As we approach the frankly insane topic of the Creator of the world being raised from the dead–a literal dead–I am not even going to attempt to have a conversation with you about any of the skeptic’s noises. There are quite possibly hundreds of more qualified people you can read and listen to about physiology and such. Jesus Christ, even though it sounds utterly crazy, was tortured and died and was raised from the dead. Period. This is what I believe based on scripture and it is where I will begin our conversation today.
Since this is a major theme of scripture from Genesis to Revelation, I am going to labor to keep our study in the shape of a manageable Bite. Cross referencing a few places in the NT, we are going to continue to investigate the reason Paul drew his audience’s attention to the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead. Why did Paul tell the recipients at this point in his epistle that God had done this?
Staying grounded in the text, here is the passage we find ourselves:
18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
Ephesians 1:18–21 (ESV)
Considering our immediate context, Paul is trying to get his audience to understand that the power that God used to raise Jesus from the dead is the same power that God uses toward those of us who believe. What is that power? What does it mean?
You know how people around us in church talk about the trinity? Three in one, right? But how do they know? How do you know? We are not going to definitively prove once and for all that God and Christ are one (I’m not ignoring the Spirit, but he’s not the focus of our study currently), but as we are students of the Word, we are ever-building on the truth we already know. If we don’t know any truth yet, we’ll learn some and then build on that. That’s what I’m talking about when I say we eat scripture a Bite at a Time. We are going to follow a thread of cross references that put some framework in place so we have more understanding of who God and Christ are for ourselves.
Who Raised Whom?
We’ve established that God raised Jesus from the dead in our passage. When we read elsewhere in the NT, we also see that Jesus claims he has power as well. We will consult the evangelist John and see what power Jesus declared he had. First, we will look at an account where Jesus had just driven opportunistic money changers out of the temple with a whip. The Jews confronted Jesus and here is the exchange:
18 So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body. 22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
John 2:18–22 (ESV)
John explains Jesus’ words about raising the temple and we can know that Jesus was referring to his body being raised up after death. Jesus told the Jews that after they destroyed his body, he would raise it up again after being dead three days.
Additionally, John in his gospel recalls for his readers the account when Jesus was teaching after the healing of a blind man in John 10. It’s a large passage, but I want us to see how Jesus describes himself and then particularly notice verse 18.
11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. 13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
John 10:11–18 (ESV)
John tells his readers that Jesus said of himself that no one takes his life from him, he lays it down freely for his sheep. From the Father, Jesus has a command to lay down his life and to take it up again.
In the account Luke gives Theophilus of the Acts of the early church, he reports Peter at the end of his sermon at Pentecost as saying this:
36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Acts 2:36 (ESV)
(That word made trips me a little because I have it in my spiritual backpack that Jesus has always been the same forever, but I will pass it by right now and jot it as an aspect to watch for in the rest of my study. It isn’t my focus so I will not let it hang me up. Currently, the focus is what is this power and what does it mean?)
There is power that has been expended in Acts 2:36 where God gave Jesus two titles. Lord and Christ (messiah). Our investigation is going to follow the Lord thread.
Peter’s context, what he explained earlier in his sermon in part was a quote from the OT prophet Joel. Here’s how Luke recorded Peter:
And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Acts 2:17–21 (ESV)
Do you see that sentence “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”? When a NT writer/speaker quotes the OT, we want to investigate what that scripture says and compare. The OT meant what it meant, and sometimes the NT writers translate it for us so we know if there has been some progressive revelation. Jesus’ death and resurrection either fulfills the OT or it reveals the obsolete nature of it.
In the OT, Joel records God’s words as follows:
And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit. And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls.
Joel 2:28–32 (ESV)
Side note for understanding. There is a reason translators use the all caps for “LORD” in the OT. The Hebrew name behind the English term “LORD” is Yahweh. Since there have been mountains of pages written on the subject, I limit my discussion about that by saying that is the proper name for God. All of God. Encapsulated in the name Yahweh is all there is of God. All three persons, all his character, all his nature. Yahweh is God and God is Yahweh.
Unlike a particular aspect of God like love. God is love but you cannot flip it and have the same meaning. Love is NOT God. Do you see the difference?
Back to the interpretation. Peter used the OT quotes to explain from the scriptures who Jesus is. The “men in Jerusalem” were an audience who knew the OT and the Hebrew way. They knew the scriptures Peter was using to explain the current events. The news that Jesus is the God-man was being proclaimed.
Peter was explaining from the OT, that the same one they could call on in Joel and be saved is Jesus. There has been a progressive revelation and the Yahweh they knew in the OT has also donned flesh and dwelt among us.
As we study scripture, there are going to be concepts and truths that are difficult to understand. We are up to our necks in one of those concepts. In human terms, there are no analogies or crayon drawings or other simplifications that will unravel the complexity of what the trinity actually is. My intentional method for studying what it is remains the same as for every other aspect of my study. Make a list and keep adding to it. Keep my own thoughts about what I think God is like out of the list and only hold onto what I find in the Bible.
To summarize this web of reference succinctly, the apostles in the NT that we looked at all interchange the titles of LORD, Lord, Jesus, and Christ. I do not understand it, but God the Father is a separate entity. God the Son is a separate entity. And yet the apostles understood and explained Jesus’ resurrection from the dead as being powered by God the Father and God the Son. Plus he’s also ONE GOD. We’ve all heard it said that if our God is comprehensible, our God is too small. Our God is huge.
What did we learn? Can we organize it into a list?
- God raised Jesus (Eph 1:20)
- Jesus has authority over his life, death, and resurrection (John 10:18)
- God made Jesus Lord and Christ (Acts 2:36)
- Jesus is Yahweh (Joel 2:32, Acts 2:21)
To answer the question who raised whom? A huge God. Did God the Father raise Jesus? Yes. Did Jesus say he would raise himself from the dead? Yes. Is God the Father Yahweh? Yes. Is God the Son Yahweh? Yes.
Putting what we learned back into the framework of Ephesians, back into the idea that the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is working in those who believe: that power is the power of Yahweh. All of God.
To be clear, if you believe that Jesus Christ lived, died, and rose again to conquer sin and death in your life and he is your Lord and Savior, you have the power of all of God working toward you. The working of his great might is for you.
Wrap Up
The Bite today is all about just that. Take a bite of God’s Word, even the most overwhelming topic you can conceive in scripture and chew on it. A bite. Chew. Keep chewing. Like a cow, ruminate on it.
The doctrine of the trinity is a doctrine that will take each of us our entire lives to investigate and examine. Then we will never plumb the depths with the result of complete comprehension of what the trinity is. The way we want to consider this process of taking bites isn’t necessarily some explosive event and then you have all the understanding. In reality, this activity of learning about God, the trinity, or any other doctrine is the activity of eternity.
Consequently, we are left with the task of taking Bites every day to learn something more about who God is. Be patient with progress while we take a bite and chew. Delight in the progress without criticism while the process takes the rest of our lives and forevermore.
