The famous hymn of the church “And Can it Be?” contains a line that asks a very poignant question : “How can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me?” Is it accurate to say that God died on the cross?
This kind of expression is popular in hymnody and in grassroots conversation. So although I have this scruple about the hymn and it bothers me that the expression is there, I think I understand it, and there’s a way to give an indulgence for it.
We believe that Jesus Christ was God incarnate. We also believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross. If we say that God died on the cross, and if by that we mean that the divine nature perished, we have stepped over the edge into serious heresy. In fact, two such heresies related to this problem arose in the early centuries of the church: theopassianism and patripassianism. The first of these, theopassianism, teaches that God Himself suffered death on the cross. Patripassianism indicates that the Father suffered vicariously through the suffering of His Son. Both of these heresies were roundly rejected by the church for the very reason that they categorically deny the very character and nature of God, including His immutability. There is no change in the substantive nature or character of God at any time. Keep reading
This excerpt is from R.C. Sproul’s The Truth of the Cross. Download the digital audiobook free through April 30, 2014.
2 comments:
This comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the Triune God. There is the Father (God Himself), the Son (The Word of God), and the Holy Spirit (The Spirit of God). When Jesus died, was buried, and sprang forth with a transformed human body (in its fulfilled form), the Word of God (including the Covenant of the Law), like a seed, “died”, was planted, and sprang forth in its fulfilled form, the Covenant of Grace. The Word of God may have “died”, but surely did not pass away, rather was fulfilled. When the sin of the world was placed upon Jesus and He was executed, the covenant became completed. Once a contract is completed, it is finished. It doesn’t pass away; it is simply completed. Of course, God then gave us the new Covenant of Grace.
In baptism, we are united with Christ in His death and resurrection. Our old self who is under the Law, dies with Christ and the Law, and our new self is resurrected with Christ with the Law fulfilled, under Grace in all fruitfulness.
To be clear, I am not speaking some Arian heresy or some form of modalism. Those beliefs are still in error. God’s Word is still God, just as my word is still me.
Much confusion regarding the Bible occurs due to a faulty understanding of the Threeness and Oneness of God. I hope that what I just posted will, with the Holy Spirit, illumine the understanding of Scripture.
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