How can god die?

Reflection

The question of how God can die sits at the very centre of Christian theology and has occupied serious thinkers since the earliest centuries of the church. The classical answer lies in the doctrine of the incarnation: in Jesus Christ, God the Son took on full humanity while remaining fully divine, so that it was his human nature that suffered and died on the cross, not the divine nature ceasing to exist. This is why the creeds insist on both truths together, fully God and fully man, rather than choosing one over the other. Philippians 2 describes Christ emptying himself, taking the form of a servant, and becoming obedient to death. The mystery is real and has never been fully resolved by analogy, but it stands at the heart of why Christians believe the cross reveals both the depth of God's love and his willingness to enter human suffering completely.

Questions to sit with

• What does it mean to you that God chose to enter human suffering rather than remain distant from it?
• How do you personally hold together the mystery of Christ being fully God and fully man?
• Does Philippians 2 change how you understand humility?

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