The New Testament claims that although Jesus was dead and buried on a Friday afternoon, early the following Sunday morning — roughly 36 hours later — his corpse had revived, and he had physically come to life again in a new and unprecedented bodily form.

The resurrection was ‘God’s authenticating signature’ upon the life and work of Christ.

A Super-Miracle With a Message

Supporting this is substantial historical evidence, including numerous first-hand eyewitnesses ‘who talked with a person whom they took to be Jesus, and witnesses who saw the empty tomb.’¹Richard Swinburne, Was Jesus God? (Oxford University Press, 2008), 114. At face value this amounts to a dazzling super-miracle of staggering significance for Christ’s Person, for all human beings, and for all creation.

Christ and the New Testament authors reckoned the resurrection cast-iron proof of Jesus’ Divine-human person and achievement. It was ‘God’s authenticating signature’²Swinburne, Was Jesus God?, 123. upon his life and work, and the ‘foundation-stone’ of faith.³Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, ‘The Risen Christ,’ in The Person and Work of Christ, ed. Samuel G. Craig (Presbyterian & Reformed, 1950), 539. In all the world religions there is simply ‘nothing comparable to this combination of event plus message.’⁴Garry R. Habermas, The Uniqueness of Jesus Christ Among the Major World Religions, 44. This work may be downloaded freely from www.garyhabermas.com/evidence2.

The resurrection confirmed the truth of Jesus’ teaching, verified his identity, validated the saving value of his death, and guaranteed his second bodily coming in glory and judgment. With his death on the cross, it is history’s most momentous event. Here is Broughton Knox:

‘The resurrection establishes the fact beyond dispute that God is sovereign in the affairs of life. … [It] shows that God is sovereign even over inexorable death, and sin and evil … It underlines the fact that God has a purpose which he is bringing to completion.’⁵D. Broughton Knox, Selected Works (Matthias Media, 2006), 3:173.

Where the Bible Speaks of It

Reports of the resurrection comprise the climax of each of the four Gospels and the introduction to Acts (Matt 27:45-28:20; Mark 15:33-16:20; Luke 23:44-53; John 19:28-21:21; Acts 1:3-9). Beyond the narratives, the other apostolic voices are woven through with reflection on its meaning: ‘The fact is broadly spread upon the surface of the New Testament record.’⁶Warfield, The Person and Work of Christ, 537. Among the most significant passages are Acts 2:22-32; Romans 6:1-14; 1 Corinthians 15; Colossians 3:1-17; and Revelation 1:9-18.

Raised by the Holy Trinity

In AD 362, at the Council of Alexandria, Athanasius the Great summarised biblical teaching about Father, Son, and Holy Spirit using the phrase ‘One Being, Three Persons.’⁷Athanasius, Ad Antiochenos, 6; cf. Ad Serapionem, 1, 2, 10; cited in Thomas F. Torrance, The Christian Doctrine of God (T&T Clark, 1996), 112 n. 1. Gregory Nazianzen elaborated:

‘To us there is One God, for the Godhead is all One … though we believe in Three Persons. For One is not more and another less God; nor is One before and another after; nor are they divided in will or parted in power … there is one mingling of Light, as it were of three suns joined to each other.’⁸Gregory Nazianzen, Orations, 31.14; The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, ed. Philip Schaff [hereafter, NPNF], 2.7:322.

In terms of the being or nature of God, the resurrection was activated by the one Triune God. God is the agent of resurrection and, as repeatedly stated in Scripture, God is precisely he who raised Jesus from the dead (Acts 2:24; 4:10; 17:31; Rom 4:24; 8:11; Gal 1:1; Col 2:12).

The Father Decreed It

All three Divine Persons acted in unison to cause Christ’s resurrection. Yet in terms of Person, the Father is the chief operator and primary agent in raising all the dead and therefore in raising the Son (John 5:21). In Christ’s resurrection, as in all God’s works, the Father has priority (Gal 1:1). ‘Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father’ (Rom 6:4), and it was ‘the Father of glory’ who ‘raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand’ (Eph 1:17-20). Through raising Jesus, the Father’s authority is revealed, together with his ‘acceptance that Jesus did all that was required.’⁹Mark Jones, Knowing Christ (The Banner of Truth Trust, 2016), 164.

By raising the Son, the Father confirmed the value of Christ’s work — that what God has done in Jesus is to set us right with him, no longer holding us guilty, but forgiven. Being a ‘justifying act,’ resurrection ‘must be an act of God the Father,’ for it is the Father ‘who maintains the violated law and proclaimed the restored law.’¹⁰Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics: A System of Christian Doctrine, 3.5.53; Single-Volume Edition, trans. and ed. Richard B Gaffin Jr (Lexham Press, 2020), 592.

The Son Executed It

Everything that God has and makes him God he has in and from himself (autothēos), and we see this in the Son’s role in his own resurrection. Being God in himself, the Son rose not just by the agency of the Father, but on his own account, by his own Almighty power and will.

