How can we defend the resurrection using other scriptural references? Mark 12:18—Setting the Scene “Then some Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and questioned Him.” • The Sadducees’ denial opens the door for Jesus—and for us—to marshal Scripture itself as the best defense of bodily resurrection. How Jesus Answers in the Same Passage • Mark 12:26-27—Jesus reaches back to Exodus 3:6: “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” – God identifies Himself in the present tense to patriarchs long dead; therefore they must still live. – “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!” (v. 27). • Lesson: Begin any defense by noting that Jesus treats the Torah as affirming life beyond the grave. Old Testament Foundations • Job 19:25-27—“I know that my Redeemer lives… yet in my flesh I will see God.” • Psalm 16:10—“You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see decay.” • Isaiah 26:19—“Your dead will live; their bodies will rise.” • Daniel 12:2—“Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life.” • Hosea 13:14 echoed in 1 Corinthians 15:55—“Where, O death, are your plagues?” Takeaway: long before the empty tomb, Scripture promises a bodily future for God’s people. Jesus’ Own Predictions Before Calvary • Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:34—three explicit forecasts that He will rise on the third day. • John 11:25-26—“I am the resurrection and the life.” • Matthew 12:40—“As Jonah was three days in the belly of the great fish… so the Son of Man will be three days in the heart of the earth.” Point made: Jesus stakes His credibility on His own resurrection. Eyewitness Proof After the Cross • Luke 24:39—“Touch Me and see; a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.” • John 20:27—Thomas invited to place his finger in the wounds. • Acts 1:3—“He presented Himself to them with many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days.” • 1 Corinthians 15:6—over five hundred witnesses at one time, “most of whom remain alive” as Paul writes. The Apostolic Explanation • 1 Corinthians 15:3-4—an early creed: “Christ died… was buried… was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.” • 1 Corinthians 15:17-20—without the resurrection faith collapses, “but Christ has indeed been raised.” • Romans 8:11—“He who raised Christ… will also give life to your mortal bodies.” • 1 Thessalonians 4:14—because Jesus rose, “God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him.” • Acts 23:6; 24:15; 26:22-23—Paul repeatedly anchors his defense before Jewish and Roman authorities in “the hope of the resurrection.” Pulling the Threads Together • Jesus Himself argues from Exodus, proving the concept straight from the Law. • Prophets and poets echo the same hope. • The Gospels record fulfilled predictions and physical encounters with the risen Lord. • The Epistles interpret those events and tie our future resurrection directly to His. Bottom line: Scripture—from Moses to Revelation—speaks with one voice; the God who calls Himself “the God of the living” has already raised Jesus and will raise all who belong to Him. |
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