The Substitutionary Physical Death of Jesus Christ

The Lord Jesus Christ, through His human nature, suffered a spiritual and physical death on the cross, as a substitute for each and every member of the human race-past, present and future.

These substitutionary deaths dealt with several problems for fallen humanity.

They provided deliverance from eternal condemnation, condemnation from the Law, spiritual death, the sin nature, personal sins, slavery to Satan and his cosmic system.

This deliverance is appropriated through alone in Jesus Christ alone.

However, today’s class will concentrate on the relationship between the physical death of Christ in relation to the sin nature.

Through the function of human volition, the sin nature produces personal sin, mental, verbal and overt acts of sin.

Spiritual death is the direct result of Adam’s original sin in the Garden of Eden.

His progeny, namely the human race are now sinners by nature because of his disobedience.

His sin not only plunged him into spiritual death but also his progeny which results in physical death and ultimately eternal condemnation.

Therefore, in order to solve these problems of the human race, our Lord had to suffer these deaths as a substitute for sinful humanity.

Our Lord’s spiritual death is recorded in Matthew 27:46.

Matthew 27:45 Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. 46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “ELI, ELI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?” that is, “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?” (NASB95)

When the Lord Jesus Christ cried out “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? He was experiencing spiritual death meaning that in His human nature He was abandoned by His heavenly Father in the sense that He loss fellowship with the Father.

In John 19:30, the Lord triumphantly said “It is finished” while He was still alive and which statement refers to the payment of our sins.

John 19:30 Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!’ And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.” (NASB95)

Therefore, it was His spiritual death that was the payment for our sins and not His physical death since the consequences of the human race possessing a sin nature and committing personal sins is spiritual death.

In His sinless human nature, our Lord suffered the loss of fellowship with the Father during those last three hours of darkness on the cross so that we might never suffer the second death in the eternal lake of fire, which is eternal loss of fellowship with God.

Therefore, God the Father considers Christ’s spiritual death to be the believer’s since this death dealt with the believer’s problem of real spiritual death.

The physical death of our Lord is recorded in the Gospels (Matthew 27:47-50; Mark 15:22-40; Luke 23:33-49; John 19:16-30).

The Lord Jesus Christ did “not” die from suffocation or exhaustion, nor did He bleed to death, or die of a broken heart but rather He died unlike any person in history, namely by His own volition.

Remember what our Lord said in John 10:18.

If He had bled to death, He would have fainted.

The Lord Jesus Christ was in total control of His faculties and was totally and completely alert throughout all His suffering on the cross.

Our Lord’s voluntary physical death was another indication to those observing Him at the cross that He was indeed the Son of God.

He died like no other man in history, namely, of His own choosing.

This is why the centurion stated that our Lord was the Son of God.

Matthew 27:50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. (NASB95)

“Yielded up” is the aorist active indicative form of the verb aphiemi, “to dismiss, to release, to let go.”

The aorist tense of the verb is a culminative aorist, which emphasizes the completed act of the Lord Jesus Christ’s physical death.

The active voice expresses the fact that the Lord Jesus died of His own volition since the active voice indicates that the subject produces the action of the verb.

The Lord is the only human being in history to dismiss His own spirit from His body.

Every human being dies physically as a result of a sovereign decision of God but here the Lord chooses to die physically.

Our Lord’s burial is recorded in John 19:38-42.

The perfect sinless humanity of Christ was born trichotomous: (1) Body (2) Soul (3) Spirit.

Therefore, our Lord’s physical death was unique because it was a trichotomous separation:

(1) His physical body went to the grave (Luke 23:50-53).

(2) His human spirit went to heaven (Luke 23:46; John 19:30).

(3) His human soul went into Paradise a compartment of Hades (Luke 23:43; Acts 2:27; 2:31; Eph. 4:9).

The Lord was brought back from the dead by three categories of divine omnipotence:

(1) Omnipotence of God the Father sent back our Lord’s human spirit to the body in the grave (Acts 2:24; Rom. 6:4; Eph. 1:20; Col. 2:12; 1 Thess. 1:10; 1 Pet. 1:21).

(2) Omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit sent back our Lord’s human soul to the body in the grave (Rom. 1:4; 8:11; 1 Pet. 3:18).

(3) Omnipotence of God the Son raised His physical body from the grave (John 2:20-23; 6:39-40, 54 10:17-18).

The Lord Jesus Christ died physically in order to deal with the problem of the sin nature in the human race, which is located in the physical body of a person as a result of God imputing Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden to every person at the moment of physical birth.

Therefore, the Christian’s problem with his indwelling Adamic sin nature is resolved when they are identified with Christ in His physical death through the baptism of the Holy Spirit the moment they were declared justified through faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior (Romans 6:1-10).