The old Christian hymn by Charles Wesley, ‘And Can it Be?’ includes the line:
‘Amazing love! how can it be that Thou, my God,
shouldst die for me!’
So what are we to make of these words? Is it correct
to say that God died on the cross, or should Christians avoid speaking in this
way?
In answer to this question, I would say that in the
most fundamental sense God did not die on the cross, but that there is a sense
in which we can say that God died on the cross.
God is immortal
The first thing we need to be clear about is that God
is immortal. In fact, 1 Timothy 6:16 explicitly uses the word ‘immortal’ to
describe God.
To be immortal is to be undying and incapable of
dying. So God cannot die and therefore obviously has never died.
This is why I say that in the most fundamental sense God
did not die on the cross.
The God-Man Jesus Christ
But things are not quite so simple.
To begin with, we need to understand that the Bible
teaches that three things are true about Jesus Christ all at once. First, He is
truly God. Second, He is truly man. And third, He is one person.
All three of these points are crucial, and over the
centuries many heresies have arisen among people who have accepted only two of
the points but rejected the third. Christians need to stand firm, however, on
insisting that all three are true.
So the one person, Jesus, is a combination of God and
man. He is the God-Man. His divinity and humanity are not confused or mingled.
They are distinct. But He is still only one person. This is standard Christian
theology.
Two opposite things are sometimes both true of
Jesus
There is something about Jesus, however, that at first
sight looks very strange, but which it is important to understand.
Because Jesus is only one person, anything that is
true of His divinity can be said to be true of Jesus, and anything that is true
of His humanity can be said to be true of Jesus. And this sometimes leads to
opposite things both being true of Him.
A good example to illustrate this is the issue of how
much Jesus knows. In His divinity Jesus knows everything there is to know,
i.e., He is omniscient. But in His humanity He doesn’t know everything, i.e.,
He is not omniscient.
We actually have a striking example of Jesus’ lack of
knowledge in Mark’s Gospel. In Mark 13:32, referring to the time when He will
return to earth, Jesus says:
‘Now concerning that day or hour no one knows, neither
the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father.’
In this verse ‘the Son’ is a reference to Jesus
Himself, so the verse is clear that there is something Jesus doesn’t know. And
this lack of knowledge is true of His humanity. But because He is only one
person, anything that is true of His humanity can be said to be true of Jesus.
So ‘Jesus is not omniscient’ is a correct statement.
However, in His divinity, Jesus knows everything. And,
again, because He is only one person, anything that is true of His divinity can
be said to be true of Jesus. So ‘Jesus is omniscient’ is a correct statement.
Therefore, ‘Jesus is not omniscient’ is a correct
statement, and ‘Jesus is omniscient’ is a correct statement. In one sense He is
not omniscient, but in another sense He is.
Jesus died on the cross
The same sort of thing applies to Jesus’ death on the
cross. In His divinity He clearly did not die on the cross, because God is
immortal, as I have noted. But in His humanity He certainly did die on the
cross.
And, once again, because anything that is true of His
humanity can be said to be true of Jesus, ‘Jesus died on the cross’ is a
correct statement.
The person who is Jesus Christ is the person who
is God the Son
So it is true that Jesus died on the cross, but it was
in His humanity that He died, not in His divinity.
But if He didn’t die in His divinity, that means it is
wrong to say that God died on the cross, isn’t it?
Not really, and here is the point. I have said that
Jesus Christ is one person. However, crucially, this person is the
person of God the Son, the second person of the Trinity.
At the incarnation, the person who is God the Son joined
Himself to a human nature to become the God-Man Jesus Christ. But the person,
God the Son, stayed the same. The person who is Jesus is none other than the
person who is God the Son.
Therefore, because Jesus died on the cross, and
because the person who is Jesus is the person who is God the Son, we can
legitimately say that God the Son died on the cross.
And finally, we can shorten saying that God the Son
died on the cross to saying that God died on the cross.
So, even though it was only in His humanity that He
died on the cross, we can legitimately say that God died on the cross.
Summing up
In the most fundamental sense, then, God did not die
on the cross. God is immortal and cannot die.
But in another sense, it is right to say that God died
on the cross, as follows:
(1) In His humanity, Jesus died on the cross.
(2) Because Jesus is only one person, anything that is
true of His humanity is true of Jesus, so we can say that Jesus died on the
cross.
(3) Because the person who is Jesus is the person who
is God the Son, we can say that God the Son died on the cross.
(4) Saying that God the Son died on the cross can be
shortened to saying that God died on the cross.
So I would say that we can sing the words of Charles
Wesley’s hymn with a clear conscience.
See also:
How
Can the Word Be With God and Also Be God?
Paradoxes
and Tensions in the Christian Faith
Salvation Is Not by Doing Good but
Only Those Who Do Good Will Be Saved
