The Resurrection of Jesus
Who raised Jesus from the dead?
The testimony of Scripture. It was the Father who raising Jesus from the dead. The Scriptural evidence is overwhelming.
- Acts 2:24: God raised him up, loosing the pangs of
death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
- Acts 2:32: This Jesus God raised up, and of that we
all are witnesses.
- Acts 3:15: and you killed the Author of life, whom God
raised from the dead.
- Acts 4:10: let it be known to all of you and to all the people
of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing
before you well.
- Acts 5:30: The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom
you killed by hanging him on a tree.
- Acts 10:40-41: but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been
chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose
from the dead.
- Acts 13:29-39: And when they had carried out all that was
written of him, they took him down from the tree and laid him in a
tomb. But God raised him from the dead...And we bring you the
good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled
to us their children by raising Jesus...And as for the fact
that he raised him from the dead...but he whom God raised
up did not see corruption. Let it be known to you therefore, brothers,
that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and
by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you
could not be freed by the law of Moses.
- Acts 17:31: because he has fixed a day on which he will judge
the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of
this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.
- Romans 4:22-25: That is why his faith was "counted to
him as righteousness." But the words "it was counted to
him" were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also.
It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the
dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and
raised for our justification.
- Romans 6:4: We were buried therefore with him by baptism into
death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by
the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
- Romans 8:11: If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from
the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the
dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit
which dwells in you.
- Romans 10:9: because, if you confess with your mouth that
Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from
the dead, you will be saved.
- 1 Corinthians 6:14: And God raised the Lord and will
also raise us up by his power.
- 1 Corinthians 15:15: We are even found to be misrepresenting
God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ,
whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.
- 2 Corinthians 4:14: knowing that he who raised the Lord
Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into
his presence.
- Galatians 1:1: Paul, an apostle--not from men nor through
man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him
from the dead.
- Ephesians 1:20: that he worked in Christ when he raised
him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly
places.
- Colossians 2:12: having been buried with him in baptism, in
which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful
working of God, who raised him from the dead.
- 1 Thessalonians 1:10: and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the
wrath to come.
- Hebrews 13:20: Now may the God of peace who brought again
from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep,
by the blood of the eternal covenant.
- 1 Peter 1:20-21: He was foreknown before the foundation of
the world but was made manifest in the last times for your sake, who
through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
Christ did not
raise Himself from the dead, or else He was not really dead and His
words could not have been true when He said, “I can do nothing
on my own.” (John 5:30)
5BC 1114.1: He who died for the sins of the world was to remain in the tomb the allotted time. He was in that stony prison house as a prisoner of divine justice. He was responsible to the Judge of the universe. He was bearing the sins of the world, and His Father only could release Him. A strong guard of mighty angels kept watch over the tomb, and had a hand been raised to remove the body, the flashing forth of their glory would have laid him who ventured powerless on the earth.
What about John 10:17-18? This passage seems to suggest that Jesus had the power to take back his life. It reads as follows:
John 10:17-18: For this reason the Father loves me, because
I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes
it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority
to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father."
The Greek word that was translated, “I may take”
(Strong’s #2983), can also mean, “to receive
(what is given), to gain, get, obtain, to get back.” Please notice
that this word is also used in verse 18 but is translated “I
have received.” Christ laid down His life that He might receive
it again. The Greek word that in some versions is translated as “power”
can also mean “authority, permission.” Thus, this verse
can be interpreted as follows:
Christ had permission to lay down His life so that
He could receive it again from His Father.
Ellen G. White comments
Deity did not die. Two versions of this controversial statement are found in her writings:
- 12LtMs, Ms 131, 1897, par. 1: When the voice of the angel was heard saying, “Thy Father calls thee,” He who had said, “I lay down my life that I may take it again,” “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again,” came forth from the grave to life that was in Himself. [John 10:17; 2:19.] Deity did not die. Humanity died, but Christ now proclaims over the rent sepulcher of Joseph, “I am the resurrection and the life.” [John 11:25.] In His divinity Christ possessed the power to break the bonds of death. He declares that He had life in Himself to quicken whom He will.
