Doctrine of Deity of Jesus Christ

January 16, 2011

The Deity of Jesus Christ
Introduction
The preexistence of Jesus of Nazareth who is called the Christ testifies to the
fact that He is infinite, eternal Son of God (John 1:1-2; John 8:58; 10:30a; Col.
2:9a; Rev. 1:8).
There are several titles ascribed to Jesus Christ that signify His deity. He is
called “the Son of God” (Luke 1:35), “the Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:32),
“mighty God” (Isaiah 9:6), “eternal Father” (Isaiah 9:6), “His goings forth are from
long ago, from the days of eternity” (Micah 5:2) “Lord” (Rom. 15:30; Eph. 1:22;
Phil. 2:11) and “God” (Titus 2:13).
The Scriptures assign to Jesus Christ the same divine essence as God the Father
and God the Holy Spirit meaning that He possesses all the attributes of deity. The
Scriptures teach that He is sovereign (Matt. 28:18a; Col. 2:10b), that He is perfect
righteousness (John 8:46a; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 7:26; 1 Pet. 2:22; 1 John 2:21b) and
justice (John 8:16a; 2 Tim. 4:8; Psa. 9:8; Deut. 32:4; Rev. 15:3b). Furthermore,
the attribute of love is ascribed to Him (John 13:34; Rom. 5:8; Eph. 3:19; 1 John
4:9-10) as well as eternal life (1 Tim. 1:17; 1 John 5:11), omniscience (Luke 11:17;
John 2:24-25; 6:64; 21:17), omnipresence (Matt. 18:20; Prov. 15:3), omnipotence
(John 1:3, 10; 5:21; 1 Cor. 1:23-24; Phil. 3:21; Heb. 1:3; Rev. 1:8), immutability
(Mal. 3:6; Heb. 1:10-12; 13:8) and veracity (John 1:14; 14:6a; 1 John 3:16).
The Word of God presents Jesus Christ as the Creator and Sustainer of the
universe (John 1:3, 10; Col. 1:16-17; Heb. 1:3, 10). His deity is referred to in that
He is said to have authority to forgive sins (Matt. 9:6; Luke 5:24; Col. 3:13). He
has the power to raise the dead (John 5:21; 6:40; 11:25).
The Bible teaches that all judgment belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ (John 5:22;
1 Cor. 3:11-15; 2 Cor. 5:10; Rev. 20:11-14), and that He receives worship from
both men and angels (Psa. 99:5; Phil. 2:10; Rev. 5:13-14). In His Deity always
occupied a place of equality and fellowship with God the Father and God the Holy
Spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ as God was equal with the Father (John 10:30, 37-38;
14:9; 17:5, 24-25).

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Fulfilled Prophecy Testifies to the Deity of Christ
Then there is the subject of Messianic prophecies that Jesus literally fulfilled.
The Old Testament Messianic prophecies that were literally fulfilled by Jesus of
Nazareth substantiate His claims to being God.
Throughout the New Testament the apostles appealed to two areas of the life of
Jesus of Nazareth to establish His Messiahship. The Old Testament, as we have
noted, was written over a 1000 year period, contains nearly 300 references to the
coming Messiah. All of these were literally fulfilled in the Person of Jesus Christ,
and they establish not only a solid confirmation of His credentials as the Messiah.
These Messianic prophecies extend over hundreds of years and yet find their literal
fulfillment in the short 33 ½ year life span of one person, Jesus of Nazareth. Many
of these prophecies were fulfilled in one day. These prophecies truly accomplish
the purposes of the Gospel writers as they carefully pointed to the Person, words,
and works of Christ. The early church evangelized the unbelievers by appealing to
these fulfilled Messianic prophecies, therefore, we should follow suit. For these
fulfilled prophecies substantiate Christ’s claims as being the Son of God.
John 20:31, “but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His
name.”
Matthew 26:56, “But all this has taken place to fulfill the Scriptures of the
prophets.”
Luke 24:25-27, “And He said to them, ‘O foolish men and slow of heart to
believe in all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary for the
Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory? Then beginning with
Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning
Himself in all the Scriptures.’”
Luke 24:44, “Now He said to them, ‘These are My words which I spoke to
you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in
the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.’”
The Lord Jesus Christ said He came to fulfill prophecy.
Matthew 5:17, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the
Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”
Jesus appealed to Messianic prophecies many times during His ministry. These
Messianic prophecies were uttered by many different voices and over a period of
five hundred years yet they were all fulfilled within twenty hours on the day that
the Lord died for the sins of the world.
There is the prophecy that He would be sold for thirty pieces of silver.
Prophecy: Zechariah 11:12, “I said to them, ‘If it is good in your sight, give

