Someone writes: “You said that Jesus is the only person who ever trusted God perfectly. But what about his cry on the cross, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ (Matt. 27:46; Mk. 15:34) Doesn’t this show that Jesus as a man questioned God’s purposes? That very fact gives me great encouragement when I don’t know the answers to life’s circumstances I encounter.”
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You are exactly right that Jesus was a man like us, and that he had to trust God the same way we do. The author of Hebrews makes that very point — and it is one we need always to remember for our own encouragement (Heb. 2:11-18 [verse 12 quotes Ps. 22:22]; 5:7-9; 12:1-3). Jesus gave himself over to death. If God did not rescue him, he would not be rescued.
Faith does not mean never being in the dark, or being afraid of the dark, or asking God where he is in the dark. It means that when we have done those things, we still commit ourselves to God whom we cannot see, and trust him to bring us through the dark — if only in the Age to Come — and that we continue to serve him whether we see or not. Based on what happened to Jesus, we may be sure that God will never let us down.