- 19LtMs, Lt 280, 1904, par. 9: Was the human nature of the Son of Mary changed into the divine nature of the Son of God?—No; the two natures were mysteriously blended in one person—the Man Christ Jesus. In Him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. When Christ was crucified, it was His human nature that died. Deity did not sink and die; that would have been impossible. Christ, the sinless One, will save every son and daughter of Adam who accepts the salvation proffered them, consenting to become the children of God. The Saviour has purchased the fallen race with His own blood.
The question is: Who or what died? EGW's thought is that Jesus could not have died as a divine being, because divine beings don't die. Only humans are subject to death. But Jesus was a unique individual, he had both divine and human natures "blended in one person." A mystery to us, for sure. Nevertheless, "it was His human nature that died." His divine nature could not die, because deity cannot die.
- 5LtMs, Lt 11, 1887, par. 15: The apostle [Paul] now would call our attention from ourselves to the Author of our salvation. He presents before us His two natures, divine and human. Here is the description of the divine, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. He was the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person. Now of the human: He was made in the likeness of man and found Himself in fashion as a man. He was in all things like unto us. He voluntarily assumed human nature. It was His own act and by His own consent. He clothed His divinity with humanity; He was all the while as God, but He did not appear as God. He veiled the demonstrations of deity which had commanded the homage and called forth the admiration of the universe of God. He was God, while upon earth, but He divested Himself of the form of God and in its stead took the form and fashion of a man. He walked the earth as a man. He for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich. He laid aside His glory and His majesty.
- 6LtMs, Ms 57, 1890, par. 9: Our Lord was tempted as man is tempted. He was capable of yielding to temptations, as are human beings. His finite nature was pure and spotless, but the divine nature that led Him to say to Philip, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father” also [John 14:9], was not humanized; neither was humanity deified by the blending or union of the two natures; each retained its essential character and properties.
Jesus, a unique, dual-natured being had but one mind and body, with the "form and fashion of a man" but without giving up his divine "character and properties." But now, as the incarnate Son of God, Jesus was bound by his physical human body. In other words, in order for his divine character and properties to function, his humanity had to function. When Jesus sleep as a human, his divine nature was also shut down for the night. He was constrained by his humanity. His divine and human natures were inseparably integrated and governed by a whole Person. Thus, at his death on the cross, Jesus' divine nature was as dormant, non-functional, inactive, non-operational, "asleep" as his human nature was, yet not dead. It was not dead because divinity cannot cease to exist.
This of course raises the question: Was Jesus' death efficacious? In other words, did his death produce the desired or intended result. The answer is yes, of course. His death was accepted because Jesus was faithful even unto death, meaning that Jesus experienced death and remained "dormant" until the Father called him back to life. Understand that this "dormant" state of death is true for all humans. All humans experience soul sleep at death. And all humans will be resurrected, some to everlasting life and some to everlasting contempt (Daniel 12:2). There will be a first and second resurrection. The first resurrection is of the righteous (Revelation 20:4-6) who will live eternally and the second resurrection is of the wicked who will be judged and cast into the lake of fire which is the second death (Revelation 20:11-15).
Christ remained faithful to His humanity even unto death.
Jesus fully surrendered Himself to His human nature by laying aside his divinity—resisting the temptation to keep Himself alive through His divinity...And allowed his entire personage to experience death as we (humans) would experience death...
5LtMs, Lt 11, 1887, par. 17 He [Jesus] could in his divine person ever have withstood the advances of death and refused to come under its dominion; but he voluntarily laid down his life, that in so doing He might give life and bring immortality to light. He must bear the sins of the world and endure the penalty which rolled like a mountain upon His divine soul. He died not through being compelled to die, but by His own free will. This was humility. The whole treasures of heaven were poured out in one Gift to save fallen man. He brought into His human nature all the life-giving energies that human beings will need and must receive. Wondrous combination of man and God! He might have eternally kept human nature withstanding the inroads of disease by his divine nature pouring in vitality and undecaying vigor to the human. but he humbled himself to man’s nature. he did this that the scripture might be fulfilled. The plan was entered into by the Son of God, knowing all the steps that He must descend in His humiliation to make an expiation for the sins of a condemned, groaning world.
