I wrote this blog post some time ago and have been contemplating posting it. If you don’t agree…that’s totally fine. All I ask is that the reader read it and research it more for themselves. I have done tons and tons and tons of research. I am NOT defending any preacher with this blog post…that is NOT what this is about. It is about the message, not the messenger…That is what my second book: Another Side of the Coin was ALL about… so read on…
Who Made These Statements?
The heresy hunters have continually tried to imply that the beliefs that the Word of Faith teachers hold are heretical, began with E.W. Kenyon, and whatever other concocted thing they can come up with in order to “prove” that they were right about the teachings of the Word of Faith.
However, the quotations that follow adequately show that the teachings of the Word of Faith on subjects like: the Spiritually Death of Jesus, Jesus Went to Hell etc., were actually taught by the old well known teachers of the 1500’s-1900’s, and many of these quoted have been almost worshipped by the heresy hunter’s of today.
Most of these modern day heresy hunters will attempt to respond: “This is not what they meant” and various other distortions because they have no defense for these in your face statements given in the article. But, I challenge the reader to read these statements for one’s self, and ask one’s self if the arguments of the heresy hunters really hold water. I dare say that they do not.
The Quotes To Ponder:
As Luther put it, with his characteristic bluntness,
“Christ was accursed, and of all sinners the greatest. My sins caused Thee, dear Lord, to bear the wrath of God and become a curse, to taste the anguish of hell and to endure a bitter death…Christ had to feel in his innocent tender heart God’s wrath and judgment against sin and to taste for us eternal death and damnation, and in a word, to suffer all that a condemned sinner has deserved and must suffer forever.” (120) [Source: The Dying of Jesus Christ—from: Two Men Called Adam]
Jonathan Edwards wrote about the matter thus:
“Sin must be punished with an infinite punishment…the majesty of God requires this vindication. It cannot properly be vindicated without it, neither can God be just to Himself without this vindication.” (121) Satisfaction for sin demands equal penalty, and not until that penalty had been paid in full did the Father turn his face to his beloved Son again. [Source: The Dying of Jesus Christ—from: Two Men Called Adam]
The Following Quotations Came Originally From A Book: The Mystery of the 3 Days & Nights By Greg Bitgood and you can read the majority of this book at: www.b2bablessing.org/articles.htm
“Christ is full of grace, life, and salvation. The soul is full of sins, death, and damnation. Now let faith come between them and sins, death, and damnation will be Christ’s, while grace, life, and salvation will be the soul’s; for if Christ is a bridegroom, he must take upon himself the things which are his bride’s and bestow upon her the things that are his. If he gives her his body and very self, how shall he not give her all that is his? And if he takes the body of the bride, how shall he not take all that is hers? Here we have a most pleasing vision not only of communion but of a blessed struggle and victory and salvation and redemption. Christ is God and man in one person. He has neither sinned nor died, and is not condemned, and he cannot sin, die, or be condemned; his righteousness, life, and salvation are unconquerable, eternal, omnipotent. By the wedding ring of faith he shares in the sins, death, and pains of hell which are his bride’s. As a matter of fact, he makes them his own and acts as if they were his own and as if he himself had sinned; he suffered, died, and descended into hell that he might overcome them all.” [This quote was taken from John Dillenberger’s edition, Martin Luther, selections From His Writings where he comments: “If one were to single out one short document representing the content and spirit of Luther’s faith, “The Freedom of a Christian” would undoubtedly be at the top.”] {9}
Finally, we come to the logical conclusion that total and complete substitution meant that Christ would suffer and die the death that was due us. James Denny in his Book Christian Doctrine Of Reconciliation in speaking of those who take the strict legal idea of satisfaction pertaining to the atonement states: [Thee Martian Luther said this…]
