One of the most important and fruitful theological principles I have learned in the past five or six years has been that, when reading the Bible, we should do our best to understand the point of view of the person who wrote the book we are reading. In other words, we should ask questions like:
- What was the intention of the author in writing?
- What did he want his audience to come away with?
- What cultural, political, or theological issues may have prompted the author to write what he wrote?
- How did the author’s understanding of previous Scripture shape what he wrote?
It is this last question that has taken hold of me more recently, and the understanding that the biblical authors did not write in a vacuum and did not simply write about whatever they felt like sounding off on that particular day has piqued my interest. They were not just aware of but shaped by Scripture written before them.
Paul’s Understanding of the Old Testament
A lifetime (and into eternity) could be spent unpacking each and every passage of Scripture for all of its worth, including how its author was influenced by earlier writings, but take just one example from the Apostle Paul. If the Old Testament had an effect on any of the New Testament writers, it would have been him. He was “a Hebrew of Hebrews” and “as to the Law, a Pharisee” (Philippians 3:5). Additionally, he “was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more zealous for the traditions of my fathers” (Galatians 1:14). If anyone knew the Old Testament and was a keeper of the Law, it was Paul.
This zeal that had once led him to “persecute the church of God beyond measure and [try] to destroy it” (1:13) was now his fuel to build up the church of Jesus Christ. This is evident in any of his letters, as there are numerous citations and allusions to Old Testament texts.
The Gospel’s Old Testament Roots
One of these places is in 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul reminds the church at Corinth of the basic pillars of the gospel. “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (15:3-4).
He does not cite any verses, yet he says that the death and resurrection of Christ happened “according to the Scriptures”; what Scriptures does he have in mind? If we could sit down with Paul and ask him to elaborate, which passages would he take us to that would support his claim that Christ not only “died for our sins,” but was “raised on the third day according to the Scriptures?”
Christ Died for Our Sins
I want to focus on a few of the main passages that I believe Paul had in mind when he considered the Scriptural basis for God’s Messiah not just dying, but dying for the sins of His people. A full treatment and explanation of each passage would certainly be worthwhile, but for the sake of keeping the length of this article short, I will limit my focus to simply listing the relevant verses.
Isaiah 53
Isaiah 53 is the most obvious passage that foretells Christ’s sin-bearing work. Beginning in 52:13, Isaiah tells of a Servant who will come and “sprinkle many nations” (53:15), but who will also suffer.
- 53:4-6, “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our peace fell upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed…Yahweh has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.”
- 53:10, “Yahweh was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief.”
- 53:11, “My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.”
- 53:12, “He poured out His soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet He Himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors.”
If you were to sit down and simply read through Isaiah 53, it is impossible to not immediately see of its fulfillment in the death of Christ.
Psalm 22
Psalm 22 is another passage that likely informed Paul’s understanding of Christ’s atoning work. Many themes can also be tied to Isaiah 53, as Isaiah often drew from the Psalms in his writings. Additionally, there are many direct quotations and allusions from Psalm 22 in the Gospel account of Jesus’s death.
| Psalm 22 | Isaiah 53 | Gospels |
| V. 1, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” | The Servant feels rejection from Yahweh (V. 4b, 6b, 10a) | Quoted by Jesus in Matthew 27:46 & Mark 15:34 |
| V. 6-8, “But I am a worm and not a man, a reproach of men and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they smack their lip, they wag their head, saying, ‘Commit yourself to Yahweh; let Him rescue him; let Him deliver him, because He delights in him.’” | The Servant is scorned and despised by others (V. 3) | Spoken by the onlookers of Jesus’s death in Matthew 27:43 |
| V. 14-16, “I am poured out like water…My strength is dried up like a potsherd…They pierced my hands and my feet.” | The Servant faces immense physical suffering, including being pierced (V. 5) | Jesus faces immense physical suffering, including being scourged (Matthew 27:26) and crucified (27:35) |
| V. 15, “My tongue cleaves to my jaws.” | Jesus says in John 19:28, “I thirst.” | |
| V. 18, “They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” | Quoted in Matthew 27:35; Mark 15:24; Luke 23:34; John 19:24 |
Zechariah 3 and 13
Two passages from Zechariah are worth considering in the role they played as some of “the Scriptures” that prophesied Christ dying for the sins of His people. In chapter 3, Zechariah has a vision of “Joshua that high priest standing before the angel of Yahweh, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him” (3:1). He is being accused because “Joshua was clothed with filthy garments” (3:3). However, Yahweh rebukes Satan (3:2), has the filthy garments removed, and says, “See, I have made your iniquity pass away from you and will clothe you with festal robes” (3:4). A few verses later, Yahweh declares that “I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day” (3:10). Even as the high priest, Joshua is unable to remove his own sin. But this passage anticipates a better high priest who will be able to accomplish this.
We are given more clues if we jump to chapter 13. We are told of a time when “a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity” (13:1). Idols will be cut off, and false prophets will pass away (13:2). One will come who “was struck in the house of my friends” (13:6). Yahweh then declares the sword to awake against His Shepherd, and to “Strike the Shepherd that the sheep may be scattered” (13:7; cf. Matthew 26:31), making two-thirds of them to perish, but one-third, a remnant, will be left (13:8). These will be refined, tested, and will call on God’s name and be His people (13:9). One man is struck, and as a result, a people are redeemed from their sins and impurities.
Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, and Zechariah 3 and 13 are at least four of the Old Testament passages that Paul had in mind when he said in 1 Corinthians 15:3, “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” Together, they paint a picture of a Messiah who will come, who will not only suffer and die, but will do so for the sins of His people.
