Skip to the content
Icon of Christ
› ›

Jesus, Death

JesusisKingofKingsJesusisKingofKings
edited February 2006 in Faith Issues
Did Christ's divine nature ? suffer and die with His human body?
I do not think so because while Christ was dead then who would control the universe...

Does not the Father need the Person of the Son? and they can not be seperated can They?

I found (?) this piece from from someone who found it in another coptic forum (?) ... I think it answers one or some of my questions.. I guess maybe you do not have to answer anymore if you knew the answer (?) but if you think you know something you can add then add if you want to.. or if you want to say something okay to say say it..

But I did ask other questions..

"Surely, the Divine Nature is not susceptible to suffering, but when the Human Nature underwent suffering, it was united with the Divine Logos. The Holy Fathers explained this point through the analogy of the red hot iron. They said that when the blacksmith strikes the red hot iron, the hammer is actually striking both the iron and the fire united with it. The iron(Human Nature) alone bends (suffers) while the fire (Divine Nature) is untouched though it bends with the iron. Nevertheless, suffering which is related to the Human Nature can be attributed to the Divine Nature without distinction due to their union, as there is not seperation between the two Natures. St. Paul said, "Shepherd the Church of God which He purchased with His own blood"(Acts 20:28). Here we see St. Paul ascribing the blood to God (Divine Nature) even though God is Spirit(John 4:24) and the Blood is that of His Human Nature. But as we said that after the union of the Two Natures One Entity resulted to which we refer.

Taken from Pope Shenouda's Book, "The Nature of Christ"

Comments

  • Unknown
    No, Christ's divinity did not suffer or die. One has to understand the dictinction between essence/nature and person/hypostasis, to understand what happened. The Eternal Word, is the Person who became incarnate. This Person possessed since time eternity a divine nature, and when He became incarnate He in turn hypostatically united a human nature to Himself. As such, this One Person existed according both a human and a divine state of existence. The divinity of the Person of the Word, was not directly subject to suffering or death, for it was incapable of being subject to such things. The humanity of Christ however, being exactly the same like us in all things except for sin, was able to incur suffering and death. Therefore the person of the Word indeed died, according to His humanity, yet He did not die according to His divinity; possessing both divinity and humanity He experienced both states (death and life) simultaneously. This is the paradox of the Incarnation.
  • JesusisKingofKingsJesusisKingofKings
    Is the suffering of Christs humanity enough to provide atonement?
  • Unknown
    It was God who ultimately suffered and died; we simply say that He suffered and died according to, or by means of His humanity. The Person of the Word, who is God, is a metaphysical aspect of Christ's being; however since He united humanity to Himself hypostatically, He was able to experience physical human things, such as suffering and death.
  • JesusisKingofKingsJesusisKingofKings
    Thankyou for replying again..
Sign In or Register to comment.