Old Testament Scripture Anticipating Resurrection

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. (Job 19:25)

For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who can give your praise? (Psalm 6:5)

For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. (Psalm 16:10)

But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol, for he will receive me. (Psalm 49:15)

He will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The LORD has spoken. (Isaiah 25:8)

But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt (Daniel 12:2)

After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. (Hosea 6:2)

New Testament Scripture on the Resurrection

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; 26 and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this? (John 11:25-26)

Resurrection accounts: Matthew 28:1-8; Mark 16:1-13; Luke 24:1-31; John 20:1-10

“Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30 Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. (Acts 2:29–32)

With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all. (Acts 4:33)

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,  that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day pin accordance with the Scriptures,  and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. (1 Corinthians 15:3-5)

I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. (Philippians 3:10-11)

Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. (Hebrews 11:35)

Who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and agave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. (1 Peter 1:21)

Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years. (Revelation 20:6)

Quotes on Resurrection

“He has even called the flesh to the resurrection, and promises to it everlasting life. For where He promises to save man, there He gives the promise to the flesh.” (Justin Martyr)

“Wisdom, which is His word, raises us up to the truth, who have fallen prostrate before idols, and is itself the first resurrection from our fall.” (Athenagoras)

“O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? Christ is risen, and you are overthrown. Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen. Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen, and life reigns. Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave.” (John Chrysostom)

“Yesterday I was crucified with Him; today I am glorified with Him; yesterday I died with Him; today I am quickened with Him; yesterday I was buried with Him; today I rise with Him.” (Gregory the Theologian)

“Thou didst make the Myrrh-Bearing Women the bearers of the tidings of Thy Resurrection and Thy glory! They did not anoint Thy dead body, but Thou didst anoint their living souls with the oil of gladness. The mourners of the dead became the swallows of a new spring.” (Nikolai Velimirovic)

“”Now all things have been filled with light, both heaven and earth and those beneath the earth; so let all creation sing Christ’s rising, by which it is established.” (John of Damascus)

“Let not the things, which have been made new, return to their ancient instability…Let no one fall back into that from which he has risen, but, even though from bodily weakness he still languishes under certain maladies, let him urgently desire to be healed and raised up.” (Leo the Great)

“Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.” (Martin Luther)

“[Resurrection] is the doctrine I say, which makes me fear to offend, and that is as an undergirder to my soul, whereby I am kept from destruction and confusion, under all the storms and tempests I here go through.” (John Bunyan)

“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)

“After death something new begins, over which all powers of the world of death have no more might.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

“It was no accident, no coincidence, that the seasons came round and round year after year. It was the Lord speaking to us all and showing us over and over again the birth, life, death, and resurrection of his only begotten Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord.” (Francine Rivers)

“The message of Easter is that God’s new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you’re now invited to belong to it.” (N. T. Wright)

“Now consider this: the first person to hold the newborn Christ was Mary of Nazareth, and the first person to touch the newly risen Christ, however briefly, was Mary of Magdala. God placed himself in a woman’s care when he came to earth, then entrusted a woman to announce his resurrection when he came back to life.” ( Liz Curtis Higgs)

“The simple acts of generosity and community in daily life are the acts that make real the living presence of Jesus.” (Kate Cooper)

“The resurrection of Jesus changes the face of death for all His people. Death is no longer a prison, but a passage into God’s presence. Easter says you can put truth in a grave, but it won’t stay there.” (Clarence W. Hall)

“Faith in the Resurrection of Jesus says that there is a future for every human being; the cry for unending life which is a part of the person is indeed answered.” (Pope Benedict XVI)

“In fact, everything that exists and moves in the Church – the sacraments, doctrine, institutions – draws it’s strength from Christ’s Resurrection.” (Raniero Cantalamessa)

“The Gospel of Easter is very clear: we need to go back there, to see Jesus risen, and to become witnesses of his Resurrection. This is not to go back in time; it is not a kind of nostalgia. It is returning to our first love, in order to receive the fire which Jesus has kindled in the world and to bring that fire to all people, to the very ends of the earth.” (Pope Francis)

Some Seedbed Resources on the Resurrection

Larry Wood explains why Christ’s Resurrection is good news (video).

Matt O’Reilly explains why the resurrection is everything (article).

Timothy Tennent explains the bodily resurrection of the dead (article).

Ben Witherington III explains why Jesus’ history is our destiny (video).