Is It Right to Say that God Died on the Cross? Free Reprint Article

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Is It Right to Say that God Died on the Cross?

by Max Aplin
10/28/2024 / Devotionals

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.