A detailed biblical research infographic examining the question: Can God become a man and die, as Jesus did? It compares Scriptures describing God as immortal with passages identifying Jesus as a man, the Son of Man and the Son of God who died and was raised from the dead by God.
QUICK FACTS: CAN GOD BECOME A MAN AND DIE, AS JESUS DID?
IF GOD CANNOT DIE, BUT JESUS DIED, WHAT DOES THAT TELL US ABOUT JESUS?
There is one question concerning the identity of Jesus that every Christian should seriously consider:
CAN GOD ALMIGHTY DIE?
This is not merely a philosophical question.
It goes directly to the heart of the Gospel because Christianity depends upon one absolutely essential event:
JESUS CHRIST REALLY DIED FOR OUR SINS.
Paul tells us:
1 CORINTHIANS 15:3 — BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE
“Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.”
Therefore, Jesus could not merely appear to die.
Nor can his death be reduced to something happening merely to his physical body while the actual person of Jesus remained alive elsewhere.
The Gospel declares:
CHRIST DIED.
He was buried.
And God raised him from the dead.
So if God Almighty is inherently immortal and cannot die, yet Jesus genuinely did die, we have an extremely important question to answer:
WAS JESUS GOD ALMIGHTY — OR THE MORTAL SON OF THE IMMORTAL GOD?
Let us examine the biblical evidence.
JESUS WAS A MAN
The New Testament repeatedly identifies Jesus as a man.
Jesus himself said:
JOHN 8:40 — BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE
“But now you seek to kill Me, a man who has spoken to you the truth, which I heard from God.”
Notice carefully what Jesus says.
He identifies himself as:
“A MAN”
and distinguishes himself from:
“GOD”
from whom he heard the truth.
Paul makes the distinction equally clear:
1 TIMOTHY 2:5 — BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE
“For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
Paul identifies two:
ONE GOD
and
THE MAN CHRIST JESUS.
Jesus is the mediator between God and humanity.
The mediator is not the God to whom he mediates.
JESUS WAS THE SON OF MAN
Jesus repeatedly called himself:
THE SON OF MAN.
For example:
MATTHEW 20:28 — BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE
“Even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
Jesus therefore identifies himself as the Son of Man who would give his life.
Now compare this with what Scripture says about God:
NUMBERS 23:19
“God is not a man… nor a son of man…”
The contrast deserves serious consideration.
God is not a man.
Jesus was a man.
God is not a son of man.
Jesus repeatedly called himself the Son of Man.
If we begin with Scripture rather than a later theological formula, this distinction is difficult to ignore.
JESUS REALLY DIED
Now we reach the central issue.
Jesus did not merely lose consciousness.
Jesus did not merely abandon his physical body.
JESUS DIED.
Paul summarizes the Gospel:
1 CORINTHIANS 15:3–4 — BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE
“Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”
Look carefully at the sequence:
CHRIST DIED.
CHRIST WAS BURIED.
CHRIST WAS RAISED.
The person who died is the person who was subsequently raised.
Scripture does not say:
“Only the human nature of Christ died.”
It says:
“CHRIST DIED.”
GOD, HOWEVER, IS IMMORTAL
Now compare the death of Jesus with Paul's description of God.
1 TIMOTHY 6:16 — BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE
Paul describes God as:
“the only One having immortality…”
Immortality means being not subject to death.
This presents us with the fundamental question:
IF GOD CANNOT DIE, HOW COULD GOD DIE ON THE CROSS?
Jesus died.
God is immortal.
Therefore, saying simply:
“JESUS IS GOD”
creates a question that must be answered rather than assumed away.
THE TRADITIONAL “TWO NATURES” ANSWER
Traditional Trinitarian theology recognizes this difficulty.
It therefore explains that Jesus possessed two natures:
a divine nature
and
a human nature.
The usual explanation is that Jesus died according to his human nature, while his divine nature remained immortal.
But here we must ask an extremely important question:
WHERE DOES SCRIPTURE SAY THAT?
