DID JESUS EXPERIENCE THE SEPARATION FROM GOD THAT OUR SINS DESERVED?

GOING DEEPER — HEBREWS 10:1–10

Why did the Son of God become human, and what did He suffer to bring us back to God?

INTRODUCTION — WHY DID GOD BECOME HUMAN?

Humanity had a problem it could not solve.

We had sinned against God.

Sin brought death, judgment, and separation from Him.

No animal could solve that problem. Animals had not committed humanity's sins, and their blood could never finally take away those sins (Hebrews 10:4).

Nor could another sinful human being provide the perfect sacrifice.

So God provided what humanity could not.

The eternal Son of God became human.

He lived the sinless human life that no one else had lived.

He obeyed the Father completely.

Then He willingly offered Himself as the sacrifice for our sins.

But this raises an important question.

If the punishment for sin includes separation from God, what did Jesus experience when He bore our sins?

When He cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” was He experiencing the judgment that sinful humanity deserved?

I believe He was.

Scripture does not explain exactly how that happened. But it gives us important evidence for understanding why His suffering was necessary and what His sacrifice accomplished.

Let us begin where Hebrews begins: with the humanity of Jesus.

1. IT WAS HUMANITY THAT SINNED

Genesis 2–3; Romans 5:12–19

God created human beings for life in fellowship with Him.

But Adam disobeyed.

God had warned him that disobedience would bring death (Genesis 2:17).

When Adam sinned, he became ashamed and afraid.

He hid from God.

He was placed under judgment.

And he was driven from the garden, losing access to the tree of life.

Adam did not physically die that day. Yet the consequences of his sin began immediately.

His relationship with God had changed.

Romans 5:12 says sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin.

Romans 5:19 contrasts Adam's disobedience with Christ's obedience.

The problem began with a human being who disobeyed God.

And the answer would come through a human being who obeyed Him.

2. WHAT IS THE PUNISHMENT FOR SIN?

Isaiah 59:2; Romans 6:23; Revelation 20:14–15

Romans 6:23 says:

“The wages of sin is death.”

But Scripture describes death and judgment in more than one way.

Adam was driven from the garden and denied access to the tree of life.

Isaiah 59:2 says:

“Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God.”

Ephesians 2:1 describes people as dead in their sins even while they are physically alive.

Ephesians 2:12–13 describes people who were once far away from God but have been brought near through Christ.

Second Thessalonians 1:9 speaks of eternal destruction in relation to the presence of the Lord.

Revelation 20:14–15 calls the final judgment the second death.

These passages show that the consequences of sin are more terrible than ordinary physical death.

Sin brings condemnation, death, and alienation from God.

The final judgment is not simply the end of earthly life.

It is the loss of the life and fellowship for which God created us.

Separation from God is central to understanding the punishment for sin.

This is the problem Christ came to overcome.

3. WHY DID WE NEED A SINLESS HUMAN SAVIOR?

Hebrews 2:14–17; 4:15; 10:4–10

Hebrews 10:4 says the blood of bulls and goats could not take away sins.

Animal sacrifices served a purpose under the Law.

They taught Israel about sin, sacrifice, and the need for cleansing.

But they could not provide the final answer.

Humanity had sinned.

And sinful humanity needed redemption.

So the Son of God became human.

Hebrews 2:14 says He shared our flesh and blood.

Hebrews 2:17 says He became like His brothers and sisters so that He could make atonement for their sins.

He was genuinely human.

He experienced hunger, weariness, sorrow, temptation, and suffering.

Yet Hebrews 4:15 says He was without sin.

He had no sins of His own requiring forgiveness.

He lived the obedient human life that Adam and the rest of humanity had failed to live.

Romans 5:19 says:

“By the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.”

This is essential.

The Son of God became a sinless human being so that He could offer the sacrifice sinful humanity could never provide.

