Replies

Thank you for interesting questions.

Yes, your understanding of the Catholic reasoning is correct. Except that we can separate man from God in Jesus when we examine a particular verse, such as for example when Jesus asks a question, while as God He does not need to ask in order to know.

how is it that God had to give Jesus, who is already God “not the Spirit by measure”?

The Catena Aurea lists not one but three answers all in consensus:

CHRYS. By Spirit here is meant the operation of the Holy Spirit. He wishes to show that all of us have received the operation of the Spirit by measure, but that Christ contains within Himself the whole operation of the Spirit. How then shall He be suspected, Who said nothing, but what is from God, and the Spirit? For He makes no mention yet of God the Word, but rests His doctrine on the authority of the Father and the Spirit. For men knew that there was God, and knew that there was the Spirit, (although they had not right belief about His nature;) but that there was the Son they did not know.
AUG. Having said of the Son, God gives not the Spirit by measure to Him; he adds, The Father loves the Son, and farther adds, and has given all things into His hand; in order to show that the Father loves the Son, in a peculiar sense. For the Father loves John, and Paul, and yet has not given all things into their hands. But the Father loves the Son, as the Son, not as a master his servant: as an only, not as an adopted, Son. Wherefore He has given all things into His hand; so that, as great as the Father is, so great is the Son; let us not think then that, because He has deigned to send the Son, any one inferior to the Father has been sent.
THEOPHYL. The Father then has given all things to the Son in respect of His divinity; of right, not of grace. Or; He has given all things into His hand, in respect of His humanity: inasmuch as He is made Lord of all things that are in heaven, and that are in earth.

Did God die on that cross?

The entire Second Person of the Holy Trinity Jesus Christ died, yes. God died on the Cross.

>>but that Christ contains within Himself the whole operation of the Spirit.<<

No, no, no. Here’s the verse again.

John 3:34 For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.

Note that word giveth. So God gave Jesus the Spirit without measure. In order for your logic to hold Jesus could then not have been eternally coexistent with the Father.

>> The Father loves the Son, and farther adds, and has given all things into His hand; in order to show that the Father loves the Son, in a peculiar sense.<<

So here again. Jesus was not coeternal and equal with the Father ey? At some point the Father is greater than the Son in order to have given Him. Is that what you believe? >> The Father then has given all things to the Son in respect of His divinity; of right, not of grace.<<

Well, that’s three for three. The second person of the trinity had to be given the Spirit by the first person of the trinity.

I thought Catholics believed that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were coeternal and equal. How then is it that the second person of the trinity needs to be given something by the first person of the trinity.?

>> God died on the Cross.<<

So Catholics believe that God can die!!! Wow.

I’m going to save that post. The second person of the trinity is secondary to the first person of the trinity and God can die. Amazing beliefs to say the least.