Christ Was Raised on the Third Day
Just as Paul says that Christ did not just die in general, but he died for sins, so also was Christ not just raised, but He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. Again, as I attempt to be brief, I want to bring into consideration the passages that Paul likely had in mind when he asserts this claim.
Isaiah 53 (again)
Though Isaiah 53 is mainly about the Suffering Servant, it is also about the Servant who triumphs over His suffering. Right after saying that “Yahweh was pleased to crush Him, putting him to grief,” Isaiah says, “He [the Servant] will see His seed, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of Yahweh will succeed in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied” (53:10-11). The “seed” is a reference to those who come to faith in Christ, as they are God’s children, and Christ will see them because he will resurrect to live forever.
Acts 2 and Psalm 16
In Peter’s sermon that he preaches at Pentecost, he proclaims to the crowd that Jesus was “nailed to a cross by the hands of lawless men and put Him to death. But God raised Him up again” (Acts 2:23-24). He then goes to Psalm 16:8-11 to show that this had always been God’s plan. This is worth quoting at length.
“For David says of Him, ‘I saw the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand, so that I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart was glad and my tongue exulted; Moreover my flesh also will live in hope; because You will not forsake my soul to Hades, nor give Your Holy One over to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of gladness with Your presence.’ Men, brothers, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. And so, because he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn to him with an oath to set one of the fruit of his body on his throne, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that He was neither forsaken to Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.” (Acts 2:25-32)
Peter gives a clear explanation of how David, in Psalm 16, ultimately speaks of Christ, so no further comment here is needed.
The Sign of Jonah
One of the first Scriptures that should come to mind is one that Jesus himself used to back up His claim that he was going to rise from the dead. A group of scribes and Pharisees came to Jesus ask to see a sign from him (as if He had not already done enough) (Matthew 12:38). But Jesus quickly answers them, “An evil and adulterous generation eagerly seeks for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (12:39-40).
In many ways, Jonah is a picture of one man doing what the entire nation of Israel has done: rebel against God, flee from Him, and reject His word. Yet, the picture that Matthew paints of Jesus is the opposite: one man succeeding in every place that the nation of Israel (and Jonah) failed. As Jonah experienced a resurrection from the dead of sorts after being swallowed and then released from the belly of the whale after three days (Jonah 1:17; 2:10), so also will Jesus experience a true resurrection from the dead after being in a tomb for three days.
A Compilation of Third-Day Resurrections
The Old Testament basis for the claim that the Christ would be raised from the dead is more explicit than the claim that it would happen on the third day. However, this does not mean it is not there; it just requires a slightly different way of understanding how Paul understood this to be true.
Whereas the Old Testament passages that lay the groundwork for Jesus’s resurrection from the dead are more clear-cut, and a line can be drawn from A to B, the fact that it happened on the third day according to the Scriptures requires careful attention, not to a few straightforward passages that the New Testament authors give us categories for understanding, but to a pattern of events that are strung together throughout the Old Testament that Paul picked up on in 1 Corinthians 15:4, and we should pick up on, too. I will list a few here.
- Hezekiah was one of the few righteous kings that Judah had, but he “became ill to the point of death” (2 Kings 20:1). He pleads with God to deliver him from this terminal illness, and God hears his prayer. Isaiah the prophet brought this word to him, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of your father David, ‘I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of Yahweh. And I will add fifteen years to your life” (20:5-6). Hezekiah was delivered from his imminent death, and years were added to his life on the third day.
- In Hosea 6, the people of Israel confess that they will return to Yahweh. “For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has struck us, but he will bandage us. He will make us alive after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, that we may live before Him” (6:1-2). Though the Lord may slay them, yet their hope will be in Him who will bring life again (see Job 13:15).
- Going back to Genesis 22, God had called Abraham to test him by telling him to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, through whom God had promised Abraham that “all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Genesis 12:3). Abraham response in obedience, and we are told that “On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place” where Isaac was to be sacrificed (22:4). Just before Abraham is about to carry out the deed, an angel tells him to stop, and Abraham looks and sees a ram nearby, which God had provided as a sacrifice (22:10-14). The author of Hebrews, reflecting on this event, tells us that Abraham “considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he also received him [Isaac] back” (11:17). On the third day, Abraham received his one and only son back from the dead.
Together, these passages help us get inside the head of Paul as we try to understand which Old Testament passages give support to the claim that Christ was “raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”
So What?
If you have read this far, I can imagine you are asking the question, “So what? This is some interesting information, but does this really make any difference at all in my day-to-day life as a Christian? I’m glad you asked.
Before 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, where Paul makes the claims that the gospel happened according to the Scriptures, he says in verses 1-2, “Now I make known to you, brothers, the gospel which I proclaimed as good news to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I proclaimed to you as good news, unless you believed in vain.” In other words, the gospel affects the past, present, and future of our lives.
It affected us in the past, as it was proclaimed to us who believe, and we received it with faith. “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ (Romans 10:17).
It affects us in the present, as it is what currently helps us to stand. The gospel is not something that believers need only once when they first believe and then never think of again; it is a daily need to confess our sin to and reaffirm our faith in Christ. The gospel “is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). The gospel is for believers.
It must continue to affect us into the future, for in it, we are “saved, if you hold fast the word…unless you believed in vain” (1 Corinthians 1:2). True belief in the gospel always results in a holding fast to the gospel. No one who truly believes in the gospel will forsake Christ. Yet, this does not mean that there are no means by which the believer is held fast; they are held fast and strengthened in their faith as they consider the unshakable and irrevocable nature of the gospel. Clearly, as this post has shown, the Good News was not a spur-of-the-moment idea that God had one day. Its shadows that are now brought to light, its whispers that are now announced with joy, and its roots that go so deep cannot but give the believer hope that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).
Above All Things 