Christ’s PVTD caused Him to substitute the misery of the cross in the place of His own happiness ; John 15:10.

Title: Christ’s PVTD caused Him to substitute the misery of the cross in the place of His own happiness ; John 15:10.

 

John 15:9 "Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love.

 

How do I continue to abide in His love?

 

John 15:10"If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love.

 

 “keep” - tereo[tereo - aorist active subjunctive] = to guard something that belongs to you as precious. “commandments” = Bible doctrine has been graciously given to every believer.

 

 “commandments” - evntolh,[entole - accusative feminine plural noun] = an order, a command, a charge, an injunction. The feminine means that commands respond to your use of them.

 

Every doctrine has its own set of finite sentences. Sentences are inspired by God, verse numbers are not. When we study a doctrine a number of sentences from Scripture are used in context to convey the absolute truth of that doctrine. In every sentence there is a word of action, or what we call a verb. The verbs associated with any doctrine can take on one of six moods.

 

 

There are six moods of Greek verbs: indicative, subjunctive, imperative, participle, infinitive, and optative (very rarely used in the NT).

 

Every doctrine is full of these and within them are the imperatives which are the commands, of which there are over 400 in the NT.

 

The commands alone would be somewhat meaningless to us without the supporting material of the other verbs, and this would most likely lead to legalism.

 

If I pulled out all the commands of the NT and read them you would probably go home condemned and ready to quit.

 

For example: Take the doctrine of rebound. We have the fact that we are sinners all [indicative]. We have the fact that God doesn’t look upon sin as a result of Christ’s victory on the cross [indicative]. We have the fact that we have an Advocate at the right hand of God [indicative]. We are told that if we confess our sins that He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness [subjunctive]. We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses [indicative]. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus [indicative]. For the wishing is present within me but the doing of the good is not [infinitive]. Not one command have I mentioned, but all support the basic commands of this doctrine: Be filled with the Spirit, do not quench the Spirit and do not grieve the Spirit.

 

So when the Lord says to guard His commands He is also charging you to guard all the supporting verbs that make the command understandable, purposed, and desired. This is quite contrary to me teaching the imperative only. If I say that the Lord commands you to be filled with the Spirit, but teach you nothing else concerning the doctrine of sin, total depravity, unlimited atonement, retroactive and currents positional truth etc., then the command becomes a burden rather than a command or injunction from headquarters designed to set you free.

 

All the other verbs and their sentences are the supporting cast to the imperatives, so by guarding imperatives we guard them all. Without the supporting cast the imperative seems tyrannical rather than a divine remedy for slavery.

 

The example given by our Lord is His own mental attitude work to protect His own doctrine, and so we must explore His protection of doctrine as revealed in the Scripture.

 

Mystery doctrine was given to our Lord as a gift from the agape love of the Father and the Lord guarded that doctrine as something that belonged to Him that was precious.

 

He even guarded it from His own deity as deity would have assumed the same position as the Father rather than a position subordinate to the Father.

 

“Are you able to drink the cup that I’m about to drink?”

 

Luke 22:41 And He withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and began to pray,

 

Luke 22:42 saying, "Father, if Thou art willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Thine be done." 

 

Luke 22:43 Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him.

 

Luke 22:44 And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.

 

We are not asked to pay for the sins of the world, but we are asked to submit to the will of the Father by guarding His commands, which refers to all categories of doctrine, just as He did with total submission and humility. We are not asked to drink His cup. That cup was for Him alone. We are asked to be willing. We are asked to have a yieldedness to drinking the cup that the Father has designed for each of us.

 

HEB 12:1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance [rebound and PVTD], and the sin [OSN] which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance [PVTD in all circumstances of prosperity and adversity] the race [marathon and not a sprint] that is set before us

 

HEB 12:2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author [archegos - hero, originator, captain, Prince-Ruler] and perfecter of faith [fulfiller of doctrine], who for the joy set before Him [fulfilling the Father’s plan and bringing many sons to glory] endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

 

 “having occupation with Christ, the Prince-Ruler and fulfiller of doctrine, who…”

 

 “for” - avnti,[anti] = instead of, in the place of.

