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Scripture Reading: Mark 15:16-41
We have seen that the Lord Jesus was on the cross for six hours, from nine o’clock in the morning until three o’clock in the afternoon. During the first three hours He was persecuted by man. But during the last three hours, He was judged by God as the Substitute for our sins. Mark 15:33 indicates that at the sixth hour, at noon, “darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, My God, why did You forsake Me?” (v. 34). In this message we need to pay particular attention to this verse.
As we consider the Lord’s crying out in verse 34, we need to ask an important question: Did God leave Christ? The Lord said that God forsook Him, and to forsake means to leave. Therefore, in some way God left Him.
The Lord Jesus said in John 5:43 that He came in the name of the Father: “I have come in the name of My Father.” Furthermore, the Father was always with Him: “And He who sent Me is with Me” (John 8:29). Shortly before He died the Lord again said, “I am not alone, because the Father is with Me” (John 16:32). The Father was not only with the Lord Jesus, but was also in Him, and the Lord was in the Father: “Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?…Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me” (John 14:10a, 11a). Regarding His relationship with the Father, the Lord also said, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). The Lord Jesus and the Father were always one. Furthermore, whenever someone saw the Lord, he saw the Father. This was the reason the Lord Jesus could say, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
From these verses we see that the Lord came in the name of the Father, that the Father was with Him, that He was in the Father and the Father in Him, that He and the Father are one, and that when anyone saw Him, he saw the Father. These verses prove that the Lord was never separated from God the Father. Nevertheless, at the ninth hour the Lord Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why did You forsake Me?” No doubt, this indicates that God left Him. But in what sense did God leave the Lord Jesus? How are we to understand this matter, inasmuch as it involves a major problem related to the Trinity?
Does God’s forsaking of Christ mean that the One who remained on the cross was merely a man and no longer had the divine nature? If this were the situation, then the Lord’s redeeming power would not be eternal, for there would not be the divine, eternal element in it. We must be very careful, therefore, in answering the question concerning what it meant for God to forsake the crucified Christ.
It is very difficult to explain God’s forsaking of the Lord Jesus. If we would understand this properly, we need a thorough consideration of what the Scriptures reveal concerning the Trinity.
When the Lord Jesus was conceived, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit in a virgin (Matt. 1:20). His conception was divine, for it was of the Holy Spirit, that is, of God. His wonderful conception was a conception of God in man. This conception involved both divinity and humanity.
Unlike the Lord Jesus, we all were conceived of our father with our mother. What was involved in our conception was merely and solely humanity. But the conception of the Lord Jesus was the conception of God in a human virgin, a conception that involved both divinity and humanity. Therefore, the Lord Jesus was born as a man with two natures: the human nature and the divine nature. This gives us the basis to say that He was a God-man. He was born of God in man. From God He received the divine element, and from Mary He received the human element. These two elements — divinity and humanity — constitute Jesus a God-man.
At the age of thirty the Lord Jesus was baptized. Immediately after He came out of the water, a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I delight” (Matt. 3:17). At the same time the Spirit of God descended as a dove and came upon Him (Matt. 3:16). Was the Lord not born of the Spirit? Was the Spirit not one of the essences of His being? Before the Lord Jesus was baptized, did He not already have the Holy Spirit within Him? The answer to all these questions is yes. The Lord had been born of the Spirit, the Spirit was one of the essences of His being, and He did have the Holy Spirit within Him. Because He had been conceived of the Holy Spirit in a virgin, His being was constituted of two essences, divinity and humanity. Why then, since He already had the Holy Spirit within Him, was it necessary for the Holy Spirit to descend upon Him? This is a crucial question.
In chapter three of Matthew we see that the Spirit descended upon the Lord Jesus as a clear, distinct unit. However, it cannot reasonably be denied that the Lord Jesus already had the Holy Spirit within Him. Matthew 1:20 says that “that which is begotten” in Mary “is of the Holy Spirit.” Not only was the Holy Spirit within the Lord Jesus; the Spirit was one of the essences of His being. Therefore, we need a way to reconcile two important facts: first, that the Lord Jesus had the Holy Spirit within Him as one of His essences; second, that the Holy Spirit descended upon Him after He was baptized. Since the Holy Spirit was already a part of His being, why was it that the Spirit of God descended upon Him?
Throughout the history of Christianity there has been a shortage of the proper understanding of the Trinity. In the art gallery of the Vatican there is a painting that is supposed to portray the Trinity. In this painting an old man with a beard signifies God the Father; a young man signifies the Son; and a dove soaring in the air signifies the Holy Spirit. That painting may be based on the concept of the Trinity expressed in the Nicene Creed. This understanding is partially right, for to some extent it may have been based on Matthew chapter three. In this chapter we have the Son standing, the Father speaking from the heavens, and the Holy Spirit descending as a dove. These three — the Son, the Father, and the Spirit — as presented in Matthew 3, are not only distinct but seem to be at some distance from one another.
