A Study Of The Cross

Lesson Seventeen - The Cross And The Jesus Died Spiritually Doctrine

TEXT: Rev. 5:3  - And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.
 

        The diagram is:

1. Understanding what the word "worthy" actually means, we now know why no mere mortal could accomplish this task.
2. Now we know why only Christ is worthy!
3. We should take seriously to heart the words "no man," because that is a striking statement.

"NO MAN"

        The phrase, "And no man in Heaven, nor in Earth, neither under the Earth, was able to open the Book," includes in the original Greek not only men, but Angels as well, with the actual statement meaning, "no man, or angel, or any other creature, was able to open the Book, or even look thereon."
 

        This is the reason that it is absolutely imperative that we follow God's prescribed order of Salvation and Victory. If we attempt to change it in any way, we then come up against the words "no man," and stated in all of their terrible finality. God's way is "Jesus Christ and Him Crucified" (I Cor. 1:23; 2:2), which is gained solely by "Faith" (Eph. 2:8-9). The Holy Spirit will sanction only that, the Cross and our Faith in the Cross (Rom. 8:1-2).
 

        Any other method is man attempting to serve as Kinsman Redeemer, when he is woefully unqualified. As well, the "worthiness" of Christ pertains not only to Who He is, but most of all, what He has done, which refers to the Cross. This is made crystal clear in Verse 6. This is at least one of the reasons I feel compelled to mention again the following:

THE JESUS DIED SPIRITUALLY DOCTRINE

As we've already stated, we are now living in the time of the Laodicean Church, which is the Church of apostasy. The word "apostasy," as most know, means "a departure from truth." In corrupting almost the entirety of the Church, we are presented with Satan's greatest effort. How is he doing this?
 

Well of course, he is using many devices, all headed up by "deceiving spirits and doctrines of devils" (I Tim. 4:1).
 

        From the outside, and I refer to the outside of the Church, he is using humanistic psychology, and has been very successful. Almost every Denomination in the world presently, as it refers to Christianity, has embraced this "doctrine of devils." So we have before us humanistic psychology as the answer to the sins of man, or the Cross. We cannot wed the two, both coming from two different sources altogether. But regrettably, that's what the Church has tried to do. The upshot is, there is nothing left but humanistic psychology, because the Holy Spirit will not function in such an atmosphere of unbelief.
 

        Sadly and with great shame, the two largest Pentecostal (Pentecostal?) Denominations in the world, the Assemblies of God and the Church of God, have embraced this humanistic philosophy in every way possible. (Thankfully, there is one branch of the Assemblies of God in Brazil, actually the largest in the world, with nearly 30,000 Churches, which has not embraced this Godless philosophy.)
 

        Let's say it again: Either the Cross is the answer, or else it isn't, and we must turn to other things; however, beyond the shadow of a doubt, I know that the Cross is the answer to man's dilemma. This is the very heartbeat of Christianity, the very Foundation of the Word of God (I Pet. 1:18-20).
 

        From inside the Church, however, Satan has made his greatest effort. I speak of the doctrine many know as the "word of faith."  While not every single person who holds to this doctrine is a false teacher or even a bad person, let me be clear that the "leaven" of what is being taught has corrupted the whole of Christendom to the point that entire movements are promoting apostate doctrine that is causing untold harm and even worse to millions.

         This doctrine repudiates the Cross, actually denigrating it, even claiming that the Blood of Jesus didn't atone for anything. This effort has had more negative influence on the Church, than any single effort made by Satan since the Day of Pentecost. I realize that's quite a statement, but considering that Satan would save his biggest gun for the last, we know this statement to be true.

