omnipresent God Was Absent from Calvary” (Matthew 27:46). In support of this assertion three concepts concerning God are discussed:

(1) The holiness of God was repulsed by the world’s sin.

(2) The love of God was offended by the treachery, inhuman cruelty, and indescribable suffering of the object of his affection.

(3) The truth of God needed the scapegoat to go into the wilderness, bearing the sins of the people (Leviticus 16:8-10).

Present in Christ

The truth expressed in each of the above statements cannot be questioned. But does the discussion of these biblical truths support the claim that God was absent from Calvary?

Early in the article the author makes reference to the prophecy of Joel 3:15, 16 which was fulfilled when the sun was darkened from noon to three o’clock while Jesus was upon on the cross. He affirms correctly that it was a “supernatural darkness” which cannot be explained by natural causes. Surely God was there and personally involved. In addition one might make reference to the fact that when Jesus was on the cross, “the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom” (Matthew 27:51). Man had no part in it. Surely God was there and in control of all things.

When teaching classes on “The Life of Christ” I assured my students again and again that they would never understand the content of the four Gospel records nor the person of Jesus Christ if they did not recognize the truth that Jesus was both God and man. And nowhere is this more clear than at Calvary.

Today you will be with me in Paradise. Only God can determine man’s eternal destiny. God was there in Christ. Jesus was divine.

I thirst. He was so human but also so divine that he could say, “If any man thirsts let him come unto me, and drink” (John 7:37, King James Version).

My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? So human! The author cites Psalm 22 and concludes, “For the first time in all eternity, the Father and Son were separated. God wasn’t there.” But he entirely misses the weakness of humanity as expressed by David. The cries of verses 1, 11, and 19 are typical of all mankind in times of deep suffering, sorrow, and desperate need. Devoted believers have again and again thought there were times when God distanced himself from them. In truth, God, the unchanging one, never denies his very being. He is “the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by his turning” (James 1:17, American Standard Version), thus always omnipresent.

Present at the Cross

One cannot but wonder, if God was not present at the cross, to whom was Jesus speaking? Was he just spouting words into thin air? Jesus said, so personally and lovingly, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Again, the divine Son said in reverence and complete confidence, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.”

It is true that God’s holiness is repulsed by the world’s sin. But this doesn’t mean God could not look upon sin, but rather that his holy nature could never view it with acceptance. Calvary and God’s plan for the redemption of man was in the mind of God before he created the world (1 Peter 1:18-20).

It seems strange to suggest that when the supreme moment in God’s scheme of redemption and the supreme act in all of human history was about to unfold God would close his mind and absent himself from it.

It is also true that the love of God for his Son was offended by the abject suffering Jesus experienced in the events which preceded and finally led to his crucifixion. Who can measure the love of God and who can determine the capacity the
God-man possessed for suffering? These unknowns do not prove that God was absent from Calvary.

Finally, the truth of God (the gospel plan of salvation) did need a scapegoat to bear the sin of the people into the wilderness. To fulfill this need, Jesus the perfect Lamb of God, (“without blemish and without spot,” 1 Peter 1:19, KJV), willingly shed his blood outside the city walls. Jesus was so human he prayed three times that God’s plan for his immediate death might be changed. But the divine Son of God who was manifested in the flesh victoriously prayed, “Not my will, but thine be done,” and God’s truth was upheld and fulfilled. It is true that sin separates man from God (Isaiah 59:1, 2) and the author could have cited Paul who wrote, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21, New International Version). It is true that Jesus became the offering for sin in our behalf, but the entire redemption plan was predicted and carried out within the will of God. Again, there is no reason to believe the total obedience of Jesus placed him in a position which led God to abandon him.

God is eternally omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. He is always and forever the same. |L

Sherwood Smith is a freelance writer in Cincinnati, Ohio.

OUTLOOK is a forum for responsible Christian writers. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of Standard Publishing or The Lookout.

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