Since Christians say that Jesus died on the cross and later rose from the dead, does that mean that he as God’s son died that day? We need a better understanding of Scripture to answer this question. God gave the Jews a sacrificial system in which they slaughtered animals for their blood. The inadequacy of that system was that animals could not know right from wrong. Therefore, they could not be a perfect sacrifice. The blood they spilled was prophetic looking toward the death of Jesus. When an animal was killed, it did not cease to be an animal. It meant that the most vital part of their body was taken which was the blood of life. When the blood was spilled, so was their life expended.
Jesus, as the son of God, existed in heaven with the Almighty. He was not a separate God but a distinct personality of the Trinity which was the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They were one but separate in the same way that humans have a body ,soul, and spirit. Christians celebrate the incarnation of Jesus into a human body. They recognize that he was fully God and fully human. This may seem hard to understand but you as a reader are fully human with a soul and spirit. Imagine your soul being able to extend outwardly from your spirit.
This is what happened to Jesus! He as the Son of God divested himself of his heavenly and Royal position so that he may be born as a babe. The entire purpose of his birth was to die in a similar way that the Old Testament animals shed their blood for the sins of the people. The major difference was that Jesus led a perfect and sinless life. He was the one and unique and only sacrifice for the sins of mankind. There are those that say we can do certain things to atone for our sins and heal our relationship with God. The problem with that thought is that we are not perfect either. We may try to do good things. However, whatever we do still is insufficient to reconcile ourselves permanently with God and receive the promise of eternal life.
The answer to the question I first asked is “NO” that God did not die on the cross. His body was mortally bruised and afflicted. His body was drained of blood. His body succumbed to death. But the spirit or person that Jesus was did not die. Instead, he prayed on the cross that he committed his spirit onto the Heavenly Father. He dismissed his spirit as a teacher would dismiss her pupils after class. He left his body to death so that three days later he could reenter his healed body in the resurrected form. His body was slain similar to the animals slain in the Old Testament. His blood was shed anticipating forgiveness for sinners. Animals could not do this, but Jesus was able to do it.
The agony and pain that he endured is beyond understanding. The afflictions, the beatings, the stabbing of a spear, the crowning with thorns on his head, the rattled nerve endings exacerbated by the nails in his wrist could not have any comparison to any pain that we could have. He left his body for it to be buried. Three days later he returned to his body so that he might minister to his followers and instruct them in the ways of God. In the same way that we cannot measure what Jesus did on the cross, so could we never major any appreciation to his sacrifice. Because Jesus was resurrected, that message spread throughout the world and became what today we know as Christianity.
Christian Writer 