Who died on the cross?

Brenda asked Matt Yester on Veritas 2020-12-07.

If Jesus died on the cross, did his human nature or his God nature died? Did God die? Is the father the son?

During the discussion, M. Yester said all of the following:

• “The Father is God”
• “The Son is God”
• “The Holy Spirit is God”
• “God is the Father”
• “God is the Son”
• “God is the Holy Spirit”
• “The Father is not the Son”
• “The Son is not the Father”
• “The Father is not the Holy Spirit”
• “The Holy Spirit is not the Father”
• “The Son is not the Holy Spirit”
• “The Holy Spirit is not the Son”

The conclusion is that Matt Yester admits that there are separate wills, but his caveat is that the wills are “identical”. Ultimately, our conclusion is that separate wills, separate bodies, and so on, indicate separateness.

Here are a few starting points for this:

• What is God's Name?
• Trinity
• Jesus is not God
• Christian Scriptures on Jesus and God

Q: So if Jesus's human nature (only) died on the cross, why couldn't any human being do it?

• Jesus represents an ultimate value as the “Son of God”.
• he never sinned – represented righteousness
• He became a high priest after the order of “melek-zedek”
  • Why high priest? To fulfil all points of the law ( ex. to authorize the sacrifice )

Some of these are trivial to refute, such as “after the order of melchizedek” which was given to Abraham and does not represent Jesus. Others, such as a value proposition, are assumptions and not mentioned in the text (even the existance of such an “only begotten” son of god is found nowhere in scripture).

Q: When we say that only Jesus' human nature died on the cross, does this imply that only Jesus' human nature kept the law perfectly? Or is there some link between the two (such that they are not separate, perhaps) to the point where God granted Jesus grace to keep the law, in order to consecrate him as a perfect or righteous sacrifice?

• No answer!