The resurrection of Jesus is not an abstract idea or theory. It is a real, bodily, historical, datable event — at the time widely witnessed, publicly visible, objectively verifiable (1 Cor 15:5-8).
But its historicity is unique, because it connects supernatural faith with definite datable history.
Resurrection releases a new reality that ‘cannot, by its nature, cease to be.’
Datable — and Yet Not Merely Past
That doesn’t mean we can name the date with certainty, though some have tried; Gerald Bray proposes Sunday, 5 April, AD 33.1Gerald Bray, God is Love: A Biblical and Systematic Theology (Crossway, 2012), 593. The point is that Christ’s resurrection is in principle datable by reference to the whole complex of other events within which it occurred, and the range of individuals with whom it was connected.2Torrance, Space, Time, and Resurrection, 87-88.
Yet it isn’t a fact belonging only to the historical past. It’s a singularity that determines and reshapes all of creation. Though it happened as an event completed in time, because it bears a relation to the eternal future, resurrection releases a new reality that ‘cannot, by its nature, cease to be.’3Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, I/2, The Doctrine of the Word of God, eds. G. W. Bromiley and T. F. Torrance (T&T Clark, 1956), 115.
‘a new kind of historical happening which instead of tumbling down into the grave and oblivion rises out of the death of what is past into continuing being and reality. … He is not dead but alive, more real than any of us. … He lives on in the present as a real, live, continuous happening, encountering us here and now in the present and waiting for us in the future.’4Torrance, Space, Time, and Resurrection, 88-89; slightly amended.
Compare the other ‘resurrections’ in Scripture. Everyone Jesus raised — Lazarus included — eventually died. Not so Christ himself, who ascended to heaven and now at the Father’s right hand continues as our mediator, praying for us (Heb 7:25). The risen Christ has a continuing living presence and a permanent universal future; by his Spirit he dwells alive in his people (Rom 8:11). His resurrection ‘is the only historical event that does not suffer from decay and is not threatened by annihilation and illusion.’5Torrance, Space, Time, and Resurrection, 95.
Firstborn in Every Sense
Being ‘first to rise from the dead’ (Acts 26:23) and ‘firstborn of the dead’ (Rev 1:5), Jesus is reckoned ‘the firstborn’ in every regard — ‘among many brothers,’ ‘of all creation’ (Rom 8:29; Col 1:15).
Regarding resurrection specifically, he’s firstborn in two senses: priority in time, and pre-eminence — first in privilege and rank, as the one who personally defeated death.6Thomas Schreiner, New Testament Theology (Baker, 2008), 427.
That priority links directly to his position as ‘ruler of the kings of the earth’ (Rev 1:5). Christ is both the first in history to be raised and the first in power, privilege, and sovereignty, with authority more than sufficient to subjugate death forever. Having died and been raised, he lives forevermore, holding ‘the keys of death and Hades’ (Rev 1:18) — and he lives as Lord eternally precisely as the God-man, the one Person in whom full divinity and full bodily humanity are forever united.
The Turn From Descent to Ascent
Jesus’ death concluded his descent, by which he ‘came down from heaven’ (John 6:41) through incarnation, birth, ministry, death and burial. After his death he commenced his ascent to the Father (John 20:17), proceeding by steps to his rightful exaltation at God’s right hand (Psa 110:1; Acts 2:34).
That exaltation has six components: resurrection, ascension, enthronement and heavenly reign, the outpouring of the Spirit, continual intercession for us, and his second coming in glory.
A distinction matters here between Christ’s two natures:
‘Since Christ, being a Divine Person, did not suffer according to his divine nature, exaltation as such did not occur according to his Divine nature. In this nature he remained the Most High … The Divine nature, however, which was generally concealed in the state of his humiliation, manifested itself very clearly in his exaltation. He is nevertheless exalted according to his human nature.’7Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, 1:625.
Now, seen through the eye of faith, Christ’s earthly career always displayed a mixed character — ‘exaltation in humiliation.’8Jeremy R. Treat, The Crucified King: Atonement and Kingdom in Biblical and Systematic Theology (Zondervan, 2014). His crucifixion was itself a kind of exaltation, in which the Son of Man was ‘lifted up’ (John 3:14; 12:32-33). He triumphed in his humiliation and by it. Calvin caught this:
‘For although in the cross there is nothing but curse, it was, nevertheless, swallowed up by the power of God in such a way, that it has put on, as it were a new nature. For there is no tribunal so magnificent, no throne so stately, no show of triumph so distinguished … as is the gibbet on which Christ has subdued death and the devil.’9John Calvin, Commentaries on the Epistles to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians (The Calvin Translation Society, 1843), 191.
