I was asked the other day on Facebook if Jesus really died. Seems like a silly question, but the follow up was, “If Jesus died, did the Trinity cease to exist?” Here’s my response:
Jesus died like you and I die. His body and spirit separated (Matt 27:50; Luke 23:46). Unlike ours, of course, Jesus’ Spirit is divine.
He didn’t cease to exist for the three days His body lay in the tomb. He said He would be in paradise that very day with the thief on the cross (Luke 23:43). At the end of the three days his body lay in the tomb, He raised that body from the dead (John 2:18-22). That’s pretty hard to do if you’re dead of even unconscious. So, Jesus’ spirit wasn’t dead, just His body.
Just as a side note here, our spirits never die either. We just need to decide where we will spend eternity: smoking or non-smoking (Matt. 25:46)
In the December 23rd post, “Jesus the God man,” we looked at the two natures of Jesus: human and divine. While Jesus emptied Himself of the use of His attributes as God (Phil 2:5-10), His divine nature was intact. I like to use the example of the eye for this. The nature of the eye is to see. When we close our eyelids over our eyes, we drape them in flesh, we can’t see. But the eye’s nature hasn’t changed. In the same way, Jesus divine nature didn’t end simply because it was draped in flesh. He never ceased to be God.
We also saw in “Jesus the God man” that Jesus is God (2 Peter 1:1), and God never dies (Ps. 90:2).
So, no, Jesus never ceased to exist. His body died and lay dead for three days in the tomb until He Himself raised it along with the Father (Gal. 1:1) and the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:11). His divine Spirit, however, was alive and active. The Trinity remained intact.
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