“…what [Jesus] committed to his Father when he died was a real human spirit which left his body. But meanwhile his divine nature remained united with his human nature even when he was lying in the grave, and his deity never ceased to be in him….These are the reasons why we confess him to be true God and truly human - true God in order to conquer death by his power, and truly human that he might die for us in the weakness of his flesh.” [Article 19, Belgic Confession]

In the darkness of the ninth hour the curtain in the temple was torn in two as Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my [human] spirit.” Jesus then breathed his last and died. The tearing of the temple curtain signified that people again had direct access to the Spirit of God in repentance.

As Jesus was dying on the cross he was heard in the ninth hour to cry out in Aramaic, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” - which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The holy God cannot abide with sin, and the sin of all mankind through history that Jesus bore on the cross caused his Father to turn his back on his Son, withdrawing his Holy Spirit from Jesus’ human spirit. But the eternal plan of God was to be fulfilled by the physical and spiritual death of Jesus the Man carrying the sins of mankind. Jesus was a sinless propitiating sacrificial lamb for the redemption of Man from sin.

Jesus manifested the Mind and will of God the Father through his spiritual intimacy with the indwelling Holy Spirit expressed through his life and teachings, testifying to the consubstantiality between the Father and the Son, the God-Man, sent by God for a purpose.

Jesus taught Nicodemus, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”

Jesus was begotten by the Father as the Son and not created as humanity has been. The Nicene Creed makes this clear:

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.

The life of the Spirit in Jesus fulfilled the Law and pointed to the salvation offered in Christ in the days to come. Jesus made this promise to the disciples, “If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever - the Spirit of Truth. You know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him

Likewise, human beings were given spirit at their creation beginning with the first Adam enabling an intimate, direct, personal interaction with the Holy Spirit. However, the spiritual communion was lost at the Fall by Adam’s choice to live to Self and to be like God, knowing good and evil and facing an eternal spiritual death. It is a Fall that has been shared by all of mankind through history. But God’s redemptive purpose for Man in the incarnation was fulfilled by the life, substitutionary death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Jesus came to pay a debt He did not owe because we owed a debt we could not pay. (Greg Laurie)

The Holy Spirit of the Father descended to indwell the human spirit of Jesus Christ at his baptism by John the Baptist. Thus was established a personal, intimate communion between God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. As it is cited in John 10:30 Jesus said to his disciples shortly before his arrest, “I and the Father are one.”

The mind of Man was created in the image of the Mind of God with whom an eternal, intimate, personal communion was made possible. But communion was lost by the sin of Adam, and mankind faced eternal spiritual death, eternally devoid of communion with the Holy Spirit. It was by the love and grace of God the Father that mankind has been offered redemption with restoration of communion by the atoning sin sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It was by God’s incarnation in Jesus Christ that mankind has been offered rescue and eternal salvation.