“Few things in the history of Christian thinking are more extraordinary than the progeny of this ambiguous idea of satisfaction: ‘that every sin must be punished.’ Many theologians in applying it to Christ took it as a strict legal sense. He made satisfaction for sin by enduring the penalty which was due for it to mean. But this penalty was eternal death or the pains of hell. Could anybody say that Christ endured this? Luther said so, ‘…in His tender innocent heart He had to feel God’s wrath and judgment against sin, to taste for us eternal death and damnation, and in a word to suffer everything which a condemned sinner has merited and must suffer eternally.’ And ‘Look at Christ, who for thy sake has gone to hell and been abandoned by God as one damned forever.’ This is his interpretation of ‘My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?’ Calvin with all his constitutional caution is almost equally emphatic. He makes much of the descent into hell saying, ‘…that invisible and incomprehensible judgment which he underwent at the bar of God; that we might know that not only was the body of Christ given up as the price of our redemption, but that there was another greater and more excellent price — namely, that He endured in His soul the dreadful torments of a condemned and lost man.’ One might conceive a man driven to this by the logic of legal satisfaction and contemplating it with awe. There is no trace of such emotion in the statement of it by John Owens, which cannot be read without a shudder. ‘The punishment due to our sin and the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, which that, it was the pains of hell and their nature and being, in their weight pressure, though not intendance and continuance, in being impossible that He should be detained by death. Who can deny and not be injurious to the justice of God which will inevitably inflict those pains through eternity upon sinners.’ It (that Christ should go to hell and suffer) is really given in the very conception of satisfaction if taken in the legal sense.” {10}
[Please remember who made the above statements…not Copeland…Luther]
The ransom Jesus paid was not to the devil or any other force; it was paid to God. It was God’s justice that had to be vindicated. He could not overlook man’s sin; the price has to be paid! Billy Graham in his book Peace With God addresses the problem: [Amen I agree 100%]
“The question remains ‘How can God be just — that is, true to Himself in nature and true to Himself in holiness, and yet justify the sinner?’ Because each man had to bear his own sins, all mankind was excluded from helping, since each was contaminated with the same disease. The only solution was for an innocent party to volunteer to die physically and spiritually as a substitution before God. This innocent party would have to take man’s judgement, penalty, and death. But where was such an individual? Certainly there was none on earth, for the Bible says, ‘All have sinned.’ There was only one possibility. God’s own Son was the only personality in the universe who had the capacity to bear in His own body the sins of the world.” {8}
“Christ is full of grace, life, and salvation. The soul is full of sins, death, and damnation. Now let faith come between them and sins, death, and damnation will be Christ’s, while grace, life, and salvation will be the soul’s; for if Christ is a bridegroom, he must take upon himself the things which are his bride’s and bestow upon her the things that are his. If he gives her his body and very self, how shall he not give her all that is his? And if he takes the body of the bride, how shall he not take all that is hers? Here we have a most pleasing vision not only of communion but of a blessed struggle and victory and salvation and redemption. Christ is God and man in one person. He has neither sinned nor died, and is not condemned, and he cannot sin, die, or be condemned; his righteousness, life, and salvation are unconquerable, eternal, omnipotent. By the wedding ring of faith he shares in the sins, death, and pains of hell which are his bride’s. As a matter of fact, he makes them his own and acts as if they were his own and as if he himself had sinned; he suffered, died, and descended into hell that he might overcome them all.” [This quote was taken from John Dillenberger’s edition, Martin Luther, selections From His Writings where he comments: “If one were to single out one short document representing the content and spirit of Luther’s faith, “The Freedom of a Christian” would undoubtedly be at the top.”] {9}
(quoted in a Sermon given by Leon Stump, “Jesus Went to Hell” Jan. 9, 1981).
