The Trinity at the Cross (Hebrews 9:24)
The Bible tells us lots of information, mainly about God. Yet what the Bible tells us about God increases as we read further into it. If we start with Genesis 1, we might think that God is only one divine person, but as we read along we start to get hints that there is more to say about him. It never suggests that there is more than one God, but it does say that there is a plurality of persons. In the New Testament, we find that there are three divine persons – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
A detail that is mentioned by the Bible about the Trinity is that they are always in harmony. Moreover, we are told that they are always together, but not in the sense that we are together. Although we are together in this room, we are separate from one another, each occupying our own space, and it is impossible for us to do anything else. The divine persons, however, indwell one another. While we cannot say fully what this means, we can deduce from this relationship that each of them fully knows continually what the others are experiencing.
Since they are always together, it means that we can look for the involvement of each person in every divine activity. So we find that, according to the Bible, each of them participated in the divine work of creation. And even in Genesis 1, there are pointers to the Trinity because plural pronouns are used to describe God when man was created.
Most of the Bible is taken up with describing God’s work of salvation. The main focus of that salvation is on the person and work of Jesus – he is prophesied, his arrival is described, accounts are given of his life on earth, and explanations are provided about what he did before, during and after his death on the cross. But we can see how the Trinity was involved in what Jesus did and does.
So when we think of the conception of Jesus, we are told that the Trinity was involved. It can be summarised as this – the Father planned the body (human nature), the Son assumed the human nature and became God and man in one person, and the Spirit formed the human nature in the womb of Mary. The conception of Jesus was an amazing wonder, not only because a human was created without the involvement of a male parent, but because that human nature is now the human nature of a divine Person. So we go to Bethlehem and wonder about him when he is born.
We can move on to the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist and there we are told that the Father expressed his delight in his beloved Son by speaking about him from heaven, the Son was baptised and the Spirit in the shape of a dove descended on the Son. The Spirit has come to enable him to fulfil his public ministry, which is going to last for three years. As we stand watching the involvement of the Triune God, we may ask ourselves in what ways the Spirit is going to equip Jesus and in what places he is going to do so.
In the Gospels we are told that the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness to confront the devil, that the Spirit enabled Jesus to perform miracles that were the signs that he was the promised Messiah, that Jesus prayed in the Spirit to the Father. Nothing too unusual there, we might think. But then we come to this verse in Hebrews that tells us what happened at Calvary and how each of the divine Persons was involved in what happened to Jesus there.
The eternal Spirit
There has been a discussion among commentators about which divine person is described as the eternal Spirit. Some think that the phrase is a reference to the divine nature of Jesus. You may heard the statement that the Divine Son offered his human nature as the sacrifice to the Father. Of course, while that is true theologically, it may not be the truth that is intended here, or be the only truth that is stated here.
The other view is that the clause refers to the Holy Spirit. Arguments in favour of this include the one that says it is the obvious way of reading the verse. The fact that this is the only place that he is called the ‘eternal’ Spirit is not a reason for saying that it is not a description of the Spirit because it is an appropriate adjective to use of a divine person. Another argument is that in his earthly life the Son did not do anything without the input of the Holy Spirit. Since the Spirit was present with Jesus throughout his life, we should not be surprised to see the Spirit with Jesus at the most difficult period of his earthly journey – the cross of shame.
The aid of the Spirit
We know that there are areas of the cross that we cannot understand. Yet there are some aspects revealed to us. The first that we can point to regarding the work of the Spirit at Calvary was that he enabled Jesus even in the darkest moments to recall what the Scriptures said about him on the cross. The obvious way that we can see this in the use he made of Psalm 22 concerning being forsaken by the Father and from Psalm 31 regarding committing his human spirit into the hands of the Father. This experience of Jesus highlights for us the wonderful way in which divine light comes from the Word of God.
Another point that we can make is that the Spirit brought to the fore suitable aspects of the fruit of the Spirit as Jesus suffered on the cross. As he suffered there, we can see that he loved the Father, that he humbled himself to suffer on the cross, and that he loved his people for whom he was dying. By the work of the Spirit, he anticipated the joy that was set before him and enabled him to endure the cross. Surely, there was peace and joy in his heart when he assured the penitent criminal about his place in Paradise.
