What kind of death did Jesus experience? Did Jesus experience only physical death, spiritual death or both?

If we want to understand what kind of death Jesus experienced, we need to know what death actually means. Death in Scripture carries the idea of separation. There are basically two kinds of death; both mean separation and both are the result of sin.

a. Physical death—the separation of the soul and spirit from the body.

b. Spiritual death—the separation of the person from God; the second death is a permanent and final confirmation in spiritual death.

Spiritual death is a result of sin and physical death is a result of spiritual death. When Jesus was “made sin” (2 Cor. 5:21), he experienced both kinds of death.

How do we know that?

Jesus was separated from God

Matthew 27:46—“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

1. This is not a division of the Trinity. Jesus was not dismissed from the Trinity. The triune Godhead is an eternally indivisible essence. If he ceased to be God, the sacrifice would be worthless.

• This is not a separation of the divine and human natures of Jesus. The person of Christ is also indivisible. Such a separation would divide the person of Christ and put an end to the value of his sufferings. The divine needs the human to make suffering and death possible; the human needs the divine to make the suffering and death efficacious.

• This was not even a filial separation. The Father did not turn his back on the Son in contempt—He loved him even on the cross (John 10:17). The hypostatic union made such a separation impossible.

• The separation was judicial. When Jesus was “made sin” he was not transformed into sin, nor did he become a sinner. He was regarded or accounted sin and as such carried the guilt (liability to penalty) for that sin. Because of the necessities intrinsic to God’s holiness in the presence of sin, Jesus felt the horror of a man separated from God. And while the second person of the Trinity did not die, it can be said that, because of the Crucifixion event, that he understands death from personal experience.

Jesus’ spirit was separated from his body

      Matthew 27:50—Jesus “yielded up the spirit.”

The order is first abandonment by the Father, then physical death.