from the dead, and
manifesting His power whereby He overthrew death, He might instill
into us the hope of rising from the dead. Hence the Apostle says (1
Cor. 15:12): "If Christ be preached that He rose again from the dead,
how do some among you say, that there is no resurrection from the
dead?"

Reply Obj. 1: Christ is the fountain of life, as God, and not as man:
but He died as man, and not as God. Hence Augustine [*Vigilius
Tapsensis] says against Felician: "Far be it from us to suppose that
Christ so felt death that He lost His life inasmuch as He is life in
Himself; for, were it so, the fountain of life would have run dry.
Accordingly, He experienced death by sharing in our human feeling,
which of His own accord He had taken upon Himself, but He did not
lose the power of His Nature, through which He gives life to all
things."

Reply Obj. 2: Christ did not suffer death which comes of sickness,
lest He should seem to die of necessity from exhausted nature: but He
endured death inflicted from without, to which He willingly
surrendered Himself, that His death might be shown to be a voluntary
one.

Reply Obj. 3: One opposite does not of itself lead to the other, yet
it does so indirectly at times: thus cold sometimes is the indirect
cause of heat: and in this way Christ by His death brought us back to
life, when by His death He destroyed our death; just as he who bears
another's punishment takes such punishment away.
_______________________

SECOND ARTICLE [III, Q. 50, Art. 2]

Whether the Godhead Was Separated from the Flesh When Christ Died?

Objection 1: It would seem that the Godhead was separated from the
flesh when Christ died. For as Matthew relates (27:46), when our Lord
was hanging upon the cross He cried out: "My God, My God, why hast
Thou forsaken Me?" which words Ambrose, commenting on Luke 23:46,
explains as follows: "The man cried out when about to expire by being
severed from the Godhead; for since the Godhead is immune from death,
assuredly death could not be there, except life departed, for the
Godhead is life." And so it seems that when Christ died, the Godhead
was separated from His flesh.

Obj. 2: Further, extremes are severed when the mean is removed. But
the soul was the mean through which the Godhead was united with the
flesh, as stated above (Q. 6, A. 1). Therefore since the soul was
severed from the flesh by death, it seems that, in consequence, His
Godhead was also separated from it