CAN GOD DIE?

CAN GOD DIE?

The doctrine of the Trinity presents another dilemma if we believe that God is a person of honesty and truth. The Scriptures teach that God is immortal. (1Tim.6:16) This means that He cannot die. This immortality of God, is not a quality which He can put on and take off. It is an essential aspect of His being. His immortality is not like that of unfallen angels, a conditional thing. In referring to the immortality of God we are speaking of an absolute thing. He absolutely cannot, under any circumstances, die."Who ONLY hath immortality ..." (1 Tim.6:16) Other beings are immortal, but He alone has immortality in the absolute sense. He can never ever be mortal, or be made to die.Yet the Scriptures teach that Jesus died for us! (Romans 5:6-8). Here is a dilemma indeed. God cannot die, yet Jesus did die. The Scriptures clearly teach both things. Let us look at the alternatives open to us in viewing this seeming contradiction. Either:

1. Jesus did not really die.Or:

2. Jesus is not God (the one who only hath immortality).

Those who say that Jesus is God (the God), have no alternative but to say that Jesus did not really die. In other words, what happened at Calvary was only a play; just an acted drama (what blasphemy!). Others seek to find some compromise in saying that the "divine part" of Christ did not die, but only the human part. However, this presents us with an even greater abomination, because what we are left with is nothing but a human sacrifice! Something which could never atone for the sins of the world.

Jesus was not a human being before He came to this earth. But when He came here, He became fully a human being in every sense. All that He retained of His God-nature, was His character of infinite love and compassion. His power, His knowledge, He laid aside completely and lived in total dependence on His Father. However, the trinitarians say that He only took a HUMAN SIDE when He came to earth. In other words, He had two personalities. One, His personality as God and the other, His personality as a human being. Many claim that when Jesus died, His human side died, but that He still continued to live as God even though He was supposed to be dead. This of course would have to be true if Jesus is truly the supreme God, for the supreme God is immortal, and cannot die.

Yet, if this is true; if all that died on Calvary was the "human side" of Jesus, then we must ask the question, what did God really sacrifice at Calvary? According to this doctrine, the "human side" of Jesus was really something created when He was conceived in Mary's womb. Something which came into being two thousand years ago. The divine side of Jesus, the immortal God-part did not really die. What we have then, is a situation in which God did not really make a sacrifice at Calvary, but rather created a being who paid the price on His behalf. A most abominable and glaringly false idea.

The truth is that Jesus, the Son of God, did truly die. Did pass into the unconscious, senseless, unknowing sleep of death. He did feel the darkness of death, black and unfathomable stealing upon His soul when He prayed that the cup might pass from Him. He did experience, truly, the agony and uncertainty of genuine separation from God. He died, because He could die. He was mortal. He could die, because He is not the one and only God who "hath immortality". This immortal one, "no man hath seen, not can see," He dwelleth "in the light which no man can approach unto." (1 Tim.6:16).Jesus is a divine Being. There is no question of that. It is obvious that every Son takes the nature of His Father, so if the nature of the father is divine (having the qualities of God) then it is evident that the Son also is divine. This is why John 1:1 says:"In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God (the God. gr.) and the word was God (divine)."

Yet, the word "God" also carries with it the idea of the one absolute, supreme Being in the universe. In this sense, there is only One who is God. Not three. This one God is the Father; The One who gave His Son to die. This is the testimony of the Scriptures over and over again (1 Cor. 8:6; 1 Cor. 11:3; 1 Tim. 2:5; 1 Cor. 15:24-28).

All the authority and power which belong to God have been given to His Son (Col.2:9; Matt. 28:18). Yet, these do not belong to Jesus inherently. They have been given to Him by God, (1 John 5:26; Col.1:19) and the day will come when the controversy is finally over and then the Son will be subject to the Father, that God may be all in all (1 Cor. 15:28).

In closing, I would like to ask the question again: "Did God's Son really die for me?" How do you answer this question? This is the central point of the whole gospel. Undoubtedly, this point, above all others, is the focus of Satan's attack. When we see how these truths have been subtly, but effectively nullified over the ages, it becomes clear that Satan's efforts have been highly successful.