Q. When Christ was on the cross and He asked God, "Why has Thou forsaken Me?"--was that a question from Christ's human side?

A. While orthodox Lutheran theologians over the years have offered various legitimate perspectives on the full meaning and implications of Christ's "cry of dereliction" from the cross, I think it is accurate to say that most Lutheran theologians (like Luther himself) would agree that implicit in Christ's question on the cross was an agonizing recognition on his part that, in taking the sin of the world upon himself, he was actually being condemned and forsaken by his Father on the cross for the sake of sinners. God the Father rejected and forsook his own sin-bearing Son on the cross so that he might accept and embrace those whose sins Christ bore. As God, Christ certainly "understood" what was going on, and yet in the midst of this terrible suffering he was moved (according to his human nature) to ask "why" his own dear Father (with whom, in the Trinity, He shared full and perfect unity) was forsaking him. This is part of the awe-full mystery of the salvation that Christ accomplished on our behalf.

See also Psalm 22, which ties in beautifully to this text as a prophetic foretelling by the psalmist of the Messiah's anguish and suffering on our behalf.