Resurrection and life are integral to the Son’s own Divine nature (John 11:25). He possesses life in himself (John 5:26), and essentially is life (John 1:4; 14:6). At least twice Jesus declared absolute Divine prerogative over his own death and resurrection: ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up’ (John 2:19-21); ‘I have authority [exousian, power] to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again’ (John 10:17-18).

The eternal Son resumed life voluntarily. ‘By the power to take his soul again and to raise the temple up, he declares himself God, and the resurrection his own work.’¹¹Hilary of Poitiers, The Trinity, 9.12; NPNF 2.9:159.

The matter may be put this way: ‘Christ himself is the cause of his resurrection.’ Though body and soul were separated at death, ‘both elements remained united to the Divine nature. … He thus made his own assumed humanity alive again by his Divine power … Christ actively and truly arose and was made alive by his own power.’¹²Wilhelmus á Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service. Volume 1. God, Man, and Christ, trans. Bartel Elshout, ed. Joel R. Beeke (Reformation Heritage Books, 1992), 628; italics are in the original.

To be Saviour and deliver others from death, he had to triumph over death for himself and not merely be delivered from it by another.¹³Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, 629. ‘This is what most sharply distinguishes Jesus’ resurrection from all others. They have been raised by a power not their own. Jesus was raised by his own power. This is why his resurrection is without analogy.’¹⁴Oden, Systematic Theology, 2:470.

The Spirit Empowered It

The resurrection is also an act of God the Holy Spirit, ‘the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from dead’ (Rom 8:11). Jesus ‘was made alive in the Spirit’ (1 Pet 3:18), chiming with Scripture’s depiction of God’s Spirit giving life to all creatures.

According to Paul, the identifying of Jesus as the true ‘Son of God’ was, literally, ‘according to the Spirit of holiness by a resurrection of dead persons’ (Rom 1:4), marking Christ out ‘as the powerful Son of God.’¹⁵Leon Morris, Romans (IVP, 1988), 46. The Spirit’s role may be identified as the empowerment of Christ’s body in the tomb, continuing his earlier work of Christ’s conception in the womb of Mary (Luke 1:35).¹⁶Jones, Knowing Christ, 164. As the Spirit’s power generated Christ’s person at the incarnation, so it quickened his corpse, reanimated his body, and made it immortal.

In summary, the efficient cause of Christ’s resurrection is the Father’s determination, the material cause the Son’s freedom, and the instrumental cause the Spirit’s power.¹⁷Adapting Calvin’s trinitarian formulation of salvation (Institutes, 3.14.21; 787). Calvin here deploys principles of causal distinction likely drawn from Aristotle [reference to be provided].

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• 1
  Richard Swinburne, Was Jesus God? (Oxford University Press, 2008), 114. ↩︎
• 2
  Swinburne, Was Jesus God?, 123. ↩︎
• 3
  Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield, ‘The Risen Christ,’ in The Person and Work of Christ, ed. Samuel G. Craig (Presbyterian & Reformed, 1950), 539. ↩︎
• 4
  Garry R. Habermas, The Uniqueness of Jesus Christ Among the Major World Religions, 44. This work may be downloaded freely from www.garyhabermas.com/evidence2. ↩︎
• 5
  D. Broughton Knox, Selected Works (Matthias Media, 2006), 3:173. ↩︎
• 6
  Warfield, The Person and Work of Christ, 537. ↩︎
• 7
  Athanasius, Ad Antiochenos, 6; cf. Ad Serapionem, 1, 2, 10; cited in Thomas F. Torrance, The Christian Doctrine of God (T&T Clark, 1996), 112 n. 1. ↩︎
• 8
  Gregory Nazianzen, Orations, 31.14; The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, ed. Philip Schaff [hereafter, NPNF], 2.7:322. ↩︎
• 9
  Mark Jones, Knowing Christ (The Banner of Truth Trust, 2016), 164. ↩︎
• 10
  Geerhardus Vos, Reformed Dogmatics: A System of Christian Doctrine, 3.5.53; Single-Volume Edition, trans. and ed. Richard B Gaffin Jr (Lexham Press, 2020), 592. ↩︎
• 11
  Hilary of Poitiers, The Trinity, 9.12; NPNF 2.9:159. ↩︎
• 12
  Wilhelmus á Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service. Volume 1. God, Man, and Christ, trans. Bartel Elshout, ed. Joel R. Beeke (Reformation Heritage Books, 1992), 628; italics are in the original. ↩︎
• 13
  Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, 629. ↩︎
• 14
  Oden, Systematic Theology, 2:470. ↩︎
• 15
  Leon Morris, Romans (IVP, 1988), 46. ↩︎
• 16
  Jones, Knowing Christ, 164. ↩︎
• 17
  Adapting Calvin’s trinitarian formulation of salvation (Institutes, 3.14.21; 787). Calvin here deploys principles of causal distinction likely drawn from Aristotle [reference to be provided]. ↩︎