The Trinity doctrine sates that only the humanity of Christ died. Ellen White says that only the humanity of Christ died on the cross. So who and what paid the everlasting death penalty for the wages of sin?
If the life is in the blood, and the Holy Spirit is the life and soul of Christ, and the Holy Spirit (the life of Christ) is what Atoned for our sins, then it was divinity that had to Atone for sins and nothing else could have paid that price. Notice:
"Christ taking upon Himself humanity, and preserving the level of man for thirty years, and then making His soul an offering for sin, that man might not b left to perish, is a subject for the deepest thought and the most concentrated study...." E.G. White, Messages to Young People, p. 255.
"The Holy Spirit is the breath of spiritual life in the soul. The impartation of the Spirit is the impartation of the life of Christ. It imbues the receiver with the attributes of Christ. Only those who are thus taught of God, those who possess the inward working of the Spirit, and in whose life the Christ-life is manifested, are to stand as representative men, to minister in behalf of the church." Desire of Ages, 805.
"Christ declared that after his ascension, he would send to his church, as his crowning gift, the Comforter, who was to take his place. This Comforter is the Holy Spirit,--the soul of his life, the efficacy [cf. efficacious in quote below] of his church, the light and life of the world. With his Spirit Christ sends a reconciling influence and a power that takes away sin.
In the gift of the Spirit [HIS LIFE--THE SOUL OF HIS LIFE], Jesus gave to man the highest good that heaven could bestow....
The Spirit was given as a regenerating agency, and without this the sacrifice of Christ would have been of no avail....
It is by the Spirit that the heart is made pure. Through the Spirit the believer becomes a partaker of the divine nature. Christ has given his Spirit as a divine power to overcome all hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, and to impress his own character upon the church." E.G. White, Review and Herald Articles, May 19, 1904, vol. 5, p. 42.
Because Christ was one with the Father, equal with Him, He could make an atonement for transgression, and save man--not in his sins, but from his sins. Those who have despised His grace will see what they have lost by treating with contempt the One who humbled Himself to stand at the head of humanity. They hear the words of condemnation, 'Depart from Me. By your example you have caused many to err. You have lead them astray from the commandments in obedience to which they would have found eternal life.'" E.G. White, The Upward Look, 272.
If you agree with the Trinity doctrine, that only the humanity of Christ was necessary to make an Atonement for sin, consider the following statement:
"Jesus Christ 'counted it not a thing to be grasped to be equal with God.' Because DIVINITY ALONE COULD BE EFFICACIOUS IN THE RESTORATION OF MAN FROM THE POISONOUS BRUISE OF THE SERPENT, God Himself, in His only begotten Son, assumed human nature, and in the weakness of human nature sustained the character of God, vindicated His holy Law in every particular, and accepted the sentence of wrath and death for the sons of man. What a thought is this! He who was one with the Father before the world was made had such compassion for a world lost and ruined by transgression that He gave His life a ransom for it. He who was the brightness of the Father's glory, the express image of His person, bore our sins in His own body on the tree, suffering the penalty of man's transgression until justice was satisfied and required no more. How great is the redemption that has been worked out for us! So great that the Son of God died the cruel death of the cross to bring to us life and immortality through faith in Him." E.G. White, That I may Know Him, p. 35.
* Who accepted the sentence of wrath and death for the sons of man? God Himself, not His humanity.
* Who gave His life as a ransom for a lost world ruined by transgression of His law? He who was one with the Father, not the humanity of Christ--Who can say that the humanity of Christ was one with the Father?
* Who died the cruel death of the cross? The Son of God, not just the humanity of the Son of God. Since Divinity cannot die, what about Divinity did die for the Atonement for sin? Christ died to His pre-Incarnated existence of PURE DIVINITY ONLY, and that existence is described as His Holy Ghost, or His Holy Spirit, that He laid aside as a crowing, regenerating gift for us. He then was Incarnated into another form which included humanity FOREVER. When Christ yielded up (commended His Spirit) to the Father on the cross, just before His humanity died, that constituted the second and last (final eternal) death to that Spirit, as ALONE AND ONLY constituting the life of the Son. The first death to that Holy Spirit existence was when it was offered up at the Son's Incarnation. Proof that it was offered up then, is the fact that it descended upon Christ at His baptism in order to anoint Him for His earthly mission.
* DIVINITY ALONE COULD BE EFFICACIOUS IN THE RESTORATION OF MAN FROM THE POISONOUS BRUISE OF THE SERPENT.
Since the wages of sin is some form of eternal death, it was essential that Christ, THE ORIGINATOR OF THE LAW, should give us something FOREVER. What He gave up FOREVER was His purely divine life comprised of His Holy Spirit. By purely divine, I mean His pre-Incarnation life which was not combined with humanity as was the case after His Incarnation.
God bless you in the study of His Word,
Ron Beaulieu