Could Jesus Predict His Resurrection?
How Could Jesus Predict His Resurrection And Not See Through The Portal Of The Tomb?
While on Earth and prior to His death, Jesus knew that He had come to Earth to die “as the Lamb of God.” Jesus also knew that the Father had promised, before He came to Earth (Psalm 2), that if He was successful in carrying out the will of the Father, the Father would raise Him from the dead and make the Earth His inheritance. Mark 8, John 17, Hebrews 1.
During His ministry, Jesus audibly heard the Father’s approval three times [at His baptism, in the temple and during the Transfiguration], and before reaching the cross Jesus was confident His Father would keep His promise to raise Him from the dead. His faith in the Father was secure in the Garden of Gethsemane.
But while hanging on the cross, the Father did something which Jesus had not anticipated. The Father broke the connection between Himself and Jesus. Lights out, so to speak. This action shocked Jesus to His core, and suddenly, “all hope and confidence” of being resurrected was gone. Jesus was inexpressibly crushed with the guilt of sin for the first time ever. (2 Corinthians 5:21) He had never known guilt before and the Father imposed darkness and guilt on Jesus so that Jesus could experience what all sinners will experience at the Second Death.
This action by the Father separated Jesus from the Father and it scared Jesus deeply. Suddenly, at a time when He needed the Father’s presence and approval most, He was filled with darkness and hopeless despair.
Thus, Jesus cried out,
“My Father, My Father, WHY have You forsaken Me?”
Meaning, “This wasn’t part of the plan!!!!”
This seems so cruel. Why did the Father do this to Jesus?
The Father wanted to demonstrate the faith of Jesus. By doing this, the Father would prove two things for all eternity:
- Jesus loved sinners enough to die for them, even when Jesus was 100% sure He would have no recovery or resurrection.
- Jesus would not, during His last and most difficult moments of life, yield to an overwhelming temptation to use His own divinity to escape eternal death [the Second Death].
Jesus was tested with the greatest temptation of His life during the last minutes of His life.
In Summary:
When Jesus was unexpectedly disconnected from the Father, He lost the confidence that He would come out of the tomb. After entering the despair of the second death and crying out to His Father, “Why? Why?” even then, Jesus refused to use His divine powers to save Himself. Instead, He chose to say a few minutes later, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” and died.
What do we have for our consideration? Raw faith!
The “faith of Jesus” is a faith that cannot be crushed by despair or inspired with music and praise. The faith of Jesus is not emotionally based. The faith of Jesus is choice based.
It is called Salvific Faith.
“. . . .However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8
The willingness of Jesus to forever cease to exist to save one sinner is a resounding lesson of what faith is, and what faith is not.
Overwhelming, isn’t it.
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