Through the Eternal Spirit (Hebrews 9:12)

Have you ever had an appointment to keep that was so important that it filled your mind with anticipation or apprehension? What did you do? Maybe you arranged for a friend to go with you, especially if the appointment was likely to be difficult. Perhaps your friend knew as much as you knew about the appointment or maybe the friend knew more about it than you did and also knew what you would need when the meeting took place. Something like that but at a much higher level is described in this verse from Hebrews. Jesus has an appointment to keep with the heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit goes with him as he makes his way there.

One of the Trinity

This verse reminds us that Jesus is one of the persons in the Trinity, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Jesus is often described in this way. For example, we can see the Trinity active at his incarnation, present at his baptism, and here in our verse at the death of Jesus. The Trinity is also mentioned in connection with his resurrection and with his current exaltation. So as a permanent member of the Trinity, Jesus is obviously very important.

Jesus is fully divine, eternal in existence, and possessing all divine attributes. It is good for us to think of those attributes and remind ourselves that Jesus had them fully. He is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent; he is infinite and unchangeable; he is merciful and gracious; he is wise and good; he is love and light. And we worship him as a divine person. So why would he need the Holy Spirit with him for this appointment?

Jesus is the Messiah

This verse also tells us that Jesus is the Christ, which is the English form of the Greek word for the Messiah. The Messiah was the promised deliverer predicted on numerous occasions in the Old Testament, with the first announcement of his coming being made in the Garden of Eden shortly after Adam and Eve fell. Thereafter, many other predictions were made about him: he would be of the seed of Abraham, he would belong to the tribe of Judah, he would be descended from the royal line of David. He would have a remarkable birth, he would engage in a ministry in which the power of the Spirit would be revealed, he would be rejected by his people, and yet he would become a global sovereign. Eventually his predicted forerunner appeared, John the Baptist, who announced that when the Messiah came he would bring into existence the kingdom of God that also had been prophesied in the Old Testament.

Obviously, the Messiah would be an important person, as anyone reading the prophecies about him would have realised. Going by the predictions, we would have to conclude that he would be the greatest man who ever lived because no one else can perform the achievements that he did. They are amazing and wonderful, and for them he should be worshipped as well since he is also divine, the Mediator who is God and man. Why did such a wonderful man have to have the Spirit with him for this appointment with the Father?

Jesus on the cross

Where was the appointment to take place? This verse tells us. It took place at the cross. We see three details in the verse: first, Jesus drew near to God; second, Jesus drew near with the divine help of the Holy Spirit; and third, Jesus drew near with a specific purpose in mind, to offer himself to his Father. Let’s think about those details.

First, Jesus approached God the Father. Jesus had approached his Father many times before. Indeed, the apostle John tells us that Jesus did this throughout eternity when he says in his prologue to his gospel that the Word was God and was with God in the beginning. That constant approach by the Word to the Father was a pleasant experience, which both the Father and the Son delighted in. And we know that Jesus throughout his life on earth approached the Father frequently, and in them all he was conscious of the Father’s delight in his activities. ‘I do always the things that please him,’ he said about this relationship.

But how was this approach made at the cross? Obviously, it was as a crucified man who was also God that he approached the Father. Nevertheless, we could say that the approach started off in the same manner as usual when Jesus prayed to the Father that he would forgive the soldiers who performed the crucifixion. It was a wonderful request, revealing his great love for those who had nailed him to the cross.

Yet we know that later Jesus cried out to the Father with a sense of abandonment. Why had the change occurred? Because Jesus was now taking the place of sinners who deserved the penalty of divine wrath. While the Father was not angry with Jesus personally, we can say that his wrath went out against Jesus representatively. He was taking the place of sinners and he received the penalty due to them.

Yet as soon as Jesus had paid the penalty he continued to approach the Father. He said to the Father, ‘Into your hands I commend my spirit,’ and from the cross he went to the Father’s presence in heaven. And his human spirit having arrived there, we can be sure that there was joy, especially as the penitent criminal would join him in Paradise.

How did Jesus manage to pay the penalty? Obviously, bearing the penalty of divine wrath required divine strength. Imagine sentencing a person to carry an unbearable weight out of the sight of the omniscient God! When we think of Jesus suffering there, we recognise that although Jesus is God, he suffered in his human nature, which is not omnipotent. So how did he bear the load? Two options seem possible. One is that his divine nature could have helped his human nature and the other is that the Holy Spirit could strengthen the human nature of Jesus. It looks as if the author of Hebrews is telling us that this second option is what occurred. What did that involve?

First, we can say that Jesus was strengthened by the Holy Spirit in his determination to fulfil the task that the Father had given him to perform. This strengthening would have been like two forces meeting – coming towards Jesus and stopping at Jesus were the floods of the Father’s wrath coming in almighty torrents, and coming towards the Father’s wrath was the Spirit-provided power of determination of the Saviour to endure it.