        Here are few statements made in the past several years by some of this doctrine's biggest proponents:

• "Do you think that the punishment for our sin was to die on a cross? If that were the case, the two thieves could have paid your price.  No, the punishment was to go into hell itself and to serve time in hell separated from God.  Satan and all the demons of hell thought that they had Him bound and they threw a net over Jesus and they dragged Him down to the very pit of hell itself to serve our sentence." Fred Price, Ever Increasing Faith Messenger June 1980

• "The Bible indicates that for three days, Jesus went into the very depths of hell.  Right into the enemy's own territory.  And He did battle with Satan face to face.  Can you imagine what a show down that was?"  Joel Osteen, 2000

• "It wasn't a physical death on the cross that paid the price for sin...anybody can do that." Kenneth Copeland "What Satan Saw At Pentecost - Tape 1)

• "When Jesus cried, 'It is finished!'  He was not speaking of the plan of redemption.  There were still three days and nights to go through before He went to the throne.  Jesus' death on the cross was only the beginning of the complete work of redemption." Ken Copeland

• Christ's physical death on the cross was not enough to save us" - Kenneth Hagin

• "There is no hope of anyone going to heaven unless they believe this truth I am presenting.  You cannot go to heaven unless you believe with all your heart that Jesus took your place in hell. - Joyce Meyer - 1991

• Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’  And He meant the Old Covenant.  The job He had to do was just getting started.  He really did the job the three days and nights that He was in hell.  That’s where the job was done.  He was pronounced guilty on the cross but He paid the price in hell." - Joyce Meyer - From the Cross to the Throne

• Now whether you like it or not, whether you want to admit it or not, whether you want to operate on it or not, you are made the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ.  Most people who go to denominational churches never ever hear that!  They never hear it!  Never!  All I was ever taught to say was, ‘I, a poor, miserable sinner.’  I am not poor.  I am not miserable.  And I am not a sinner.  That is a lie from the pit of hell! That is what I were [sic] and if I still was, then Jesus died in vain.  Amen?”

• "There is no hope of anyone going to heaven unless they believe this truth I am presenting.  You cannot go to heaven unless you believe with all your heart that Jesus took your place in hell."

• Jesus went into hell to free mankind from the penalty of Adam's high treason...When His blood poured out it did not atone.  Jesus spent three horrible days and nights in the bowels of this earth getting back for you and me our rights with God - Ken Copeland Personal Letter to Supporters, 1979

• Your not a sinner saved by grace you sons and daughters of the most high God.  You are god's!”  Creflo Dollar - 2002

• "Jesus went into hell to free mankind from the penalty of Adam's high treason...When His blood poured out it did not atone" - Ken Copeland

• "It is important for us to realize that a born-again man defeated Satan."

• "Not only did Jesus pass the test Adam failed, but He also paid the price for Adam's treason---He made Himself obedient unto death, paid the price in the punishment of hell for Adam's sin...In His victory over death, Jesus became the first born-again man of many who would be born in the image of God.

• "It wasn't a physical death on the cross that paid the price for sin...anybody can do that." -Copeland

• "Jesus was the first man to ever be borned [sic] from sin to righteousness.  He was the pattern of a new race of men to come.  Glory to God!  And you know what he did?  The very first thing that this reborn man did--See, you have to realize that he died.  You have to realize that he went into the pit of hell as a mortal man made sin.  But he didn't stay there, thank God.  He was reborn in the pit of hell." - From "From the Cross to the Throne," Copeland

• "How did Jesus then on the cross say, ‘My God.’  Because God was not His Father any more. He took upon Himself the nature of Satan.  And I’m telling you Jesus is in the middle of that pit.  He’s suffering all that there is to suffer, there is no suffering left . . . apart from Him.  His emaciated, little wormy spirit is down in the bottom of that thing and the devil thinks He’s got Him destroyed.  But, all of a sudden God started talking." Ken Copeland

• "When Jesus cried, 'It is finished!'  He was not speaking of the plan of redemption.  There were still three days and nights to go through before He went to the throne Jesus' death on the cross was only the beginning of the complete work of redemption."

• “Satan conquered Jesus on the Cross and took His spirit to the dark regions of hell.”