“Few things in the history of Christian thinking are more extraordinary than the progeny of this ambiguous idea of satisfaction: ‘that every sin must be punished.’ Many theologians in applying it to Christ took it as a strict legal sense. He made satisfaction for sin by enduring the penalty which was due for it to mean. But this penalty was eternal death or the pains of hell. Could anybody say that Christ endured this? Luther said so, ‘…in His tender innocent heart He had to feel God’s wrath and judgment against sin, to taste for us eternal death and damnation, and in a word to suffer everything which a condemned sinner has merited and must suffer eternally.’ And ‘Look at Christ, who for thy sake has gone to hell and been abandoned by God as one damned forever.’ This is his interpretation of ‘My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?’ Calvin with all his constitutional caution is almost equally emphatic. He makes much of the descent into hell saying, ‘…that invisible and incomprehensible judgment which he underwent at the bar of God; that we might know that not only was the body of Christ given up as the price of our redemption, but that there was another greater and more excellent price — namely, that He endured in His soul the dreadful torments of a condemned and lost man.’ One might conceive a man driven to this by the logic of legal satisfaction and contemplating it with awe. There is no trace of such emotion in the statement of it by John Owens, which cannot be read without a shudder. ‘The punishment due to our sin and the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, which that, it was the pains of hell and their nature and being, in their weight pressure, though not intendance and continuance, in being impossible that He should be detained by death. Who can deny and not be injurious to the justice of God which will inevitably inflict those pains through eternity upon sinners.’ It (that Christ should go to hell and suffer) is really given in the very conception of satisfaction if taken in the legal sense.” {10}
Martin Luther:
And this, no doubt, all the prophets did foresee in spirit, that Christ should become the greatest transgressor, murderer, adulterer, thief, rebel, blasphemer, &c. that ever was or could be in all the world. For he being made a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, is not now an innocent person and without sins, is not now the Son of God born of the Virgin Mary; but a sinner, which hath and carrieth the sin of Paul, who was a blasphemer, an oppressor and a persecutor; of Peter, which denied Christ; of David, which was an adulterer, a murderer, and caused the Gentiles to blaspheme the name of the Lord; and briefly, which hath and beareth all the sins of all men in his body, that he might make satisfaction for them with his own blood…. But some man will say: it is very absurd and slanderous to call the Son of God a cursed sinner. I answer: if thou wilt deny him to be a sinner and accursed, deny also that he suffered, was crucified and died. For it is no less absurd to say, that the Son of God (as our faith confesseth and pleadeth) was crucified and suffered the pains of sin and death, than to say that he is a sinner and accursed. But if it be not absurd to confess and believe that Christ was crucified between two thieves, then it is not absurd to say also that he was made a curse for us; ‘God made Christ which knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we in him might be made the righteousness of God’ 2 Corinthians 5:21.” {5}
Again we consult Luther:
“Isaiah speaketh thus of Christ: ‘God,’ saith he, ‘laid the iniquity of us all upon him’ Is. 53:6. We must not make these words less than they are, but leave them in their own proper signification. For God dallieth not in the words of the prophet, but speaketh earnestly and of great love; to wit, that Christ, this Lamb of God should bear the iniquities of us all. But what is it to bear? The sophisters answer: to be punished. Very well. But wherefore is Christ punished? Is it not because he hath sin and beareth sin? …For this testimony is not the voice of an innocent, but of a suffering Christ, which took upon him to bear the person of all sinners, and therefore was made guilty of the sins of the whole world.” {8}
Luther uses strong language to describe the Saviour, but it rings with truth. Jesus was made to be our sin so that God could treat Him as a sinner. Billy Graham gives us an insight into why this was necessary:
“On the cross He was made sin. He was God- forsaken. Because He knew no sin there is a value beyond comprehension in the penalty He bore, a penalty that He did not need for Himself. If in bearing sin in His own body He created a value that He did not need for Himself, for whom was the value created?” {9}
We will close this chapter with the words of Martin Luther from his commentary of this verse:
“Wherefore, Christ was not only crucified and died, but sin also (through the love of the Divine Majesty) was laid upon him. When sin was laid upon him, then cometh the law and saith: Every sinner must die. Therefore, O Christ, if thou wilt answer, become guilty, and suffer punishment for sinners, thou must also bear sin and malediction. Paul therefore doth very allege this general law out of Moses as concerning Christ: “Everyone that hangeth upon the tree is the accursed of God.” Christ hath hanged upon the tree, therefore Christ is the accursed of God.” {11}
Rev. Robert Jamieson, D.D., in his commentary of the Bible carried this theme:
“Without considering the death of Christ as a substitutionary sacrifice, how mysterious, how unaccountable the manner in which he underwent it! Martyrs have not only stood calm, serene, and unmoved, but often have kindled into raptures when fastened to the stake — even amid the blaze of the s, or the gloom of the grave, have exulted as if already treading the confines of heaven, and breathing the air of immortality. They were poor, weak, sinful men; but Jesus had never sinned — he was totally separate from sinners. Moreover, he was the object of the Father’s infinite, complacent love; thrice the Divine pleasure in him was proclaimed from heaven. He knew, also, that his sufferings were but momentary, and that eternal glories awaited him; and yet when we hear the accents of agony that broke the stillness of Gethsemane, and see the “great drops of blood” bursting from every pore of his body we can believe, though we cannot fathom the depth of the mystery, that he was making atonement for the sins of all the redeemed, from Adam to the latest believer in his name and merits.” {1}
