Where Was the Holy Spirit on Good Friday?

00:00:00.000 | In this Holy Week, we take time to rivet our gaze on the cross of Christ and we have several

00:00:09.220 | questions about the crucifixion, two of which we will address this week.

00:00:13.740 | On Friday, we'll look more closely at why Simon of Cyrene carried Christ's cross, a

00:00:18.860 | curious little story we've all read but have likely never spent much time thinking about

00:00:23.660 | with its many interesting implications for us and for our lives.

00:00:27.100 | Don't miss that episode next time on Friday, but today we address the Holy Spirit.

00:00:31.460 | On the cross, the triune God is at work, Father, Son, and Spirit.

00:00:36.200 | But how is the Spirit at work there?

00:00:38.140 | It's a question today from a podcast listener named James.

00:00:40.860 | "Dear Pastor John, I praise God for your faithful preaching of the Word.

00:00:44.020 | You have had a profound impact on my life and understanding of Jesus and His cross.

00:00:48.740 | I have a question regarding the crucifixion.

00:00:50.780 | Romans 8:11 says that it was the role of the Spirit to raise Jesus from the dead, but what

00:00:54.760 | role did the Holy Spirit play specifically in the crucifixion?"

00:01:01.480 | As far as I can see, the biblical writers did not describe the activity of the Holy

00:01:10.160 | Spirit directly in relationship to the crucifixion in the hour of Jesus' death.

00:01:17.040 | If there's a text that does that, it has slipped my attention.

00:01:20.680 | I'd be happy for someone to correct me.

00:01:24.400 | Therefore, if I'm right about that, in answering this question, we are coming at it in an indirect

00:01:33.360 | way from things that He said about the Holy Spirit, that God in His Word said about the

00:01:39.480 | Holy Spirit, in relationship to Jesus, in relationship to His Father, in other connections.

00:01:46.200 | So let me begin with making explicit an assumption that I bring that is maybe different from

00:01:54.720 | what some people have said, especially recently I'm hearing it.

00:01:59.800 | Some people are saying that since Jesus was authentically human, His deity was not the

00:02:08.280 | means by which He did any of His miracles, but only by the Holy Spirit as a man like

00:02:16.680 | us, a real man, a man of faith.

00:02:21.080 | Now I think this is a partial truth taken to an unbiblical extreme.

00:02:26.800 | The New Testament makes it plain that the works of Jesus were not only done through

00:02:33.760 | the Holy Spirit, but were done as evidence of His deity.

00:02:39.800 | Just to take one example, John 13, 19.

00:02:42.480 | Jesus says, "I am telling you this now, before it takes place, so that when it does take

00:02:48.800 | place you may believe that I am."

00:02:53.640 | And I think that "I am" is an allusion to His deity, and so His foreknowledge is given

00:03:01.560 | here as something from which we should infer, "Oh my goodness, this man is claiming to

00:03:08.360 | be very God of very God and warranting it with His works."

00:03:14.100 | So that's what "I am" means, and Jesus expected those who watched Him, including

00:03:20.000 | us when we watch Him in the Gospels, He expects us to be able to discern divine glory.

00:03:29.400 | We have beheld His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.

00:03:35.000 | They saw something in Jesus in the combination of His works and words and ways, His whole

00:03:41.240 | demeanor, including His works, were communicating, "This man is more than just an ordinary

00:03:47.880 | man," even though it's true that He did trust in God's help and the Holy Spirit

00:03:53.120 | as He did His works.

00:03:55.400 | By the Holy Spirit I'm casting out demons.

00:03:59.160 | Now having said that, it's not wrong to emphasize He was a perfect model of what humans

00:04:06.280 | should be like, including His reliance on the Spirit.

00:04:09.280 | He says explicitly that He casts out demons by the power of the Holy Spirit, Matthew 12:28.

00:04:15.440 | He was led into the wilderness by the Spirit, He was full of the Holy Spirit, He was anointed

00:04:21.960 | by the Spirit, Acts 10:38.

00:04:24.520 | He was commissioned by the Spirit, Matthew 4:18.

00:04:27.600 | He was vindicated by the Spirit at His baptism, according to 2 Timothy.

00:04:34.040 | He did all of this by the Spirit.

00:04:36.600 | He was the perfect model man for us in that regard.

00:04:41.280 | We are to live by the Spirit also.

00:04:44.400 | So with that assumption behind me, let me try to say maybe three things with regard

00:04:51.480 | to James's question, namely how the Spirit relates specifically to the crucifixion of

00:04:56.640 | Jesus.

00:04:57.640 | Number one, Jesus could not have died for sinners unless He was sinless.

00:05:06.240 | In view of what we just saw about how He lived by the Spirit, I assume that the Holy Spirit

00:05:15.160 | was at work in the life of Jesus, enabling Him to walk in holiness and preserving Him

00:05:22.400 | in purity and holiness as the Lamb of God, without which there could be no substitutionary

00:05:28.000 | atonement.

00:05:29.320 | And I assume that some of the greatest temptations for Jesus to be disobedient to the vision,

00:05:36.760 | to the mission, happened in the hours just before He breathed His last.

00:05:42.600 | Those were the worst moments of suffering.

