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 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.
During the first three hours, the human race demonstrated that they were completely depraved and evil in the religions of Judaism, Hellenism, and Romanism. The antagonism and concentrated hatred toward our Lord was almost beyond description and it was accompanied by the most intense physical suffering.
But those first three hours were nothing compared to our Lord's last three hours on the cross when He was judged for our sins. Only then did He scream out, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"
Rom 8:32; "He that spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things?"
Providing salvation for us was far more difficult for God the Father than providing for our logistical grace support and blessing.
The perfect impeccable humanity of Christ "carried our sins in His own body on the cross," 1Pet 2:24;
He endured and remained on the cross facing the greatest temptation to leave the cross, to react to people, to become bitter, vindictive, or full of self-pity.
He committed none of these sins of arrogance. He remained in absolute perfection so that throughout the entire 3 hours He continued to be the "lamb of God" without spot and without blemish who takes away the sins of the world.
"The lamb " means Jesus Christ remained inside the prototype divine dynasphere where He was sustained by the happiness of God that He acquired through spiritual growth and the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit.
The power that was deployed in the Hypostatic Union is a demonstration of the principle that the Church Age believer who attains spiritual maturity and lives inside the operational divine dynasphere for the Church utilizing the same happiness that Jesus used can endure anything in life. There is no disaster or prosperity that cannot be handled.
In order to be an efficacious sacrifice for sin, Jesus Christ had to remain in a state of sinless perfection. He was and is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
Rev 5:12; records what the angelic college of heralds and the angelic order of battle will sing when they gather in the future. "They sang with a loud voice "The Lamb who has been sacrificed is worthy to receive power and prosperity (riches) and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing."
His receiving of power is the result of His function in the power of the Hypostatic Union whereby He is able to "subject all things to Himself" Phil 3:21;b
Rev 5:12; This prosperity or riches refers to the award of His third royal patent as "King of Kings and Lord of Lords" We enjoy some of that prosperity when we attain the tactical victory of spiritual maturity.
"Wisdom" is a reference to the humanity of Christ attaining spiritual maturity inside the prototype divine dynasphere during the great power demonstration of the Hypostatic Union.
"Might" refers to Christ's rule of the world at the Second Advent, the result of His strategic victory in the Hypostatic Union.
"Honor" is the award of our Lord's third royal patent after His ascension and session.
"Glory" belongs to Him as the ruler of the royal family of God during the Church Age, as the ruler of the world during the Millennium, and as the ruler of Israel from the Second Advent into eternity.
"Blessing" is the election of the royal family of God to accompany our Lord's third royal patent.
In the future the angels will sing about this but every Church Age believer has the opportunity of functioning under this principle, of practicing it, of using divine power that has never made available before in any other dispensation except for that of our Lord, in order that we might have the greatest invisible impact as a part of the pivot.
The Substitutionary nature of our Lord's spiritual death is shown in the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek languages.
During the last three hours on the cross, while being judged for our sins, our Lord uttered the sentence, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" That sentence was first prophesied in the Hebrew, was actually spoken by our Lord in Aramaic, and was translated into Greek for the New Testament.
The Hebrew of Psa 22:1; says "Eli Eli lama azabtani". The vocative "Eli", meaning "My God" is addressed to God the Father. In the grammar of the Hebrew, the repetition of a noun is an idiom for intensity, and expresses the highest quality.
The highest quality of the two attributes of God the Father involved in the substitutionary spiritual death of Christ are the omnipotence of the Father who called for the printout of all our sins and imputed them to Christ on the cross, and the justice of the Father who judged all sins when they were imputed to Christ on the cross.
"Lama" is a prepositional phrase literally translated "for what reason;" idiomatically, "why." This phrase is used to introduce a rhetorical question for the communication of Bible doctrine related to the substitutionary spiritual death of Christ on the cross.
The qal perfect second masculine singular of the Hebrew verb "azab" means this was addressed only to God the Father. "Azab" means "to abandon or to forsake". God the Father abandoned our Lord's humanity during the last three hours on the cross because He was under the judgment of substitutionary spiritual death.
In the context of Psa 22, the second masculine singular of the verb AZAB refers to God the Father. The first masculine singular suffix on the verb refers to God the Son, translated "Me." He was the only One ever qualified to be our sin offering.
The answer to "why have You forsaken Me" is found in two words in Psa 22:3; "atah qodosh", translated "You are holy."
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.