In our continuing study of the great power demonstrations of the Hypostatic Union and the Church Age, last time we concluded with the idea that the answer to the question of "why have you forsaken Me" was the holiness of God.
Holiness refers to the absolute and perfect integrity of God with emphasis on divine righteousness and divine justice. God's perfect righteousness can have nothing to do with sin.
God the Father had to judge the sins of the world because His perfect righteousness rejected and condemned them. So the justice of the Father judged every sin that ever would be committed as they were imputed to Christ on the cross.
Christ was forsaken as part of the plan of God because the Father can have nothing to do with sin and must judge it.
Psa 22:6; gives a second explanation as to why our Lord was forsaken on the cross: "anoki tola", translated "but I am a worm." Tola refers to the coccus iliacus worm, that was harvested in the ancient world to be crushed for the purpose of using its blood for the crimson dye that was used for color in king's robes
On the cross, the perfect, impeccable humanity of Christ was crushed with the judgment of our sins during the most concentrated three hours of intense suffering the world has ever known.
"The blood" or substitutionary spiritual death of Christ is used to manufacture the robes of the royal family of God. The royal robe you wear is the imputed perfect righteousness of God, qualifying you to live with God forever. 2Cor 5:21;
The Aramaic and the Greek are both found in Matt 27:46; "And about the ninth hour (3 p.m. Roman time) Jesus shouted with a loud voice, " Eli Eli lama sabachthani?" that is (correctly translated), "My God, My God, why have you forsaken (abandoned) Me?"
Again, Eli repeated is the vocative "My God," addressed to God the Father. "Lama sabachthani" is translated "why have You forsaken Me?"
The Semitic language of Aramaic is closely related to the Hebrew and Phoenician languages, and is merely a different dialect. Aramaic originated in Aram (Mesopotamia) and spread to the northwest.
The eastern form of the dialect is called Syriac or Syrian. Aramaic was mistakenly called Chaldean because it was spoken by the Chaldeans at the time of Daniel. Dan 2:4-7:28; is written in Aramaic.
In the Old Testament, Aramaic is found not only in Daniel, but also in Ezra 4:8-6:18; and Ezra 7:12-26. Aramaic was the diplomatic and official language of the Persian Empire from 550 B.C.- 450 B.C.
Matt 27:46; The correct Greek translation follows "Thei mou Thei mou hinanti me egkatelipes" (from the root egkataleipo).The doubling of the vocative is a semitism in the Greek, and again indicates a person of highest quality and superior attributes.
The interrogative adverb "hinanti" means "why" or "for what purpose." This introduces a rhetorical question; our Lord knew the answer, but He asked this question for our benefit because we did not.
The second person singular aorist active indicative from "egkataleipo" is also translated "abandon." The subject is in the singular, because only God the Father abandoned God the Son. The Holy Spirit remained with Him, sustaining Him in the prototype divine dynasphere.
A third reason for Jesus Christ being forsaken on the cross is so that we can have eternal life as a result of the judicial imputations that are related to Jesus' work on the cross.
We have seen that there are real and judicial imputations. A real imputation is defined as the omnipotence and justice of God imputing under the principle of antecedence and affinity.
Examples of this are the imputation of human life to the human soul at birth, and the imputation of Adam's original sin to the genetically formed old sin nature.
In a real imputation there are two factors. The first factor is what is imputed from the omnipotence or justice of God such as human life and Adam's original sin. The second factor is the home or target for the imputation such as the human soul and the old sin nature.
In a judicial imputation, the omnipotence and justice of God imputes what is not antecedently one's own. In this case there is no antecedence and no affinity between what is imputed and the target.
Examples of this are the imputation of all personal sins of the human race to Jesus Christ on the cross, and the imputation of God's perfect righteousness to the believer who has an old sin nature at salvation.
The moment we believe in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit creates in us a human spirit so that a real imputation can be performed when God the Father imputes eternal life to our human spirit.
Since no antecedence exists in a judicial imputation emphasis is placed on the omnipotence and the integrity of God.
In the first judicial imputation, there is no affinity or antecedence between our personal sins and the perfection of the humanity of Christ. In the second judicial imputation, there is no affinity or antecedence between divine perfect righteousness imputed at salvation and any righteousness we possess because "Our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in His sight," Isa 64:6;
In 2Cor 5:21; both of these judicial imputations are mentioned. In the sequence of this verse we first have the judicial imputation of all sins ever committed to our Lord followed by the second judicial imputation of the righteousness of God to the believer.
"He (God the Father) made Him (Jesus Christ) who knew no sin to be sin on behalf of us (as a substitute for us), in order that we might become the righteousness of God by means of Him (Jesus Christ)."
The doctrine of Impeccability is that portion of Christology that establishes that Jesus Christ during the great power demonstration of the Hypostatic Union did not sin though He was tempted in His unglorified humanity to a greater extent than anyone in all of human history.
The first Adam in the Garden was temptable and peccable or capable of sinning. But Jesus Christ, the last Adam, was temptable but impeccable in Hypostatic Union. As humanity, He was "able not to sin" because He remained inside the prototype divine dynasphere throughout His entire lifetime on earth. This includes His time on the cross.
In Hypostatic Union, our Lord's humanity was inseparably united with His deity. His humanity remained inside the prototype divine dynasphere under the enabling power of God the Holy Spirit.
The union of undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever guarantees the status quo of both categories of His impeccability: His deity was not able to sin; His humanity was able not to sin through living inside the prototype divine dynasphere.
Heb 4:15; "He was tempted in all points like as we are, yet apart from sin."
1Pet 2:22; "who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth."
Heb 7:26; describes Jesus Christ at the termination of the great power demonstration of the Hypostatic Union, when He had ascended, as being "holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted in the heavens."
1John 3:5; "Indeed you know that He was revealed (First Advent) to carry away our sins. In fact, there is no sin in Him."
Our Lord endured far greater temptations than we can even appreciate or understand, but "sin is not in Him." This was why He was qualified to go to the cross and become a sin offering as a substitute for us.
The second half of 2Cor 5:21; refers to the judicial imputation of perfect righteousness to every believer. Every believer at the moment of salvation through faith in Christ receives this judicial imputation of perfect righteousness.
The imputation of perfect righteousness results in justification and results in becoming the object of divine personal love and daily logistical grace support that provides blessing to all believers weather they understand it or take advantage of it or not.
These judicial imputations are the basis for all of the believer's blessings. The things we do are not the basis for our blessings.
We are imperfect and still have an old sin nature. God cannot bless us on the basis of who and what we are without compromising His integrity. Instead, His justice imputes all blessing down the grace pipeline to the perfect righteousness of God that has been imputed to us.
The first judicial imputation of his perfect righteousness plus the second judicial imputation of logistical grace support takes us to the potential of receiving the escrow blessings from God.
When metabolized doctrine is added to these judicial imputations the believer begins to understand this and have hope or absolute confidence that upon reaching spiritual maturity they will receive escrow blessings for time.
We have seen that the Church Age is unique in that it takes no precedence from the Old Testament. All precedence for the Church Age comes from the great power demonstration of the Hypostatic Union.
The great power demonstration of the Hypostatic Union is the source for all precedence for the Christian way of life. This brings us to a discussion of the unique characteristics of the Church Age.