But we cannot stop at the physical sacrifice, real as it was; we must go on and see also the spiritual sacrifice. Billy Graham in his presentation of the sacrifice of the Lord in Peace with God declares:
“But the physical suffering of Jesus Christ was not the real suffering. Many men before Him had died. Many men had become martyrs. The awful suffering of Jesus Christ was His spiritual death. He reached the final issue of sin, fathomed the deepest sorrow, when God turned His back and hid His face so that He cried, ‘My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?’ ” [Emphasis is mine.] {5}
The only conclusion acceptable is: if Christ truly became man’s sin [II Cor. 5:21] then Jesus died spiritually in order to pay the entire sin debt. Billheimer explains:
“Sin is basically a spiritual thing, a thing of the spirit, and therefore must be dealt with in the spirit realm. If Jesus paid the full penalty of sin on the cross only, that is by His physical death alone, then sin is wholly a physical act. If sin is wholly a physical act, then every man could pay for his own sin by his own death. Because sin is basically or primarily in the spirit realm and of the spirit, therefore Jesus’ work was not finished when he yielded up His physical life on the cross. It was not completed until He descended into hell, paid once and for all the eternal consequences of the aggregate sin of the world, completely despoiled Satan and all the hosts of evil, arose triumphantly from the dead, and carried His blood into the heavenly Holy of Holies and sprinkled it upon the Mercy Seat there. Hallelujah!” {8}
C.S. Lovett in his commentary of Hebrews 2:9, “Jesus would taste death on behalf of every man,” expounds on the two deaths:
“He did experience death, and more. He died TWICE! That is, He died physically and spiritually. While Jesus was on the cross He suffered SPIRITUAL death, the true wages of sin (Rom. 6:23). Yes, He died physically, as the result of His obedience. But it was spiritual death that He tasted for every man. His physical death was not substitutionary, for we all die physically. Every man goes through physical death for himself. However “taste” is an accurate word. Jesus experienced spiritual death for only a short time. He didn’t remain spiritually dead. While we don’t understand HOW He did it, we do know WHEN. His words from the cross tell us. At noon on the day of crucifixion, the sky became darkened. Then at 3 p.m., He gave that awful cry… ‘My God! My God! Why hast Thou forsaken Me!’ (Matt. 27:46). In that moment our sins were laid on Him and “He became sin for us…” (2 Cor. 5:21). Since sin separates men from God, the MAN Christ Jesus suffered spiritual death that instant.” [All emphasis is his.] {10}
We repeat the precious words of Luther:
“By the wedding ring of faith he shares in the sins, death, and pains of hell which are his bride’s. As a matter of fact, he makes them his own and acts as if they were his own and as if he himself had sinned; he suffered, died, and descended into hell that he might overcome them all.” {16}
M.R. DeHann, M.D., in his book The Chemistry of the Blood, gives us some enlightening scientific facts:
“It is now definitely known that the blood which flows in an unborn baby’s arteries and veins is not derived from the mother but is produced within the body of the fetus. Yet it is only after the sperm has entered the ovum and a fetus begins to develop that blood appears. …God provided a way whereby that man (Jesus) would have a human body derived from Adam but have blood from a separate source.” {17}
Leon Stump
“The evidence that Jesus went to hell and suffered the penalty our sins deserved after He died physically is three-fold. First, it is the logical extension of the fact that Christ was our substitute. Since He was taking our place, suffering in our stead, the logical extension of this fact would be that He went where we should have gone as sinners. And if He didn’t, we may wonder how God could say the penalty for sin has been paid, because that penalty was more than physical death — it was hell. And if the penalty has not been paid, we may wonder how God can really make the sinner righteous. …Secondly, Christ’s going to Hell is the logical extension of His actually being made sin for us and dying spiritually. If He became what we were in spirit, He would have gone where we would have gone. And if He didn’t become what we were, we may wonder how we have been freed from what we were (not just forgiven of what we did), and how Paul could say our ‘old man was crucified with Him.’ [Romans 6:6]. Thirdly, there is definite scriptural evidence that Christ went to Hell.” {1}
The awful reality of this entire ordeal was not our sin nor Him sharing our nature, but God pouring out His full wrath and fury upon His beloved Son. Billheimer comments on this passage:
“The agonies which Christ endured in that dark prison are believed to be described in Psalm 88: …No finite mind can ever comprehend the depth of anguish He endured during that seeming eternity in the nether abyss. It is probably best described in the words of the prophet, “He hath poured out his soul unto death” (Isa. 53:12). He suffered in our stead, until, in the mind of God, the claims of eternal justice were fully met, as confirmed in Isaiah 53:11: “He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.” … Eternal judgment against sin could not be satisfied by merely turning His Son over to the insufferable tortures of Satan. Justice required that the full fury of the Father’s own wrath against the cumulative sin of the human race be poured out upon Him unto the uttermost without stint or reservation — see again Psalm 88.” {7}
Psalm 88 is probably the most graphic picture we have of what it would be like to suffer judgment at the hands of God. Whether or not this passage is specifically speaking of Christ does not matter, for as we have seen and will continue to see, Jesus suffered the penalty that was our due. Psalm 88 is a perfect picture of what that penalty encompassed.