• "Jesus tasted spiritual death" - Kenneth Hagin

• "Why did He need to be begotten or born?  Because He became like we were - separated from God.  Because He tasted spiritual death for every man. And His spirit and inner men went to hell in my place.  Can't you see that? Physical death wouldn't remove your sins.  He's tasted death for every man. He's talking about tasting spiritual death.  Jesus is the first person that was ever born again.  Why did His spirit need to be born again?  Because it was estranged from God." Hagin
  "He [Jesus] tasted spiritual death for every man. And His spirit and inner men went to hell in my place.  Can't you see that? Physical death wouldn't remove your sins.  He's tasted death for every man. He's talking about tasting spiritual death." Hagin

• “The death of Jesus Christ was not a physical death alone.  If it had been a physical death, Abel would have paid the price for mankind.  He was the first man that died because of honoring God and His Word.  If it had been a physical death only, it wouldn't have worked!  And if He hadn't died spiritually, that body never would have died.” Hagin

        This movement  has made these claims and done so on a worldwide basis, and it has been so successful, because its great attraction is "money." Every Believer is to be financially rich and any type suffering is shown to be outside the will of God for the believer. If someone is going through any type of sickness or test, these preachers laugh it off and scream, "well you're a child of God, you have rights, you don't have to take that," etc. etc. etc. They will always have a formula then that will show you how to bring this about.

        But the truth is, the only ones getting rich are the ones promoting this false doctrine. The major result of this heresy is the loss of souls. The fabric of this doctrine is built upon a premise that Jesus did not just die physically but also spiritually, became a sinner and was tormented three nights in hell for our salvation.

Did Jesus Die Spiritually As Well As Physically?

        The essence of the question is this: Did Jesus become sin, or one might say, "become a sinner," at Calvary and thereby experience spiritual death? Did He become sin on the Cross, as this particular doctrine teaches, or was He a Sin-Offering?

        We teach and believe that Jesus was a Sin-Offering (Isa. 53:10). We also teach that He was holy and pure, just as the Old Testament foreshadowed (Ex. 12:5).

Isaiah 53:10
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

Exodus 12:5
Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:

        Jesus did not go to Hell for three days, and we speak of the burning side of the pit, to redeem mankind from the terrible ravages of sin, as the Jesus died spiritually doctrine claims! Rather, He continued His obedience to the Heavenly Father. He said at the time of His death: "Father into Your Hands I commend My spirit" (Lk. 23:46).

        Just before Jesus died on Calvary, He uttered the words, "It is finished" (Jn. 19:30). What was finished?

        The work Christ came to do. As of that moment, man's Salvation was complete. Nothing else was needed. Nothing else could be done that could add to His Finished Work at Calvary. So these three words stand as a permanent rebuke to the doctrine that Jesus died as a sinner on the Cross, went to Hell where He suffered for three days and nights as a lost sinner, and then was Born-Again and raised from the dead, all which is pure fiction. It's simply not in the Bible.

        Now if perchance this were true, it would have been necessary for someone to die for the Lord Jesus Christ to redeem Him from His unregenerate state and provide for His Justification. Of course, we know this is all utter foolishness, because Jesus did not become unregenerate and He did not die a lost sinner.

The Blood Of Christ

        Kenneth Copeland, one of the leading proponents of this erroneous doctrine, stated, "When His Blood was poured out, it did not atone. It simply did away with the handwriting of the ordinances that were against us." He went on to say that Jesus redeemed man, not on the Cross but in Hell.

        In fact, there is no way that such statements can be judged in any manner other than, "blasphemy!" Concerning this, Paul said:

       
"For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the Cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things" (Phil. 3:18-19).

        Hopefully, the proponents of this doctrine do not realize what they are doing, for they are actually denying the Blood Atonement of Jesus Christ, substituting in its place punishment in Hell, etc. It seems they do not understand that they have negated the power of Jesus' Blood to cleanse from sin by their teaching that Jesus became an unholy sacrifice on the Cross. Pure and simple, this is heresy, and it is most dangerous!

       
        This heresy appears to teach that Jesus identified with the sinner on the Cross, while it ignores that Jesus became a Substitute for sinners - confusing the identification of Jesus with the human race at His birth with His substitution for sinners on the Cross.

An Unacceptable Sacrifice

        If Jesus had become literal sin, in other words, had become a sinner, which means that He was now lost and unregenerate while He hung on the Cross of Calvary, then He would have been an unacceptable Sacrifice to God for the sins of others. Whereas if He indeed remained pure and Holy as the Scriptures assert, then God could accept Him as a Substitute on behalf of sinners. It was only in this way that He could fulfill the Old Testament Type where the animal for the Sin-Offering had to be spotless and "without blemish" (Lev. 4:2-3). If you remember, the Sin-Offering was regarded as most holy even after its death.

