DID JESUS DIE SPIRITUALLY ?
Exposing the JDS Heresy
POINT 2
IDENTIFICATION, OR SUBSTITUTION ON THE CROSS?
The JDS teachers contend erroneously that Jesus had to become "sin" on the cross in order to identify with sinners at all points. Only in this way could He redeem them.
This inaccurate conclusion also stems from a lack of understanding concerning the meaning of the Old Testament sacrifices. The second lesson God was teaching Israel (and the Church) through the sin-offering, as well as all the sacrifices, was the Doctrine of Substitution -- not identification. The distinction is very important.
Aside from the obvious fact that God's Word shows that no sinner could redeem another sinner (seen in the Old Testament requirement for the animal substitute to be without spot, as well as the New Testament stress upon the holy, spotless nature of Jesus and His sacrifice, Hebrews 9:14), the Scriptures do not teach identification with sinners on the cross, but substitution. No acceptable substitute could possibly identify with the sinful, guilty individual he was to redeem.
Jesus identified with mankind in His birth when the Son of God took upon Himself human nature; but in His sacrificial death He became the sinner's substitute.
If He had identified with sinners on the cross by becoming sin and a lost man Himself Who had to be born again, then He would have been disqualified as the sinner's substitute.
The Scriptures clearly teach that He identified with humanity at His birth, not in His death. This is seen, for example, in Hebrews 2:14-18. Verse 14 reads:
Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same...
This passage shows that the Son of God took upon Himself human nature for two reasons: (1) so that through His endurance of temptations He could succour us in our temptations; and (2) so that He could offer His body as a sacrifice in order to reconcile man to God.
The Scriptures just as clearly teach that His death signifies substitution FOR sinners, not identification WITH sinners.
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).
It was substitution, not identification at Calvary, "...the just for the unjust..." (I Peter 3:18). While we were sinners, Christ, the sinless One, died for us. Nothing could be clearer. A sinner on the cross would be dying for his own sins; thus, Jesus became a sin-offering, not sin, in order to fulfill the Old Testament type.
If Jesus actually became "sin" with our sinfulness on the cross He would have been dying for Himself. This is such an obvious fact that one JDS teacher was compelled to admit this conclusion. This individual said:
Jesus did not merely die for us, He died for himself. He died twice--once for himself when he became sin, and once for us.
Of course, this teacher did not see the glaring contradiction in this statement. Anyone who had to die for himself because he had become sin would thereby be disqualified to be a substitute for other sinners. But then, the whole JDS Doctrine is a contradiction to the biblical Doctrine of Christ and His substitutionary Atonement. Identification with sinners? What saith the Scripture? God's Word declares that Jesus was
...holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners (Hebrews 7:26).
Thus, the JDS teachers erroneously misuse the terms "substitution" and "identification." They teach that when Jesus became "sin" He identified with sinners; then, as unregenerate and sinful in nature, He suffered God's punishment in Hell as a substitute sinner. That is, contrary to the biblical requirement that the substitute be (and remain) holy, the JDS Doctrine teaches that Jesus substituted Himself as the unregenerate, guilty person, Who took into His spirit all the sin and evil of the human race, and was punished in place of the sinner.
On the contrary, the Scriptures show that Jesus, as the Old Testament type also indicated, did not become "sin," but was a holy sin-offering. He did not identify with sinners, but was a sinless substitute for them on the cross. Jesus was not a SUBSTITUTE SINNER, but the SINNER'S SUBSTITUTE on the cross.
The JDS teachers contend, on the basis of Numbers 21, which presents the account of the lifting up of the brazen serpent for the healing of those bitten by the fiery serpents, that Jesus was also lifted up as a "serpent" when He was made "sin" on the cross and took on the evil nature of Satan. Quoting John 3:14, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up," they contend that Jesus became one with the serpent, Satan, and died spiritually.
The account in Numbers 21, however, does not support this fantasy. God sent fiery serpents as punishment against the rebellious Israelites. As a result of the intercession of Moses, God directed him to make a figure of a serpent, in brass, to be elevated on a pole so that it could be seen from all quarters in the camp. All who looked in faith in its direction were healed. The brazen serpent did not produce healing; it was merely an emblem. it spoke of their sin and the nature of divine judgment sent to punish it. Their faith in God's promise to heal brought deliverance when they obeyed this requirement. Without question, merely to look upon an inanimate object, the serpent of brass, would not have produced healing for an individual unless faith was also present.
By analogy, if Jesus became a "serpent" in nature as the JDS error teaches, then healing was provided by Satan, the Serpent, in Numbers 21, and not God, since healing came as they looked to the serpent on the pole! Clearly, then, Jesus had reference to the manner of His death in John 3:14--He was to be "lifted up" on the cross; he was not referring to a change in His nature, from holy to unholy and sinful.
