The Holy Spirit's Role in Christ's Crucifixion

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Jesus could not have died for sinners unless he was sinless in view of what we just saw about how he lived by the spirit, I assume that the Holy Spirit was at work in the life of Jesus enabling him to walk in holiness and preserving him in purity and holiness as the Lamb of God without which there could be no substitutionary atonement. [00:04:58]

I assume that some of the greatest temptations for Jesus to be disobedient to the vision to the mission happen in the hours just before he breathed his last. Those were the worst moments of suffering and if there was any time when he was going to make shipwreck of his faith and fail in his mission it would be then. [00:05:29]

The Holy Spirit's reality in the life of the god man Jesus Christ was essential to his very identity as God on the cross essential to his deity he was conceived in Mary's womb Luke tells us Luke 1:35 by the holy spirit so that he could be called the Son of God the virgin birth by the Spirit conception by the Spirit is the key to his deity in his god man existence. [00:06:14]

As he hung on the cross he was hanging there, owing to the spirit having caused him to be conceived in the womb as the god man and he could not have done his work on the cross in any other way then ask very god of very God in union with the father by the spirit so his very existence as the god man who died in our place was owing to the holy spirit. [00:06:59]

There's a profound sense in which the delight that the father had in the obedience of his son as he was being crucified was a delight or a love that consisted in the holy spirit himself. Now your first reaction to that statement might be whoa whoa whoa whoa wait a minute, his father was pouring out wrath on his son on the cross so that it wouldn't have to be poured out on us. [00:07:42]

He definitely was under the curse of God as he died Galatians 3:13 Romans 8:3 yes he was he was being condemned he bore our condemnation he bore our curse but he was also from another angle approved by God and pleasing to God Ephesians 5:2 Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. [00:08:20]

In the moment of his greatest suffering and his perfect obedience he was a fragrance to God God smelled the obedience of his son and delighted in it so God the Father was experiencing the death of Christ in more ways than one he was experiencing the obedience of his son as a fragrant offering and I'm suggesting that the Holy Spirit was the mediator of that delight in the father. [00:09:17]

The Holy Spirit in union with the son and the holy spirit in union with the father was experienced by the father as the union of delight that's heavy if you wonder where are you getting that idea that that's the way to understand the holy spirit I would send you to Jonathan Edwards essay on the Trinity you find it online free Jonathan Edwards essay on the Trinity. [00:09:51]

Let this much be said for our worship of Christ in this precious season one our sins would not be forgiven if the Son of God were not sinless and it was the Holy Spirit who sustained his faith and preserved him in his sinless perfection to our sins would not be forgiven if the son of god were not very god of very God as he hung on the car. [00:10:26]

That deity depended on his being conceived 33 years earlier by the Holy Spirit hmm that's profound into Ephesians 5 - maybe we could also add isaiah 53:10 that the the Lord was pleased to crush him oh that's true I didn't think of that you're right absolutely yeah no sadistic love of harm but a profound delight in the atoning sacrifice of the son. [00:11:02]

The New Testament makes it plain that the works of Jesus were not only done through the Holy Spirit but were done as evidence of his deity just to take one example John 13 19 Jesus says I am telling you this now before it takes place so that when it does take place you may believe that I am and I think that I am is an allusion to his deity. [00:02:27]

Jesus expected those who watched him including us when we watch him in the Gospels he expects us to be able to discern divine glory, we have beheld his glory glory as of the only son from the father they saw something in Jesus in the combination of his works and words and ways is his whole demeanor including his works were communicating this man is more than just an ordinary man. [00:03:19]

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