The spirit of Jesus slept in the tomb.
3SP 203.2: Jesus said to Mary, “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father.” When he closed his eyes in death upon the cross, the soul of Christ did not go at once to Heaven, as many believe, or how could his words be true—“I am not yet ascended to my Father”? The spirit of Jesus slept in the tomb with his body, and did not wing its way to Heaven, there to maintain a separate existence, and to look down upon the mourning disciples embalming the body from which it had taken flight. All that comprised the life and intelligence of Jesus remained with his body in the sepulcher; and when he came forth it was as a whole being; he did not have to summon his spirit from Heaven. He had power to lay down his life and to take it up again.
Before the incarnation. Christ was begotten of the Father and is therefore, by definition, of the same substance of the Father. Thus, if the Father is eternal and divine, then the Son is eternal and divine by virtue of being begotten. See The Early Adventist "Arian" perspective on Sonship. It is important to understand that the omnipresent attribute of divinity is by way of God's Spirit.
- Ed 132.2: The greatness of God is to us incomprehensible. “The Lord's throne is in heaven” (Psalm 11:4); yet by His Spirit He is everywhere present. He has an intimate knowledge of, and a personal interest in, all the works of His hand.
- MH 417.2: The Bible shows us God in His high and holy place, not in a state of inactivity, not in silence and solitude, but surrounded by ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands of holy beings, all waiting to do His will. Through these messengers He is in active communication with every part of His dominion. By His Spirit He is everywhere present. Through the agency of His Spirit and His angels He ministers to the children of men.
- PK 50.4: Although God dwells not in temples made with hands, yet He honors with His presence the assemblies of His people. He has promised that when they come together to seek Him, to acknowledge their sins, and to pray for one another, He will meet with them by His Spirit.
During his incarnation, Christ retained his divine nature while at the same time being fully human with a human mind and spirit. Yet his ability to be omnipresent by way of God's Spirit was suspended. It was only after the resurrection that this divine attribute was restored (see next section).
After the ascension, Christ’s omnipresence was restored in his ascension. At Pentecost, Christ received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father and this Christ "poured out" to his disciples (Acts 2:33). It is through the Father's Spirit that Christ again becomes omnipresent. When we receive the Holy Spirit we receive the spiritual life of Christ.
- DA 805.1: The Holy Spirit is the breath of spiritual life in the soul. The impartation of the Spirit is the impartation of the life of Christ. It imbues the receiver with the attributes of Christ. Only those who are thus taught of God, those who possess the inward working of the Spirit, and in whose life the Christ-life is manifested, are to stand as representative men, to minister in behalf of the church.
- SC 74.1: Henceforth through the Spirit, Christ was to abide continually in the hearts of His children. Their union with Him was closer than when He was personally with them. The light, and love, and power of the indwelling Christ shone out through them, so that men, beholding, “marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.” Acts 4:13.
- 10LtMs, Lt 119, 1895, par. 18: Cumbered with humanity, Christ could not be in every place personally; therefore it was altogether for their advantage that He should leave them, go to His Father, and send the Holy Spirit to be His successor on earth. The Holy Spirit is Himself, divested of the personality of humanity, and independent thereof. He would represent Himself as present in all places by His Holy Spirit, as the Omnipresent.
- 3SP 242.2: The apostles were not sent forth to be witnesses for Christ until they had received that spiritual endowment necessary to fit them for the execution of their great commission. All professions of Christianity are but lifeless expressions of faith until Jesus imbues the believer with his spiritual life, which is the Holy Ghost. The evangelist is not prepared to teach the truth, and to be the representative of Christ, till he has received this heavenly gift.
- BEcho January 15, 1893, par. 8: He [Christ] will send his representative, the Holy Spirit; for He says, “I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you.” By the Spirit the Father and the Son will come and make their abode with you.