4. JESUS SUFFERED AS A HUMAN BEING WITHOUT CEASING TO BE GOD

John 1:1, 14; Hebrews 2:14; 5:7–9

Scripture teaches that Jesus was both divine and human.

John 1:1 says the Word was God.

John 1:14 says the Word became flesh.

Jesus did not stop being God when He became human.

But His humanity was real.

He became hungry.

He grew tired.

He wept.

He experienced temptation.

He suffered.

And He died.

Hebrews 5:7 describes Jesus offering prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears during the days of His flesh.

Hebrews 5:8 says He learned obedience through what He suffered.

This does not mean Jesus had previously been disobedient.

It means He experienced the full cost of obedience in human life.

The crucifixion was genuine human suffering.

His death was genuine human death.

The divine Son did not cease to be God. But He experienced suffering and death in the human nature He had taken.

The emphasis in Hebrews is upon the sinless humanity of Jesus and the offering of His own body.

Hebrews 10:10 says we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

It was the sinless human Savior who suffered for sinful human beings.

5. WHY DID THE INNOCENT ONE HAVE TO SUFFER?

Isaiah 53; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 3:18

Jesus had committed no sin.

He deserved no punishment for wrongdoing.

Yet Scripture says He suffered for our sins.

Isaiah 53:5 says He was wounded for our transgressions and that the punishment bringing us peace was upon Him.

Isaiah 53:6 says the Lord laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.

Second Corinthians 5:21 says God made the One who knew no sin to be sin for us.

Galatians 3:13 says Christ became a curse for us.

First Peter 3:18 says:

“Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.”

Those words explain the purpose of His suffering.

The righteous suffered for the unrighteous.

The innocent One suffered for the guilty.

Jesus did not suffer because He had sinned.

He suffered because we had sinned.

He willingly bore the judgment that sinful humanity deserved.

And He did it to bring us back to God.

6. WHAT WAS JESUS DREADING IN GETHSEMANE?

Matthew 26:36–46

Before His arrest, Jesus entered Gethsemane.

He was deeply sorrowful.

He prayed that, if possible, the cup might pass from Him.

Yet He submitted to the Father's will.

What was the cup?

The approaching suffering and death were certainly part of what He faced.

But the Old Testament sometimes uses a cup to represent God's judgment.

Isaiah 51:17 speaks of the cup of God's wrath.

Jeremiah 25:15 uses similar language.

This suggests that Jesus may have been anticipating more than the physical pain of crucifixion.

He was approaching the moment when He would bear humanity's sins and their judgment.

Matthew does not explicitly explain the cup as separation from the Father.

But the biblical background gives us reason to understand His anguish in the larger context of judgment and atonement.

The sinless Savior was preparing to suffer for sins He had never committed.

7. WHY DID DARKNESS COVER THE LAND?

Matthew 27:45; Mark 15:33; Luke 23:44–45

From about noon until three in the afternoon, darkness covered the land.

The Gospel writers record this extraordinary event.

But they do not explicitly explain its meaning.

In the Old Testament, darkness is sometimes associated with divine judgment.

Amos 8:9 speaks of the sun going down at noon.

Exodus 10:21–23 describes darkness as judgment upon Egypt.

Joel 2:31 associates a darkened sun with the day of the Lord.

These passages do not prove that every period of darkness has the same meaning.

But they provide a biblical background for understanding the darkness at Calvary.

Jesus was bearing our sins.

Darkness covered the land.

And near the end of that darkness, He cried out in forsakenness.

The darkness is consistent with the understanding that Jesus was bearing divine judgment.

But Scripture does not tell us exactly what He experienced during every moment of those three hours.

We should not invent details.

8. “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?”

Matthew 27:46; Psalm 22

These words are central to our study.

Jesus cried:

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

He was quoting Psalm 22:1.

The psalm begins with the anguish of a righteous sufferer who cries out to God.

It describes suffering, mockery, and distress.

But the psalm ends with deliverance and praise.