00:05:44.800 | And if there was any time when He was going to make shipwreck of His faith and fail in

00:05:50.960 | His mission, it would be then, and if there was any time where the Holy Spirit was active,

00:05:56.240 | surely He was active in strengthening and helping Jesus persevere to the end in holiness

00:06:03.720 | and faith.

00:06:04.720 | And so I would say our very salvation hangs on the involvement of the Holy Spirit in the

00:06:12.240 | moment of the crucifixion.

00:06:14.240 | Number two, the Holy Spirit's reality in the life of the God-man, Jesus Christ, was

00:06:22.080 | essential to His very identity as God on the cross, essential to His deity.

00:06:33.760 | He was conceived in Mary's womb, Luke tells us, Luke 1:35, by the Holy Spirit, so that

00:06:42.880 | He could be called the Son of God.

00:06:47.440 | The virgin birth by the Spirit, conception by the Spirit, is the key to His deity in

00:06:57.560 | His God-man existence.

00:07:01.600 | So as He hung on the cross, He was hanging there owing to the Spirit having caused Him

00:07:11.080 | to be conceived in the womb as the God-man, and He could not have done His work on the

00:07:18.880 | cross in any other way than as very God of very God in union with the Father by the Spirit.

00:07:30.320 | So His very existence as the God-man who died in our place was owing to the Holy Spirit.

00:07:41.360 | Thirdly, and lastly, I admit that this one is more speculative than the other two, but

00:07:51.400 | let me go ahead and venture it anyway.

00:07:54.200 | There's a profound sense in which the delight that the Father had in the obedience of His

00:08:01.720 | Son as He was being crucified was a delight or a love that consisted in the Holy Spirit

00:08:11.520 | Himself.

00:08:13.040 | Now, your first reaction to that statement might be, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute.

00:08:19.920 | His Father was pouring out wrath on His Son on the cross so that it wouldn't have to be

00:08:28.200 | poured out on us.

00:08:31.040 | What's this talk about delighting in the Son as He hung there?"

00:08:35.160 | Well, it's just not that simple.

00:08:38.360 | He definitely was under the curse of God as He died, Galatians 3:13, Romans 8-3.

00:08:45.920 | Yes, He was.

00:08:47.880 | He was being condemned.

00:08:50.200 | He bore our condemnation.

00:08:52.320 | He bore our curse.

00:08:55.160 | But He was also, from another angle, approved by God and pleasing to God.

00:09:04.920 | Ephesians 5-2, Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice

00:09:14.840 | to God.

00:09:16.320 | In the moment of His greatest suffering and His perfect obedience, He was a fragrance

00:09:24.240 | to God.

00:09:25.680 | God smelled the obedience of His Son and delighted in it.

00:09:31.920 | So God the Father was experiencing the death of Christ in more ways than one.

00:09:38.240 | He was experiencing the obedience of His Son as a fragrant offering, and I'm suggesting

00:09:45.920 | that the Holy Spirit was the mediator of that delight in the Father, in the sense that the

00:09:55.200 | Holy Spirit in union with the Son and the Holy Spirit in union with the Father was experienced

00:10:05.120 | by the Father as the union of delight.

00:10:08.080 | I know that's heavy.

00:10:10.520 | If you wonder, "Where are you getting that idea?"

00:10:14.360 | That's the way to understand the Holy Spirit.

00:10:16.240 | I would send you to Jonathan Edwards' essay on the Trinity.

00:10:20.160 | You can find it online free.

00:10:22.240 | Jonathan Edwards' essay on the Trinity if you want to see the biblical foundations for

00:10:26.040 | that way of thinking.

00:10:27.960 | But let this much be said for our worship of Christ in this precious season.

00:10:36.440 | One, our sins would not be forgiven if the Son of God were not sinless and it was the

00:10:45.000 | Holy Spirit who sustained His faith and preserved Him in His sinless perfection.

00:10:51.880 | Two, our sins would not be forgiven if the Son of God were not very God of very God as

00:11:01.120 | He hung on the cross.

00:11:04.400 | And that deity depended on His being conceived 33 years earlier by the Holy Spirit.

00:11:14.360 | That's profound.

00:11:15.360 | And to Ephesians 5 too, maybe we could also add Isaiah 53 10, that the Lord was pleased

00:11:21.640 | to crush Him.

00:11:22.640 | Oh, that's true.

00:11:23.640 | I didn't even think of that.

00:11:24.640 | You're right.

00:11:25.640 | Absolutely.

00:11:26.640 | Yeah.

00:11:27.640 | No sadistic love of harm, but a profound delight in the atoning sacrifice of the Son.

00:11:31.960 | Thank you, Pastor John.

00:11:33.720 | And listeners, thank you for listening.

00:11:35.000 | To find our archives, read transcripts of our episodes, or ask a question, go to our

00:11:38.200 | online home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.

00:11:39.200 | I'm your host Tony Rehnke, and we'll see you on Friday, Good Friday, when we look at

00:11:45.840 | why Simon carried the cross of Christ.

00:11:48.520 | What are we to make of this episode?

00:11:50.200 | What are the takeaways for us?

00:11:51.200 | We'll see you then.

00:11:52.000 | [END]

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Where Was the Holy Spirit on Good Friday?

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