Who is your God?

Until one specific moment shortly before He died, Jesus had always referred to God as His Father and never His God. This moment was while He was hanging on the cross. In Matthew 27:46 it says:

 

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" that is, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

 

Why did He for the first time refer to God as God on the cross? Why didn't He still call Him His Father? 

 

Jesus' forsaken cry reflects the burden of mankind's sin and His total identification with sinners and that He was left by His Father. In 2^nd Corinthians 5:21, it says that God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us, and in Galatians 3:13, it says that Jesus became a curse for us. By being forsaken by God, Jesus took the punishment that we deserved. Instead of letting us suffer the punishment and the curse, Jesus became that curse (Galatians 3:13) and He became sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God (2^nd Corinthians 5:21). He actually became sin for us. And God wants no relation with sin.

 

Therefore, at that moment, Jesus (being totally identified with sinners) had no rights as Son of God and hence He could not call God His Father. Psalm 22:1 says:

 

My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Why are You so far from helping Me, and from the words of My groaning?

 

This was the only way justice could happen without God punishing us; that Jesus had to become sin completely for us. The first man, Adam, caused sin to come into the world. The Bible refers to Jesus as the second Adam - because as human being He restored what Adam had destroyed.

 

Jesus cried out loudly, asking why God had forsaken Him. He did that so that you and I could know that He was forsaken by God - so that we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus was free of sin, but still He became sin for us. You and I had none of God's righteousness, but because Jesus took our sin, God gave us His righteousness.

 

Completely undeserved, both you and I now have God's righteousness, when we believe in Jesus Christ - because of God's grace and unlimited love for us. And therefore, I can call God my Father. And you can call God your Father  -  if you believe in Jesus Christ.