Can God Die? - Ask Pastor Tim

So this one's from Alex.

"Hello, Pastor Tim.

Thank you for the Pastor Tim series.

I have found it to be
a great resource for me.

I was witnessing to a Muslim man

in Africa last summer

who asked a very difficult question."

So this guy's thinking this question

from this Muslim in Africa

is a very difficult question.

Now, I'll let you guys size
up the difficulty of it.

"Jesus is both God and man.

So when He died,

did His divine nature die?"

You see the question.

When He died, did His divine nature die?

"If so, then did God really die?

But, if only His human nature died,

what's the big deal about
Him dying as a man?

How would you answer this question?"

And here's what it seems like happened.

You have a Christian.

Here's a Muslim.

And he's saying, look, if Jesus Christ

has two natures - both God and man -

but He only died as a man,

but as God, He didn't die,

the Muslim is posing the question:

what's the big deal?

In other words, what he
seems like he's saying is,

He didn't really die.

It's not legit.

And I would say that the problem

that this man is falling into

as to why it's so difficult

is I'm just surmising here -

it was so difficult because he was

trying to figure out how to answer the man

perhaps without Scripture.

Like, how can I establish

that Him dying as a man

really is significant when He's God

and as God He didn't die?

And so, it's really difficult
because he's thinking,

I don't know how to answer that.

But the first thing I would say is,

look, is He God?

Yes.

The Word was with God
and the Word was God.

My Lord and my God.

Is He man?

The Word became flesh.

We know He's God and man.

Just thinking about the attributes of God.

Can God die?

In fact, I think one of the things
that we need to think about

is what is death?

See, I think sometimes there's even

a wrong concept about what death is,

and so we start thinking all wrong

even at that level.

But what is death?

(from the room): The wages for sin.

Tim: That's the cause of it,

but what is it actually.

(from the room):
Separation of soul and body.

(unintelligible)

Tim: But what is life?

What was somebody just saying?

(from the room): Separation
from God's favor and grace.

Tim: What is life?

What is eternal life?

To know God.

The idea of death - you
think of the second death -

it's outer darkness.

The idea of death is separation.

(incomplete thought)

And see, the thing is,

when you think about eternal life,

eternal life is about knowing God.

And so the idea of God
failing to know God;

the idea of God being separated from God;

the idea of God being cast away from God -

you see, how could God die?

That's the point I'm making.

We could very easily say,

think about the attributes of God.

It's not possible for God to die.

But more than that, if you
think about what death is,

you just recognize,

God can't be separated from Himself.

He is life. He is life.

How can He fail to be what He is?

(from the room):
The grave could not contain Him.

Tim: But the thing is,

what you don't ever want to let anybody do

is disarm you of Scripture.

And it doesn't matter if they're Muslim;

it doesn't matter if they're JW's;

it doesn't matter who they are.

Look, just because a Jehovah's Witness

says that John 1:1 is not in their Bible

the way it is in yours,

doesn't mean you don't
continue to quote it to them.

Just because a Muslim says,

if Jesus Christ was both God and man

and He didn't die as God,

His death as man is basically meaningless.

You know what that is?
Do you know what that is?

He's just making that up.

That's just his own thoughts.

Have you ever read
what it says in Isaiah 55?

"Let the wicked forsake his way..."

and what?

"...the unrighteous man his thoughts."

You know what?

We shouldn't doubt that
unrighteous men like Muslims

have wicked thoughts.

They need to forsake those.

They need to repent of those.

And don't lay down your Bibles

when you come face to face with a Muslim.

Because here's the thing,

does Scripture say that
Jesus is both God and man?

Yes, it does.

Can God die? No, God cannot die.

God is life.

But can Jesus the man die?

Scripture repeatedly says Christ died.

But does it say that because God can't die

and He's God - man can die and He did die.

Does it therefore relegate His
death to meaninglessness?

It never does!

That's just that guy's thought.

Just because somebody says it,

doesn't make it true.

And it doesn't make it
an impossible question

for me to answer.

The reality is what?

The reality is His death
wasn't meaningless.

Now look, that connection
between God and man -

there's mystery.

And you know what?
You don't need to be afraid

to tell somebody of a false religion.

You know, sometimes we feel like

we have to have an answer for everything.

But there can be times when we say

it's a mystery.

There's mystery in this.

Christ died, but nowhere
does the Bible say

that because He didn't die as God,

that somehow that is not a big deal.

I mean, what does Scripture say?

Does Scripture make His
death out to be a big deal?

I mean, you think about Jesus Himself.

He's imagining that cup.

You see Him in the garden.

This is the cup.

This is the death.

Brethren, what's the death?

My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?

That's where the death is.

That's the separation.

Where have You gone?
I've lost my God.

I've lost His smile.

I've lost His light.

I've lost His goodness.
I've lost His mercy.

I'm separated from it.

He was made sin.

And does He just look at it and say,

oh, I'm God and man, so this really -

it's nothing.

I can just laugh at it.

He's sweating as it were
great drops of blood

and He's pleading with His Father:

Please, take this cup away from Me.

Have you ever read
what it says in Luke 12?

It says even as He was seeing it coming,

He says I have a baptism
to be baptized with.

And that approach - you know,
He walked His life that way,

in light of that approaching death,

and He said I'm in distress

until it's accomplished.

It was not a light matter.

Do you know what Scripture says?

"God so loved..."

Do you want to see an expression of love?

That's not a small thing.

He so loved that He gave His Son.

And when it says He
spared not His own Son,

that means He gave Him up to death.

Have you ever read Isaiah 53?
Of course, you have.

You think that's a light matter?

Do you think you just let a Muslim

just run roughshod over you?

Like, it doesn't matter,

He's God so His death
as a man doesn't matter.

What do you mean it doesn't matter?

He was stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted.

And it said He was
crushed for our iniquities.

You better believe it was a huge deal.

It's there that sin was paid for.

And it was at a price -

a ransom price,

that nothing else could pay

to purchase us from our sins.

No price so great.

And you start to think
about the glory of God,

and the infinity of hell.

Listen, that cross, we can rightly measure

what our sins are -

the heinousness of it.

The beauty is that He wasn't just a man,

so that that death would not be

just sufficient for a one-to-one trade.

How is it that His death,
the death of one man,

can pay for a number
that is like the stars

out in that night sky?

It's because there was
value beyond just a man.

Listen, there is mystery here,

but we needed a man to die.

Why? Because He came under the law -

a law given to man.

He came to satisfy a law for man.

And He came to satisfy the wages of sin;

the wage of breaking that law.

He became a curse for us.

He had to be a man.

He had to bear the curse of the law

that was given to man.

He had to die the death
that man had to die.

And there had to be somehow in it

the value to pay for an
untold number of people.

How does that happen?

It happens when God and man

are to be found in the same individual.