A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance
by Steve West
Table of Contents
Introduction
1 Resurrection Hope in the Law
2 Resurrection Hope in the Prophets
3 Resurrection Hope in the Writings
4 Resurrection Hope in the Gospels
5 Resurrection Hope in Acts
6 Resurrection Hope in the Letters
7 Resurrection Hope in Revelation
Conclusion
Summary
Introduction
In the beginning, God designed and created human beings to be embodied creatures. Death is a great enemy, but death is defeated because the dead are raised to life in the resurrection. Ever since sin entered the world through Adam’s fall, human beings have lived in a world where they are dying. Believers in Jesus, however, will experience victory over death and be clothed in immortal, glorified bodies. This future glory is based on the work of Jesus Christ, who died on the cross and rose again. Without the resurrection, the incarnation and crucifixion are not the good news that we so desperately need. Jesus died never to die again, and because he is risen from the dead to live forever, so will we. Although our resurrection hope—based on the resurrection of Jesus—is made explicitly clear in the New Testament, the Old Testament contains a progressive revelation of the doctrine. In all three divisions of the Old Testament (i.e., the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings), there are texts which point to the future hope of resurrection. Both Testaments testify that the solution to death is resurrection.
It is in the resurrection of Jesus that we see what this victory really looks like: Christ is raised in glorified immortality never to die again. It is because Christ lives that we will live, too. Resurrection hope matters for all of life and death, both now and into eternity. We should care about resurrection because all of us as individuals will face and experience death. We will know people who are dying and who will die, and we need to be able to share with them the good news of Christ’s resurrection. Since Christ is the center of our faith, and he is the object of our faith and hope, his resurrection is essential for us. Numerous lines of theological reflection run together and join up at the cross and empty tomb, and the resurrection is necessary for theological coherence. We should also think about the resurrection because doing so should inspire us to praise and worship God for what he has done for us in raising Christ from the dead.
Chapter 1: Resurrection Hope in the Law
Although it is quite common for critical scholars to suggest that there was no firm articulation of the doctrine of resurrection before the late prophecies of Daniel or Isaiah, this claim is belied by the Bible’s own data. At the very beginning of Genesis, we find that God created human beings to be embodied beings. Their bodies were not naturally immortal, but they could become so through obedience to God and eating from the Tree of Life. When Adam and Eve sinned, they introduced death into human experience. The only hope for human beings is the redemptive power and grace of God, and his promise that he will defeat our death and clothe us in resurrection immortality. In Scripture, death is not simply the one-time cessation of life: it is involved in every aspect of decay, sickness, and loss. Life is the opposite of death, and wherever God brings healing and restores wholeness he is undoing the effects of death. Because of their sin, Adam and Eve were banished from Eden—the place of abundant life, where the Tree of Life grew—and exiled into death.
When God brings his people out of the realm of death and into the realm of the sacred, he is bringing them from death to life. To bring them out of death itself is to bring them into resurrection life. Genesis 5 records a long list of births, reproduction, and death, but in the midst of this chapter, we are told that Enoch was kept from death by God. This raises the question whether, if God can keep a person alive so that they do not experience death, can he also bring someone to life after they have died? The Flood narrative is of decreation and recreation, where God brings life out of the deluge and death. Faced with barrenness and infertility—which was a kind of death to the patriarchs and their wives—God over and over again brought life out of barrenness. Isaac was a miracle child born to an infertile couple, and when Abraham was called to sacrifice him, Abraham was able to reason that God would raise Isaac from the dead in order to fulfill his promises. In this, the author of Hebrews tells us that Isaac did experience deliverance from death when his life was spared.
Resurrection trajectories are likewise seen in the experiences of Joseph, Moses, and Israel in the exodus. Liberation in resurrection is the ultimate exodus deliverance. The tabernacle was a place of life set up in the middle of the camp, and returning to God in the tabernacle was a reversal of death and exile. Deuteronomy 32:9b records God’s words, “I kill and make alive; I wound and I heal.” These two statements are parallel to one another: God wounds and heals someone in that order, and so “kill and make alive” is a declaration that he makes the dead live. In Acts 24:14-15 Paul claimed to believe in all that the Law and Prophets said, and he justified his belief in the resurrection on that basis. In Matthew 22:24-28, Jesus appealed to the Law in his discussion with the Sadducees as proof that God is the God of the living, and that resurrection is real. It is because of God’s power and faithfulness that the Law gives us hope we will live forever. . . .
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