The Resurrection Issue

Acts 23:6-10

The mood in the room as Paul stands before the Sanhedrin is obviously sour towards Paul and the Gospel of Jesus. In the previous verses, Paul has spoken a curse against the high priest, something that was forbidden by God. He realized that he had misspoken, not in what he said, but to whom he said it, so he apologizes. Sometimes, what we say is necessary, however unpopular, but we must examine ourselves and seek out our own motives for saying them, and to not spout off in a dishonorable way. Of course this was not why the Sanhedrin was hostile to Paul, but it certainly set the mood in a direction that was not productive to the Lord’s plan.

But Paul realizes that the council is neither wholly Pharisee nor completely Sadducee. These two factions were about as different from each other as our modern conception of Democrat and Republican. (an interesting side note is that despite their general hostility, many Pharisees came to love and follow Christ, whereas we do not know of any Sadducees who did). The Pharisees were perhaps the more liberal of the two factions in that their theology and interpretation of Scripture allowed for new developments and traditions to be added, so long as they bolstered the status quo and did not blatantly violate the Law. On the other hand, the Sadducees were more conservative and might be described in modern terms as being sola scriptura in such a way that if the Law (Genesis-Deuteronomy) did not shed light on an issue, they did not even entertain the thought. Because the Law does not speak of a resurrection, angels, or spirits, they rejected such beliefs (verse 8).

But one thing they agreed on was their disdain for Jesus and His disciples. So Paul, in an attempt to take control of the circumstances, uses the topic of the resurrection to divide the room in order to work it to his benefit. By calling on his shared belief with the Pharisees about the resurrection of the dead, he aligns them to his side and puts them at odds with the Sadducees.

Proofs of the Resurrection

Isaiah 26:19 LSB

Your dead will live; Their corpses will rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and shout for joy, For your dew is as the dew of the dawn, And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.

Daniel 12:1–2 LSB

“Now at that time, Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will stand. And there will be a time of distress such as never happened since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued. “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to reproach and everlasting contempt.

In first and second Kings, there are multiple accounts of Elijah and Elisha raising people from the dead, with one account happening when a dead man was laid down next to Elisha’s corpse. There are other hints at the faith of a future resurrection in Job and in Psalms. Although these are temporary revivals of the body, they point to the hope of a future bodily resurrection.

During the intertestamental period, there were other writings that pointed to the Jews’ belief in an afterlife and a resurrection of either the spirit, the body, or both. These apocryphal - or extrabiblical - books do not form our doctrine, but they do show us that there was a belief in resurrection many centuries before Christ, and the reason why those people believed that is because of the writings of the prophets. This is important to this context because it shows that the resurrection was not a new concept, introduced by Jesus and His disciples. Of course, if Jesus was our only source for this doctrine, we would know it to be true because we know He is Truth and nothing He says is false. But to the first-century Jew, the resurrection would not have been a foreign concept. Indeed, this belief was common enough that even those who were not scholars understood the promise of a resurrection, as we see in the account of Lazarus. Jesus tried to calm Mary and Martha by saying, “Do not weep, he will live again,” and they responded with, “yes, we know he will live in the resurrection someday.”

This belief contrasts the two chief parties that were opposed to Jesus, and yet it shows that at least in this case, the Pharisees were on the right side of the theological debate.

Jesus’ teaching on the topic

John 5:28–29 KJV 1900

Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

Jesus is echoing what Daniel wrote in Daniel 12:2, but with greater clarity. There will come a day that all the dead will rise from the graves at the command of Christ (for He has conquered Death). At that time, there will be a judgement according to our works.

There may be someone here who says, “So our salvation is based on works?” But be very careful, because we need to remember Who the Judge is. If you or I were to judge people by their works, we might see good in one person and evil in another based on our finite knowledge and what we can see. The Most High and Holy Judge, however, judges us even on the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. Furthermore, His standard of good and evil is the only accurate balance, and He says there is no one that does good. The only good deed we can do is honor the Son and believe on His name. If we love the Son, and have faith in His efficacious power, then we please the Father and are granted eternal life, but if we reject the Son, then that is the epitome of evil and the unforgivable evil work that will condemn us to damnation.

At one point, Jesus was approached by the Sadducees who attempted to trip Him up with a trick question.

Jesus sparring with the Sadducees

Read Matthew 22:23-32

In verse 29, Jesus tells them they are in error because they do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God. He goes on to quote Exodus 3:6 and points out that the proof is in the small details. When Yahweh told Moses from the burning bush “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,” He was affirming that He still is their God, not was in the past.

Remember how the Sadducees only believed in the Torah, the five books of the Law? Well, Jesus is quoting from the second book of the Law and showing them that they are wrong about the resurrection.

It is important to note that neither Abraham, nor Isaac, nor Jacob, nor anyone had been physically resurrected at that point. However, for Yahweh to say He is their God still points to a present reality (that their spirits still live) and a future reality (that they will continue to live).

However, the resurrection is most certainly both a new life of the spirit and of the body.

Resurrection meant bodies. We cannot emphasize this too strongly, not least because much modern writing continues, most misleadingly, to use the word ‘resurrection’ as a virtual synonym for ‘life after death’ in the popular sense.

N. T. Wright

We know this to be true because of what we read in passages such as those we’ve already seen in Isaiah 26 (“their bodies shall rise”) and John 5 (“all who are in the tombs shall come out”), but we also see the physical evidence of the bodily resurrection of Christ Himself. In Luke 24:39, Jesus says to the disciples, “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” In other words, He says “I am not a ghost, but this is my actual body. I am alive!”

Paul teaches this clearly in 1 Corinthians 15

Read verses 42-44; 49-54

When Christ died on that old rugged cross, He paid the penalty of our sin, which is death. His blood atoned for our sins and appeased the wrath of the Almighty God. By His stripes, we were healed and we no longer stand condemned in the presence of the Holy Judge. However, if He had not resurrected from the dead, we would have no hope of eternal life after the day of judgement. Our penalty for sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life because Christ conquered Death and returned from Hades.

Although we have complete salvation through his death, because we are reconciled to God by it, it is by his resurrection, not his death, that we are said to be born to a living hope (1 Peter 1:3).

John Calvin (French Reformer)

1 Peter 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”

In quoting Paul, A.W. Tozer had this to say:

If men do not rise again from the dead, then we are of all men most miserable—and that is still the truth! The promise of the resurrection makes the difference for the man who is a believing Christian. If men are not to be raised from the dead, why not eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die!1

A. W. Tozer

Why it is important to believe in the resurrection

The early disciples of Jesus Christ witnessed the resurrected Son of God and they believed on Him more completely than ever before because of it. Because of that, they knew beyond a shadow of doubt He was who He claimed to be, and was worthy of their undying faith, even when it cost them their life.

Those of us who are 2,000 years removed from that may have trouble believing wholeheartedly in the promise of our own resurrection. This is perhaps as far-fetched or unfathomable to the modern person as modern technology would have been to the ancient nomads, but it does not make the reality of both any less true. But true, wholehearted acceptance and belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a pillar of our faith, because without it, there is no promise.

Paul wrote in Romans 10:9 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

There it is: clear-cut and cut and dry. Confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He is who He said He is. Believe that He died as the sinless lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world. Believe that God raised Him from the dead.