As we consider the Trinity as depicted in Matthew 3, we need to realize what is said concerning the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus in Matthew 1. We have emphasized the fact that Matthew 1:20 tells us that the Lord Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, Matthew 1 is a balance to Matthew 3. If we had only the revelation of the Trinity in Matthew 3, we may think that the Trinity is a matter of tritheism, of three Gods: one in the heavens, one on the earth, and one in the air. However, chapter three of Matthew comes out of chapter one. In Matthew 1 the emphasis is not on the three but on the one. Hence, when we put chapters one and three of Matthew together, we see that God is triune, three-one.
Actually, it is not possible for us fully to reconcile the two aspects of the Trinity, the aspect of the one in Matthew 1 and the aspect of the three in Matthew 3. The reason we cannot reconcile these aspects is that the Trinity is a mystery. If we could understand the Triune God fully, He would no longer be a mystery. Furthermore, in the words of Martin Luther, if we could fully understand the Triune God, this would mean that we are the teachers of God.
Today some falsely accuse us of teaching heresy concerning the Trinity. If someone accuses you in this way, you may want to ask him how he would reconcile the revelation concerning the Triune God in chapters one and three of the Gospel of Matthew.
The crucial point for us to see regarding Matthew 1 and 3 is that when the Holy Spirit descended as a dove upon the Lord Jesus, He was already human and divine. He already had the divine nature and the human nature, for the Holy Spirit was one of the essences of His being.
The book of Hebrews reveals that when the Lord Jesus died, He presented Himself as the all-inclusive offering to replace all the offerings in the Old Testament. According to Hebrews 9:14, Christ “through the eternal Spirit offered Himself spotless to God.” Although Christ is both human and divine, He presented Himself to God as the all-inclusive offering not only by Himself, the divine-human One, but also through the eternal Spirit.
The Lord’s offering Himself to God through the eternal Spirit can be compared to His ministering on earth by the Spirit. Before the Spirit descended upon Him, He was already both divine and human. Although He was divine and human, when He was about to begin His ministry, God anointed Him with the Spirit. This was the Spirit who descended upon Him. But before the Spirit came upon Him, He already had within Him the essence of God’s divinity. However, for His ministry He was anointed with the Holy Spirit. During the three and a half years of His ministry, He did not act merely by Himself as the One who is both human and divine, but also by the anointing Spirit. He moved and ministered by this Spirit. Especially as He was presenting Himself to God on the cross as the all-inclusive offering, He presented Himself through the eternal Spirit.
When the Lord Jesus cried, “My God, My God, why did You forsake Me?” it was during the time He was bearing our sins (1 Pet. 2:24), being made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21) and taking the place of sinners (1 Pet. 3:18). This means that God judged Him as our Substitute for our sins. In the sight of God, Christ became a great sinner. Concerning this, 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “Him who did not know sin He made sin on our behalf.” When did God make Christ sin for us? Was it during the whole period of the thirty-three and a half years of the Lord’s life on earth? No. If the Lord Jesus had been made sin by God during all of His life, then God could not have been with Him, and God could not have had His delight in Him. I believe that it was during the last three hours Christ was on the cross, from twelve o’clock until three o’clock in the afternoon, the hours when darkness came over the whole land, that God made Him sin. God made Christ not only our Substitute; God even made Him sin on our behalf. Because Christ was our Substitute and was made sin in the sight of God, God judged Him. I believe that it was during this time, at about the ninth hour, that the anointing Spirit left the Lord Jesus.
We have pointed out strongly that before the Holy Spirit, the anointing Spirit, descended upon the Lord Jesus, He already had the divine essence within Him as one of two essences of His being. Now we need to see that the divine essence never left Him. Even when He was on the cross crying out, “My God, My God, why did You forsake Me?” He still had the divine essence. Then who left Him? The anointing Spirit through whom He presented Himself to God left Him. After God accepted Christ as the all-inclusive offering, the anointing Spirit left Him. But although the anointing Spirit left Him, He still had the divine essence.
The death of the Lord Jesus was not merely the death of a man; it was the death of a God-man. For this reason, His death has eternal effectiveness. The Lord’s death has eternal power for our redemption. Otherwise, it would not be possible for one man to die for so many people. An individual person is limited because a human being is not eternal. If the Lord had died merely as a man, His death would have been limited in its effectiveness. He could have been a Substitute for one person, but not for millions of persons. However, the Lord’s death was the death of a God-man and therefore was an eternal death accomplishing eternal redemption, redemption with eternal power and effectiveness.
Before the Holy Spirit descended upon the Lord Jesus, the Lord already had the divine essence. When He was baptized, He was baptized as a God-man. After His baptism, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him as the God-man to anoint Him for His ministry. For three and a half years He ministered by this Spirit. Then on the cross He presented Himself as the God-man to be the all-inclusive sacrifice through the eternal Spirit. After God had counted Him as a sinner to be our Substitute, even making Him sin for us, and had accepted His offering, God as the Holy Spirit who had come upon Him forsook Him. Nevertheless, the Lord was still a God-man and died as such. This means that even though God as the Spirit left the Lord, the Lord died not merely as a man but as a God-man. Therefore, there is in His death a divine and eternal element. His death has accomplished eternal redemption with eternal power and effectiveness.
