We’re looking at the question: How can God die?  

If Jesus is God and Jesus died, then didn’t God die?  

We will look into detail here how though Jesus tasted spiritual death as a man on the cross, and went on to die physically, His divinity never ceased.  

John 1:1-3: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

Jesus is the Alpha and Omega.  He had no beginning; He will have no end.  

Yet there was a beginning of His incarnation; His life on earth.  He did have a beginning as a man.

John 1:14: “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”

When Jesus died, He died as a perfect man for sinful people.  

Hebrews 2:9: “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.”

His divinity never ceased even in His death.  The divine aspect of Him never physically died.  His human breath of life was taken away and His dead human body was taken and buried.  He was immediately united to the Father like He was before His incarnation the moment that His human life ended.

Note what Jesus prayed on the night before He died (obviously in anticipation of what was about to happen).

John 17:4-5: “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.  And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.”

We know that Jesus’ last cries before He died were “It is finished” and “Father, into thine hands I commend my spirit.”

Jesus had to be both God and live a perfect life as a man for His atonement to be sufficient to redeem us.  Though He didn’t suffer in the fire of hell eternally, there had to be eternal value in Himself in order for us to be delivered from God’s wrath consistent with God’s justice.

Hebrews 9:14: “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”

Jesus obviously tasted spiritual death on the cross as His body died.  He remained God the whole time of course, and I think it’s fair to say that this death was tasted as a man for men- while His divinity was no comfort to Him as He died.  The Father delivered him into the hands of the wicked; and He was released to torment of body and soul.  

1 Peter 3:18: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh (that is, the body), but quickened by the Spirit (that is, raised from the dead on the 3rd day by the Holy Spirit)…”

Jesus died as a sin offering to God wherein He was treated as a guilty man- yet He never sinned nor became literal sin as some teach.  His divinity was no comfort to Him on the cross as His soul and body were tormented in separation from the Father’s comfort- yet His divinity was never abandoned.  Neither His humanity nor His divinity were ever actually tainted with sin.

A simple summary: His divinity never died; His humanity died.  Overall, His humanity suffered and died as His divinity remained.

To perhaps explain this better: Jesus’ divinity never ceased on earth even though the advantages of divinity were not things He used as a man- even though the rights to use these were fully His.  

Jesus never exercised miracles for His own personal gain.  He rather only worked them as He was led by the Father for the glory of the Father.  

Some will ask: How can God be hungry?  How can God be tired?  Jesus was hungry and tired in the sense of personal physical experience of these things only as a man on earth- even though His divinity was never suspended during these times.  His divinity was simply no special help to Him in these times.  

This applies to His crucifixion and His death as a man- though there was separation from the Father added into the mix as He died on the cross; while the overall suffering involved in His humanity was intensified unspeakably as He died on the cross.

Philippians 2:4-11: “Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.  Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Jesus was raised from the dead as a human by the power of the Holy Spirit like He was He was conceived in Mary’s womb as a human by the power of the Holy Spirit.  

He remained fully God as He ascended to heaven- yet now He is a resurrected, glorified man as well.  It’s mysterious and hard to fully comprehend, yet it is proven by Scripture. 

1 Corinthians 15:20-21: “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept (those that have died).  For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.”

1 Timothy 2:5-6: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”

Hebrews 10:12-13: “But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.”

Revelation 1:10-18: “I (the Apostle John) was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.  And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.  His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.  And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.  And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead.  And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.”

Another way to look at things is that Jesus was dead as a man between the moment He died on the cross and the moment He was raised from the dead on the third day.  

The basic understanding of these things overall shows how Jesus was born as a man, died as a man, was buried as a man, was raised from the dead as a resurrected glorified man, ascended to heaven as the same, and will return as the same- yet always was and always will be fully God.  

Aaron’s email is: [email protected]

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