Billheimer speaks of the extremity to which Christ went to bear our punishment:
“His spirit must not only descend into hell, but into the lowest hell. The extreme penalty had to be paid. He must ‘taste death for every man’ (Heb. 2:9). There could be no adequate substitution unless Christ actually paid, once and for all, the eternal consequences of the aggregate sin of the world. That means that He endured all that combined humanity could suffer. T.H. Nelson said, ‘If Christ in spirit did not thus ‘descend into hell,’ then we have no legal ground of assurance that we may escape that horrid prison.’ The Father turned Him over, not only to the agony and death of Calvary, but to the satanic tortures of His pure spirit as part of the just desert of the sin of all the race. As long as Christ was ‘the essence of sin,’ He was at Satan’s mercy in that place of torment where all finally impenitent sinners are imprisoned upon leaving this life (Luke 16:19-31), which seems to be the headquarters from which Satan operates (Rev. 9:1,2,11).” {11}
Martin Luther also speaks of this horrible torment in the abyss:
“…in His tender innocent heart He had to feel God’s wrath and judgment against sin, to taste for us eternal death and damnation, and in a word to suffer everything which a condemned sinner has merited and must suffer eternally. … Look at Christ, who for thy sake has gone to hell and been abandoned by God as one damned forever.” {12}
Billy Graham also speaks of Christ’s experience in hell as torment rather than comfort:
“How it was accomplished in the depth of darkness man will never know. I know only one thing, He bore my sins in His body upon the tree. He stood where I should have stood. The pains of hell that were my portion were heaped on Him, and I am able to go to heaven and merit that which is not my own, but is His every right.” {13}
We have seen from scripture after scripture that Christ endured more in the 3 days and nights than mere comfort and a long sojourn in the heart of the earth. Instead we have seen the intense spiritual torment in hades and even deeper, the abyss of hades. Jesus underwent what awaited us in our sinful condition. He endured what sinners will endure if they fail to hear and receive the gospel. It is only because He did this that we will never have to endure the torment. I am sorry that Christ had to do what He did, but I will be eternally grateful that He did die and go to hell in my place!
