Lux Lucet

On this Lord’s Day with its special emphasis on the bodily resurrection of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, it seemed good to present without comment what others have said concerning this miracle, foretold by the prophets, witnessed by the apostles, and preached by believers ever since.

Scriptural witnesses

• For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth (Job 19:25).
  
• For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption (Psalm 16:10).
  
• Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand (Isaiah 53:10).
  
• And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights (Jonah 1:17).
  
• He is not here; for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay (Matthew 28:6).
  
• “Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have” (Luke 24:39).
  
• I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live (John 11:25).
  
• Now when she [Mary Magdalene] had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, “Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him Rabboni!” (John 20:14-16).
  
• [B]eginning from the baptism of John to that day when He was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection (Acts 1:22).
  
• And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus (Acts 4:33).
  
• Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son or God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead (Romans 1:3).
  
• It [righteousness] shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification (Romans 4:24-25).
  
• For is we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection (Romans 6:5).
  
• He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:4).
  
• For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead (1 Corinthians 15:21).
  
• Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Peter 1:3).
  

Early Church Witnesses

• Having therefore received their [the apostles] orders, and being fully assured by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ (Clement of Rome).[Y]et you not only have not repented, after you learned that He rose from the dead, but, as I said before you have sent chosen and ordained men throughout all the world to proclaim that a godless and lawless heresy had sprung from one Jesus (Justin Martyr, Dialogue With Trypho).
  
• For as the Lord “went away in the midst of the shadow of death,” where the souls of the dead were, yet afterwards arose in the body, and after the resurrection was taken up into heaven (Irenaeus, Against Heresies).
  
• A marvelous and mighty paradox has thus occurred, for the death which they thought to inflict on Him as dishonor and disgrace has become the glorious monument to death’s defeat (Athanasius of Alexandria).
  
• So He was crucified, that on the Cross He might show the dying-out of our old man; and He rose, that in His own life He might show our new life (Aurelius Augustine).
  

Reformation Witnesses

• Christ’s resurrection, then, is the assurance of our own resurrection because it certifies the blotting out of our guilt (Martin Luther).
  
• The cross of Christ only triumphs in the breast of believers over the devil and the flesh, sin and sinners, when their eyes are directed to the power of His Resurrection (John Calvin, Institutes).
  
• On the third day He arose from the dead, with the same body in which He suffered (Westminster Confession, VIII.4).
  
• The estate of Christ’s exaltation comprehendeth his resurrection, ascension, sitting at the right hand of the Father, and his coming again to judge the world (Westminster Larger Catechism).
  

Post Reformation Witnesses

• It was the same body that was raised that died, and was laid in the grave; it was a real body, consisting of flesh, blood, and bones; and was not only to be seen, but to be handled; and it was the same identical body, as appears from the print of the nails in his hands, and the mark in his side made by the spear (John Gill, A Body of Doctrinal & Practical Divinity).
  
• [The] resurrection of Christ is the most joyful event that ever came to pass; because hereby Christ rested from the great and difficult work of purchasing redemption, and received God’s testimony, that it was finished (Jonathan Edwards).
  
• For as he [Jesus] acted as our representative, if he our head be risen, then must we also, who are his members, rise with him. And as in the first Adam we all died, even so in him our second Adam we must all, in this sense, be made alive (George Whitefield).
  
• The importance of Christ’s resurrection arises from the circumstance that of all his claims, and the success of his work, rest on the fact that he arose from the dead (Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology).
  
• The resurrection is a fact better attested than any event recorded in any history, whether ancient or modern (Charles Spurgeon).
  
• In Christ’s resurrection, therefore, the Christian man sees the earnest and pledge of his own resurrection (B.B. Warfield).
  
• [The resurrection] is the final proof that He {Jesus Christ] is none other than God’s only begotten Son, the eternal Son of God; that though He was a man, He was not only a man (Martin Lloyd Jones).
  
• When Paul tells Timothy to remember Jesus Christ, it is not surprising that he first mentions the resurrection. The sermons in the book of Acts all mention the resurrection (Gordon Clark, The Pastoral Epistles).
  
• Even at the time of Christ, no one saw the Resurrection occur. They saw angels, they saw the empty tomb…they even saw the Resurrected Christ, but the woman jumped to the wrong conclusion based upon the evidence. It is only the propositional explanations of the Resurrection [found in Scripture] that give us knowledge, not empirical evidence (John W. Robbins).