The Death of Christ

Questions in this section...

Did only Jesus' humanity die?

Was Christ's death a human sacrifice?

How could Christ’s soul be in the grave?

Question: Did only Jesus' humanity die?

“Did only His (Jesus’) human part die?”

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Answer:

This is an excellent question and is probably the most significant point of difference between what the Bible says and what most people with false ideas about God teach. Trinitarians teach that Christ was exactly equal with His Father and therefore could not die. They say that Christ came down from heaven and inhabited a human body and, when it came time to die, only the human body died while the divine being who came down from heaven remained alive. As you can see, if this were the case, we are left with only a human sacrifice for our sins.

The fulness of God the Father that was dwelling in Christ, the Spirit of God without measure, did not die, for if that died, God the Father would have died. All of Christ died on Calvary. There was not a divine half alive and a human half dead. The Bible says, “We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” (Hebrews 2:9) According to the Bible, the divine being who came down from heaven died, or else it would be pointless for Him to be made lower than the angels. Paul wrote, “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 [“emptied himself.” — Green’s Literal Translation and RSV], 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.” (Philippians 2:5-9) The same being who was “in the form of God” in verse 6 died “the death of the cross” in verse 8.

Christ’s death on the cross was a complete death of not just His body, but His entire soul. Isaiah wrote concerning Christ, “It pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.… Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Isaiah 53:10, 12)

According to the Scripture, the soul of Christ died; the soul of Christ is what was made an offering for sin. We are told that the soul of Christ was in the grave. On the day of Pentecost Peter said, “He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell ⁸⁶ , neither his flesh did see corruption.” (Acts 2:31)1 The word hell in the preceding verse was translated from the Greek word a@/dh" (Hades). This word means grave in every case. The soul of Christ rested with His body in the tomb.

The Spirit of Christ inspired David to write concerning Christ’s death, “I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.” (Psalm 88:8) Christ was shut up in the tomb, and He could not come forth. The Bible says more than thirty times that God, the Father, raised Christ from the dead. Christ did not raise Himself from the dead, or else He was not really dead. “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

There are some who use the following verse as proof that Jesus Christ did not really die completely:“Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take ²⁹⁸³ it again. No man taketh ¹⁴² it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power ¹⁸⁴⁹ to lay it down, and I have power ¹⁸⁴⁹ to take ²⁹⁸³ it again. This commandment have I received ²⁹⁸³ of my Father.” (John 10:17, 18)

The Greek word that was translated “I might take,” (with Strong’s number 2983) can mean take, but also means this: “to receive (what is given), to gain, get, obtain, to get back.” (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon) Please notice that this word is also used in verse 18 but is translated “have I received.” Christ laid down His life that He might receive it again. The Greek word that was translated “power” can mean power, but can also mean “authority, permission.” (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon) Christ had permission to lay down His life so that He could receive it again from His Father. Christ could not, and did not, raise Himself from the dead or else He would not have been dead to begin with.

To make the claim that Jesus Christ raised Himself from the dead would be to directly contradict the words of Christ, for Christ said, “I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.” (John 5:30)

 When Christ died, He died as a whole being. Just as men are unconscious in death, so it was for the Son of God. He was dependent upon His Father to raise Him from the dead and was unable to come forth from the dead on His own. The divinity Christ had of His own while He was on this earth, along with His human nature, died on the cross for our sins.

This question and its answer were printed in the August 2000 issue of Present Truth.

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Question: Was Christ's death a human sacrifice?

“Please help me to grasp more clearly the atonement and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Was the death of Jesus merely a human sacrifice or was it possible that He risked eternally the very life which is in the Father and was GIVEN to Him (John 5:26) on behalf of sinful humanity?
    “I understand that the Father alone has immortality. He is the source of all life, and that it is impossible for God the Father to die, but because Jesus was given this same life that the Father has, was it possible that Jesus could actually lose His gift of immortality when He became man’s substitute.
    “Is Jesus self-existent in the sense of when He was begotten of the Father He then became self-existent because He received eternal life unique to divinity? Or is this understanding incorrect?
    “Assuming that Jesus is self-existent and possessed this divine life as well as biological life as a divine human person. It has been suggested that at the resurrection His divinity raised His humanity from the grave. But the Scripture states that it was the Father who raised Him. Why was it necessary for the Father to raise Him if His divine nature is self-existent, and gave Him the ability to do this Himself?”

