Why did Jesus say “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” if He is God?
When Jesus cried out those words on the cross, He was quoting Psalm 22:1 — not expressing doubt, but revealing something profound.
📖 He Was Quoting Scripture
Psalm 22 begins with:
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
This Psalm was written by David about 1,000 years before the crucifixion. Yet it describes crucifixion in vivid detail:
“They pierced my hands and my feet.”
“They divide my garments among them.”
By quoting the first line, Jesus was pointing everyone to the entire Psalm — which ends in victory, not defeat.
It was a declaration that He was fulfilling prophecy.
✝️ He Was Bearing Our Sin
On the cross, Jesus took on the sins of the world.
Scripture says:
“He who knew no sin became sin for us.”
“The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
In that moment, He experienced the weight of human sin and the separation sin causes between man and God.
It was not that the Trinity was broken — but that Jesus, in His humanity, experienced the full consequence of sin.
👤 He Was Fully God and Fully Man
Christian belief teaches that Jesus is:
Fully God
Fully Man
As God, He is eternal.
As man, He felt pain, anguish, abandonment.
From the cross, He cried out as the Son speaking to the Father — showing the depth of what He endured.
🕊️ The Psalm Ends in Triumph
Psalm 22 does not end in despair. It ends in victory:
“He has done it.”
Sound familiar?
On the cross, Jesus later said:
“It is finished.”
The suffering had purpose.
The abandonment had meaning.
The cross was not defeat — it was redemption
Jesus was not denying His divinity. He was quoting Psalm 22, fulfilling prophecy, and expressing the real human anguish of bearing the sin of the world. What sounded like abandonment was actually the climax of God’s redemptive plan.
The cross was not the absence of God.
It was the love of God on display.