THE PARADOX OF THE IMMORTAL TAKING ON MORTALITY ONLY TO DIE BAFFLES MANY MINDS. There Is Certainly A Lack Of Consistency When The Bible Says Jesus Was The Pre-existent Son Of God Before He Came To Earth To Die. If Jesus died, He would have had to not exist, but this depends upon how one views death.

How was Jesus killed if he was immortal?

Happy Riches answer requested by anonymous

What a fascinating question. The death of the immortal. Sounds like a koan.
What is immortal?

The Collins English Dictionary (complete and unabridged) states:

1. not subject to death or decay; having perpetual life
2. having everlasting fame; remembered throughout time
3. everlasting; perpetual; constant

The fact that Jesus was killed by crucifixion at the hands of Roman soldiers tells us that the human was subject to death. Therefore, according to the first definition, (1) Jesus was not immortal.

The fact Jesus is remembered today, he appears to have received everlasting fame for his death. The question of whether this will ever end is another matter. Nevertheless, according to the second definition, (2) Jesus appears to have achieved immortality.

The fact that Jesus has appeared to me on numerous occasions, and I have experienced a perpetuating relationship with Him since the first time He appeared before me, tells me that Jesus has everlasting life. Therefore, according to the third definition, (3) Jesus is an immortal being

After having come to know Lord Jesus Christ and learn that He rose from the dead, I have come to accept the account of His death and resurrection as recorded in the Bible as true. More than this, I have come to learn that the Bible explains how Jesus could be fully human and possess mortality in the flesh while, at the same time, be fully God and possess immortality (The Only Words Written By The Finger Of God).

(For those who do not know Lord Jesus Christ or who are indoctrinated by some man-made theology, my explanation may not be acceptable.)

Jesus did not possess a spirit that was created by God. Humans receive a spirit that is created by God. So how could Jesus be fully human? The idea that Jesus was fully human and fully God (even though I have used the term) is not actually stated in the Bible. Instead, we read:

• Who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:6–8)

Here we see that Jesus pre-existed in the form of God and took on human form in the likeness of a man—not a woman.

We read in the Gospel of John:

• In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:1–5)

• And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father. (John 1:14)

• No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known. (John 1:18)

The Word, which was God, pre-existed and took on a human body of flesh. In becoming a human body of flesh, the Immortality took on mortality. The Immortal did not die. The flesh died. The Immortal left the body for three days and then returned to the body, but instead of flesh and blood being raised, the body was transformed, given immortality and glorified.

What did the Immortal pre-existent Word of God do in those three days?

• For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. (2 Peter 3:18–20)

When you understand that there is mortality and immortality and these two words are opposite in meaning, and that immortality can turn the mortal into the immortal, then you understand the power of God, the Creator of Life and the Universe. If you think that the mortal can destroy immortality, you are wrong. What is mortal cannot possess eternal life, even if it exists eternally. Rock can exist for a long time, but it has no life.

Jesus died on a cross. Yet because He was the Son of God and possessed indestructible life (Hebrews 7:16), though he was killed in the flesh, He was alive in the Spirit. The fact that He re-entered His body testifies that the dead will be raised in bodily form. The Bible informs us that there will be two resurrections of the dead. One to eternal life, just like Jesus’ body was raised. The other will be raised and then destroyed in fire—except the spirits of evil men will endure the pain of the worm that will never die; which is the fact that they rejected eternal life and embraced eternal death. Like rock, they will not possess life, and yet unlike rock they will experience the pain of knowing they rejected life, having possessed it temporarily, only to believe a lie rather than acknowledge the truth that being born to die is futile; therefore, surely, there has to be more to existence.

Only God Is Immortal For In Him We Live And Have Our Being. So Why Do We Exist?