Pastor Leon Stump is helpful in his commentary on this verse:
” ‘Manifested in the flesh’ would include His birth to His actual physical death when He no longer was in the flesh. ‘Justified (made righteous) in spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles’ would all have to be in the spirit before He was raised from the dead physically because the Gentiles were not preached to in His earthly ministry — only the lost sheep of the house of Israel. ‘Believed on in the world’ refers to His post-resurrection appearances; ‘received up into glory’ is the Ascension. He was made righteous in spirit after He had first been made sin in spirit and died physically.” {1}
Kenneth Wuest:
I PETER 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
Here again we encounter the same problem with the King James translation as with Romans 4:25. The translators are giving us two different meanings in the statements, “in the flesh” and “by the Spirit,” when the same meaning of “in” should be applied to both. Also it is necessary to understand that it is not the Holy Spirit which Peter is speaking about, but rather Christ’s own human spirit. Wuest has a lengthy but worthwhile explanation of this verse:
“In the same way, the words ‘flesh’ and ‘Spirit’ are contrasted and are logical opposites. The word translated ‘Spirit,’ pneumati, is in the same case and classification as the word for ‘flesh,’ sarki. But the Holy Spirit is not a logical contrast to the human body of our Lord. It is the human spirit of our Lord that is set over against His human body. It is true that our Lord was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit, and that is taught by Paul in Romans 8:11. But Peter is not teaching that truth here. He maintains the perfect contrast between our Lord’s human body and His human spirit. The translators of the A.V. have capitalized the word ‘spirit,’ making it refer to the Holy Spirit. …The word ‘spirit’ in I Peter 3:18 is not capitalized in Nestle’s text [one of the best Greek manuscripts], which indicates that he thought that the word referred, not to the Holy Spirit but to the human spirit of the Lord Jesus. But this again is a textual critic’s interpretation. All of which goes to say that the present writer has a perfect right to write the word ‘spirit’ in the passage in question without capitalization if he thinks that a careful exegesis of its context, based upon the rules of Greek grammar, warrants him in doing so. The problem is therefore purely one of interpretation and not at all of textual evidence. The translation reads, “having in fact been put to death with respect to the flesh, but made alive with respect to the spirit.” That preserves the balance in which the apostle contrasts the physical death of our Lord with the fact that His human spirit was made alive. But how are we to understand this latter? To make alive Christ’s human spirit presupposes the death of that human spirit. Our Lord on Calvary’s Cross cried, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’ (Matt.27:46). The Greek word translated ‘forsaken’ means ‘to abandon, desert, leave in straits, leave helpless, leave destitute, leave in the lurch, let one down.’ ” {5}
Billheimer speaks of this moment of conquering in the heart of the earth:
“As long as He was identified with sin, He was in the clutches of Satan and the hosts of hell, just like any lost sinner. But when He was justified and made alive, adjudged and declared righteous in the Supreme Court of the universe, the tables were turned. The battle in that cavern of despair is described by Peter in Acts 2:24 ‘Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be held by it’ (NS). This implies a tremendous effort on the part of hell. When He, as an authentic man, had completely disarmed and dethroned the arch foe of God and man, He burst forth triumphantly from that age-old prison of the dead.” {1}
W.E. Vine gives an excellent exposition on this truth in his dictionary:
“There is no doubt that Satan and his hosts gathered together to attack the soul of Christ, while He was enduring, in propitiatory sacrifice, the judgment due to our sins, and fulfilling the great work of redemption. There is an intimation of this in Psa. 22:21, ‘Save Me from the lions mouth; yea, from the horns of wild oxen.’ Doubtless the powers of darkness gathered against the Lord at that time, fiercely assaulting Him to the utmost of their power. He Himself had said, ‘This is your hour, and the power of darkness’ (Luke 22:53). The metaphor of putting off from Himself these powers need not be pressed to the extent of regarding them as a garment clinging about Him. It seems to stand simply as a vivid description of His repulsion of their attack and of the power by which He completely overthrew them.” {3}
E.W. Kenyon is worth quoting as He expounds on this glorious moment in universal history:
“Here is a picture of Christ in Hell, with the whole host of demons attempting to keep Him there, but when the penalty of our sin had been fully met, Satan had no power to hold Him longer. …The very moment the sin problem was settled, that moment Jesus Christ was legally justified, was made alive in spirit once more, and assumed His wonderful dominion, authority, and power. Hurling back the hosts of demons, He became the Master of Hell; putting them off from Himself, He hurled them hopeless and powerless back into the dark abyss. …The matchless mighty Christ had gone into the strong room, the very citadel of Hell, into the crown room of the Black Prince and Ruler of death; He had conquered him in honorable combat; He had taken from him his authority, his dominion; He brings it back and offers it to fallen man through His matchless name and grace.” {5}
Martin Luther also declared:
“To be brief, all the enemies which did before torment and oppress me, Christ Jesus hath brought to nought: he hath spoiled them and made a show of them openly, triumphing by himself over them [Col. 2:15], in such sort, that they now rule and reign no more over me, but are constrained to serve me.” {6}
John G. Lake, whom God used mightily as a missionary to Africa and in an astounding healing ministry in the U.S. unparalleled in modern times, said this about Christ’s triumph:
“The triumph of Jesus, as we see it outlined in the Scriptures, has always been one of the splendid inspirations of my own soul. No one can have the highest appreciation of the real Christian life and the consciousness that real Christianity brings, unless he can see the triumph of the Christ.” {7}
C.S Lovett in his commentary of Hebrews is even more pointed:
[This isn’t Copeland or Hagin who wrote this…others believe this NOT just the WOF].
