Christ's suffering on the cross.

I'll be gone (hopefully) from Thursday for about 10 days, but thought of a question I'm interested in hearing what others think.

What is it that caused Christ's pain on the cross? That is, we know His mental anguish was such that He hardly felt His physical pain, but what is it that caused Him such anguish? (Please try not to just repeat the well known phrases, but explain things in your own words. Thanks.)

Other than the well known quotes God hasn't revealed any more about it. Christ was hidden for most of His experience on the cross. The epitome of the mystery of iniquity and the epitome of the mystery of godliness reached a simultaneous climax within the heart and soul of Jesus. This catacylsmic event stretched every nerve and fiber of His physical and emotional Being. Whenever two opposing forces clash at the same time, in the same place, the results are titanic. Who can know it?

Crying out "my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me" explains it well.

The realization that He was being forsaken by His Father with whom he had enjoyed a relationship of "Oneness" was the primary cause of Christ's anguish.

Jesus was enduring a form of "separation from God" that no human has yet to experience. This separation resulted in His death.

It wasn't the separation alone that caused the anguish, but the reason why the Father forsook Him. The Father forsook Jesus because He became sin itself, and our heavenly Father hates sin. The Father treated Jesus as if He was sin itself, which would have been the most revolting thing Jesus could have suffered on our behalf. No one can imagine what that was like - the Son of God hated by His one and only Father.

2 Corinthians
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.

God is love. God does not hate anyone, much less His Son. (Yes there are statements that says that God hates workers of iniquity, but this is in the Hebrew sense, not the English sense -- the Hebrew sense has to do with preference.)

If you read the chapter in the Desire of Ages called Calvary you will see how EGW depicts God as leaving heaven to be close to His Son. God shrouded His glory so as not to destroy man, and came down to Calvary to be as close as possible to His Son. She applies Ps. 18 to this, which itself depicts the scene.

God suffered with His Son. God was in Christ, reconciling the world to His Son. The Father, no less than the Son, was involved in our redemption. The Spirit of Prophesy tells us that God was crucified with Christ. Acts tells us that God purchased the church with His blood.

God the Father and Christ are one. To separate the two is to believe the pagan view of the atonement.

Mike,

There is a difference between being treated as one who "is sin" and one who "has sinned".

Jesus was treated as one who "had sinned" and He suffered the natural consequence of "sinning", which is Death

Good point, Bob. But I believe the Father treated Jesus as if He were a sinner AND sin itself.

Tom, it is amazing imagining the Father hating Jesus as if He were sin itself, but the sacrifice They made on our behalf was no charade. They weren't role playing on the cross. What the Father and the Son experienced on the cross was real.

Mike,

Could you provide further elaboration as to how "Jesus was sin" and that God treated Him as if "He was sin"?

I am having some difficulty in understanding how this is possible.

Bob, I don't pretend to understand it perfectly. All I know is what has been penned through the inspired authors of God. What the Father and Son went through to pay our sin debt and to make salvation available is beyond human comprehension. It's just as difficult to understand as how we can be "made the righteousness of God in Him." The whole equation is very mind boggling.

2MCP 808
If you look to yourself, you will see only weakness. There is no saviour there. You will find Jesus away from yourself. You must look to Him and live, look to Him who became sin for us that we might be cleansed from sin and receive of Christ's righteousness. {2MCP 808.1}

1SM 322
Hating sin with a perfect hatred, He yet gathered to His soul the sins of the whole world. Guiltless, He bore the punishment of the guilty. Innocent, yet offering Himself as a substitute for the transgressor. The guilt of every sin pressed its weight upon the divine soul of the world's Redeemer. The evil thoughts, the evil words, the evil deeds of every son and daughter of Adam, called for retribution upon Himself; for He had become man's substitute. Though the guilt of sin was not His, His spirit was torn and bruised by the transgressions of men, and He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. {1SM 321.4}

1SM 322
Voluntarily our divine Substitute bared His soul to the sword of justice, that we might not perish but have everlasting life. {1SM 322.1}

TMK 125
He took on Him our nature, and became sin for us, that we might have "remission of sins that are past" (Rom. 3:25), and through His divine strength and grace might fulfill the righteous requirements of the law. Whoever takes the position that it makes no difference whether or not we keep the commandments of God is not acquainted with Christ. Jesus says, "I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love" (John 15:10), and those who follow Jesus will do as He has done. . . . {TMK 125.3}

Mike,

The events that transpired at the cross and the degree of anguish/suffering that Christ/God endured may be more understandable than we may think.

During Christ's lifetime, He had enjoyed a very special "oneness" with His Father. It was a spiritual relationship that had progressed to the point that Jesus knew the mind of God and whatever He said or did was in accordance with the "will of God".

(This is our example. It is possible and of the utmost importance that we enter into such a relationship with God whereby God is "in us" as He was "in Christ".)

Jesus began to experience a separation from God at Gethsemane. From a Spiritual perspective, He could no longer sense God's presence. It was almost more than He could bear.

As time progressed leading up to His Death, Christ resigned himself to His ultimate fate. He realized that a total separation from God would end in Death. He accepted this, even though it generated extreme anguish within Him. (It would be reasonable to assume that God Himself was having to endure similar anguish as He withdrew Himself from His Only Begotten Son.)

The beatings, abuse and crucifixion that Christ endured, were of no consequence. They only served to demonstrate to the universe how evil sin really was and how it would affect mankind to the point that they would seek to destroy the innocent Son of God.

As Jesus hung on the cross He could no longer sense God's presence and He cried in anguish, "My God, My God! Why have you forsaken me?".

At the end, Jesus willingly gave up His Spirit(Breath of Life)...See Matt 27:50 & Luke 23:46. This "Breath of Life" that comes only from God, returned to God and Jesus died.

The Separation from God was complete.

It is this same separation that the Wicked will experience in the end.

Pretty simple isn't it.