While the Lord Jesus was being crucified, was the Father also there? Many fundamentalists do not dare to answer this question.
As early as the first century there rose up a heretical teacher, Cerinthus, who was a Syrian of Jewish descent. His heresy was a mixture of Judaism, Gnosticism, and Christianity. He separated the creator of the world from God and represented that creator as a subordinate power. He taught adoptionism, saying that Jesus was merely God’s adopted Son and had become the Son of God by being exalted to a status that was not His by birth; thus, he denied that Jesus had been conceived by the Spirit. In his heresy he separated the earthly man Jesus, regarded as the son of Joseph and Mary, from the heavenly Christ and taught that after Jesus was baptized, Christ as a dove descended upon Him, and then He announced the unknown Father and did miracles. Furthermore, Cerinthus taught that at the end of His ministry Christ departed from Jesus, and Jesus suffered death on the cross and rose from the dead, while Christ remained separate as a spiritual being. Finally he also taught that Christ will rejoin the man Jesus at the coming of the Messianic kingdom of glory.
Cerinthus advocated that the One who was baptized and who died was Jesus, and the One who descended upon Him to be with Him was Christ. Christ was upon Jesus for only three and a half years to be His power and authority which enabled Him to perform miracles and wonders, to cast out demons and heal the sick, and to have spiritual wisdom. Then when Jesus went to the cross, Christ departed from Him. This is why Jesus prayed on the cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). This kind of teaching is a great heresy.
It is true that when the Lord Jesus was baptized, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him. And when He was crucified on the cross, at a certain time during those six hours the Holy Spirit did depart from Him; that is why He prayed, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (vv. 45-46). However, the descending and departing Spirit was not of the essential aspect but of the economical aspect. Economically, the Holy Spirit came and went, descended and departed; essentially, the Holy Spirit had never left the Lord Jesus from beginning to end but remained always as His essence.
Furthermore, it was not the Son alone who was born in the manger; rather, it was the Father accompanying the Son and being with the Son. In the same principle, the Son was not crucified alone on the cross, but the Father even accompanied the Son and was with the Son in the crucifixion. Therefore, the blood that was shed on the cross can be called “His [God’s] own blood” through which the church was obtained (Acts 20:28). Furthermore, 1 John 1:7 says, “The blood of Jesus His [God’s] Son cleanses us from every sin.” This blood is not only the blood of Jesus but also the blood of God’s Son. Therefore, Charles Wesley wrote in a hymn, saying, “Amazing love! how can it be / That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?” (Hymns, #296). This means that not only did Jesus as a man die on the cross for us but that God also went through death in the man Jesus. Most fundamentalists dare not speak about this because they are afraid of being involved with heresy. However, the revelation of the Bible is clear: Essentially, the Father participated in the Lord’s birth, sufferings, and death; economically, when the Lord was baptized, the Father was in the heavens, and when the Lord was crucified, the Father left Him. The Bible indeed reveals these two aspects.
Concerning the Divine Trinity there are two aspects: the essential aspect and the economical aspect. The term economy means “arrangement,” “plan,” “administration,” “management”; hence, it denotes moves, works, and doings. All of the Lord’s moves, works, and doings belong to the economical aspect. Let us take incarnation as an example. The Bible does not say that the Lord Jesus became flesh or that the Son of God became flesh; it says that God became flesh. John 1 says that in the beginning was the Word, that the Word was God, and that the Word who was God became flesh (vv. 1, 14). First Timothy 3:15 mentions God, and then verse 16 goes on to say, “And confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was manifested in the flesh.” This shows us that the One who was manifested in the flesh is God. Hence, the Lord Jesus was God who became flesh; all the experiences of the Lord on the earth were God’s experiences in Him. This is the essential aspect. However, in the economical aspect, when the Lord Jesus was baptized, the Father spoke to Him from the heavens; when He was crucified, the Father left Him. This is the economical aspect, the aspect of doings.
John 14 through 16 are the most mysterious as well as the most explicit chapters concerning the Divine Trinity. In these chapters the Lord spoke a clear message, saying, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father;...I am in the Father and the Father is in Me” (14:9-10). But in chapter seventeen He lifted up His eyes to heaven and prayed, “Father,...” (v. 1). Since he who has seen Him has seen the Father, and since He and the Father are one (10:30), He did not need to pray to the Father but could do whatever He wanted. Then why did He still pray to the Father? Furthermore, since the Father was in Him, why did He have to go such a long distance by lifting up His eyes to heaven instead of taking the shorter route by looking within Himself? Therefore, here we can see that there are two aspects concerning the Divine Trinity. The Son is in the Father, and the Father is in the Son; this is the essential aspect. The Son, who was on the earth, lifted up His eyes to heaven and prayed to the Father; this is the economical aspect. If you do not see these two aspects but instead hold on stubbornly to one aspect only, then you do not have a complete knowledge of the truth concerning the Divine Trinity.
Brothers and sisters, concerning the Divine Trinity, we should not debate blindly like the blind men feeling the elephant. Rather, we should have the knowledge of these two aspects, the essential aspect and the economical aspect. Thus, when we read the Bible, we will be able to see the complete revelation concerning the Divine Trinity, and we will also be able to see that the Bible is consistent, without any contradiction, in its revelation concerning the Divine Trinity.
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