Leviticus 4:2-3
Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a soul shall sin through ignorance against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which ought not to be done, and shall do against any of them: [3] If the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people; then let him bring for his sin, which he hath sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto the Lord for a sin offering.
 

What Difference Does This All Make

        Some may claim that these things are incidental, and make no difference; however, it makes all the difference in the world, because according to the Word of God our eternal Salvation rests upon what we personally believe concerning the Blood Atonement of Jesus Christ. It is here, at the Cross, where a person's Salvation either stands or falls.
 

        The doctrine of Jesus dying spiritually on the Cross and going to Hell, and Him having to be "born again" as a sinner, is heresy of the most serious kind - its seriousness stemming from the fact that if a person believes this perverted doctrine, he will find that in the end he has been robbed of the truth of the Blood Atonement.
 

        The Bible is emphatic on this matter: One sinner cannot redeem another sinner. Only one who is guiltless could ever act as a substitute and suffer the punishment for the guilty party, thereby saving the guilty party. Even Jesus could not have done this if He had become guilty Himself, as this particular doctrine contends. The central thrust of the entire Old Testament sacrificial system is that Jesus was the guiltless Substitute Who, like the Old Testament Type, remained pure and Holy both on the Cross and after His death.

        According to the proponents of this heresy, Jesus became sin on the Cross when He yielded Himself to Satan. He swallowed up the evil nature of Satan, thus becoming one in nature with the adversary, taking upon Himself the diabolical nature of Satan. At that time He became a lost man, they say, crying, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Mat. 27:46; Ps. 22:1). These teachers, therefore, conclude that Jesus then died spiritually.

What Actually Happened During This Time?

        The Scripture says: "Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour" (Mat. 27:45).
   

        This was from 12 noon to 3:00 in the afternoon.

        During that period of time, Jesus was bearing the sin-penalty of humanity, which would conclude in death. Even then, He had to purposely lay down His life, meaning that He simply breathed it out. No man took His life from Him; He rather gave it up freely (Jn. 10:18).

John 10:18
No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.

        It was at the end of this three-hour period that the Scripture says: "And about the ninth hour (3 p.m.) Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, 'Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?' That is to say, 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?'" (Mat. 27:46).

        The idea here is not that Jesus was becoming a sinner at that particular time, but that He was bearing the sin penalty. God is thrice-Holy, and cannot look upon sin, even its penalty. Jesus was a sin-bearer, not a sinner as these apostates teach. But let us say it again; God cannot even look upon the sin-bearer!

        At the moment of His death, He said, "It is finished: Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit" (Jn. 19:30; Lk. 23:46).

John 19:30
When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

Luke 23:46
And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.

        If Jesus actually became a sinner on the Cross, and God forsook Him, at least in the manner in which these false teachers claim, then Jesus could not have commended His Spirit to God. To be sure, no sinner does such a thing upon the time of death.

JESUS WENT TO HELL?

        After He died, these false teachers claim that He was then taken to the pit of Hell, and we speak of the burning side of the pit, where He was chained with the fetters of sin, wickedness, disease, and all other evils of Satan. The Devil stood before the darkness, they say, crying, "We have conquered the Son of God." There followed a gala celebration in Hell. Satan believed he had finally triumphed over God.

        They go on to say that Jesus consequently suffered agonies beyond description in the pit for three days as all the host of Hell were upon Him. But then suddenly, they say, Jesus was justified. From His Throne in Heaven, Almighty God arose and put His hands to His mouth and screamed, "It is finished; it is enough." Jesus was now "born again" and made spiritually alive once more.

        Hell itself was shaken, they say. Jesus shook off His chains of sin, sickness, and evil. He walked over to the Devil, grabbed him, and threw him to the ground. As the Devil cowered and trembled on the floor of the pit, Jesus put His foot on the top of him and took the keys of death, Hell, and the grave from Satan.

        At this time, according to these false teachers, the Holy Spirit kicked open the gates of Hell and raised Jesus from death. He then ascended to the Father and announced, "I have paid the price. The prison is now open." He was now a Born-Again man who had defeated Satan. Jesus was the firstborn from the spiritually dead. Thus it was at the time Jesus was made alive down in the pit that the Believer was also made alive. The Church, they continue to say, had its origin in the pit of Hell when Jesus was begotten from the dead as the "firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. 8:29).