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Answer:

You brought up some excellent questions. No, the death of Jesus was not merely a human sacrifice. Yes, He risked losing for eternity the life that His Father had given Him, along with his mortal life. His death was a divine/human sacrifice. You are right that the Father is the only One in the universe who has absolute immortality and cannot die under any circumstance. You are also right that the Father gave His Son self-existent life. The Son does not have to depend upon some outside source to keep Him alive. Jesus said, “For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.” (John 5:26) It is obvious that this life was not in the Son before the Father gave it to Him. When the Son was given this life is not certain, other than it had to have been prior to the time Christ made this statement because He described the giving of this life as a completed action in the past. It could have been at the time He was “brought forth” from the Father (Proverbs 8:24, 25) or at some later time. The Bible says that “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,… who first trusted in Christ.” (Ephesians 1:3, 12) The Father trusted His Son with the gift of self-existent life.

Yes, Jesus was able to lay aside His self-existent life because it was given to Him. Jesus said, “As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.” (John 10:15) Jesus laid aside His self-existent life to become a mortal man while He was on this earth, for He said, “I am he that liveth, and was dead.” (Revelation 1:18)

You are right to say that the Scripture states that the Father raised His Son from the dead. Paul wrote, “Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.)” (Galatians 1:1)

While Jesus was a man He was not self-existent, or His words could not be true when He said, “I can of mine own self do nothing.” (John 5:30) He depended upon His Father for everything while He was a man. (For a thorough study on this subject contact us and request the tract entitled “God’s Plan to Save You.”)

I hope this helps to answer your questions.

This question and its answer were printed in the December 2001 issue of Present Truth.

A Note of Correction

On page 7 of the December 2001 issue of Present Truth I wrote, “The Bible says that ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,… who first trusted in Christ.’ (Ephesians 1:3, 12) The Father trusted His Son with the gift of self-existent life.” By the Lord’s grace and the kind letters of two brothers in different states, it has come to my attention that my application of this verse was not correct. It is true that the Father was the first One who trusted in Christ, but this verse is referring to the Jewish Christians who first trusted in Christ for their salvation. This is brought out more clearly in the Greek text. I am sorry for the mistake.

Lynnford Beachy

This correction was printed in the February 2002 issue of Present Truth.

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Question: How could Christ’s soul be in the grave?

“I was reading the book, God’s Love on Trial, and it states, ‘The soul of Christ rested with His body in the tomb.’ Acts 2:31 states that Christ’s soul was not left in hell (the grave). Now my understanding of a soul is that the only way it can exist is by the spirit (breath) of God and the body combined to make a living soul. The spirit goes back to where it came from, God, and the body goes to the dust. I know Acts 2:31 does say that Christ’s body did not see corruption.

“How do you get a dead soul when it takes a combination of two things to make a living soul? A dead person does not possess this combination.

“If Christ’s spirit was in the tomb with Jesus, we have to take for granted they were separated from each other until the Father resurrected Jesus or we would have had a living soul in the grave instead of a dead person. And we know by Scripture that Christ’s soul died. Isaiah 53:10-12: ‘He hath poured out his soul unto death.’”

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Answer:

This is a very good question. You are right that Christ’s soul died as it is written in Isaiah 53. Part of the problem with understanding what happens to a soul at death stems from the difficulty of defining the words spirit and soul. They are a little hard to define because they have various meanings, and at times are used interchangeably. For example: “His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.” (Judges 10:16) Compare with Daniel 7:15: “I Daniel was grieved in my spirit in the midst of my body.” Both a soul and a spirit are the part of a person that can be grieved. Gesenius calls both, “the vital principle… The seat of the senses, affections, and emotions.” (Gesenius’ Hebrew Lexicon) The Hebrew word nephesh (soul) was translated “mind” (15 times). The Hebrew word ruach (spirit) was also translated “mind” (5 times). Some people have the idea that the spirit of man is simply the vital power of God that sustains life. This definition can apply to “spirit” sometimes (i.e. Job 27:3), but certainly not all the time.

