#810 Christ’s Death and the Trinity
November 20, 2022Hi Bill,
I just watched the debate between you and Greg Boyd on penal substitution. I have questions that didn't seem to come up in the debate.
If God declares Jesus guilty it seems to me that this splits the trinity (Jesus guilty, Father not). Even if the Father is not inflicting his wrath on Jesus, he is declaring the Son guilty. Doesn't this violate the verse that says that "God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself?"
Another problem concerns Jesus experiencing our punishment, which is death. If we define death as permanent separation from God, this didn't happen. Jesus is now alive at the right hand of the Father, not separated. His separation would then have been temporary. So how does this fit with him experiencing the punishment that would have been ours?
How do you respond to these concerns?
Dan
United States
Dr. craig’s response
A
I received two questions on this subject this week, Dan. The other was from Amando in Indonesia who asked, “how is it possible for Jesus to suffer separation from God if He is one with the Father?”
The key to answering this question, I believe, lies in the doctrine of the two natures of Christ. The second person of the Trinity, as a result of his incarnation, came to have two complete natures, one human and one divine. Jesus’ becoming our sinbearer and taking our punishment upon himself does not “split the Trinity” because Jesus bore our sin and guilt in his human nature. That’s why it says in I Timothy 2.5-6, “there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all.”
As for the second problem, the punishment for sin is indeed separation from God. I believe that the man Christ Jesus did experience that for us. He went through hell for us. While Christ’s punishment was not infinite as to duration, still in its intensity it was equivalent to the eternal suffering of the damned in hell on account of the infinite dignity of the person suffering. Intensity can more than make up for limited duration. Indeed, since the future is potentially infinite only, at no point will the damned in hell ever have experienced more than finite suffering. Jesus took all of their suffering compressed into a few, short hours.
- William Lane Craig