“If we limit the author to saying that Jesus offered Himself in the Spirit’s power, we miss a bigger truth. The writer is contrasting the fleshly offerings of the Jewish priests with the spiritual offering of Jesus. The animal sacrifices were physical and outward, His was spiritual and unseen. The shedding of Jesus’ blood made possible His transition from the physical world into the spiritual sanctuary. But His physical blood DID NOT atone for our sins. Sin is a spiritual matter. The wages of sin is eternal separation from God. When God laid ‘on Him the iniquity of us all,’ was it on Jesus’ body or His soul? Sin cannot be laid on a body because sin is spiritual and the body physical. It was the sinless SOUL of Christ that was the real sacrifice at Calvary, NOT his body. He offered HIMSELF to God. He was IN a body at the time, but it was Jesus Himself Who bore our sins in that body. This is why the offering is so priceless.” [Emphasis is his.] {4}
At the risk of being repetitive let me quote C.I. Scofield’s definition of sin again:
“Sin may be summarized as threefold: An act, the violation of, or want of obedience to the revealed will of God; a state, absence of righteousness; a nature, enmity toward God.” {6}
Billheimer explains:
“Sin is basically a spiritual thing, a thing of the spirit, and therefore must be dealt with in the spirit realm. If Jesus paid the full penalty of sin on the cross only, that is by His physical death alone, then sin is wholly a physical act. If sin is wholly a physical act, then every man could pay for his own sin by his own death. Because sin is basically or primarily in the spirit realm and of the spirit, therefore Jesus’ work was not finished when he yielded up His physical life on the cross. It was not completed until He descended into hell, paid once and for all the eternal consequences of the aggregate sin of the world, completely despoiled Satan and all the hosts of evil, arose triumphantly from the dead, and carried His blood into the heavenly Holy of Holies and sprinkled it upon the Mercy Seat there. Hallelujah!” {8}
We repeat the precious words of Luther:
“By the wedding ring of faith he shares in the sins, death, and pains of hell which are his bride’s. As a matter of fact, he makes them his own and acts as if they were his own and as if he himself had sinned; he suffered, died, and descended into hell that he might overcome them all.” {16}
John Calvin, as he speaks of Christ’s burial:
“…that invisible and incomprehensible judgment which he underwent at the bar of God; that we might know that not only was the body of Christ given up as the price of our redemption, but that there was another greater and more excellent price — namely, that He endured in His soul the dreadful torments of a condemned man.” {8}
David C. Cooke in his study What Happened from the Cross to the Throne boldly expounds on this truth:
“The life of God was provided for spiritually dead man through his legal identification in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was in the name of man that Christ received this “new dynamic life” in His resurrection. When Christ was made alive in spirit it was man’s spirit legally made alive in Christ. …By His resurrection He acquired new life in the spirit which He communicates to believers. Now Eph. 2:5 connects us directly with this glorious event. (Jordan) — ‘God in His overflowing sympathy and great love breathed the same new life into us as into Christ.’ We were legally identified in Christ’s spiritual quickening! What happened legally in Christ 2,000 years ago is made our vital experience through faith. Faith is the way to transfer the legal accomplishments into personal vital experience. The new birth is a divine happening; it is explosive! The recreation of your spirit was a vital re-enactment of Christ’s resurrection.” {6}
Billheimer comments on Christ’s rebirth: “When the claims of eternal justice were fully discharged Christ was ‘justified in the spirit’ (I Tim.3:16 ASV). He then was ‘made alive in the spirit’ (I Peter 3:18 ASV). His spirit was not annihilated. It only died spiritually like any sinful human spirit. It was completely cut off and separated from God. Thus, in order to be made alive unto God and restored to fellowship with His Father, He had to be reborn — for He had become the very essence of sin. Since sin had totally alienated Him from the Father, the only way He could be restored to fellowship with the Father was through a new birth to new life. This is the meaning of Revelation 1:5: ‘Jesus Christ who is the first begotten from among the dead’ ” (margin). {9} [Reader…did you get what this man said?]
