The Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ

As the resurrection of the Messiah from the dead was predicted by the prophets, so the very time thereof was fixed by them. Hence the writers of the New Testament, as they declare that Christ rose from the dead, according to the scriptures of the Old Testament, so they likewise declare, that He rose from the dead the third day, (I Corinthians 15:4) which scriptures referred to. These scriptures are not merely some typical predictions of the Old Testament, as that of Isaac’s deliverance on the third day, after he had been given up to death by his father, Genesis 22:4; and that of Jonah’s being three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, Jonah 1:17 compared with Matthew 12:40; though undoubtedly reference is made to them; but to a real prophecy, which in its literal and obvious sense is to be understood of this affair. 

 

The prophecy I have in view is Hosea 6:2. After two days He will revive us, in the third day He will raise us up; and we shall live in His sight. The older manuscripts understand these words of the resurrection of the dead are about no other resurrection, but the resurrection of the Messiah, and of His people in Him, can be understood in their literal sense; because the time, the third day, will agree with no other; whose coming is prophesied of in the following verse, as what would be very glorious in itself, and profitable to God’s people; besides it suits best with the scope of the place, which is to animate and encourage sinners to turn to the Lord, where they might expect healing, or pardon, through the promised Messiah, who by dying would obtain life for them, and by rising again the third day, procure their justification and acceptance with God, that so they might live in His sight; and the reason why it is expressed in the plural number, in the third day He will raise us up, was to encourage those persons to hope and believe in God, front the consideration of their sharing in the resurrection of the Messiah, and the several benefits which were to spring from thence, who was to arise from the dead, not as a single, but as a public person, representing all His people; so that when He was raised from the dead, they might be said to be raised up together with Him; which is a phrase that the writers of the New Testament more than once make use of; see Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 3:1.

 

-preacher John Gill (1697-1771 A.D.)

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