Romans 8:29
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

        Incidentally, the word "firstborn" here, even as we've already previously explained, doesn't mean that Jesus was Born-Again. It actually means that He was the originator or founder of the Plan of Redemption, which was all done at the Cross, which made it possible for men to be saved.
 

        At first glance, unknowing Christians might think that this doctrine appears to be a glorious cause for rejoicing. However, if you think about it, you quickly realize that you have never read anything of this nature on the pages of your Bible. Why?

        Because it's not in the Bible! It is fictitious from beginning to end. The Truth is:

"He blotted out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His Cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it" (Col. 2:14-15).

        The words "nailing it to His Cross . . . triumphing over them in it" means that Jesus' great victory was won at the Cross.

THE OLD TESTAMENT TYPES

        The Old Testament animal sacrifice (a type of Jesus), which was to die as a substitute for the sinner, had to be without spot or blemish (Lev. 4:3, 27-30; 9:3-4; Deut. 15:21) to teach Israel (and the Church) that a substitute acceptable to God had to be holy and guiltless in order to bear the punishment for the guilt of the sinner.

Leviticus 4:3
If the priest that is anointed do sin according to the sin of the people; then let him bring for his sin, which he hath sinned, a young bullock without blemish unto the Lord for a sin offering.

Leviticus 4:27-30
And if any one of the common people sin through ignorance, while he doeth somewhat against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which ought not to be done, and be guilty; [28] Or if his sin, which he hath sinned, come to his knowledge: then he shall bring his offering, a kid of the goats, a female without blemish, for his sin which he hath sinned. [29] And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and slay the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering. [30] And the priest shall take of the blood thereof with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out all the blood thereof at the bottom of the altar.

Deut. 15:21
And if there be any blemish therein, as if it be lame, or blind, or have any ill blemish, thou shalt not sacrifice it unto the Lord thy God.

      This ritual, carried out again and again in the Old Testament, was fully and finally realized in Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God, Who "offered Himself without spot to God" (Heb. 9:14).

Hebrews 9:14
How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

        When these false teachers teach that Jesus literally became sin with the inherent need to become "born again," they expose the basic flaw in their doctrine, which stems from apparent ignorance of the nature of the Old Testament Sacrifices, especially the Sin-Offering. They conveniently forget (if indeed they ever really knew) that the Old Testament clearly teaches that at no point does the Sin-Offering become an unholy sacrifice, either before or after its death (Lev. 6:25-30).

Sin and Sin-Offering

        The Apostle Paul said: "For He (God) has made Him (Christ) to be sin for us, Who knew no sin" (II Cor. 5:21). What could be clearer than this?

2 Cor. 5:21
For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
 

        In the Hebrew language the term "chetta't" is the same word used for "sin" and "Sin-Offering." A single Hebrew term translates both words. "Sin" and "Sin-Offering," then, are one and the same. It was the context in which the term was used that expressed whether a person was speaking of "Sin-Offering" or "sin."

        For example, if there was a matter concerning sacrifices "chetta't" was understood to mean a Sin-Offering. If the matter was one of offense, the same word would be used, but the people involved would understand the meaning by the usage, the context in which it was used.

        No Jewish Christian would ever confuse "sin" with the "Sin-Offering," even though the two thoughts are both expressed by the same Hebrew term. It is the same with the terms "trespass" and "Trespass-Offering." The same Hebrew word is used, "asham," meaning that Jesus' death on the Cross is to be regarded as Trespass-Offering for sinners and not that He Himself became a "trespass" or "sin."

The Serpent On The Pole

        The idea of Christ becoming sin hinges on an improper interpretation of Numbers, Chapter 21 (which presents the account of the lifting up of the brazen serpent in the wilderness for the healing of those bitten) that Jesus was also lifted up as a serpent when He was made sin on the Cross, and at that time took on the evil nature of Satan. These false teachers twist this Verse: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up" (Jn. 3:14). From this they conclude that Jesus became one with the serpent, Satan, and died spiritually.  (To "die spiritually" means to die without God.)