His death was victorious — but the victory was hidden. The resurrection marks the first stage of his manifest exaltation, the transition from obvious humiliation to unmistakable elevation. ‘Perhaps it is a transition from exalted humiliation to humble exaltation, but it is a transition nonetheless. The resurrected Christ is no longer “in the likeness of sinful flesh” (Rom 8:3), will never offer himself as a sacrifice again (Heb 9:26), and his majesty is no longer veiled (Rev 1:10-18).’10Jeremy Treat, ‘States of Jesus Christ,’ in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. Third edition, eds. Daniel Treier and Walter Elwell (Baker, 2017), 842.
For Jesus personally, this meant he would never die again but remain everlastingly alive, openly acknowledged as Son of God, Messiah and Saviour — ‘the entrance to an entirely new state of life, the beginning of an ever-progressive exaltation.’11Herman Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith, trans. Henry Zylstra (Eerdmans, 1956), 369.
How It Happened
The mechanics aren’t described. The reports focus on fact and circumstance rather than method.
But because the grave was empty, the event evidently involved reviving his dead body. The identical original body that stopped working on the cross and was committed to the grave was quickened, creatively renewed, reanimated. His corpse was vivified.
The New Testament vocabulary tells you the shape of it: anabiōskomai, anazaō, come to life again; anastasis, resurrection; anhistēmi, to make to stand up again, raise, rouse from sleep; egeirō, wake, rouse, raise up. The two most important are anhistēmi and egeiro, and ‘both mean to lift or raise up.’12Torrance, Space, Time, and Resurrection, 32.
An earthquake accompanied it, and an angel descended, rolled away the stone, and sat on it (Matt 28:1-2). But note carefully: these did not accomplish the resurrection, and it did not depend on them. They took place to reveal that the body was no longer inside — to draw attention to his departure and encourage belief that it had really happened. The goal was that the women and the guards ‘might be thoroughly aroused and awakened to the resurrection.’13John Chrysostom, The Gospel of Matthew, Homily 89.2, in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. New Testament Ib. Matthew 14-28, ed. Manlio Simonetti (IVP Academic, 2002), 306.
To the question how was Jesus raised, the answer is simple: ‘according to the working of his great might’ (Eph 1:20). ‘God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it’ (Acts 2:24). Sheer omnipotent energy deployed against death, decay, and the devil (Heb 2:14).
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- 1Gerald Bray, God is Love: A Biblical and Systematic Theology (Crossway, 2012), 593. ↩︎
- 2Torrance, Space, Time, and Resurrection, 87-88. ↩︎
- 3Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, I/2, The Doctrine of the Word of God, eds. G. W. Bromiley and T. F. Torrance (T&T Clark, 1956), 115. ↩︎
- 4Torrance, Space, Time, and Resurrection, 88-89; slightly amended. ↩︎
- 5Torrance, Space, Time, and Resurrection, 95. ↩︎
- 6Thomas Schreiner, New Testament Theology (Baker, 2008), 427. ↩︎
- 7Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, 1:625. ↩︎
- 8Jeremy R. Treat, The Crucified King: Atonement and Kingdom in Biblical and Systematic Theology (Zondervan, 2014). ↩︎
- 9John Calvin, Commentaries on the Epistles to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians (The Calvin Translation Society, 1843), 191. ↩︎
- 10Jeremy Treat, ‘States of Jesus Christ,’ in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology. Third edition, eds. Daniel Treier and Walter Elwell (Baker, 2017), 842. ↩︎
- 11Herman Bavinck, Our Reasonable Faith, trans. Henry Zylstra (Eerdmans, 1956), 369. ↩︎
- 12Torrance, Space, Time, and Resurrection, 32. ↩︎
- 13John Chrysostom, The Gospel of Matthew, Homily 89.2, in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. New Testament Ib. Matthew 14-28, ed. Manlio Simonetti (IVP Academic, 2002), 306. ↩︎