Second, the Spirit would have also brought to Jesus’ mind and heart with great intensity the sense of love that he had for his people, the ones for whom he was dying. There was never any regret in his heart about him having to be their representative. On the cross his human nature would have experienced a sense of love that surpassed all that he had felt previously. In the hour of greatest distress, the ardour of his love was at its strongest as he paid the penalty of our sins. And that strong affection came from the Holy Spirit.

A third activity of the Spirit in the heart of Jesus concerns what the writer of Hebrews says about how Jesus endured the cross. He says that the joy set before Jesus enabled him to endure the cross and despise the shame connected to it. Where did this anticipation of joy come from in such power? Surely the answer is that the Holy Spirit was involved, showing him what was ahead, even leading him to assure the penitent criminal beside him at Calvary that he would be welcome in glory.

A fourth activity of the Holy Spirit in enabling the human nature of the Saviour to bear the load he was carrying would be to bring to his mind suitable passages of the Bible. Who led Jesus to think of Psalm 22 when he was on the cross? Who led Jesus to make intercession for the transgressors when he prayed for the soldiers in line with the prophecy of the Messiah doing so in Isaiah 53?

So Jesus approached the Father in the strength of the Spirit, but for what reason? He went to offer himself as a sacrifice, a perfect sacrifice, here described as spotless, which is a way of describing the holiness of his humanity. It is good to think about the perfect life for its beauty, its balance, and its benefits. One way of describing the beauty of his life is to think of Jesus as bearing the fruit of the Spirit constantly in a balanced manner. Everything about his life was perfect, no matter who he was speaking with or whatever he was doing.

The benefits of his life are important for us as well, firstly, because it is his perfect life that is reckoned to our account as our acceptance with God. When a sinner believes in Jesus through the gospel, the first response of the heavenly Father is to justify that sinner in the sense that he can now be accepted in God’s sight because of what his representative Jesus did throughout his life of perfect obedience, which was to work out a perfect righteousness and make it available to sinners.

Secondly, Jesus offered that perfect life as a sacrifice. We should observe that it was an act of worship when Jesus gave himself. The Spirit enables us to make small sacrifices and he enabled Jesus to make his great voluntary sacrifice of himself. Offering a sacrifice is an act of worship and here is Jesus the great high priest placing his humanity in the place where we should have been placed, facing the expression of divine justice that was necessary in order for us to be forgiven.

Here we are reminded that Jesus did not deliver us from our sins by his physical sufferings alone. He humbled himself by becoming a man, but he was a man filled with the Holy Spirit. Then he humbled himself to the point of death, even the death of the cross, but as he went down to those depths the Holy Spirit never left him. Jesus went down lower than we could go, but he did not go down lower than the Spirit could go, even although the depths to which he went cannot be measured.

This verse of Hebrews is an astonishing verse. It is a verse that focuses on the Trinity. Many other verses also focus on the Godhead, but the focus of this verse is on the Trinity at the cross, and what each of the divine persons did.

Benefit of the death of Jesus

Whenever we think about the Lord’s death, should we not think about how the Holy Spirit strengthened him, comforted him, helped him, during that awful experience? Should we not think about the Father receiving such an offering with constant approval throughout the ordeal of his Son as a living sacrifice? Should we not think about the astonishing commitment of Jesus as he paid the penalty for our sins?

The writer of Hebrews mentions that one benefit of the blood of Christ is that it will ‘purify our conscience from dead works’. Our conscience highlights many negative features of our attitudes and actions. In the context, the offering of the heifer was a sacrifice connected to uncleanness caused by contact with something or someone who had died. Our sinfulness makes everything dead in a spiritual sense. Sometimes, our sin comes to mind and disturbs us. What should we do? Think of the blood of Christ and remind ourselves that the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. And recall how the Holy Spirit was there with him, and is also here with us to apply to us this incredible benefit.

The blood of Jesus also has another effect, according to this verse. It enables us to serve the living God. We are like priests who have been cleansed from defilement and not only forgiven our misdeeds. Because of the blood of Christ, our service is acceptable in God’s sight. Our priestly ministry takes place wherever we are. So because Jesus died, our wrongs are dealt and we through the Spirit can offer ourselves to God as his servants.

What a contrast between our approach to God when we make our appointments and the approach of Jesus for this appointment at Calvary! Towards him as he drew near flowed wrath. Towards us as we draw near flows love. The Spirit who strengthened him to face the wrath now strengthens us to face the love. And as Paul reminded the Ephesians, we can be strengthened with power in the inner man in order to know the love of Christ that passes knowledge. The love of God can be shed abroad in our hearts by the same eternal Spirit who was with Jesus at Calvary.