Exposition

Under this question we are to consider:

I. How Christ is said to have been dead:

II. Whether it was necessary that Christ should die:

III. For whom he has died.

I. How Christ is said to have been dead.
The exposition of this question is necessary on account of heretics who have corrupted the sense of this article. Marcion denied that Christ did truly die, and affirmed also that the whole dispensation of the word in the flesh, and all those things which Christ endured for us were imaginary, and that he had only the appearance of a man, but was not such in reality. Nestorius separated the natures in Christ, and would not admit that the Son of God was crucified, and died; but said that this was true only of the man Christ. “ Do not exult and glory thou Jew, (said he) thou hast not crucified God, but man.” The Ubiquitarians believe that the human nature of Christ, from the moment of the incarnation, was so endowed with all the properties of Deity, that the only difference between this and the Godhead of Christ, is that the former has by accident what the latter has by and of itself. Hence it is, that they imagine that Christ in his death, yea, when he was concealed in the womb of the virgin, was not only as to his Deity, but also as to his body, in heaven, and everywhere. And this is what they call the form of God, concerning which Paul speaks in Phil. 2: 6.

1. But in opposition to all these we believe what is affirmed in the Creed, that Christ was truly dead, and that there was a real separation between his soul and body, and that of a real local character, so that his soul and body were not only not together everywhere, but they were not at the same time in one place; the soul was not where the body was, and the body was not where the soul was. “And Jesus when he had cried again with a loud voice yielded up the ghost“ "And Jesus cried with a loud voice and gave up the ghost.” “Father into thy hands I commend my spirit and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.” “And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost.” (Matt. 27:50. Mark 15:37. Luke 23:46. John 19:30.)

Obj. But he gave up the ghost just as virtue, that is, his Divinity is said to have gone out of him.
Ans. There is a difference here which we must observe; for the Divinity whilst united with the humanity did, nevertheless, operate beyond and without it, but the soul departed from the body. The reason of this difference is, that the Divinity is something uncreated, and therefore infinite, whilst the soul is created, and therefore finite.

2. This is also to be added to what has been said, that although his soul was truly separated from his body, yet the Word did not desert the soul and body, but remained, notwithstanding personally united to each; so that, in this separation of soul and body, the two natures in Christ were not disjoined, or severed.

Obj. But if there was no such separation between the natures of Christ, why did he exclaim, “ My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

Ans. This cry was extorted from the suffering Son of God, not on account of any separation of the two natures, but on account of the delay of help and assistance —for the two natures in Christ ought not to be disjoined, because it is written. “God hath purchased the church with his own blood.” (Acts 20:28.) And it was necessary that he, who would die for our sins, should be the Son of God, that there might thus be a sufficient ransom. So it is also clearly manifest, that the union of the natures in Christ is no ubiquity: for his soul, being separated from his body, was not in the sepulchre with his body, and consequently not everywhere; because that which is everywhere can never be separated. And yet the union of the natures remained complete even in death, and in the grave.