The Bible never says that God died. It was the man Christ Jesus who gave Himself a ransom for all (1 Timothy 2:5-6). Of course, He is both God and man in one person. The Son of God became a human being so that He could die. But the Holy Spirit and the Father are also God, and they did not die on the cross, only the Son.
Sometimes we hear scoffers complain that if Christ is God, and He died on the cross, then God died and that is impossible. They throw this out as a supposed contradiction in the Bible. Or they say it to challenge the deity of Christ. Of course, these objectors usually introduce a problem of their own, defining death as annihilation. They believe that when someone dies, they cease to exist.
What does the Bible teach that death is? It is not annihilation; it is separation. So when Christ died, He did not cease existing. His body went into the grave, and His soul went into the place of departed spirits. Remember how He told the repentant thief, "Today you shall be with Me in paradise."
Death, then, is a separation. It is a separation of the body from the spirit. It is a separation from this world to the next. And that is how we often use the word. We say someone who is sleeping or in some other way unconscious is "dead to the world." What do we mean? We mean that they are out of touch with the world, separated from their surroundings.
Christ's death was more than a physical death. From the cross He cried out, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" As Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree, He came under the judgment of God. He was forsaken by God. This was more than physical death. There on the cross, He experienced spiritual separation.
You ask how such a thing can happen? How can the Prince of Life die? This is something which we cannot comprehend. But I'm glad I don't have to understand the way electricity works before I can use it, or know the chemical construction of a life-saving medicine before I can take it. So it is with many truths in the Bible. You can enjoy their benefits before understanding how they work.
But this much we are told. God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself; yet God could only do this by the Lord Jesus participating in "flesh and blood." Since "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23), the Lord Jesus willingly "tasted death for everyone.
Even then, death had no hold on Him. He voluntarily laid down His life for us. And three days later He took His life back again. Now, however, He lives in "the power of an endless life" and gives this deathless life to all who trust in Him.
