Christians believe that Jesus died for our sins, but they also believe that Jesus rose from the dead, that is, Jesus did not die after all. If Jesus did not really die, then he wasn’t really sacrificed, was he? Cf. If you slaughtered an animal in order to sacrifice it to your god(s), but it came back to life immediately, was the animal sacrificed?
Indeed, if you believe that Jesus is God, and that God cannot die, then you have to believe that Jesus cannot die either. You can at most believe that that human organism which was Jesus' body ceased to function and then was revived by God. (This was, by the way, no big deal for God. Remember, God is omnipotent!) But then this would be compatible with Jesus the person not being dead at any time. If Jesus is God, then there was no point of time at which the person Jesus --- who is God --- was dead.
So, strictly speaking, Jesus was not sacrificed; it was Jesus' body that was sacrificed (even this, as I pointed out in the first paragraph, is questionable since his body was revived). But there is no reason to believe that that particular human body was so special that the sacrifice of it was sufficient for redeeming us, for God could easily have taken on another human body.
It may be objected that if, as Christians believe, humans have an immaterial soul, then in the sense in which Jesus did not die, humans whose bodies ceased to function did not die either, nor, for that reason,could any of them be sacrificed. True, but that only strengthens my point. If not even humans can be sacrificed, then how could Jesus be sacrificed? (There is, however, an important difference between normal humans and Jesus: even if humans have an immaterial soul, a human soul can be destroyed by God, while Jesus cannot cease to exist.)
Jesus was supposed to be a human being. It's up for debate whether you want to identify personhood with human being. If you thought that 'death' is a biological phenomenon or process, then it seems that it is most appropriate for biologically living things to die. Given that, Jesus 'dies' in the sense of dying in the way that any biological thing dies. I don't think that the supposed resurrection is inconsistent with Jesus qua human being dying - after all, we do talk about human beings dying and then being revived - we don't say in those cases that they never really died.
ReplyDeleteyour colleague, JWH
"Christians believe that Jesus died for our sins, but they also believe that Jesus rose from the dead, that is, Jesus did not die after all. If Jesus did not really die, then he wasn’t really sacrificed, was he? Cf. If you slaughtered an animal in order to sacrifice it to your god(s), but it came back to life immediately, was the animal sacrificed?"
ReplyDeletei. According to the Bible, Jesus died and three days later rose from the grave. The Scriptures teach that upon the cross Jesus absorbed the wrath of God (i.e. the punishment for sin) for those that repent and believe in Him. In this sense it is true that Jesus was a sacrifice to God. The scriptures teach He did die. We see a clear example of this in the gospel of John. According to John’s account Jesus was flogged, nailed to a cross, and stabbed in the side with a spear. The spear is recorded as making blood and water gush out of Jesus. This implies that the spear hit a vital organ. All of these reasons led John to say He died. Now if Jesus died and then arose three days later this does not imply that He did not absorb God’s wrath. Further, there is no Scriptural regulation in the case of sacrifices raising from the dead. Nor does the gospels tell us that Christ immediately came back to life. In addition to this, Jesus was not a mere animal sacrifice, He claimed to be God incarnate.
"Indeed, if you believe that Jesus is God, and that God cannot die, then you have to believe that Jesus cannot die either. You can at most believe that that human organism which was Jesus' body ceased to function and then was revived by God. (This was, by the way, no big deal for God. Remember, God is omnipotent!) But then this would be compatible with Jesus the person not being dead at any time. If Jesus is God, then there was no point of time at which the person Jesus --- who is God --- was dead."
i. The Bible teaches that Jesus was both truly God and truly man (Hypostatic union). First it depends on what you mean by “die.” It is true God cannot die in the sense that He cannot cease to exist. But within the incarnation, Jesus as both God and man could separate His spirit and body. In this sense He could die. And this would be consistent with the Christian’s understanding of death, which is separation of spirit and body.