        However, the account in Numbers, Chapter 21 does not support this fantasy. God did send fiery serpents as punishment against the rebellious Israelites. As a result of the intercession of Moses, God directed him to make a figure of a serpent in brass, to be elevated on a pole so that it could be seen from all quarters in the camp. All who looked in faith in its direction were healed.

        Naturally, we understand that the brazen serpent did not produce healing; it was merely an emblem of their sin and signified the nature of Divine Judgment. Their faith in God's Promise to heal brought deliverance through their obedience. To look upon an inanimate object (in this case, a serpent of brass) in itself could never produce healing.

        By analogy, if Jesus became a serpent in nature, as this erroneous teaching contends, then healing was provided by Satan, the serpent (Num. 21:4-9), not God. What was being spoken of here was the manner in which Jesus would die, not a change in His nature. As that serpent was lifted up on a pole, Jesus would also be lifted up on a pole - the Cross.

Numbers 21:4-9  - And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom: and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. [5] And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. [6] And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died.  [7] Therefore the people came to Moses, and said, We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord, and against thee; pray unto the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. [8] And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. [9] And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.

Jesus Was Sinless

        We know that all men are the children of wrath (Rom. 3:9; 5:12; Eph. 2:3). But we also know that Jesus lived without committing any act of sin (Jn. 14:30; II Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15). The teachers of this novel doctrine say that Jesus did not personally sin, but He was made by God to be a sinner, which means that He took upon Himself the sinfulness of the human race and became evil and, therefore, one with Satan's nature.

Romans 3:9 - What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;

Ephes. 2:3 - Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

John 14:30 - Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.

2 Cor. 5:21 - For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Hebrews 4:15  - For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

        Of course, this is impossible! Sin is a personal act of disobedience to the Will of God, and Jesus never once disobeyed His Father, and certainly not while He hung on the Cross.

        Sin is not something tangible like a coat of black paint that God could drape over His Son, nor is it some type of inoculation of germs that Scientists could inject into the bloodstream. Sin is an act (whether deed, word, or thought), and more particularly, a nature of an unregenerate heart. This fact alone rules out any possibility that Jesus could be made a sinner.

The Doctrine Of Imputation

        In the study of Biblical theology, the Scriptural Doctrine of Imputation shows that sin or Righteousness can be imputed or charged to another's account in a legal sense. (Imputation is the act of something being granted or credited to someone.) Applied to Jesus and His Sacrifice as a Sin-Offering, this indicates that He did not become a sinner, but remained sinless that He might be able to bear the punishment for our guilt that was imputed to Him. In other words, Jesus did not bear the wickedness and the filth of our sinful nature, but He did bear the penalty for that wickedness and filth of our sinful nature, that should have been poured out on us.
 

        Our punishment was imputed to Him. Our sins, in regard to their moral character, are our own. They could not by imputation become someone else's. However, Jesus Christ could take upon Himself the punishment for the guilt of our sins, which has reference to the legal liabilities that Christ assumed on our behalf.

        So the transfer of our sins to Jesus Christ was not a transfer of the actual transgressions themselves - that is not possible - but Christ made Himself liable to endure the penalty for our sins. On the Cross and in His death, Christ was a Holy, spotless, Sin-Offering. To have been anything otherwise would have violated the Old Testament Type and would have disqualified Him as an acceptable Substitute to God.

Justified In The Spirit

        Concerning Christ, Paul said:

"And without controversy great is the mystery of Godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of Angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into Glory" (I Tim. 3:16).

        From this Passage, these false teachers claim that Jesus Himself had to be justified, that He had to be made sin and thereby possessed an evil, satanic nature. Thus, they say, He had to be made righteous once more, justified, and Born-Again; but according to the Greek, "to justify" is "to declare righteous" or "to show to be righteous." The Holy Spirit through Paul is simply saying here that Jesus was "evinced to be righteous as to His spiritual nature."

        The Bible, in this Passage, is not saying that Jesus was being made righteous, but that His Righteousness was being "announced." Jesus never ceased to be Righteous; He never ceased to be just.

        Without any Scriptural support whatsoever, these teachers declare, "Suddenly God justified Jesus in the pit (Hell) and He was born again."
There is no Scriptural basis for this doctrine. God did not arbitrarily wave His hand over Christ and say, "Be Thou cleansed," and suddenly Jesus was justified (made righteous), Born-Again, and restored to Sonship with the Father.

