Each member of The Godhead…Crucified

[Request]

Brothers and Sisters,

I have a vague recollection of reading an Ellen G. White  passage which presented the reality of each member of The Godhead being crucified on Calvary’s cross.  If you are familiar with such a passage or passages, please provide the reference or copy to me.

[Response]

While I went searching for such a reference I did come across this statement that I often hear but never read for myself.

     Was the human nature of the Son of Mary changed into the divine nature of the Son of God? No; the two natures were mysteriously blended in one person--the Man Christ Jesus. In Him dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. When Christ was crucified, it was His human nature that died. Deity did not sink and die; that would have been IMPOSSIBLE. Christ, the sinless One, will save every son and daughter of Adam who accepts the salvation proffered them, consenting to become the children of God. The Saviour has purchased the fallen race with His own blood.  {21MR 418.5}  

     This is a great mystery, a mystery that will not be fully, completely, understood in its greatness until the translation of the redeemed shall take place. Then the power and greatness and efficacy of the gift of God to man will be understood. But the enemy is determined that this gift shall be so mystified that it will become a nothingness. If believers only knew what this means, the work would be done in our churches that must be done if the members ever enter the kingdom of heaven. But when men in responsible positions pervert their reason and give themselves up to Satan's way of thinking, they will surely stand before the world on Satan's side, however great their influence may have been and still is, doing the work that Satan did, led and inspired by his spirit.—21MR:418.5, 6

Also found in a devotional, LHU:76.2, 3

"…the reality of each member of The Godhead being crucified on Calvary’s cross.…"

If deity cannot die then they (the other members of the Godhead) were not "crucified." However, they all suffered incalculably. Even the Holy Spirit is known after the crucifixion as the Holy Ghost.

[Lesson: Human logic alone is deplorably deficient and private interpretation is condemned by the Word of God.]

As all three were involved in Creation but God wrought all created things by the Son who is the Word of God so likewise all three were involved in the story of Redemption. However, once again, God wrought all of this also through His only begotten Son who became incarnate mysteriously.

But now continuing to search I found the reference you are looking for. So this creates a paradox between Deity cannot die and God Himself was crucified.

You may have been reading through a devotional to come across this reference.

     There is one great central truth to be kept ever before the mind in the searching of the Scriptures—Christ and Him crucified. Every other truth is invested with influence and power corresponding to its relation to this theme. . . . The soul palsied by sin can be endowed with life only through the work wrought out upon the cross by the Author of our salvation.  {FLB 50.2}  

     When Christ bowed His head and died, He bore the pillars of Satan's kingdom with Him to the earth. He vanquished Satan.  {FLB 50.3}  

     Christ submitted to crucifixion, although the heavenly host could have delivered Him. The angels suffered with Christ. God Himself was crucified with Christ; for Christ was one with the Father. Those who reject Christ, those who will not have this man to rule over them, choose to place themselves under the rule of Satan, to do his work as his bondslaves. Yet for them Christ yielded up His life on Calvary.  {FLB 50.4}  

     He who died for the sins of the world was to remain in the tomb the allotted time. He was in that stony prison house as a prisoner of divine justice. He was responsible to the Judge of the universe. He was bearing the sins of the world, and His Father ONLY could release Him.—FLB:50.2-5

Putting these references together paints a brighter picture than isolating a thought from its context.

     God Himself was crucified with Christ; for Christ was one with the Father.  {AG 189.2}  

     Few give thought to the suffering that sin has caused our Creator. All heaven suffered in Christ's agony; but that suffering did not begin or end with His manifestation in humanity. The cross is a revelation to our dull senses of the pain that, from its very inception, sin has brought to the heart of God. Every departure from the right, every deed of cruelty, every failure of humanity to reach His ideal, brings grief to Him. When there came upon Israel the calamities that were the sure result of separation from God—subjugation by their enemies, cruelty, and death—it is said that "his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel." "In all their affliction he was afflicted: . . . and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old" (Judges 10:16; Isaiah 63:9).  {AG 189.3}  

     His Spirit "maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." As the "whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together" (Romans 8:26, 22), the heart of the infinite Father is pained in sympathy. Our world is a vast lazar house, a scene of misery that we dare not allow our thoughts to dwell upon. Did we realize it as it is, the burden would be too terrible. Yet God feels it all.  {AG 189.4}  

     Not a sigh is breathed, not a pain felt, not a grief pierces the soul, but the throb vibrates to the Father's heart.  {AG 189.5}  

     He who knows the depths of the world's misery and despair, knows by what means to bring relief. . . . Although human beings have abused their mercies, wasted their talents, and lost the dignity of godlike manhood, the Creator is to be glorified in their redemption.  {AG 189.6}  

     In order to destroy sin and its results He gave His best Beloved, and He has put it in our power, through cooperation with Him, to bring this scene of misery to an end.—AG 189.2-7

     In the scenes that transpired at the judgment hall, and at Calvary, we see what the human heart is capable of when under the influence of Satan. Christ submitted to crucifixion, although the heavenly host could have delivered him. The angels suffered with Christ. God himself was crucified with Christ; for Christ was one with the Father. Those who reject Christ, those who will not have this man to rule over them, choose to place themselves under the rule of Satan, to do his work as his bond slaves. Yet for them Christ yielded up his life on Calvary.  {ST, March 26, 1894 par. 5}  

     In the death of Christ on Calvary's cross, the temple seemed to be destroyed, the head seemed to have been bruised; but this was not so. Satan, in the very act of grasping his prey, demolished his own throne. Satan, evil angels, and evil men united in a desperate companionship, and thought to claim the victory, but it was in the death of Christ, in the cruel suffering and crucifixion, that the Son of God accomplished the very work for which he was ordained from before the foundation of the world. He died a victim to jealousy and hate, a victim to false religious zeal. But in his dying agony he was victor over the powers of earth and hell. He reinstated man in the position from which Satan had hurled him through temptation and sin, and, by his own perfect obedience to the law of God, placed him on vantage ground. In his death he broke the spell that had held millions in slavery, under perfect subjection to Satan's rule and jurisdiction.—ST, March 26, 1894 par. 5, 6

So you see beloved we need the wisdom from above to respect what each reference is seeking to communicate without making them fight and jumping to conclusions. Forbid the thought of choosing favorites for all must harmonize.