Psalm 22:24 says God heard the afflicted sufferer's cry.

Some Christians therefore understand Jesus' words primarily as an expression of suffering and identification with the psalm, rather than an actual withdrawal of fellowship from the Father.

That interpretation deserves consideration.

But we must also take seriously the words Jesus chose.

He did not merely speak about pain.

He cried out in forsakenness.

And He did so while bearing our sins.

What had sin done to humanity?

It had separated us from God.

What had Jesus come to do?

He had come to bear our sins and bring us back to God.

I believe His cry reveals that, in His human suffering, Jesus experienced the terrible forsakenness that our sins deserved.

Exactly how He experienced this is not explained.

But the connection between sin, judgment, His cry, and our reconciliation gives us strong reason to understand His suffering in this way.

9. DID THIS MEAN JESUS STOPPED BEING GOD?

No.

That is not what we are saying.

Jesus remained the eternal Son of God.

His divine nature did not cease to exist.

Scripture does not tell us that the divine nature was divided.

Nor does it explain a break within the Trinity.

Those are not necessary claims for understanding the suffering of Jesus.

Our emphasis is upon His genuine humanity.

As a human being, He experienced hunger, weariness, sorrow, suffering, and death.

I believe that, while bearing our sins, He also experienced the forsakenness associated with sin's judgment.

We do not need to explain every detail of the relationship between His divine and human natures to recognize that His suffering was real.

John 16:32 records Jesus saying the Father was with Him.

That passage must be considered alongside His later cry of forsakenness.

Psalm 22:24 also reminds us that the righteous sufferer was ultimately heard by God.

These passages caution us against claiming that the Father permanently abandoned Jesus or that the divine nature was divided.

But they do not remove the need to explain Jesus' actual cry.

The question is what the sinless human Savior experienced while bearing our sins, not whether He ceased being God.

Scripture does not explain precisely how His human experience of forsakenness related to His continuing divine identity.

We should acknowledge that limit.

10. WHY DOES THE LOGIC OF THE CROSS MATTER?

Let us bring the biblical evidence together.

Humanity sinned.

Sin brought death, condemnation, and alienation from God.

The Son of God became human.

He lived without sin.

He willingly bore our sins and their judgment.

He cried out in forsakenness.

And through His sacrifice, sinners can be reconciled to God.

These are not unrelated statements.

They belong to the same story of redemption.

If Christ came to rescue us from the judgment our sins deserved, His suffering must be understood in relation to that judgment.

I believe His cry of forsakenness is evidence that He experienced, in His humanity, the alienation from God associated with sin's punishment.

This does not mean Scripture explains the precise way that experience occurred.

Nor does it require us to say His suffering was identical in every detail to the final judgment of an unredeemed sinner.

The sufficiency of His sacrifice rests upon who He is and what He accomplished.

Hebrews 10:10 says His offering was once for all.

Hebrews 10:14 says one offering perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

Christ accomplished what was necessary to redeem us.

We are not left waiting for another sacrifice.

11. WHAT DOES GOD'S LOVE HAVE TO DO WITH THIS?

Romans 5:8; John 3:16; 1 John 4:10

Everything.

The cross was not merely a demonstration of how terrible sin is.

It was also the greatest demonstration of God's love.

Romans 5:8 says:

“God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

John 3:16 says God loved the world and gave His only Son.

First John 4:10 says:

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

God did not save us by pretending sin did not matter.

He provided the sacrifice through which sinners could be forgiven and reconciled to Him.

And Jesus was not an unwilling victim.

John 10:18 says He willingly laid down His life.

The Father sent the Son in love.

The Son willingly gave Himself in love.

And the purpose was to rescue those who had sinned.

The cross brings together God's holiness, His justice, and His love.

God took sin seriously.

And He loved sinners enough to provide the Savior.