“set before” - pro,keimai[prokeimai] = present

“Him” - auvto,j[autos] = His

“joy” - cara,[chara] = the perfect happiness of Christ

 

So it must be translated:

 

 “who instead of His present happiness” - In His deity He had perfect happiness and in His humanity He had completed happiness from doctrine. The cross will take the place of both for three earthly hours.

 

He will be separated from His own deity as well as from the Father.

 

The misery of the cross was substituted for the happiness that Christ always experienced.

 

In the envelope of this misery He endured the cross, but what gave Him the power to endure such misery? 

 

 “endured” - u`pome,no[hupomeno] = to stay under, to endure, to bare. PVTD gave our Lord the ability to endure the three hours of substitutionary spiritual death misery on the cross.

 

This word “endure” in this passage always has the same technical connotation. It means Bible doctrine in the soul meeting every exigency, every problem, every heartache, every adversity, and every blessing. That same Bible doctrine is the capacity for blessing as it is the ability to endure adversity.

 

And He didn’t despise or hate the shame, rather He laid it aside.

 

 “despising [kataphroneo = to think down upon, to disregard, to look at with contempt] the shame” - disregarding the disgrace.

 

Romans would crucify criminals naked. Christ was beaten physically more than any man in history and as such He is displayed publically naked. Kataphroneo tells us that His attitude was, “So what that I am disgraced, the strategic victory in the AC is far more important.”

 

ISA 52:14 Just as many were astonished at you, My people,[“My people is not in the original - translators are not expositors]

So His appearance was marred more than any man,

And His form more than the sons of men.

ISA 53:1 Who has believed our message?

And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

 

ISA 53:2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,

And like a root out of parched ground;

He has no stately form or majesty

That we should look upon Him,

Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.

 

ISA 53:3 He was despised and forsaken of men,

A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;

And like one from whom men hide their face,

He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

 

ISA 53:4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore,

And our sorrows He carried;

Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,

Smitten of God, and afflicted.

 

ISA 53:5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions,

He was crushed for our iniquities;

The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,

And by His scourging we are healed.

 

ISA 53:6 All of us like sheep have gone astray,

Each of us has turned to his own way;

But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all

To fall on Him.

Go back to Hebrews 12.

 

It doesn’t say that He hated the shame or disgrace of the cross. It says that He disregarded it. The shame was not as important to Him as the victory and so He endured a time when misery was a substitute for His perfect happiness.

 

Doctrine gave Christ the capacity to endure the misery. Doctrine gave Christ the capacity for agape love, which motivated Him to lay down His lifehappiness as a substitute for you.

 

The Lord maintained His perfect happiness right up to the cross and through the first three hours of the cross, from 9am to noon. From noon to 3pm, for the first time in all of time and eternity, and for the only time, His happiness was lost and for it, as a substitute, misery replaced it. He was alone, separated from God and separated from His own deity, and being judged for disgraceful things He did not do.

 

And all of it was accomplished by means of doctrine and the plan of the Father. Imagine the power that is contained in God’s system!

 

Corrected translation: HEB 12:2

 “having occupation with Christ, the Prince-Ruler and fulfiller of doctrine, who instead of His present happiness endured the cross, disregarding the disgrace, and [as a direct result] has sat down [perfect - and will always have this position of authority] at the right hand of the throne of God.

 

The key word in this verse is “anti” which is poorly translated as “for.”

 

 “for” - avnti,[anti] = instead of, in the place of.

 

Hold your place and go back to Matt 20 and see if you remember this verse and now see if you realize why I repeat and repeat passages.

 

Again, we have mom asking for her sons to be promoted and then the question, “Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?”

 

Matt 20:26 "It is not so among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant,

 

Matt 20:27 and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave;

 

Matt 20:28 just as [Christ’s example used again] the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. "