The Father Withdrew His Spirit
From Christ
When suffering excruciating pain
upon the cross, Chris said in anguish:
My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? (John 15:34.)
Evidently the suffering endured by
the Christ had become so intense and its duration so long that the Christ
either “felt” that He was enduring without the Father’s Spirit or He was, in
actuality and fact, enduring without the Father’s Spirit. Scripturally, very
little is said on the subject. However, it may be concluded that in order for
Christ to “descend below all things” (D & C 88:6), He had to descend where
the Spirit of the Father wasn’t. In some way He had to feel the total agony of
every sin and transgression that was ever to be committed by mankind. So, it
only follows that for Him to become a “sacrifice for sin,” He had to experience
the withdrawal of the Spirit, the divine penalty for sins. He didn’t “descend”
because of His own sins, however. He ”descended below all things” as a
consequence of taking upon Himself the sins of the world. Brigham Young taught
that the intense suffering done by Christ was the result of the Father withdrawing
His Spirit. President Young said:
I ask, is there a reason for men
and women being exposed more constantly and more powerfully, to the power of
the enemy, by having visions than by not having them? There is and it is simply
this—God never bestows upon His people, or upon an individual, superior
blessings without a severe trial to prove them, to prove that individual, or
that people, to see whether they will keep their covenants with Him, and keep
in remembrance that He has shown them. Then the greater the vision, the greater
the display of the power of the enemy. And when such individuals are off their
guard they are left to themselves, as Jesus was. For this express purpose
the Father withdrew His Spirit from His Son, at the time He was to be crucified.
Jesus had been with His Father, talked with Him, dwelt in His bosom, and knew
all about heaven, about making the earth, about the transgression of man, and
what would redeem the people, and that He was the character who was to redeem
the sons of the earth, and the earth itself from all sin that had come upon it.
The light, knowledge, power, and glory with which He was clothed were far
above, or exceeded that of all others who had been upon the earth after the
fall, consequently at the very moment, at the hour when the crisis came from
Him to offer up His life, the Father withdrew Himself, withdrew His Spirit, and
cast a veil over Him. That is what made Him sweat blood. If He had had the
power of God upon Him, He would not have sweat blood; but all was withdrawn
from Him, and a veil was cast over Him, and He then plead with the father not
to forsake Him, “No,” says the Father, “you must have your trials as well as
others.” [Brigham Young in Journal of Discourses, 26 Vols. (London:
Latter-day Saints’ Book Depot, 1855-86), Vol. 3, pp. 205, 206.]
. . . Melvin J. Ballard also felt
that the Father withdrew Himself from the Son:
When He was in the Garden of
Gethsemane, asking His Father to let this cup pass if it were possible, He was
not referring so much t His crucifixion as He was to bearing upon His shoulders
the weight and the load of the sins of the world. As evidence that it was not
fear of the cross, I refer you to his behavior upon the cross. No one suffered
more keenly the anguish of the driving of the nails through His hands and feet
than Christ did, and yet He murmured not. Behold these men at His side, under
the same torture, writhing n anguish, cursing and swearing even at Him, but He
was silent. All that He said has been recorded, and it was but very little. Once
He said, “I thirst.” Once He called one of His disciples to Him and asked Him
to care for His mother. And those who had caused His death reviled Him, but He
said, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.” And then, in the last
moment, feeling His utter loneliness with all His friends gone, and God
Himself, apparently absent, withdrawing from that Son, with head bowed and
His heart broken, cried to His Father in heaven for release. [Byrant S.
Hinckley, Sermons and Missionary Service of Melvin Joseph Ballard (Salt
Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1949), p. 238.]
Although the suffering
accomplished by Christ is incomprehensible . . . we can know for assurity that
the said suffering did take place. The atonement is a reality. And the fact is
well established that it was even necessary for He who was perfect, even the
Lord Jesus Christ, to suffer most extensively. (Jack S. Bailey, Let Not Your
Heart Be Troubled: Answers to the Problems of Human Suffering [Bountiful, Utah:
Horizon Publishers and Distributors, 1976], 146-48, italics in original)
Further Reading
Was Jesus Abandoned by God on the Cross?
Does Jesus’ Cry on the Cross Support Penal Substitution?
