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Scripture informs that God is immortal (1 Tim 6:16) God the (eternal) Son cannot experience death, yet the human incarnation, Jesus, did. John 3:16 "...God gave His only Son..." Am I missing something here?

My focus is on "God gave His only son..." Rather, it seems only a human version of His son. If that's got any validity according to scripture then there must be some proof it isn't so... in scripture.

Ken Graham
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steveowen
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  • Please don't completely change a question that has answers. If you need to edit an old question because you can't ask a new one, can I suggest you edit this one: https://christianity.stackexchange.com/q/77943/6071 Write a flag on it when you're done and we can undelete it. – curiousdannii Apr 05 '21 at 23:40
  • If you run out of old questions without answers and you still have a question ban, then we'll talk about it. But for now, please stick to editing your closed questions that didn't get answers (like the one I linked above, which also has a score of 0, so you won't need to fight against previous downvotes.) – curiousdannii Apr 05 '21 at 23:56
  • Yeah for some reason it hides old (more than 3 months?) delete questions. But I can check for you. I'll actually undelete that one for you now. – curiousdannii Apr 06 '21 at 00:04

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Sometimes we just have to hold our hands up and admit "it's tricky"!

"Great is the mystery of godliness (or "Great is the mystery of our religion of godliness" ?) - God was manifest in the flesh".

God came as close to tasting death as it is possible.

Jesus Christ was and is both man and God.. it isn't always helpful to separate Him into two natures... He was and is one person.. and as one person he was and is the Son of God. And as one person he died for our sins. And as a person, he was loved by the Father. The Father did not only love his divine nature but not his human nature, or say "You are the Son of God merely because you have the divine nature." From the moment the Son of God became incarnate adding a human nature He became the Son of God in his entire person.

When anyone is experiencing the physical pain of dying the only reason they feel the pain is because their body is united to their spirit. As soon as the spirit leaves the body the pain of dying ceases.

Is it not, then, the body that gives the pain and the spirit which receives the pain?

Perhaps such a thought is not correct, but we cannot just assume that Jesus in his divine nature did not taste the pain of death, even though he, in his divine nature, did not actually die.

We experience the pain of death even though at death we, that is our spirits, are still alive.

Is there then any really significant difference between our Lord dying and the death of a believer whose spirit goes to glory upon death, awaiting the resurrection of the body... excepting, of course, that he died not for his own sins but for ours that we might live, and that he experienced all that punishment the scale of which we cannot begin to fathom for all the sins of all his people?

Andrew Shanks
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You have answered your own question already. There is a distinction between the eternal Son and the human incarnation, Jesus. The eternal son does not have a fleshly body. The human body died. The eternal spirit cannot die. Our bodies will die some day while our spirits live forever.

Tony Chan
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    This is not orthodox Trinitarian/Chalcedonian teaching. The Son is a person and incarnate, and so the eternal Son does now have a fleshly body. We too will be resurrected into physical bodies. – curiousdannii Mar 06 '20 at 04:47
  • @Tony Chan - curiousdannii is right. Read 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Your ideas are Greek "wisdom" not Biblical. We need to treat our bodies and everything related to our bodies with reverence, because we are all soul and body - our bodies will be resurrected. – Andrew Shanks Mar 06 '20 at 09:52
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    @andrewshanks The concept of trinty is 'Greek wisdom' is it not? If we have a thought that Jesus is two natures (which has no biblical support) it should be a better narrative than the biblical one it has replaced in orthodoxy. Jesus had a human will that at times resisted the Fathers to a point - but he always submitted in obedience, love and trust. – steveowen Mar 06 '20 at 10:35
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    @user48152 If you want answers from non-Trinitarians then you need to be explicit about that. – curiousdannii Mar 06 '20 at 10:36
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    "Flesh and blood", that is human wisdom, cannot reveal to us who Jesus Christ is. Matthew 16:17. Its a very great wonder to me that I see who he is. Lord, why me?? I think there is more than enough Scripture to show who he is: what we need is to cry out to God to open our eyes, to take the veil away, because of sin. – Andrew Shanks Mar 06 '20 at 10:44
  • @Tonychan - upvoted for 2 points you make *but it needs clarification. 1. It is the spirit of man that will live forever, [not the soul, which is personality - mind, will & emotions], but it was created, so not truly eternal. It will continue to live forever. 2. Jesus is eternal, and eternally existed with the Father & Holy Spirit. He has a fleshly body now, but it's a different, glorified body. We too will have different glorified bodies at the resurrection. – Tennman7 Jan 10 '21 at 14:29