It’s time once again to answer your questions on the bible, faith, and the church. Rick, a Faith Radio listener asked,

“The customary explanation on the cross, Jesus says ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’  And we understand that God couldn’t look at him in that moment because of sin, God cannot look on sin. How then does God observe anything on this earth?”

How can God view our sins if He didn’t look at Jesus’ on the cross?

Professor Brad Sickler shared his interpretation of how God views our sin, by addressing the full context of Psalm 22.

“Part of what’s happening here is, as you say, God can in some very real sense look on sin – He looks on us all the time. We read about Job, how there’s this conference where God is talking to Satan and he has sent evil spirits through his own power to torment Saul. So there’s clearly a sense where God can tolerate sin in that way, now there’s another sense where he can’t.”

“If you look at Psalm 22 in its whole context, the Psalm starts with, ‘Why have you forsaken me?’ but I take this as Jesus pointing to that Psalm that He is now fulfilling. He is fulfilling this prophetic Psalm that David wrote. This is the place that it talks about him being mocked, shaking their heads and saying, He trusts in God, let Him deliver him’; which is very purposefully recorded in the Gospels because it fulfills that verse. It talks about his bones not being broken and casting lots, piercing my hands and feet…all these things that are going on, they’re all in direct fulfillment of this Psalm.”

We can take notice to God’s goodness being revealed towards the end of the Psalm.

“As the Psalm ends, the tone changes and it returns to this hope in God, this trust in His vindication of the rightness. Starting in 25, He says, ‘From you comes praise in the great congregation and all the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord.’ He reclaims the hope of God, so he says, ‘You are not far off, be my help, come and aid me; You have rescued me from this.’ He says in verse 21, You have rescued me.’ So I think he’s pointing to the Psalm, saying it’s being fulfilled in your presence here and God is still good.”

God does in fact look on us all of the time, but it doesn’t change His love for us. In order to be rescued from our sins, we need repent of our sins and ask God to help reveal them to us.

Highlight: Does God look on our sins?

Ask the Professor!