25th March 2026

Many Christians believe when Jesus died on the cross and took our sin and depravity upon himself that God had to turn his face away, because God, who is so pure and holy, wouldn’t be able to look at Jesus with all that sin piled on him. Jesus was human, but he was God at the same time – he ate with sinners and rubbed shoulders with the ‘dregs’ of society. So, we see that God didn’t mind getting his hands dirty and hanging out with those considered unclean by high society. 

When Jesus was hanging on the cross, he experienced all of the pain, grief, sorrow, agony and defeat that we feel as humans, even abandonment. When he cried out from the cross, ‘My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?’ he was feeling our pain, our abandonment, all of the consequences of our sin. 

It is true that God didn’t deliver him from the cross, and he, as a Father, no doubt felt the deep pain Jesus felt, and also the pain of refraining from helping him. But that was the plan. That was the Father’s will. The very life of the Creator was given for us; he lived it out as the only perfect human; he showed us the Father, and more than that, he showed us the heart of the Father, who never turned his back on Jesus and will never turn his back on us.

In giving his son for us, willingly and lovingly, God the Father also embraced the cross.

This study was first published on 8 April 2025, at www.gemsofgodsgrace.wordpress.com a personal blog which is not sponsored by Grace Communion International.

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