"’Tis myst’ry all: th’ Immortal dies:
Who can explore His strange design?
In vain the firstborn seraph tries
To sound the depths of love divine.
’Tis mercy all! Let earth adore,
Let angel minds inquire no more."
It's been known for quite some time that this is a logical inconsistency.
No where in the Bible does it say that God died. One has to force the belief "Jesus is God" onto the Bible and then replace the word Jesus with God when it suits one's whims.
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men,
after the rudiments of the world, and not after
Christ.
For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
Colossians 2:8-9
{Sorry about the formatting....it doesn't work like it used to for me}
You might think it a logical inconsistency, but it is declared in scripture that Christ - also called Immanuel ("
God with us") - had all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Natural thinking says that if God can be "localized" then he is minimized and reduced to something less than what "contains" Him (i.e. mankind or humanity). But Paul tells the Philippians this :
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.
Philippians 2:5-11
First, it makes no sense to talk about taking the "form" of a servant if you don't look at what "form" He had previously. Verse 6 clearly said Christ was in the form of God. He
took upon himself the form of a servant and made in the
likeness of men. His humanity was something that He took upon Himself in such a way that - while He was still in the form of God - He became identified completely with humanity. This is the same whose essence is said to be "The Word" and which is directly identified as God (John 1:1). John says the Word was
both WITH God and WAS God. That is not something that can be handled by mere logic of man. And when Christ was on earth, He said something that was either utter blasphemy or made Himself God :
Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
John 8:58
This is the very same thing God told Moses to tell Pharaoh when he would ask Moses who sent him.
And Jesus even claimed to be equal with God.
Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.
John 5:18
Looking at Philippians 2 again, it's clear that we have someone who was (and is) equal with God. Just that statement alone must mean that Christ is not merely a man. And if equal with God the Father, does that mean He was maybe an angel? Hebrews 1 removes that possibility :
Being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
Hebrews 1:4
And Hebrews 2 echoes the Psalmist (in Psalm 8) saying :
But 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
So we certainly see the humanity of Christ emphasized here, but that can never take away from His divinity since John 1 and Hebrews 1 both clearly state that it was by Him that all things were made.
Now...as to the question - did God die? I don't see it that way since I see Christ's humanity as the matter of His voluntary humiliation unto death. God can't die. But taking on the form of a man, Christ can and did) taste death for every man. But at the same time, Christ died so that He could overcome death. He didn't die like a man dies and is chained by it. He died in that He entered INTO it to break the power of it. The only victor over it!
