The Hope of the Resurrection That Is Found in the Old Testament

Resurrection Is Foretold

When Jesus predicts his death and resurrection, he insists that he must be raised on the third day. Then in Luke 24 after the resurrection, he’s talking with his disciples, and he says it was necessary that the Messiah enter into his sufferings and be raised on the third day.

So where does this concept that Jesus must be raised come from? Why is it necessary for him to be raised? It’s because it’s already predicted in the Old Testament. The resurrection is not a new idea on Jesus’s lips. Even Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 that Christ was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. So where does this come from? It actually starts as early as the book of Genesis. If you think about Isaac, he’s almost sacrificed by his father Abraham. But Abraham tells the people he’s with, “The boy and I will worship over there, and we will come back to you.”

So Abraham has in his mind some kind of concept, maybe vague at the time, but some kind of seedling understanding of resurrection. Hebrews 11 says that that’s exactly what happened—that Abraham received him back as a type of resurrection. But even before Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac, even Isaac’s birth is said, in Romans 4, to come from the dead womb of Sarah—which is also a type of resurrection.

And so the Old Testament has these not exactly explicit predictions early on, but nonetheless these sort of types that foreshadow something greater in reality, which will ultimately be the resurrection of Jesus.

The exodus is the same way. Across the Old Testament, it speaks of going down into the grave. Equally, Israel goes down into Egypt, and then they come up out of Egypt. And when they are in Egypt, the entire nation is nearly exterminated. But then lo and behold, they come out alive. They come through the water of the Red Sea, where Pharaoh’s army goes in and they’re killed, but Israel comes out alive. So you can see in the exodus these types of resurrection.

And then in the psalms—especially in the first book of Psalms—David speaks of living on the edge of the grave. He says, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” That’s not just metaphorical language, but David is constantly in peril and near death. He thinks he’s going to die. But then consistently through those psalms, he comes out alive and more so to rule the nations.

Once you get to the prophets, it gets really explicit. Books like Ezekiel and Daniel speak of this mass resurrection of Israel at the end of the age, far more explicit than just in the types and poetry of the earlier parts of the Old Testament. So when Jesus the Messiah speaks of his death, he also speaks, therefore, that he must be raised as a fulfillment of the Scriptures.

Nicholas G. Piotrowski is the author of Return from Exile and the Renewal of God’s People.

Related Articles

Knowing the Power of His Resurrection

Timothy Keller

April 09, 2023

Do you strain with all of your might to see things the way Christ sees them? Do you strain to please him in everything? Do you strain to understand everything through him?

5 Things You Must Remember about the Resurrection

Paul David Tripp

March 31, 2024

What does it look like to look at life through the window of the resurrection? As I assess my life right here, right now, what about the resurrection must I remember? Let me suggest five things.

The Christian’s Hope Isn’t Complete without a Bodily Resurrection

Mitchell L. Chase

March 27, 2024

The apostle Paul is talking about our Christian hope of a bodily resurrection—not to minimize our suffering, but to maximize our perspective.

Where Do We First See the Hope of the Resurrection in the Bible?

Mitchell L. Chase

August 20, 2023

When you read what New Testament authors say, Jesus’s resurrection has fulfilled an earlier hope. And we can see that the resurrection is an ancient notion.