WAS JESUS ABANDONED BY GOD AT CALVARY?

        Emphatically, no! Jesus was God's Own Sacrifice, chosen by Him (Isa., Cht. 53, Jn. 1:29; 3:16) and was never out of Divine favor for one moment. He was called "an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor" (Eph. 5:2). This is in perfect harmony with the Old Testament teaching that the Sin-Offering was most holy to God (Lev., Chpt. 6).

Isaiah 53:1-5
Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? [2] For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. [3] He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.  [4] Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. [5] But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

John 1:29
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

Ephes. 5:2
And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

        First of all, it is impossible to separate the Godhead - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Scripture says of this and Him: "For in Him (Christ) dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:9). If Jesus had died spiritually, then at the Cross - by Him being lost - He would have divided the Godhead, or at the least have made the entire Godhead sinful and in need of the new birth. The idea of dividing up the Godhead for three days by sending the Son of God as a lost sinner, totally abandoned by God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, is totally ridiculous. This spurious teaching even goes so far as to say that God was no longer the Father of Jesus while He was in Hell.

Identification

        When Jesus uttered the words on the Cross, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" He was speaking of God the Father no longer being able to look at Him, at least for the three hour period, while He was bearing the penalty of sin for the human race. He was also quoting from a prophetic Passage, Psalms 22:1. He also said, "I thirst," (Jn. 19:28), an utterance based upon another Old Testament Prophecy (Ps. 69:21).

        When He uttered these words, "Eli, Eli," the religious leaders and the people of His day misinterpreted them saying, "This man calls for Elijah" (Mat. 27:47).

          With these words Jesus consciously identified Himself as the One of Whom the Old Testament prophecies spoke. It has been suggested that Jesus recited all of Psalm 22 as well as other prophecies concerning Him while He hung on the Cross for several hours. We do know, of course, that not everything Jesus did was recorded. Actually, only a small portion was recorded (Jn. 21:25).

        Was Jesus abandoned by God? No, He was not. God had temporarily "turned a deaf ear," so to speak, in that instead of delivering His Son from death, which He did do on several occasions (compare Jn. 7:30, for example), the Father delivered Him up unto death when He became a Sin-Offering for others; but this was not abandonment. Jesus Himself said: "Behold, the hour comes, yes, is now come, that you shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me" (Jn. 16:32). He could say this because "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself" (II Cor. 5:19).

Jesus Died In The Flesh, Not Spiritually

        The Bible states again and again that Jesus offered up His Body as a Sacrifice for our sins and that He was put to death in the flesh. In other words, Jesus died physically but not spiritually. Nowhere in the Word of God does it tell us that Jesus died in His Spirit. It does say, however:

1. "Christ . . . His Own Self bear our sins in His Own Body on the tree" (I Pet. 2:21-24).
2. "Christ . . . was put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit" (I Pet. 3:18).
3. "Christ has suffered for us in the flesh" (I Pet. 4:1).
4. "He reconciled us in the body of His flesh through death" (Col. 1:21-22).
5. "We are sanctified through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all" (Heb. 10:10).
6. "He abolished in His flesh the enmity, even the Law of Commandments" (Eph. 2:15).
 

        So while the Scriptures repeatedly stress that Jesus offered up His Body and His flesh as a sacrifice or sin, not once do they say He died in His Spirit. God could not die physically or spiritually. So even to die physically, God would have to become man in order to have a body of flesh that could die, which it did.

Theories In Serious Error - "Another Jesus"

2 Cor. 11:1-4
Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me. [2] For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. [3] But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. [4] For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

        The following are some of the ridiculous theories of this doctrine:
 

1. When His Blood was poured out, it did not atone. (These are the words of Kenneth Copeland, which can be described as none other than blasphemy.)
2. Jesus bled only a few drops, and when people sing about the Blood of Jesus, they do not know what they are talking about.
3. The Cross itself was a minor part of the Redemption process.
To comment on these would be a waste of time. The efficacy of the Atonement did not depend on how much blood was shed on the Cross, or how much time was involved in the process of dying. The Atonement's validity depended on the fact that the Son of God shed His spotless Blood and died on our behalf.
 

