Who Resurrected Jesus Christ?

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Who Resurrected Jesus Christ?

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Who Resurrected Jesus Christ?

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No dead person can resurrect Himself. Death is the complete absence of life and consciousness. Only someone alive and gifted with supernatural powers could have performed such a wondrous deed. The New Testament plainly reveals in many passages that it was God the Father who raised Jesus from the dead.

For example, the apostle Peter stated in his first sermon on the Day of Pentecost: "This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses" (Acts 2:32). Not long after, Peter repeated this vital testimony. He told the audience that they had "killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses" (Acts 3:15).

After his miraculous conversion, Paul continued to proclaim this same basic testimony: "God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus" (Acts 13:33; compare verse 37). He continued to declare this crucial truth as he traveled from city to city.

He later told skeptical Athenian intellectuals: "Because He [God] has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man [Jesus] whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead" (Acts 17:31).

Paul's and Peter's letters also testify to the Father's active role in this great event (Galatians 1:1; Ephesians 1:20; 1 Peter 1:3).

Yet Jesus did say, "Destroy this temple [referring to His body being slain], and in three days I will raise it up [implying His resurrection]" (John 2:19; see verse 21). Jesus did not mean by this that He would come back to life on His own, contradicting the other verses in this regard. Rather, He was referring to the fact that once God the Father made Him alive again in His tomb, He would stand up from where He lay dead—raising Himself from His lying position to then ascend from the grave.

What we should see here is Christ's unshakeable confidence in the Father to resurrect Him to everlasting spirit life. Just moments before His death, Christ cried out: "Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit" (Luke 23:46)—showing His total trust in God the Father.

In the same way, those who have repented and received the gift of God's Spirit can have confidence that they, too, will be resurrected to immortality just as Jesus was. As Paul tells us, "If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you" (Romans 8:11, New Revised Standard Version). GN

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Comments

  • United Church of God
    I would like to suggest two free study aids from United Church of God on this subject; “Is God A Trinity?” and “Who Is God?” You may obtain these study aids in the mail or you may easily read them online at www.ucg.org. Please keep your Bible with you as you read these study aids, we only ask that you read the scriptures and see what they do say about the nature and divinity of the Godhead.
  • United Church of God
    Hello ddo2014, We are pleased to respond to your reflection about the nature of God. United Church of God stands behind the statement that God is definitely not and has never been a “Triune” Godhead. The Bible reveals two and only two members of the Godhead, the Father whom Christ came to reveal, “No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him” (John 1:18); and Jesus Christ the “Word” who became the Son of God at the time of His physical birth on the earth. We know and teach that the nature of God is not an easy concept to grasp because of the mass confusion of writings that exist about the theology of God the Father and Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit is not an entity and cannot be proved as an entity from the Bible. This article provided a variety of scriptural evidence to prove its premise, to which you are responding ; we do not wish to debate further; we do look to the Bible as the basis for our teaching about God and we seek to openly share what the Bible teaches about God.
  • ddo2014
    The premise of this article is that God raised Jesus from the dead, and this is certainly correct. However, this article also denies that Jesus raised Himself from the dead. The truth of the matter is that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit all receive credit throughout the New Testament. So what Jesus said in John 2:19 DOES NOT contradict what other Scriptures say. John 10:17-18 says Jesus resurrected Himself. Romans 8:11 and 1 Peter 3:18 both give credit to the Holy Spirit for raising Jesus from the dead. This is all congruent with Scripture as Scripture shouts out from the first verse of Genesis to the last verse of Revelation that God is triune and expresses and shows Himself in 3 forms, which is also proven by nature. So apparently the administrators of this website lack a bit of Holy Spirit discernment in their beliefs and teaching.
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