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