Where does the Bible say:
“JESUS' HUMAN NATURE DIED, WHILE HIS DIVINE NATURE REMAINED ALIVE”?
There is no verse that says this.
This is a later theological explanation designed to reconcile two propositions:
Jesus is God.
and
Jesus died.
But Scripture itself uses much simpler language:
JESUS CHRIST DIED.
DID ONLY PART OF JESUS DIE?
This becomes extremely important.
If Jesus' supposed divine nature remained consciously alive and immortal throughout his death, then in what sense did the whole person Jesus Christ actually die?
The Bible does not describe Jesus as:
partly dead and partly alive.
It does not say:
his humanity was dead while his deity remained alive.
Instead:
CHRIST DIED.
Then:
GOD RAISED CHRIST FROM THE DEAD.
Peter declares:
ACTS 2:24
God raised Jesus up, releasing him from death.
Again we have two clearly distinguishable subjects:
GOD — THE ONE WHO RAISED.
JESUS — THE ONE WHO WAS DEAD AND WAS RAISED.
WITHOUT THE DEATH OF JESUS, THERE IS NO GOSPEL
This is why the issue matters enormously.
The death of Jesus is not an optional detail of Christianity.
Jesus' death is the sacrifice through which forgiveness and salvation are proclaimed.
Paul says:
“CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS.”
If Christ did not genuinely die, then Christ did not genuinely die for our sins.
And if Christ was not genuinely raised from death, Paul's argument becomes devastating:
1 CORINTHIANS 15:17
“And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.”
Therefore:
THE REAL DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS ARE ESSENTIAL TO CHRISTIAN FAITH.
We cannot redefine death in such a way that Jesus remained alive throughout the very period Scripture describes as his death.
WHAT ABOUT JESUS' “DIVINE NATURE”?
Another distinction must be made.
Jesus can perfectly express and reveal the nature, character and glory of his Father without therefore being the immortal God himself.
Paul calls Jesus:
COLOSSIANS 1:15
“the image of the invisible God.”
Hebrews describes the Son as the radiance of God's glory and the exact expression of His substance.
But being the image of God distinguishes Jesus from the God whose image he bears.
Jesus himself said:
JOHN 14:9
“The one having seen Me has seen the Father.”
Why?
Because Jesus perfectly revealed his Father.
God's character, authority, words and works were manifested through His Son.
But sharing or displaying God's nature does not automatically mean possessing God's inherent immortality.
And Scripture demonstrates the difference very dramatically:
GOD CANNOT DIE.
JESUS DID DIE.
THE SIGN OF JONAH IS VERY IMPORTANT
Jesus himself prophesied what would happen to him.
MATTHEW 12:40 — BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE
“For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
Notice who Jesus says would be in the heart of the earth:
THE SON OF MAN.
He does not say:
“My body will be there while I remain alive elsewhere.”
Nor does he say:
“My human nature will die while my divine nature continues consciously living.”
Jesus speaks about himself.
The Son of Man would be in the heart of the earth.
And the rest of Scripture explains what happened:
CHRIST DIED.
CHRIST WAS BURIED.
CHRIST WAS RAISED ON THE THIRD DAY.
That is the sign of Jonah in the context of Jesus' death and resurrection.
WHAT ABOUT THE “SPIRITS IN PRISON”?
Some Christians argue that Jesus remained consciously alive after his crucifixion and went to preach to spirits in prison, usually appealing to 1 Peter 3:18–20.
But that passage should not simply be assumed to mean:
“JESUS WAS ALIVE WHILE HIS BODY WAS DEAD.”
Peter's difficult statement must be interpreted alongside the Bible's much clearer statements concerning Christ's death and resurrection.
We should not allow one disputed passage to overturn the repeated proclamation:
JESUS DIED.
JESUS WAS BURIED.
GOD RAISED JESUS FROM THE DEAD.
Whatever Peter means concerning the spirits in prison, the passage does not explicitly teach the later Trinitarian formula:
“Jesus' human nature was dead while his divine nature remained consciously alive.”
WHAT ABOUT JOHN 1:1?