12. WHAT DID JESUS MEAN BY “IT IS FINISHED”?

John 19:30; Hebrews 10:10–14

Near the end of His suffering, Jesus declared:

“It is finished.”

His sacrificial work had reached completion.

Hebrews tells us that His offering was sufficient.

The old sacrifices had to be repeated.

His sacrifice did not.

Hebrews 10:12 says He offered one sacrifice for sins for all time.

His death was not the beginning of another repeated sacrificial system.

It was the fulfillment of what the old sacrifices had anticipated.

Luke 23:46 records Jesus committing His spirit into the Father's hands.

Some understand His final words as consistent with the completion of the forsakenness He had experienced.

That is possible, although the Gospels do not explain the precise spiritual sequence.

What they do establish is that Jesus willingly completed His work and entrusted Himself to the Father.

The sacrifice was finished. The price of our redemption had been paid.

13. WHAT DID HIS RESURRECTION ACCOMPLISH?

Acts 2:24; Romans 6:9; 1 Corinthians 15:20–22

The story did not end with the cross.

God raised Jesus from the dead.

Acts 2:24 says God raised Him up, releasing Him from the pains of death.

Romans 6:9 says death no longer has dominion over Him.

First Corinthians 15:20 calls Christ the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

The resurrection confirmed that death did not have the final word.

The sinless human Savior who truly suffered and died was raised bodily.

And through Him, resurrection life is promised to those who belong to Him.

Christ's death dealt with sin.

His resurrection proclaimed victory over death.

The same Jesus who died for our sins was raised so that death would not be our final destiny.

14. WHAT DID HIS SACRIFICE ACCOMPLISH FOR US?

Romans 5:10; Ephesians 2:13; Colossians 1:21–22

Romans 5:10 says we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son.

Ephesians 2:13 says those who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

Colossians 1:21–22 says those who were alienated from God have been reconciled through Christ's death.

First Peter 3:18 says Christ suffered for sins:

“The righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.”

That is the purpose of the sacrifice.

We were alienated.

Christ came to reconcile us.

We were guilty.

Christ bore our sins.

We faced death and judgment.

Christ suffered for us and rose from the dead.

Through Him, we can be forgiven, brought near to God, and given the hope of eternal life.

The punishment our sins deserved does not have to be our final destiny because Christ has provided the sufficient sacrifice for our redemption.

CONCLUSION — THE SINLESS HUMAN SAVIOR WHO BROUGHT US BACK TO GOD

Why did the Son of God become human?

Because it was humanity that sinned.

We needed a sinless human Savior.

And no ordinary human being could provide that sacrifice.

So the eternal Son became flesh.

He lived without sin.

He obeyed the Father completely.

He offered His own body.

He suffered as a human being.

And He died as a human being.

He bore sins He had never committed.

Sin brings death, judgment, and separation from God.

And when Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” I believe He was experiencing, in His humanity, the terrible forsakenness our sins deserved.

How did this happen?

Scripture does not tell us exactly.

We should not pretend to understand what it does not reveal.

But Scripture tells us that He bore our sins, suffered for the guilty, and accomplished our reconciliation with God.

And why did God provide such a sacrifice?

Because He loved us.

The Father sent His Son.

The Son willingly gave Himself.

The sacrifice was sufficient.

And God raised Him from the dead.

We do not have to understand every detail of what Jesus experienced to know what He accomplished.

He suffered for our sins to bring us to God.

That is the heart of the cross.

READ FIRST. CONCLUDE LATER.

CONTINUE EXPLORING SCRIPTURE

Hebrews 10:1–10 — Why Were Animal Sacrifices Never Enough?

https://text-b4-tradition.com/10-1-10-hebrews

Hebrews 9:15–22 — Why Was Jesus' Death Necessary for the New Covenant?

https://text-b4-tradition.com/9-15-22-hebrews

Going Deeper — Why Did God Require a Sacrifice for Sin?

https://text-b4-tradition.com/9-15-22-hebrews-going-deeper

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