The Historical Cross and Empty Tomb
Part 5 of a Study in the Nicene Creed
“and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures;”
“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 in accordance with the Scriptures.”
1 Corinthians 15:3-4
To say that the cross and the empty tomb is of first importance is not just a matter of apologetics: that his trial and execution under Pilate was historical, or that the resurrection was bodily. That is all true and that is important. But the Creed had just informed us that the Word was made flesh and entered history — Why? It was “for us men and for our salvation.” So this primary place for the cross and empty tomb is really a central, or foundational, place of belief and personal trust. In the verses just before, how does Paul begin this chapter?
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain (vv. 1-2).
So in other words, gospel belief unites us to Christ in heaven, by linking our history with his history. It causes us to look to history, yes, but ultimately what Paul means by “standing” is a standing in eternity. There is a certain link between this history of salvation and the certainty of your own salvation.
The crucifixion in history buried our sins in the old world.
The resurrection in history raised our souls in the new world.
The death of Christ “according to the Scriptures”
The resurrection of Christ “according to the Scriptures”
The crucifixion in history buried our sins in the old world.
1. Note the continuation of the language of FOR US, so that he ‘was crucified also for us.’ If a perfect sacrifice were not provided to appease God's wrath, then his disposition of divine displeasure at our sin would still be aimed at us. There must be a removal of that sin, and that means that it must be fully punished: either in hell, or on a Substitute. Jesus was that Substitute for his people (Mat. 1:21, 1 Pet. 2:24, Gal. 3:13, Heb. 2:17).
2. Why the reference to Pontius Pilate? The Creed makes the point that this central event to redemptive history was under Pontius Pilate. The Apostles Creed had already done the same. There are at least two reasons for it. First, as we’ve been saying, it roots the event in real history. One commentator in those centuries, Rufinus, tells us, “They who have handed down the Creed to us have with much forethought specified the time when these things were done.” It was with much forethought that Pilate was mentioned to establish for all time the historicity of the gospel. People have always debated other reasons. But consider what a wrong side of history Pilate found himself on during those brief hours. He even declared Jesus innocent: “after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him” (Lk. 23:14). Here we have a Confession of the church for all time. Jesus was said to make “the good confession” before Pilate. Pilate in return washed his hands, thinking he could opt out of a confession. But Jesus says through these reflections down to all of us: “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels” (Mk. 8:38).
3. And ‘He suffered.’ The word “passion,” as in the passion of Christ, derives from the Latin passio, that is, to suffer. Although it was the wrath of God that was the main thing suffered, still there was a fittingness to the sufferings of his body at the hand of the Romans. They were God’s instruments of justice, as “it was the will of the” (Isa. 53:10), so they drew his blood by means of human torture. To put it concisely, the blood of Jesus was the ransom price by which God redeemed his people from their sin (1 Pet. 1:19). As the Old Covenant sacrifices were a type and shadow of the people’s way of access to God, the author of Hebrews says,
“How much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (9:14); and “under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (9:22).
4. That He ‘was buried’ is crucial to set up the resurrection. But not only was Jesus buried, but in Him, our old man was buried. Remember that the spiritual reality comes down into history. So it is with historical realism that Paul can say, “I have been crucified with Christ” (Gal. 2:20), or to us, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” (Rom. 6:3) Being united to Christ, our old man has been buried with and in Christ’s death and burial.
The resurrection in history raised our souls in the new world.
1. It continues, ‘and the third day He rose again.’ The resurrection is often viewed only as a part of apologetics: something to convince the unbeliever about and which vindicates Jesus as to his identity. That is all true and valuable. But the resurrection is also done for us. It is part of the gospel. Why is it good news? Well, there are final reasons that we will wait for the end of the Creed, which speaks to “the Resurrection” to come. For now, just notice that because of the role that Christ’s resurrection plays in guaranteeing our resurrection, the doctrine of the resurrection is an essential part of Christian belief. Paul argued this point in 1 Corinthians 15:12-20. Christ was raised bodily as the firstfruits of us one day being raised bodily (1 Cor. 15:20-23, 45-58).
2. The resurrection is, after all, the conquest of death. J. Gresham Machen especially beat this drum against liberalism. What the liberals had done, by the turn of the twentieth century, is to translate the resurrection into a purely “spiritual” phenomenon. They had bought into a subtle kind of skepticism of the resurrection which set forth a Jesus whom his disciples took to be only “spiritually risen” or “risen in their hearts” or in their “hopes.” This reduces the whole resurrection to a phantom, an illusion, albeit a very inspiring illusion! But Christianity is nothing without the real event and apart from the apostolic doctrine (news) about that event. Since the human being is a spirit-body unity, it follows that the whole is being redeemed. This is the connection between the Incarnation and the resurrection. The Son of God assumes precisely what he intends to redeem and restore, and therefore God raised the whole of what is being restored.
The death of Christ “according to the Scriptures.”
1. The Jewish expectations for a Messiah, by the first century under Roman occupation, was not in keeping with the Suffering Servant foretold by Isaiah, nor of the sacrificial victim of Psalm 22.