Many Christians will immediately ask:
What about:
JOHN 1:1?
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Then John says:
JOHN 1:14 — BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…”
The crucial question is:
WHAT WAS “THE WORD”?
The Greek word logos can describe God's word, message, expression, reason or purpose.
Under the interpretation I have come to accept, Jesus is what God's word became when it became flesh.
Notice John's wording:
“THE WORD BECAME FLESH.”
John does not actually say:
“God the Son transformed himself into flesh.”
That terminology is not in the verse.
God's word, wisdom, purpose and promise became embodied in:
THE MAN JESUS CHRIST.
HEBREWS SAYS GOD SPOKE THROUGH HIS SON “IN THESE LAST DAYS”
Hebrews begins:
HEBREWS 1:1–2 — BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE
“God, having spoken long ago to our fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son…”
Notice the contrast:
Previously:
GOD SPOKE THROUGH THE PROPHETS.
But:
“IN THESE LAST DAYS”
God has spoken through:
HIS SON.
The passage distinguishes:
GOD — the One speaking
from
HIS SON — the One through whom God speaks.
YAHWEH SAYS HE CREATED EVERYTHING
Isaiah gives us another crucial piece of evidence.
ISAIAH 44:24
Yahweh declares that He made all things, stretched out the heavens and spread out the earth.
The language emphasizes Yahweh's unique creative sovereignty:
YAHWEH MADE ALL THINGS.
Likewise:
ISAIAH 45:18
Yahweh identifies Himself as Creator and declares:
“I AM YAHWEH, AND THERE IS NO OTHER.”
And:
ISAIAH 45:5
“I AM YAHWEH, AND THERE IS NO OTHER; BESIDES ME THERE IS NO GOD.”
These passages must form part of any biblical investigation into whether Jesus existed alongside God as another divine person participating in creation.
JESUS HIMSELF SAID HE WAS THE SON OF GOD
Perhaps we should finish where Jesus himself directs us.
Jesus said:
JOHN 10:36 — BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE
“You are blaspheming,” because I said, “I am Son of God”?
Jesus does not defend himself by saying:
“I AM GOD.”
He identifies his claim as:
“I AM SON OF GOD.”
John then tells us exactly why he wrote his Gospel:
JOHN 20:31 — BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE
“But these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”
John wants us to believe:
JESUS IS THE CHRIST.
JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD.
THE BIBLICAL FACTS
Put the evidence together:
God is immortal.
Jesus died.
Jesus was a man.
Jesus was the Son of Man.
Jesus was buried.
Jesus said he would be in the heart of the earth.
God raised Jesus from the dead.
Jesus called himself the Son of God.
Jesus identified his Father as the only true God.
Paul identified:
“ONE GOD”
as:
“THE FATHER.”
1 CORINTHIANS 8:6
And Jesus prayed:
JOHN 17:3 — BEREAN LITERAL BIBLE
“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
FINAL CONCLUSION
IF GOD CANNOT DIE, BUT JESUS REALLY DIED, HOW CAN JESUS BE THE IMMORTAL GOD WHO CANNOT DIE?
Saying that only Jesus' human nature died while his divine nature remained immortal does not come from an explicit biblical statement.
More importantly, it raises the very question it is supposed to solve:
WHO ACTUALLY DIED FOR OUR SINS?
The Bible's answer is:
CHRIST DIED FOR OUR SINS.
Not merely a nature.
Not merely a body.
CHRIST DIED.
He was buried.
And:
GOD RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD.
This genuine death is absolutely essential because without Christ's death for our sins and his resurrection from the dead, the Gospel itself collapses.
The biblical distinction is beautifully simple:
GOD IS IMMORTAL.
JESUS, THE SON OF GOD, DIED FOR OUR SINS.
GOD RAISED HIS SON FROM THE DEAD.
And therefore we should believe exactly what John tells us he wrote his Gospel to establish:
“JESUS IS THE CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD.”
JOHN 20:31
Research by Simon Brown
wwwrealdiscoveriesorg-simon.blogspot.com
