WHAT REALLY KILLED JESUS

One can only imagine the excruciating physical pain involved in hanging from a cross. It is torture beyond what our human imagination wishes to explore. A death from hanging on a cross was a slow, horror-filled agony. But in the case of Jesus the Biblical evidence seems to point that it was not physical pain that caused His death. What exactly was it that killed Jesus then? In order to answer this question there are a number of building blocks that must first be in place in our edifice of understanding.

For instance, we must understand that the pain Jesus experienced on the cross only makes sense if we view from within the context of the great controversy - the war between God and Satan. Secondly, we must understand what the issues involved in this war are - Satan attacked God's government and claimed that His law was faulty. The focus of his attack was God's moral law of love, the law of agape love: unconditional, impartial, self-sacrificing, other-centered, un-accusatory and un-condemning love. The grace contained in God's law clears us of all guilt. Lucifer had a contention with this law and claimed that the universe could not be set in order by love and love alone.

We must also realize that the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil" represents Satan's alternative moral law: the law of sin and death. What is this law? It is the law of "good and evil," the law of reward and punishment. This law is the opposite of God's law: it is conditional, partial, self-agrandizing, self-centered, accusatory, condemning, and fills us with guilt. God's law is the law of liberty (James 1:25), and Satan's law is slavery (Romans 6:17). God's law is filled with grace, Satan's law is exacting and unforgiving. God's moral law offers goodness and mercy to the good and evil alike (Matthew 5:45) while Satan's moral law does "good to the good and evil to the evil," as Carl Jung said when speaking about Mercurius, the alchemical "spirit," who is none else but Satan. This retributive system where we receive what is due to us according to our merits or demerits is Satan's idea of justice, the type of justice that we are so used to because that is all we know. God's justice is entirely different; it is right doing, that is, it is doing good to all, and especially to those that we normally don't think deserve to be treated well. This is what Jesus taught when He said:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brethren[i] only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so?48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." Matthew 5:43:-47.

God's moral law was lived out and revealed in all of human history by one single being only: Jesus Christ. Jesus never stepped outside of God's law of love. Satan's moral law of good and evil became the human default since Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Since that event in the Garden Satan's moral law of good and evil has become the universal moral law of this earth. The moral law of good and evil is typical to all the gods humanity has ever worshipped, who in essence are simply manifestations of Satan and his law.

With this background we can then begin to understand the mental agony Jesus experienced on the cross. The Bible is clear that on the cross Jesus was suffering the "wrath of God." Here we must erect another building block: what is the wrath of God? The Bible defines the wrath of God over and over as God letting go, "giving up" those who reject Him and His law of mercy and love (Romans 1:18-28). Why does God let go or give up on anyone? Because God respects our freedom to the uttmost - if we choose to abide by the moral law of God's adversary, Satan, God will honor our choice. Therefore God hands us over to Satan who then treats us according to his law of reward and punishment.

WATCH "WHAT IS THE WRATH OF GOD?" - THE MOVIE

Jesus willingly subjected Himself to suffer under Satan's law of good and evil for our sakes. For our sakes He became a sacrifice so that we could understand that what we need most is God's mercy and grace. At the cross Jesus subjected Himself to suffer the consequences of Satan's law of good and evil. Under Satan's law He suffered guilt, condemnation and the ultimate result of of that law: a sense of total separation from the God of love and mercy. Not that God had separated Himself from Jesus - no; God had not separated Himself from Jesus just as He has never separated Himself from us. But to Jesus' mind, at the moment of having been "given up," He felt God had left Him. Jesus was let go, given up into Satan's system of good and evil, the realm of guilt and condemnation. It was this that literally broke the heart of Jesus and caused Him to exclaim just before He died: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Read the following quotes from Ellen White with the above in mind:

