And can it be that I should gain

In Acts 7, while Stephen was being stoned to death, he saw the heavens opened and Jesus standing there in the heavens as the Son of Man (v. 56). Hallelujah, today there is One who is both the Son of God and the Son of Man! This is our Savior. This is our God. Today, our God and our Savior is the God-man. As such a God-man, He lived on this earth for thirty-three and a half years. Then He went to the cross and died there as a God-man. In the first stanza of a well-known hymn, Charles Wesley wrote, "Amazing love! how can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?" (Hymns, #296). When I first read these words, I was perplexed and wondered how God could die for me. In another stanza of the same hymn, Wesley wrote, "'Tis mystery all! The Immortal dies!" As I read this line I wondered how God, the Immortal One, could die. However, today I must boldly and strongly declare that my God did die for me. He died for me in the humanity of Jesus. Without humanity, God could not die for me even if He wanted to do so. God in Himself could never die, but He died in the humanity of Jesus. He was the very Creator crucified for us by His creatures. The Jews and the Roman soldiers who crucified Him were all creatures. When they put Jesus on the cross, they crucified their Creator. The Creator was crucified on the cross by His creatures.

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.

In John 8:29 the Lord Jesus said, "He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone." God the Father sent Christ, but the Lord said that He who sent Him was with Him. When the Son came, the Father came with Him. When the Lord Jesus was traveling on this earth, He was traveling with the Father. He said that the Father had not left Him alone. Thus, when He was praying in Gethsemane, the Father was there. When He was dying on the cross, He was dying there with the Father. Jesus the Man was dying on the cross with God. Charles Wesley wrote a hymn with a line that says, "Amazing love! how can it be/That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?" (Hymns, #296). This means that our God died for us. When Christ died on the cross, that was God dying for us. Christ died with God because God never left Him alone. Even in His crucifixion, God was with Him.

As to your question, actually we have covered this in our Life-study of Luke. The Lord Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit, and for His whole life the Holy Spirit never left Him. This is essentially. However, economically, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him after He was baptized. All the time in the Divine Trinity the Father and the Holy Spirit were always with Him, not only coexisting but also coinhering with Him. However, at the time when He bore our sins and was made sin for us, at that juncture God left Him economically; essentially, God the Father was still in Him while He was dying for us. So in Charles Wesley's hymn, "And Can It Be..?" (Hymns, #296, stanza 1), it says, "How can it be / That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?" The Lord's blood is called the blood of Jesus the Son of God (1 John 1:7). One crucial point is that the Divine Trinity has never been separated; this is so at all times and in all occasions.

The Divine Trinity can also be seen in the crucifixion of Jesus. First John 1:7 and Acts 20:28 show that the blood of Jesus [the Son] was considered as the blood of God [including the Father and the Son]. How could the very God have had blood? He had blood because He was mingled with a man. In God as the divine One alone, there is no blood. But in the man with whom He mingled Himself there is blood. This God-man is one entity with two natures. In the divine nature there is no blood, but in the human nature there is blood; so the blood of Jesus is considered as the blood of God. Acts 20:28 says that God obtained the church "through His own blood," and 1 John 1:7 refers to the blood of Jesus, the Son of God. When Jesus died on the cross, God died there. One line from a famous hymn by Charles Wesley says, "Amazing love! How can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?" (see Hymns, #296). Charles Wesley was strong to point out that his God died for him. Jesus, the God-man, died on the cross for all of us.

Christ died on the cross as a man and also as God. We cannot ex-plain how God could die. Charles Wesley wrote in a hymn, "Amazing love! how can it be/ That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me? / 'Tis mystery all! The Immortal dies!" (Hymns, #296). The One who died on the cross was God, the eternal Word who became a man and as the Lamb of God took away our sin.

Revelation 5:6 speaks of the seven eyes of the Lamb, who is the Lord Jesus. The Bible speaks of seven eyes three times: the seven eyes of the stone, the seven eyes of Jehovah, and the seven eyes of the Lamb (Zech. 3:9; 4:10; Rev. 5:6). This indicates that the Lamb is Jehovah and that Jehovah is the engraved stone. Revelation 5:6 says that the seven eyes of the Lamb are the seven Spirits of God. The seven eyes of the stone are the seven eyes of Jehovah, the seven eyes of Jehovah are the seven eyes of the redeeming Lamb, and the seven eyes of the Lamb are the seven Spirits of God. This means that the eyes of the Lord Jesus are the Spirit of Jehovah. When the Lord looks at us and sets His eyes on us, this is the Spirit of God coming to visit us.

A stanza in a hymn written by Charles Wesley (Hymns, #296) says,

Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature's night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

II. Christ lived the life of a God-man to be a pattern and a prototype for all those who would become God-men after Him—Phil. 2:5

Chapter(s): Mark 10, John 12.

Background Reading: The Conclusion to the New Testament, Message 27.

References: The Conclusion to the New Testament, Messages 26-27; Life-study of Mark, Message 2; Life-study of Luke, Message 6; Life-study of Philippians, Message 10, pp. 86-90; Philippians 2:8, footnote 4; Hymns, #82; #296, stanza 3.

The last item of Christ's commission is to bring the prisoner out from the prison, those who dwell in darkness out from the prison house. I like one of Charles Wesley's hymns concerning being justified in Christ (Hymns, #296). In the first verse of this hymn, Wesley says, "And can it be that I should gain / An int'rest in the Savior's blood?" When we sing this hymn, we can say, "Yes, it can be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood." In this hymn, Wesley says that he was in a dungeon, in prison, and in darkness. But one day a quickening ray of light shined into him. He was saved and came out of prison to follow the Lord (see verse 4). Christ brings us out of the prison house that we may be released from the dark kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God's beloved Son.

When some Christians say that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, they consider that as the Son of God, He is different from God. They do not realize that the Son of God is God Himself. John 1:1 does not say, "In the beginning was the Word...and the Word was the Son of God." Rather, this verse tells us that the Word in the beginning was God. This Word became flesh (v. 14). For the Word to become flesh means that God Himself became flesh. It was God in the flesh who worked on earth, who washed the feet of the disciples, who was arrested in the garden, who was tried before the high priest and before Pilate and Herod, and who was sentenced to death and crucified. Yes, the One who was crucified was the very God. Some may ask: Is it possible for God to be crucified? The answer is that God was crucified in the humanity of Jesus. Recognizing this, Charles Wesley says in one of his hymns, "Amazing love! how can it be / That Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?" (Hymns, #296). The second stanza of the same hymn opens with the line: "'Tis mystery all! The Immortal dies!" The One who died for us was not only Jesus of Nazareth but God, the very One who created us. Yet, as God was dying on the cross, He cried out to God, saying, "My God, My God..." (Matt. 27:46). Those with a doctrinal mentality may be at a loss to explain this. How can God say to God, "Why have You forsaken Me?" The answer is that God was dying on the cross in the form of a man. Therefore, as a man, He could cry, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" After His crucifixion He was buried. Then, on the third day, He was resurrected. First Corinthians 15:45 says that as the last Adam, He became a life-giving Spirit. Therefore, in 2 Corinthians 3:17 Paul goes on to say, "And the Lord is the Spirit."