In the following discourse, I will give you more than one simple, easy to understand example that the Holy Spirit, as it constituted the original life and soul of Christ, was given up as a sacrificial gift to achieve the following purposes:
- To Atone for Sin.
- To Satisfy the Demands of the Everlasting Covenant.
- To Satisfy the penalty of the Wages of Sin, which is eternal death, not three days of death in a tomb.
- To prove to Satan and his hosts that the Father and the Son are the embodiment of love, self-sacrificing love, and are subject to their own laws, rules and regulations.
Examples Demonstrating That the Holy Spirit Was the Original Life of Christ Laid Aside Forever
1. Scripture says that the Testator must die. Who was the Testator? Was it the pure Divinity of the Son of God at the foundation of the world, or was it the combined form of Divinity as the Son was combined with humanity AFTER HIS INCARNATION?
Hbr 9:16 For where a testament [is], there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.
Again, who precisely was the Testator? Was it the Son before His Incarnation, or Jesus after the Incarnation? It was the Son of God BEFORE His Incarnation.
Hbr 9:17 For a testament [is] of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.
From Hebrews 9:17 (above) we can easily deduce that the Testator had to die. That means that the Son, before He was Incarnated, must die, because it was the non-incarnated Son of God who was the Testator. This is easy for any ten-year old child to deduce. Without the death of the Testator, in some form of eternal sacrifice, there would be no Atonement; there would be no fulfillment of the Sanctuary Service Type, which typified a specified sacrifice. The Testator Everlasting Covenant specifies the specific sacrifice that must be made--namely the death of the Testator. Jesus, in His Incarnated, combination with humanity, was not the Testator. The Testator was the Son before His Incarnation. That Testator was PURE DIVINITY. Jesus was NOT ONLY PURE DIVINITY. He was combined with FULL HUMANITY. Any sacrifice of that FULL HUMANITY on the cross would be of no avail without some eternal sacrifice involving the PURE DIVINITY OF THE TESTATOR. Why? Because the wages of sin is death, eternal death, and only the Testator of the Everlasting Covenant could make that sacrificial payment. The Son paid that eternal death requirement by dying eternally to His first state of existence, His first life of PURE DIVINITY, and encumbering Himself with another life form, that of humanity--FOREVER.
2. Ellen White is true to the precise specifications laid down in the Everlasting Testator Covenant, when she says that Christ laid aside His soul (life) as a crowing gift to us and became encumbered with humanity forever:
"In the twelfth chapter of Romans we read, 'I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your REASONABLE SERVICE. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.' Much is comprehended in this. Here the apostle beseeches us to reach the high standard that it is possible to attain. Christ made it possible when He LAID ASIDE His royal robes, His royal crown, stepped down from His royal throne, clothed His divinity with humanity that humanity might touch humanity. He could not with His glory and majesty take His position among men. The glory must be LAID ASIDE. He must take the rude garments of humanity that He might be afflicted with all the afflictions of humanity, that He might understand their temptations. He would become a faithful judge of how much they had to contend with in the conflict with satanic agencies. Through this experience Christ was enabled to give power to His people, for to 'as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.' See where our power is. It is not in ourselves." E.G. White, Review and Herald, 01-07-02, pr. 2.
"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 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.
"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.
Thus we may in a very easy to understand presentation, discern that the Holy Spirit is not a third person that existed with, and separate from, the life of Christ prior to His Incarnation. The Holy Spirit was rather that very life of Christ before His Incarnation, and He laid aside that life as a gift to us. The Everlasting Testator Covenant demanded some form of death of that life, and Christ died to that PURELY DIVINE existence forever, and took upon Himself the form of an existence of Divinity combined with limiting humanity FOREVER.
“Cumbered with humanity Christ could not be in every place personally, therefore it was altogether for their advantage that He should leave them to go to His Father and send the Holy Spirit to be His successor on earth. The Holy Spirit is Himself divested of the personality of humanity and independent thereof. He would represent Himself as present in all places by His Holy Spirit.” E.G. White, (Manuscript Releases Volume 14 (No’s 1081-1135) MR No.1084.
The Holy Spirit became His successor on earth FOREVER. How do we know this? Because in John 14:16-18, He promises to send ANOTHER Comforter. That "other" Comforter is the Holy Spirit. Yet, in verse 18, right in context, He admits that it is the former life of Himself, because He says "I will come to you."
All of the above facts, combined with the facts demand that the death of the Testator of the Covenant must ITSELF pay the penalty of sin which was eternal death, not three days in a tomb. All we need to do is identify the Testator.
The trinity doctrine asserts that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit were all one person--God, and that three persons are God. Three persons were not crucified on the cross. The Father did not give up PURE DIVINITY FOREVER. The Son, Christ did. The Holy Spirit did not five up divinity forever. Christ did. The Son did not retain a PURELY DIVINE STATE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT FOREVER. The Holy Spirit did, by being laid aside by the Son. This, in effect, constituted an everlasting death to that purely divine state of existence, as far as Jesus is concerned. The trinity doctrine denies that the Son of God laid aside that PURELY DIVINE existence forever as an eternal sacrifice for the wages of sin which is eternal death. The trinity doctrine teaches that all three of the heavenly trio are in place as before the Incarnation. No sacrifice there friend--No eternal sacrifice as payment for the wages of sin. Thus, the Sanctuary is gone, the Atonement is gone because there has been no eternal sacrifice in payment for the wages of sin, which was eternal death.
Dear Reader, show me one evidence of eternal sacrifice for the wages of sin in the trinity doctrine. Three days in the tomb is not eternity.
I believe Ellen White says that a sacrifice of BOTH the first and second death of Christ were required and that one without the other would have been of no avail:
"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 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.
As I told Tom, the Holy Spirit is regarded as a distinct other person by the trinity doctrine, thus it was not the life of Christ given as a sacrifice to the PURELY DIVINE TESTATOR, which is precisely what the TESTATOR was when He made the Testament between Himself and the Father at the foundation of the world. The death on the cross ALONE was not efficacious without the Holy Spirit life of Christ, which was laid aside as a crowning gift to us at His Incarnation. Proof that it was laid aside is that it descended upon Him at His baptism. He then commended it again to the Father just before His death on the cross.
If Ellen White says that the Holy Spirit is the life and soul of Christ, then should we make it another third person distinct from Christ?
Ron Beaulieu