At his death, the whole Person of Christ died which includes His mind which governs both of His natures. This mind is what EGW is referring to as being asleep in the grave. Christ’s divinity, an unconscious but integral aspect to Christ’s blended personality that could have kept Him alive, remained with Him locally in the grave. Again, keep in mind, while Christ had the dual personality—divine and human, he had (and has) one conscious mind. Thus, all that went into the grave remained in the grave unconscious.
12LtMs, Ms 111, 1897, par. 71: How impotent on this occasion was the power of the kings and rulers. They could not act their will on Him who was slain for the sins of the world. Had it been possible, the prince of darkness with his apostate army, would have kept forever sealed the tomb that held the Son of God. But a heavenly host guarded the sepulcher. With majestic and terrible tread, the God of heaven, followed by the angels, walked around the tomb of Christ. They had been unseen witnesses of all that had taken place in the mock trial in the judgment hall. Every action was noted; every taunt recorded.
Why wouldn't EGW say that it was God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit who walked around the tomb sorrowful for the dead flesh that didn't really matter anyway because it was just a temporary shell that would make everyone think that Jesus actually died, but really didn't?
We can conclude that Christ did not maintain another conscious divine personage—a nature that was separated from his humanity. It “did not wing its way to heaven, there to maintain a separate existence.” But “all that comprised the life and intelligent of Jesus remained with His body,” including his spirit, and the divine nature which could have kept Himself alive.
Life that was in Himself. If you look at the Bible and the testimonies holistically I believe you will see that the Father raised Jesus by calling him back to the life that was still within Himself. You can liken this to someone waking someone else up from his or her sleep. The external source is the impetus that wakes the person up but they do not provide life to them for that is already there.
DA 785.2: When the voice of the mighty angel was heard at Christ’s tomb, saying, Thy Father calls Thee, the Saviour came forth from the grave by the life that was in Himself. Now was proved the truth of His words, “I lay down My life, that I might take it again.... I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” Now was fulfilled the prophecy He had spoken to the priests and rulers, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” John 10:17, 18; 2:19.
Jesus' first words upon being "called" by the Father are as follows:
DA 785.3: Over the rent sepulcher of Joseph, Christ had proclaimed in triumph, “I am the resurrection, and the life.” These words could be spoken only by the Deity. All created beings live by the will and power of God. They are dependent recipients of the life of God. From the highest seraph to the humblest animate being, all are replenished from the Source of life. Only He who is one with God could say, I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it again. In His divinity, Christ possessed the power to break the bonds of death.
Raised a spiritual body (1 Corinthians 15:44). There is yet one more element to consider: Jesus' resurrected body was a new body, not like the body of flesh subject to decay and death. It was a body that could enter the presence of God without being consumed by His glory. When Jesus was raised, his mind/spirit was retained, but his body of flesh was replaced with a glorified body. As 1 Corinthians 15:42-44 tells us, "So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body." Thus, when the Father resurrected His Son, He gave His Son a new spiritual body.
References
Comments from others
The following quote is from the book, The Atonement in the Light of Nature and Revelation, by J. H. Waggoner (father of E. J. Waggoner). The greater quote can be found in both PresentTruth.info and Smyrna.org under the title, "Doctrine of a Trinity Subversive of the Atonement."
“And here is shown how remarkably the widest extremes meet in theology. The highest Trinitarians and lowest Unitarians meet and are perfectly united on the death of Christ—the faith of both amounts to Socinianism. Unitarians believe that Christ was a prophet, an inspired teacher, but merely human; that his death was that of a human body only. Trinitarians hold that the term “Christ” comprehends two distinct and separate natures: one that was merely human; the other, the second person in the trinity, who dwelt in the flesh for a brief period, but could not possibly suffer, or die; that the Christ that died was only the human nature in which the divinity had dwelt. Both classes have a human offering, and nothing more. No matter how exalted the pre-existent Son was; no matter how glorious, how powerful, or even eternal; if the manhood only died, the sacrifice was only human. And so far as the vicarious death of Christ is concerned, this is Socinianism. Thus the remark is just, that the doctrine of a trinity degrades the Atonement, resting it solely on a human offering as a basis. A few quotations will show the correctness of this assertion.” —J. H. Waggoner, 1884, The Atonement In The Light Of Nature And Revelation, pages 164, 165.
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