Question about God and Man

[JoyToTheWhirled]

Forgive my ignorance, I am trying to work out some stuff to do with Jesus. I have always been taught that on the cross, only the human part of Jesus died, God did not. But as I am learning more about the Trinity and the Incarnation, I am becoming more aware of the union between God and Man in Christ and wondering if it is appropriate to make a separation between them. In fact I am wondering if that is Nestorianism? I may have got my heresies mixed up here, so I am wondering if anyone can help?**

 

[pianistclare]

Talk to God as you would a loving Father.
Pray to God in worship.
Ask the Holy Spirit for guidance daily.
Cultivate Christ as your brother and closest friend, and especially, REDEEMER.
Try not to over think things.
God bless you.

 

[Wesrock]

The person of Jesus died on the cross. That person was both God and man, two natures united in one person. Therefore, it can be said that God (the Son) died on the cross.

 

[1neophyte]

Talk to God as you would a loving Father.
Pray to God in worship.
Ask the Holy Spirit for guidance daily.
Cultivate Christ as your brother and closest friend, and especially, REDEEMER.
Try not to over think things.
God bless you.

I second this!

 

[Aaron_I]

Forgive my ignorance, I am trying to work out some stuff to do with Jesus. I have always been taught that on the cross, only the human part of Jesus died, God did not. But as I am learning more about the Trinity and the Incarnation, I am becoming more aware of the union between God and Man in Christ and wondering if it is appropriate to make a separation between them. In fact I am wondering if that is Nestorianism? I may have got my heresies mixed up here, so I am wondering if anyone can help?**

Very insightful.

1. It is inappropriate to make a separation. It is the Nestorian heresy.
2. The full union of Christ’s humanity and divinity (he is both fully human and fully divine) is called the hypostatic union.
3. This is the primary reason and importance of understanding Mary as the Theotokos (“God Bearer”) or Mother of God. Some Protestants try to deny this, saying that Mary is the Mother of Jesus’ humanity but not his divinity (thereby not Mother of God), but this is Nestorianism.

 

[Lenten_ashes]

Yes, this used to be my understanding as a protestant as well, and it’s incorrect.

A divine person died on the cross.

You may receive objections from Muslims or others who say that cant be possible, God cant die and still govern the universe. But as Augustine once said, humanity was attached to God, but God was not detached from Himself.

 

[JoyToTheWhirled]

Thanks for all your advice, both those who answered the query and those who wisely told .me not to over think. I value both responses!

 

[Usagi]

Remember that, even for us humans, “die” doesn’t mean “cease to exist.” God the Son experienced a human death — soul separated from body and time spent in the grave/Sheol/Hades/the Limbo of the Fathers. At no point did that require God to stop existing and upholding the universe, nor did it require a separation within the Trinity.

Likewise, when we assert that God the Son was conceived and born and had a mother, we are not claiming that as the beginning of His existence (though His human body and soul did have a beginning), but rather and quite rightly that He underwent human conception and birth.