Father, Spirit, Cup
Last week my blog was about the sacrifice Jesus went through to provide the offer of salvation for us. But, He wasn’t the only one to suffer.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed (Isa. 53:4-5)
God is triune. The torture of Jesus I described last week did not go unfelt by the Father and the Holy Spirit. The three Persons knew man could not be saved by the Law. Man didn’t know it – and many still don’t – but we needed to be shown we couldn’t reach holiness on our own. This was done by the legalistic structure of the Old Testament times.
It was only after we were shown this that God put into action His plan:
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Rom. 8:1-4)
The old method, the Law was replaced on the cross by a new Law, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
This was all been prepared for us since before the foundation of the world (Matt. 25:34)
So, there was a plan upon which all three Persons of the Godhead agreed. The First Person of the trinity was to take the lead while the Second Person was to submit to the Father’s will as a son does to his father:
For to which of the angels did God ever say, “You are my Son, today I have begotten you?” Or again, “I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son”? (Heb 1:5)
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Phil. 2:8)
The torture felt by the Father and Holy Spirit upon the death of Jesus was more infinitely horrific. The God who is love personified sent His own Son to suffer a torturous lingering death and in doing so, to pay the price for our sins.
Those of us who are parents know the pain of punishing our children in order to acheive a greater purpose. We often say “This will hurt me more than it hurts you,” and we’re right. It does.
Now consider how much pain the Father and Holy Spirit felt to watch the Son carry the sins of the world on His shoulders, then turn away from Him in His greatest need, having then to exercise their wrath upon Him, then watch Him die. We can never adequately describe the horror felt by the Father and the Spirit.
Why is this important?
In the last two verses of the book of Jude, there is a short doxology, a spontaneous expression of praise to God. It goes like this:
24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
This is why it was all done. God, Father; Son; and Holy Spirit; wanted the result. God wanted to present us before the presence of His glory, the very presence of God in heaven, and He will be ecstatic that we will be standing before Him. For this all three Persons of the godhead suffered greatly.
That’s how much God loves you.
Believers Armed and Dangerous 