Note: JDS teachers sometimes cite Ephesians 2:5, "Even when we were dead in sins [God] hath quickened us together with Christ" as meaning that Christ, as we, also being dead in "sin" had to made alive! However, verse 6 indicates clearly that the Apostle speaks here of the resurrection.
This fact is clearly stated in the same Gospel of John and proves that the phrase "lifted up" has reference to the manner of His death, not to a change in nature, from sinless to serpent. He was signifying that He was to be "lifted up" on a cross.
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die (John 12:32-33).
The reader should not be deluded by the use of biblical terminology at times by the JDS teachers, such as the use of terms like "substitution," "blood atonement," "identification," "justification," "firstborn," "Abrahamic covenant," and so on. This caution is necessary because the JDS ministers most definitely do not use these terms and concepts according to their biblical meaning and usage many times. For example, they destroy, by their erroneous interpretations, the validity of these terms and concepts in their scriptural sense when they teach that Jesus was sinful "substitute"; or that Jesus' death fulfilled the "Abrahamic Covenant," when in actual fact it was the fulfillment of the Mosaic covenant of the Law as will be shown. By teaching that Jesus was a sinful substitute, Who identified with sinners on the cross, the biblical meaning of the term "substitute" is perverted; and by making Jesus evil in nature Who needed to be born again Himself, they have robbed His blood of its purity and atoning power.
WHAT CONSTITUTES BEING A SINNER?
To answer this question will indicate why Jesus was not identified with sinners, becoming one in nature with them, on the cross. What constitutes being a sinner?
(1) He is sinful by nature.
All men are said to
be "...by nature the children of wrath..." (Ephesians 2:3;
cf. Romans 3:9-23; 5:12f.).
However, Jesus, in His human nature, was holy. His birth did not come through Joseph, but was supernaturally wrought by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:33-35).
(2) He
is sinful in his actions, thoughts, and speech.
According to the
Scriptures men sin in thought, word, and in deeds (Genesis 6:5; Psalm
14; Romans 1-3).
However, Jesus lived without the commission of any act of sin (Hebrews 4:15).
Jesus, therefore, lacks the "qualifications" to act as the sacrifice for the JDS teachers; they will have to look elsewhere than to the sinless Son of God! Their "substitute" is precisely that -- a substitute -- who is not the Jesus of the Bible.
Confronted with this fact, some JDS ministers have begun to say, "Well, Jesus did not personally sin; he was made to be sin by God. He took upon himself the sinfulness of the human race and became evil in nature with Satan's nature."
This is impossible inasmuch as sin is a personal act of disobedience to the will of God. Jesus never once disobeyed His Father, and most certainly not on the cross, for here He was in God's perfect will (John 3:16), and in nature, He was sinless.
And yet, it is here -- on the cross -- that the JDS teachers make Him to be sin and unregenerate. Moreover, they actually charge the heavenly Father with the act of making His Son to be "sin." However, if God, according to His own Word, cannot tempt any man to sin (James 1:13), then how could He conceivably be charged with making His sinless Son to become actual sin?
Sin is moral in nature. Jesus could not have become immoral or unregenerate merely by a divine fiat; it would require Him to commit an act of sin personally by His own choice. One cannot arbitrarily make someone else a sinner or cause him to become sin, ipso facto, that is, simply by declaring it to be so, as the JDS supporters attempt to do with regard to Jesus on the cross.
Sin is not something tangible like a coat of black paint with which God painted His Son; nor is it like an inoculation of germs which some scientist could inject into the bloodstream as the Nazis did to some of their victims during the last World War. Sin is an act, whether in deed, word, or thought, which one must personally commit. This rules out all possibility that Jesus could be made "sin." He was a holy "sin-offering" unto God just as the Old Testament type depicted.
Furthermore, if, as the JDS teachers contend, Jesus were required to become "sin" so that He could identify with the fallen human race at all points, then He failed to accomplish such a complete identification. Why? Because He would have had to submit to temptations and to commit some sin during His lifetime just as all men do -- if He were required to identify with men at all points. But the Scriptures are emphatically clear on this matter -- Jesus Christ was without sin (John 8:46; Hebrews 4:14-15). The JDS teachers completely ignore this fact.
In addition, it would have been necessary for Jesus to have identified with sinful humanity at His birth also. He would, like all men, have had to be born with a sinful, fallen nature; that is, if identification at all points is required in order to make Him a "substitute sinner," instead of a sin-offering for sinners.
However, as Hebrews chapter 2 teaches, it was only required, in order to redeem man, that Jesus clothe Himself with human nature (not sinful nature) so that as man He could experience death by offering His body as a sacrifice to God. His birth was supernatural; it was a virgin birth wrought by the holy Spirit. Thus, He did not partake of man's sinful fallen nature, although He did clothe Himself with human nature. It will be shown later in this study that God's Word teaches that Jesus died only physically as a "sin-offering," not spiritually as sin.