The Triune Godhead at the Cross
For the past week and a half, I’ve been speaking with a Jehovah’s Witness about the nature of man, the nature of God, and the significance of sin, righteousness, and judgment.
It’s been interesting to realize that the primary difficulty that Jehovah’s Witnesses have is their denial of the seriousness of sin. They point to Adam’s sin, and say that since sin has been a part of the world since him, our own personal sin isn’t our fault.
Since sin isn’t our fault, there’s no reason for Hell. Our death is a consequence of Adam’s sin, not our own. Not only is Hell denied, but the substitutionary atonement is denied; Jesus needed only die to reverse the effect of Adam’s sin. They don’t believe He bore the wrath of God on our behalf, because our sin doesn’t anger God.
No wonder their theology is mixed up.
I was telling him about the cross and the interaction between God the Father and God the Son at that pivotal point in history. Yet the question came to mind: where was God the Spirit at this point? What was He doing? Was He present in the wrath being delivered by the Father, or was He supporting the Son?
After reading through part of Matthew this morning, I think I have an answer.
“And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?’
“And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.”
As Jesus died, the Father was pouring out infinite wrath. The Son was absorbing infinite wrath. For an instant, two members of the Godhead were completely occupied. Not even the creation of the worlds had required such limitless divine power, but this did. Infinite wrath met infinite love, and both were satisfied.
And in that instant, the Godhead was torn. Never before had there been anything less than perfect harmony between the Father and the Son. Yet for that moment, the Father turned His face away. No wonder the Son exclaimed, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
And the Spirit of God, resting in the temple, tore His garments in grief. The veil was rent from top to bottom, and the foundation stone of the temple split where the power landed. The earth shook and rocks tore asunder.
It wasn’t that the judgment of the Father spilled over. The Son drank every drop of the wrath of God. If even a single drop of that infinite fury had spilled, it would have destroyed the whole world. No, the destruction in the earth was the anguished cry of the Spirit, as He witnessed the Father forsaking the Son.
Rending the veil of the temple and shattering the earth wasn’t all that the Spirit did.
“The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.”
People were being raised from the dead? Never had anyone other than God done that. Angels never raised anyone from the dead. Men did it on occasion—Elijah and Elisha, for example—but only through the power of God. Yet two members of the Godhead, the Father and the Son, were at this moment completely occupied. Never before had any member of the Godhead been completely concentrated on a single object. But now, both the Father and the Son were exercising unlimited power in accomplishing the substitutionary atonement.
Who, then, provided the divine power to raise the dead? The Spirit, of course. Just as His grief at the separation of the Father and the Son was desperate enough the tear the curtain and rend the earth, so His joy at the accomplishment of the atonement—Christ’s cry, “It is finished!”—was more than sufficient to raise the saints, who now were freed from the bonds of death and Hades and would walk on the earth until the ascension 40 days later.
This passage not only demonstrates the intensity and passion in the Cross, but proves the full divinity and Personhood of God the Holy Spirit.
Infinite wrath met infinite love. Infinite grief was balanced by infinite joy. Infinite justice found infinite mercy at the Cross, and both poured out in infinite glory to our God.
Soli Deo Gloria. It’s the cross, yo.
David
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