Jesus said on one occasion that he went to the cross in order that the world would see that he loved the Father. This intense and determined devotion to the Father filled his mind and heart. As George Smeaton observed when commenting on this verse, ‘The Holy Spirit, in a word, filled His mind with the unflagging ardour, zeal and love which led Him to complete the sacrifice.’
When Jesus came to occasions of humbling himself, those expressions of humility were the evidence that he was constantly full of the Spirit. We see his response in the Garden of Gethsemane to the awfulness of what lay before him. He feared, which was appropriate; he prayed, which was appropriate; and he went forward, which was appropriate. Those responses, when he humbled himself to the Father’s will, were part of the offering he made of himself.
The almighty Spirit enabled the human nature of Jesus to go through each second of the cross. By the working of the Spirit, he cried, ‘My God, my God’ while recognising that at that moment he was forsaken. Forsaken is the opposite of being present, and it has degrees dependant on the intensity of the presence. Jesus had always known the presence of God in a deep way, and when it was withdrawn he knew the opposite experience far deeper.
The activity of Jesus on the cross
The writer stresses one activity of Jesus on the cross – he offered himself without spot to God. There is an allusion here to the practice in Israel of offering a lamb without blemish as a sacrifice. Whenever that occurred, the priest would examine the lamb to see if it had any defects – one defect was enough to disqualify it. The person who examined the suitability of Jesus as a perfect offering was himself. After all, he knew his thoughts and affections as well as his actions.
He spoke of his perfection when he said about his relationship with the Father, ‘I do always the things that please him.’ On another occasion he asked some people, ‘Which one of you convicts me of sin?’ The fact is that Jesus knew that he was sinless and when he examined himself, as it were, he knew that he would be a perfect sacrifice.
Second, Jesus offered himself. When we say that someone offers himself we mean that he holds nothing back. Sometimes, we can speak of Jesus on the cross as if he was passive. The reality was very different. Informed by the Spirit of the awfulness of the divine wrath, perhaps even in Gethsemane, he did not hold back but gave himself to the task of paying the penalty for sin. Jesus embraced his role on the cross. He despised the shame. He was a conscious, sensible Sufferer in the place where God’s wrath had to be borne.
An amazing feature of the cross is that the sufferings never became too much for Jesus. No creaturely mind is able to comprehend what Jesus bore. Wave after wave flowed on to him, one tsunami after another, we could say, but even then the illustration falls short of what he endured. How or why did he endure? Because of the presence of the Spirit through the whole time when Jesus was paying the penalty.
The acceptance by the Father
The cross in a sense was a journey to the Father. Jesus had no other path to the world of glory. Although it was a rough path, it was a true path. We get help in appreciating the attitude of the Father by recalling how he responded to sacrifices offered to him in Old Testament times – in the midst of all the pain and gore he smelled a sweet-smelling sacrifice. If that was the case with inferior sacrifices, how much more did he value and appreciate the aroma that came from the actions of his beloved Son. When Jesus cried, ‘It is finished,’ he sensed that he could then say to the Father, ‘Into your hands I commend my spirit.’ He was accepted because the penalty had been paid, and the gates of heaven were thrown open for him to enter, even although he had to die to do so.
The answer of our hearts
The readers were urged to turn from pointless activities – such as the rituals of the Old Testament, dead works because they cannot give life – to the blood of Christ. When we examine ourselves, we look for evidence that we have thrown away dead things. In addition to merely external activities, we throw away the dead works of self-righteousness, that putrid garment that sinners wear.
The knowledge that the Spirit led the Son to the cross in order to meet the Father there and perform the greatest work possible encourages us to serve the living God. On his way to the cross, as he spoke about the work of the Spirit in the upper room, Jesus displayed his humility and love by washing the disciples’ feet. And he reminded them that he had given them an example to have living works that arise out of humility and love. Our conscience tells us when we are doing so.
Our response to him must be one of gratitude, recognising the immense activity he did on our behalf. Gratitude is the opposite to what Adam did in the Garden of Eden when he disobeyed God. We find ourselves serving the living God at our level because the Son of God, when he became the Messiah, served at his level. And for that, we will be eternally grateful.