        This false teaching further claims that:
 

A. Jesus was "born again" in the pit of Hell as the first man to be regenerated under the New Covenant. The proponents of this doctrine apparently are referring to the Verse that says, "God . . . has raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second Psalm, 'You are My Son, this day have I begotten You'" (Acts 13:33).
B. He was the first begotten from spiritual death, citing, "Jesus Christ, Who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead" (Rev. 1:5).
C. Jesus started the Church in Hell when He was "born again" in the pit, citing, "Jesus became the firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. 8:29)
D. He was Righteous while on Earth, on the Cross became unrighteous, went to Hell, and then in the pit was made righteous once more. That seems strange when the Bible says that He is unchangeable (Mal. 3:6; Heb. 13:8).
 

        We've already explained the words "firstborn" and "begotten," so we'll not go into them again. Concerning Hell, Jesus did go down into that place, but only to the Paradise part, except when He preached to the spirits in prison, who were fallen Angels (I Pet. 3:19).

        Before the Cross, all the Saints when they died, including all the Bible greats, went down into Paradise. Due to the fact that the blood of bulls and goats couldn't take away sins, the sin debt was still hanging over the heads of all who lived before the Cross; consequently, they couldn't go to Heaven at that time. But since the Cross, when and where all sins were "taken away" (Jn. 1:29), when a Believer now dies, his soul and spirit instantly go to be with Christ in Heaven. This is all because of the Cross.

        But actually, all in Old Testament times, even though they were saved, and in Paradise after they died, they were still there as captives of Satan, kept against their wills. However, they were not in the burning part of the pit, but rather in the place commonly referred to as "Abraham's Bosom" or "Paradise." This is the place to which Jesus was referring when He said to the dying thief, "Today shall you be with Me in Paradise" (Lk. 23:43). He was speaking of that place in the heart of the Earth where He would go. The other thief would go to the punishment side of Hell, which Jesus spoke about in Luke, Chapter 16.

What The Cross Made Possible

        After Jesus died on the Cross, He went down into Paradise. Then, the Bible says, "When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive" (Eph. 4:8). In other words, those Righteous souls who were kept against their wills in the side of Hell called Paradise were led by Jesus to Heaven (like an earthly conqueror).

        That is what Scripture means when it says Christ descended first into Hell, the lower parts of the Earth (Ps. 16:10; Acts 2:27; Eph. 4:8-10). He captured the Righteous souls from Satan, leading them now as His captives to Heaven, when He ascended on high. This fulfills Psalms 68:18.
 

        Prior to the Cross, as stated, all Righteous souls went into Hades or Sheol, along with the souls of the wicked who went to another compartment in the same place. These two compartments had a great gulf between them (Lk. 16:19-31). Since the Cross, the Righteous no longer go into the heart of the Earth to be held captive against their wills. They go immediately into Heaven at physical death to await the Resurrection of the body (II Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:21-24; Heb. 12:23; Rev. 6:9-11).

        The wicked will continue to go into the torment compartment of Hades or Sheol until the end of the Millennium. Then death and Hell will deliver up the wicked souls, who will be reunited with their bodies and resurrected to be sentenced to the lake of fire, where they will be forever and forever (Rev. 20:11-15).

        In this context a person could say that Jesus went to Hell, but it in no way means that He went down into the burning flames of the pit as a sinner. Nor was He molested by Satan, triumphed over by the powers of darkness, and then suddenly justified by God and Born-Again as the "firstborn among many brethren" (Rom. 8:29). This is an erroneous teaching that does not understand the Scriptural sense of the Atonement and the vicarious sacrifice paid by Jesus Christ at Calvary's Cross as a Sin-Offering.

        No, Jesus did not die spiritually on the Cross. He did not go to the burning (punishment) side of Hell. He was not placed under Satan's domain, not even for one moment. He was not subject to the Evil One in any case. He was rather the Perfect Sacrifice as our Substitute, given up as a Sin-Offering, all on our behalf. He died physically, not spiritually.

    (A great part of the material on the "Jesus died spiritually doctrine" was derived from the teaching of Hobart Freeman on this particular subject.)