Can God look on sin?God looking at sin?
Did God Forsake Christ
on the Cross
part1
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Did God really turn his back on Christ while he was hanging on the cross? Or perhaps I should ask if God forsook his son at the time of death.
My belief is that he didn't.
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Hebrews 13:5
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
If God will never leave nor forsake us, then why do we think he would leave his only begotten Son?
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> There are many ideas and thoughts on what the answer is to the question. One thought told me by a minister was that God, being a father he loved his son so much that he just couldn't bear to see his only begotten son Jesus dying on the cross. He just couldn't bear to look so he turned away.
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On the human level we might feel the same way and therefore we might turn our head the other way so as not to see his suffering but I personally do not see this as being the truth of the matter with Christ.
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Another answer and by far the most popular that I have heard is that God is a Holy God and being Holy, He can not look on sin. Since Jesus was carrying the sins of the world, then the father could not look at the shame that Jesus carried. I do agree that the number of sins were probably in the multiplied trillions and that many more but again I must say, I do not believe this the correct answer either. The answer is found in;
John 3:16.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
The words I want to call to your attention are,
“he (God the Father) gave.”
Consider with me what happened in the first chapter of Genesis. In verse 3 we read;
“And God said let there be light: and there was light,” and in the 4th verse he says
, “and God saw the light, that it was good." The words I want to draw your attention to are,
"and God saw," and
"it was good." These words at least tell us that God does see. In this case it is a good, but he does see. On the third day God caused the dry land to appear, and the waters were gathered together. He called the land Earth, and the waters were called Seas. After he did these things, the Bible tells us in the 10<SUP>th</SUP> verse, ---
“and God saw that it was good.” After the grass, herbs, and trees were brought forth, Genesis 1:12 again says,
--- “and God saw that it was good.” By the end of the third day, the Bible tells us three times,
"and God saw." Gen. 1:14-18 states that the sun, moon, and stars were created and there too,
“God saw.” After God created the fish and the foul and after man was created,
Gen. 1:36 says
; “and God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening in the morning were the sixth day.” In the first book of Genesis, The bible on seven occasions tells us:
“and God saw.”
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We do not find it hard to believe that God can see the good things of this world or the good in good men but that seems to be where a lot of people draw the line. My purpose in telling that seven times
“God saw,” is too show the God does have eyes and he does see.
In the next 1600 years mankind went downhill as far as he could go. God's description of what was going on is found in
Genesis 6:5. “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."
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What God saw was so bad that
Genesis 6:6-7 says;
“and it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; ---for it repented me that I have made them."
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What could God have seen that could have possibly caused him to now say he would destroy the very things that in
Genesis 1 God refers to 7 times saying,
“and God saw that it was good." It was certainly not the things that he created, it was the behavior of man and the deeds that he did. Here we see that God also sees the bad as well as the good.
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In the book of Amos, we see what God is going to do to,
---“my people <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com
ffice:smarttags" /><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1
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lace></st1:country-region>;---.” Chapter 9:2 "though they dig to hell, thence shall mine hand take them; though they climb up to heaven, thence will I bring them down: 3. And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hidden from my site at the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent and he will bite them.
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Amos 9:4 --- "and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil, and not for good."
Amos 9:8 "behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy them from off the face of the earth; saying that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob, saith the Lord."
Proverbs 15:3 "The eyes of the Lord are in everyplace beholding the evil and the good."
Proverbs 15:21 "For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings."
This chapter tells of the many things the wicked do in their cheating and wickedness, but
Job 24:23 tells us;
"though it be given him to be in safety, whereon he resteth; yet his eyes are upon their ways."
It seems that even after the flood that destroyed the earth,
Gen 6:5 ---“wickedness of man---,” that there again is a lot of bad things going on that God is keeping his eyes on.
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Psalms 14:2-3 "The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy: there is none that doth good, no not one." God can see what we were doing wherever we are
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Job 34:21-22 "for his eyes are upon the ways of man and he seeth all his goings. 22. There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves."
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While it is true that we cannot hide from God's eyes,
2 Chronicles 12:6-7 "whereupon the princes of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1
lace w:st="on">Israel</st1
lace></st1:country-region> and the king humbled themselves; and they said, the Lord is righteous. 7. “And the Lord saw that they humbled themselves," the word says,
"I will not destroy them but I will grant them some deliverance; and my wrath shall not be poured out upon <st1:City w:st="on"><st1
lace w:st="on">Jerusalem---</st1
lace></st1:City>." We can repent of our ways and God will forgive us.
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God told Jonah to go to <st1:City w:st="on"><st1

lace w:st="on">Nineveh</st1

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Jonah 3:4.
"Yet 40 days and <st1:City w:st="on"><st1
lace w:st="on">Nineveh</st1
lace></st1:City> shall be overthrown." Did God see the evil they did?
The people believed God and proclaimed a fast and repented of their ways.
Jonah 3:10. “And God saw their works, and that they turn from their evil ways; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not."
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Even though God knows that we are a sinful people, he still is looking for those who want to serve him. I don't say that we must be sinless, but we must be willing.
II Chronicles 16:9. "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.--- God is looking and waiting for his people to turn to him for their needs.
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God does see the ways of man whether they be good or bad. It is not conceivable to me to say that God could not look on the sins of the world that Christ bore when he hung on the cross. If God could see the “
wickedness of man was great in the earth” and saw that it was so bad thathe decided to destroy mankind in the flood, then I believe that He can see the sins that were placed on Christ on the cross too.