I believe that Jesus, the Son of God (the man), was an authentic human being who was born of Mary. However, I also believe that He was "one" with the Father (from conception), making Him both God and man. Let's review how Jesus Himself describes His Oneness with the Father...
John 10:30
30 I and my Father are one. (KJV)
John 10:38
38 But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him. (KJV)
John 12:45
45 And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me. (KJV)
John 14:7-10
7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. (KJV)
If you walked the earth with Jesus, you'd get to know Him as a man. He'd teach. He'd laugh. He'd eat. He'd use the restroom. He'd sleep. He'd rest. He'd pray and speak of His Heavenly Father. He'd fast. He'd cry. He'd sweat. He'd bleed. However... at times you'd feel something otherworldly emanating from deep within Him. Something emanating from the very core of His being. Something powerful. Something that has authority over all creation. Something that speaks to the winds... bringing them into total and absolute obedience. Something that raises the dead and heals all manner of sickness. Something indescribable. Something "other". You'd sense GOD Himself at the core of Christ's own person. You'd realize that this man is far more than just a mere man. You'd realize that this man is... also God.
However, keep in mind...God did not reside in Christ as though He were merely a human vehicle. He didn't reside in Christ as a cat in a box. No, God resided in and permeated Christ's very being. A Oneness so complete, so majestic, and so divine that in Christ it can be said that God became a man... and that this very same man was also God. In Christ Jesus, God elevated human nature into union with His own divine nature, and His very own divine nature condescended to establish union with Christ's human nature.
No other religion elevates Christ to such an infinite height of majesty and honor. No other religion expresses Christ's true person to such an infinite degree. Most religions merely make Christ a prophet or seek to establish Him as being some second co-eternal divine being or person. No... Christ was not just a prophet. Christ wasn't a second co-eternal divine being or person. Christ also wasn't God shape-shifted or morphed into the mere appearance of a man. Christ was the authentic human tabernacle of God Himself. To deny this imperils the soul... and reduces Christ to being either a lunatic or a liar.
All authority and power has been delivered to Christ Jesus. He will judge Krishna. He will judge Buddha. He will judge Mohammed. He will judge Nanak. He will judge the followers of every false prophet and madman. He will judge all men in accordance to the Father's will as it relates to the Gospel. Through Him, the Father will judge. Because they are one.
With the above in mind, I'd say that God experienced surrendering His only begotten Son, the man Jesus Christ, to the cross to save mankind. In this sense, yes, the Father stood by and watched His Son suffer and die for sinners, experiencing all the loss a Father would feel.
However, since the Father also resided in the very being and human person of Christ, the Father Himself also accepted and experienced death for all mankind. God experienced death through the loss of His beloved Son, Jesus.
I believe that we can reconcile these two theological realities in fully realizing the implications found in the following texts:
John 3:16 (ESV)
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19 (ESV)
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, .....
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