Jesus had been earnestly conversing with His disciples and instructing them; but as He neared Gethsemane, He became strangely silent. He had often visited this spot for meditation and prayer; but never with a heart so full of sorrow as upon this night of His last agony. Throughout His life on earth He had walked in the light of God’s presence.... But now He seemed to be shut out from the light of God’s sustaining presence. Now He was numbered with the transgressors. The guilt of fallen humanity He must bear. Upon Him who knew no sin must be laid the iniquity of us all.... – {CSA 32.2} (Emphasis added)

The sins of men weighed heavily upon Christ, and the sense of God’s wrath against sin was crushing out His life.... In His agony He clings to the cold ground, as if to prevent Himself from being drawn farther from God.... From His pale lips comes the bitter cry, “O My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me.” Yet even now He adds, “Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.” – {CSA 32.7}v

Turning away, Jesus sought again His retreat, and fell prostrate, overcome by the horror of a great darkness. The humanity of the Son of God trembled in that trying hour. He prayed not now for His disciples that their faith might not fail, but for His own tempted, agonized soul. The awful moment had come—that moment which was to decide the destiny of the world. The fate of humanity trembled in the balance. Christ might even now refuse to drink the cup apportioned to guilty man. It was not yet too late. He might wipe the bloody sweat from His brow, and leave man to perish in his iniquity. He might say, Let the transgressor receive the penalty of his sin, and I will go back to My Father. Will the Son of God drink the bitter cup of humiliation and agony? Will the innocent suffer the consequences of the curse of sin, to save the guilty? The words fall tremblingly from the pale lips of Jesus, “O My Father, if this cup may not pass away from Me, except I drink it, Thy will be done.” – {CSA 33.5} (Emphasis added)

Upon Christ as our substitute and surety was laid the iniquity of us all. He was counted a transgressor, that He might redeem us from the condemnation of the law. The guilt of every descendant of Adam was pressing upon His heart. The wrath of God against sin, the terrible manifestation of His displeasure because of iniquity, filled the soul of His Son with consternation. All His life Christ had been publishing to a fallen world the good news of the Father’s mercy and pardoning love. Salvation for the chief of sinners was His theme. But now with the terrible weight of guilt He bears, He cannot see the Father’s reconciling face. The withdrawal of the divine countenance from the Saviour in this hour of supreme anguish pierced His heart with a sorrow that can never be fully understood by man. So great was this agony that His physical pain was hardly felt.... – {CSA 39.1} (Emphasis added)

He feared that sin was so offensive to God that Their separation was to be eternal. Christ felt the anguish which the sinner will feel when mercy shall no longer plead for the guilty race. It was the sense of sin, bringing the Father’s wrath upon Him as man’s substitute, that made the cup He drank so bitter, and broke the heart of the Son of God.... – {CSA 39.2} (Emphasis added)

I saw that all heaven is interested in our salvation; and shall we be indifferent? Shall we be careless, as though it were a small matter whether we are saved or lost? Shall we slight the sacrifice that has been made for us? Some have done this. They have trifled with offered mercy, and the frown of God is upon them. God’s Spirit will not always be grieved. It will depart if grieved a little longer. After all has been done that God could do to save men, if they show by their lives that they slight Jesus’ offered mercy, death will be their portion, and it will be dearly purchased. It will be a dreadful death; for they will have to feel the agony that Christ felt upon the cross to purchase for them the redemption which they have refused. And they will then realize what they have lost—eternal life and the immortal inheritance. The great sacrifice that has been made to save souls shows us their worth. When the precious soul is once lost, it is lost forever. – {CCh 41.3}

Ultimately the battle is between mercy and love on one side and condemnation and guilt on the other. For those that are rejecting mercy the apostle Paul says: "But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God," Romans 2:5. The day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God is that day when God will let go and give us up to our choice to reject His mercy. Paul says again in Romans 5:9: "Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him." In Romans 8:1 he says: "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, [THE MORAL LAW OF GOOD AND EVIL] but according to the Spirit [GOD'S MORAL LAW OF LOVE]."

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