In our study on the spiritual life of our Lord that is the prototype of the spiritual life of the church, last time we concluded with the idea that Jesus Christ demonstrated His impersonal love by remaining on the cross when He could have left the cross anytime He desired. He did this through his application of Bible Doctrine under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in the same way that we do.
This demonstrated God's impersonal love for the entire human race because the substitutionary spiritual death of Christ provided eternal salvation for anyone who will believe. Rom 5:8; Eph 2:8-9;
In order to accomplish this, he had to turn away from and judge the One that he loved with an infinite personal love. 1John 4:10; "In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins.
"1Pet 3:18; "Because Christ also died once for our sins, the righteous One on behalf of (in place of or instead of) the unrighteous ones, that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh but made alive by means of the Spirit."
"Christ died for our sins, the righteous One," states that Christ continued in a state of righteousness while in a state of substitutionary spiritual death, being judged for our sins. This means that His spiritual death is unique and totally different from ours. In our spiritual death we are separated from God in a state of total depravity, which means not only are we sinful but we are totally helpless to do anything about it.
Spiritual death is always total separation from God.
Our spiritual death is separation from God in a state of total depravity. Christ's spiritual death was a separation from God in a state of total perfection.
Our spiritual death lasts from the time we are born till the time we are born again. Christ's substitutionary spiritual death began half way through the crucifixion and lasted for three hours, from noon until 3 p.m.
Christ remained "righteous" or "perfect while he was being judged for all sins on the cross because he remained in the prototype divine dynasphere where God the Holy Spirit sustained Him. He stayed in the place where divine power was available and usable. The omnipotence of the Spirit sustained Christ in a state of total perfection while being judged for our sins.
He utilized the problem solving devices of spiritual adulthood including Hope or confident expectation, personal love for God, impersonal love for mankind and perfect happiness.
Remaining righteous means our Lord died a substitutionary spiritual death. The substitutionary spiritual death of Christ on the cross is the only solution to our real spiritual death, the only solution recognized by God as the answer to sin and the way to eternal life. John 14:6;
The purpose clause "that He might bring us to God" means we cannot go to God on our own. Someone who was righteous and perfect must bring us to God. In effect when we believe in Christ and He brings us to God the Father. This why religion does not work. Religion is mankind's attempt to come to God on their own merit.
"Being made alive by means of the Spirit" is a reference to the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit restoring the human soul of our Lord in Hades to His body in the grave, thereby becoming an agent in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Gal 3:13; "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by means of becoming a curse instead of (in place of, on behalf of) us, for it stands written, `Cursed is everyone who hangs on the wood (cross).'" see note 1
Again, "huper" plus the genitive of advantage is substitutionary, and refers to the entire human race. Redemption is the salvation work of the cross which removed the barrier of our curse under the law.
Remember that even while being judged for our sins in substitutionary spiritual death, our Lord had to remain perfect. He was able to do this by utilizing the Happiness of God as the highest problem solving device Heb 12:2; and by relying on the Holy Spirit inside the prototype divine dynasphere Heb 9:14;
The continued impeccability of Christ while suffering substitutionary spiritual death is substantiated by the study of the Levitical offerings in the Old Testament that are part of the ritual of the Mosaic Law.
This is what John the Baptist references in John 1:29, "The next day he (John the Baptist) saw Jesus coming to him and exclaimed, `Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.'"
This verse sets up the analogy between the animal sacrifices (the lamb without spot and blemish) and the efficacious saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
Moses' instruction regarding the Passover lamb in Exod 12:5, states "Your lamb shall be an unblemished male."
That was an analogy to the impeccable Jesus Christ during the great power demonstration of the Hypostatic Union, and specifically to the Lord Jesus Christ during the three hours while He was being judged for our sins where He had to remain perfect while being judged as our substitute for the sins of the whole world.
The ritual Levitical system required that all animals that were to be sacrificed be "without spot or blemish" The analogy is completed by Paul in 1Cor 5:7;c "For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us."
Lev 1:3; "If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer it a male without blemish."
A burnt offering represents propitiation that is the work of salvation from God's viewpoint. Propitiation means that God the Father is satisfied with the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross. In the Levitical offering the male animal remained without blemish throughout his sacrificial death.
The Old Testament sacrifices under the ritual plan of God for the dispensation of Israel were designed to teach the impeccability of Christ being without spot and blemish, and the saving work of Christ represented by the offering of the animal on the altar.
Because of this defective animal sacrifices were strictly forbidden because the analogy there would be a blasphemy of Christ's person.
Heb 9:13-14; "For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of the heifer, sprinkling these who have been defiled, sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit (omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit in prototype divine dynasphere sustaining Jesus Christ) offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"
The blood of goats and bulls was the theology of salvation revealed in the ritual plan for Israel. The high priest made two sacrifices once a year on the Day of Atonement. a young bull for himself and a goat for the people.
The blood of each was carried separately into the Holy of Holies and sprinkled on the Mercy Seat, covering the Ark of the Covenant that contained three articles representing sin. The cherubs that looked down on the Mercy Seat represent God's righteousness and justice and declared "Satisfied."
The substitutionary spiritual death or "blood" of Christ includes reconciliation, redemption, propitiation, unlimited atonement, imputation, and justification that are components of the saving work of Christ on the cross.
Jesus Christ remained impeccable (without blemish) by remaining inside the prototype divine dynasphere where He was sustained by the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit.
Believers function in "dead works" when they don't understand the finished work of Christ because they think their works are the Christian way of life. Works are the result of spiritual advance, but are not the means of spirituality or spiritual growth.
The impeccability of Christ includes the fact that His humanity remained inside the prototype divine dynasphere during the great power demonstration of the Hypostatic Union including the six hours on the cross.