Jesus said, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28) Here Jesus said that when a person dies his soul is not killed. This does not happen until the time when God will destroy both the soul and body in hell. (This is called the “second death”—see Revelation 20:14.) The word “soul” in the above text signifies a part of man that is not destroyed at the first death, even though it remains in an unconscious condition. “The dead know not any thing.” (Ecclesiastes 9:5)

A cassette tape could be used to demonstrate this. While a tape is in a tape recorder, information can be recorded onto it, and played back from it, but as soon as the tape is removed from the tape recorder, it can no longer function. While the tape is removed from the tape recorder, you could destroy the tape recorder without harming the tape. You could put the tape in a new tape recorder and again, you could record onto the tape and play back the information that is stored there. However, if you destroy the tape, there is no way to retrieve that information. It would be completely lost.

The Bible uses the word soul in a similar way in the verses mentioned above. While the body is living the soul can learn, and function, but when the body dies the soul can no longer function. At the resurrection, God can create a new body, and put the same soul or spirit in it, and the same person will come forth. At the second death, when God will destroy both the soul and body of the wicked, that is like destroying the tape, with no chance of recovering it. “They shall be as though they had not been.” (Obadiah 1:16)

The Bible says, when a person dies, “Then shall the dust [body] return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” (Ecclesiastes 12:7) Some people read this and suppose that only the life force—the power of God that keeps a person alive—returns to God at death, and nothing more. However, the same author tells us: “All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?” (Ecclesiastes 3:20, 21) The same life force that sustains a man’s life also sustains a beast’s life. If this is all that goes back to God, then the spirit of the beast would go upward to God as well. But the Bible says the spirit of the beast goes down to the earth, while the spirit of man goes upward to God. There is obviously something more that goes back to God than just the force that keeps him alive. It is like the cassette tape mentioned earlier. The complete record of a man’s existence, his person, his identity, goes back to God in an unconscious condition, awaiting the resurrection when it will be reunited with a body to live, breath and function again. The very same person that dies will come back in the resurrection even though his body will be changed.

When Stephen died, he said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” (Acts 7:59) He was not asking the Lord to receive the power that sustained his life, but his very person, his identity. When Jesus died upon the cross, He cried out, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” (Luke 23:46) Jesus was not commending His life force into His Father’s hands, but His very identity, His existence.

I do not know how God retains the soul or spirit of a person after death, other than the fact that it is unconscious. I do not envision God literally collecting tangible souls, marking them, and storing them in a storehouse. This may be figurative language to signify the reality that God will bring the same person back to life at the resurrection. When the Bible says where the soul or spirit goes at death it signifies whether it will be resurrected or not. The spirit of a beast goes down to earth, signifying that it will not come back to life. The spirit of a man goes upward to God, signifying that each man will live again, and God will retain the record of that man so he can come forth at the resurrection.

The Bible is clear that when a soul is destroyed the entire being is destroyed. (Matthew 10:28; Ezekiel 18:20; Obadiah 1:16) Yet, that does not take place until the second death, after the 1,000 years of Revelation 20. According to Jesus, the soul is not killed until that time. (Matthew 10:28) Between the time of death and the resurrection, the body is dead, but the soul is kept in an unconscious state until the resurrection. I do not know how God does this, because we are not told. Somehow God retains it, and when it says that Christ’s soul was not left in the grave, I believe that it indicates what type of death he suffered. His soul was in the grave with His body, not united in life, but resting in death, a death so complete that only His Father could raise Him from the dead. (Hebrews 5:7)

The Bible says, “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) The wages of sin is not the first death, but the second. That is what Christ came to save us from. His soul died, something that does not occur for man until the second death. Remember, Christ came to “taste death for every man.” (Hebrews 2:9) If Christ had only tasted the first death for us, He could only save us from the first death. But he came to save us from the second death, and must have tasted that for us. When Christ “poured out his soul unto death,” He was yielding up His eternal life. He made this conscious decision when He cried out, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” (Luke 23:46)

There is something unique about Christ tasting the second death, of course, because He was raised from the dead, even though the wicked who experience the second death will not be resurrected. (Obadiah 1:16) His absolute purity and sinlessness, which none of the wicked will have, enabled Him to be resurrected, even after He tasted the second death for us.

I hope this helps to answer your question.

This question and its answer were printed in the September 2004 issue of Present Truth.

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