Jesus Died Twice

And they made His grave with the wicked, but with the rich at His death(s). (Isaiah 53:9) The Hebrew word for death in this verse is plural, and should be rendered “deaths.” Jesus died twice on the cross.

I watched The Passion of the Christ movie again yesterday. Jesus’ physical sufferings and death, as gruesome and as horrible as they were, did not touch our sin problem. His physical death was only a means to an end. Jesus had to endure our spiritual death for us to be redeemed from sin.

Jesus cried out on the cross as the Father turned away. Jesus literally became our spiritual death. Yes, Jesus died spiritually. He had to in order to bear our sin penalty. The Father made Him who knew no personal sin of His own to become our sin.

Sin is deeper than the physical body. Sin is a nature called spiritual death. Spiritual death is spiritual separation from God. If sin was only a physical condition, then perhaps Jesus physical sufferings could suffice to cleanse it. But because sin is a spiritual condition, then Jesus must bear our sins spiritually, which means He must die spiritually, just like you and me before the New Birth.

Jesus’ Spirit became separated from the Father on the cross. That’s spiritual death. Then He died physically. When Jesus’ Spirit left His body He then went to hell to spiritually pay our sin debt.

When God’s justice was satisfied that Jesus legally paid our sin penalty, Jesus was literally born again in hell. His Spirit became alive unto God once again. He became the first human to ever experience the New Birth. He became the head of a brand new race of men. The New Creation man! That’s the reason Colossians 1 says that Jesus is the firstborn from the dead. He was not only resurrected from physical death. But before the resurrection, He was raised from spiritual death when the Spirit of God came upon Him there in the dark regions of the damned after He paid our sin penalty.

There is no greater love than this.