2. The Messiah was to be betrayed (Psalm 41:9) — fulfilled (Luke 22:47-48). It would be for thirty pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12-13) — fulfilled (Matthew 27:9-10). He would be falsely accused (Psalm 35:11) — fulfilled (Mark 14:57-58). He would be silent before his accusers (Isaiah 53:7) — fulfilled (Mark 15:4-5). Would be spat upon and struck (Isaiah 50:6) — fulfilled (Matthew 26:67). Numbered in his death with criminals (Isaiah 53:12) — fulfilled (Matthew 27:38). Given vinegar to drink (Psalm 69:21) — fulfilled (Matthew 27:34). His hands and feet would be pierced (Psalm 22:16) — fulfilled (John 20:25-27). He would be mocked and ridiculed (Psalm 22:7-8) — fulfilled (Luke 23:35). Soldiers would gamble for his garments (Psalm 22:18) — fulfilled (Luke 23:34). His bones would not be broken (Exodus 12:46, Psalm 34:20) — fulfilled (John 19:33-36). He would be forsaken by God (Psalm 22:1) — fulfilled (Matthew 27:46). He would pray for his enemies (Psalm 109:4) — fulfilled (Luke 23:34). Soldiers would pierce his side (Zechariah 12:10) — fulfilled (John 19:34). His being cut off would initiate the destruction of temple and sacrificial system (Daniel 9:25-27) — fulfilled (Hebrews 13:11-13, Matthew 24:2, 15). And this would be a sacrifice for sin (Isaiah 53:5-12) — fulfilled (Romans 5:6-8, Hebrews 9:26).
The resurrection of Christ “according to the Scriptures.”
It is often supposed that the people of ancient Israel had no doctrine of the resurrection. Perhaps one developed in, or following, the Babylonian Captivity as a result of foreign religious influence. Then perhaps the rest attached itself to the first century church as a result of the Eastern mystery religions.
In meeting this challenge, we may break down the Old Testament witness to the resurrection into four basic categories: (1) explicit statements, (2) anticipatory actions, (3) unwitting prophecies, and (4) types and shadows interpreted as such by the New Testament.
This is important for the integrity of Paul’s overall argument in First Corinthians 15; for he says not merely that Christ died, but that he was raised “in accordance with the Scriptures” (v. 4). Now which Scriptures does he mean but those of the Hebrew canon? It is imperative, therefore, that our Old Testament in some robust sense point to this central miracle.
1. First, there are at least four explicit statements about the resurrection in the Old Testament. All four are in the Prophets (Isa 26:19, Ezk 37:12-13, Dan 12:2, Hos 13:14). These passages are so plain that the only recourse left for the critic is to point out that these are of a very late date. It may be argued that the vindicating expectation of Job is also explicit in 19:25-27. Early references may also exist in Deuteronomy 32:39, 1 Samuel 2:6, and Psalm 49:14-15.
2. Secondly, there are anticipatory actions that suggest an expectation of resurrection. Two events in the life of Abraham are resurrection testimonies. Of the near sacrifices of Isaac: “He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back” (Heb 11:19). Boice and Hughes comment on the purchase of a burial plot for Sarah that Abraham was funding yet another act of faith, as this place was in the heart of the Promise Land, and from it he expected to see his wife again. Wenkel argues that, “For the author of Hebrews, the narratives of Genesis 17-18 demonstrate that Abraham himself is the ‘first shadow’ of the resurrection from the dead.” The author points to Abraham’s “renewed procreative capacity” and that, “Both Romans 4:19 and Hebrews 11:1 point to Abraham’s body being dead.” Joseph’s instructions that his bones be brought back to the Promise Land testifies to the same. What is the punchline to Hebrews 11? It is that “These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth” (v. 13). What else does this mean but that all these acts of faith were resurrection-anticipating-actions?
3. Thirdly, there are unwitting prophecies. Peter says: “Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories” (1 Pet 1:10-11). David is said to speak of the resurrection in Psalm 16:8-11 by Peter in his Pentecost sermon (Acts 2:25-28). Now did the Psalmist intend to speak of Christ’s resurrection? Elsewhere Job cries, “Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath be past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me! If a man dies, shall he live again? All the days of my service I would wait, till my renewal should come” (14:13-14). It may have been disingenuous repentance offered by Israel, but “on the third day he will raise us up” (Hos 6:2). New creation prophecies would have implied the hope of a future life as well: cf. Isa 43:18-21, 65:17, 66:22.
4. Fourthly, there are those types and shadows of the resurrection that the Jews would have, in time, learned to see as signposts to the life to come. Beale suggests an early, albeit obscure, double-hint in Genesis 3. Perhaps the constant phrase that the dying faithful one was “gathered to his people” (Gen. 25:8; cf. 49:29) was anticipatory. Jesus’s words seem to give us a central type: “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Mat 12:40). Whether Paul knew about this saying of Jesus or not, starting from the presupposition that the whole Bible has one divine Author, this verse by itself, is sufficient to justify Paul’s claim that the resurrection was “according to the Scriptures.” Lunn argues that central to the Jonah sign is the concept of rising up out of the water, the sea being a place of judgment.
5. Alexander argues from the differing expectations of the righteous and the wicked in Sheol to resurrection.1 His premises arise from Genesis 2-3 and from Psalm 49 that death is unnatural and the righteous are rewarded in the end. Consequently if all must go to the same Sheol, but the eternal state of the righteous in far better, something like the resurrection must be true. Although it does not prove the full antiquity of the Jewish view, there is a significant perspective in the Babylonian Talmud, that, “There is not a single precept in the Torah whose reward is [stated] at its side which is not dependent on the resurrection of the dead.” And how else does a simple Jewish woman like Martha confess, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day” (Jn 11:24). It may be that Paul was capitalizing on the knowledge that the Jewish Christians in Corinth could offer their brethren.
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1. T. Desmond Alexander, “The Old Testament view of life after death,” Themelios, Volume 11 - Issue 2. 1986. 41-46.