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{me} my wages; but if not, never mind.’ So they weighed out thirty {shekels}
of silver as my wages.”
Fulfillment: Matthew 26:14-15, “Then one of the twelve, named Judas
Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, ‘What are you willing to give me to
betray Him to you?’ And they weighed out thirty pieces of silver to him.”
Then we have the prophecy that He would be betrayed by a friend.
Prophecy: Psalm 55:12-14, “For it is not an enemy who reproaches me, then
I could bear {it;} nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against
me, then I could hide myself from him. But it is you, a man my equal, My
companion and my familiar friend; We who had sweet fellowship together
walked in the house of God in the throng.”
Fulfillment: Matthew 26:49-50, “Immediately Judas went to Jesus and said,
‘Hail, Rabbi.’ and kissed Him. And Jesus said to him, ‘Friend, {do} what you
have come for.’ Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and seized Him.”
There is the prophecy of the money cast to the potter.
Prophecy: Zechariah 11:13, “Then the LORD said to me, ‘Throw it to the
potter, that magnificent price at which I was valued by them.’ So I took the
thirty shekels of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the
LORD.”
Fulfillment: Matthew 27:5-7, “And he threw the pieces of silver into the
sanctuary and departed; and he went away and hanged himself. And the chief
priests took the pieces of silver and said, ‘It is not lawful to put them into the
temple treasury, since it is the price of blood. And they counseled together and
with the money bought the Potter’s Field as a burial place for strangers.’”
The disciples forsook Him, again true to prophecy.
Prophecy: Zechariah 13:7, “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, And
against the man, My Associate,” declares the LORD of hosts. ‘Strike the
Shepherd that the sheep may be scattered; And I will turn My hand against
the little ones.’”
Fulfillment: Matthew 26:56 “But all this has taken place that the Scriptures
of the prophets may be fulfilled. Then all the disciples left Him and fled.”
He was accused by false witnesses.
Prophecy: Psalm 35:11, “Malicious witnesses rise up; They ask me of things
that I do not know.”
Fulfillment: Matthew 26:59-60, “Now the chief priests and the whole
Council kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus, in order that they
might put Him to death; and they did not find any, even though many false
witnesses came forward. But later on two came forward.”
Jesus of Nazareth was smitten and spit upon, again another fulfillment of
prophecy.

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Prophecy: Isaiah 50:6, “I gave My back to those who strike Me, And My
cheeks to those who pluck out the beard; I did not cover My face from
humiliation and spitting.”
Fulfillment: Matthew 27:30, “And they spat on Him, and took the reed and
began to beat Him on the head.”
Then there is the prophecy that He would be dumb before His accusers.
Prophecy: Isaiah 53:7, “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did
not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that
is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.”
Fulfillment: Matthew 27:12-14, “And while He was being accused by the
chief priests and elders, He made no answer. Then Pilate said to Him, ‘Do You
not hear how many things they testify against You?’ And He did not answer
him with regard to even a single charge, so that the governor was quite
amazed.”
Isaiah prophesied that He the Messiah would be wounded and bruised.
Prophecy: Isaiah 53:5, “But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon
Him, And by His scourging we are healed.”
Fulfillment: Matthew 27:26, 29, “Then he released Barabbas for them; but
after having Jesus scourged, he delivered Him to be crucified. . . . And after
weaving a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right
hand; and they kneeled down before Him and mocked Him, saying, ‘Hail,
King of the Jews.’”
One thousand years before Jesus of Nazareth appeared on the pages of history,
David prophesied that the Messiah would have His hands and feet pierced. David
spoke of crucifixion centuries before it was invented by the Persians invented. The
Romans perfected it.
Prophecy: Psalm 22:16, “For dogs have surrounded me; A band of
evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet.”
Fulfillment: Luke 23:33, “And when they came to the place called The
Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the
other on the left.”
The prophet Isaiah wrote that the Messiah would be crucified with thieves.
Prophecy: Isaiah 53:12, “Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the
great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out
Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself
bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.”
Fulfillment: Mark 15:27-28, “And they crucified two robbers with Him, one
on His right and one on His left. And the Scripture was fulfilled which says,
‘And He was numbered with transgressors.’”

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Then there is the prophecy that people would ridicule Him.
Prophecy: Psalm 22:8 “Commit yourself to the LORD; let Him deliver him;
Let Him rescue him, because He delights in him.”
Fulfillment: Matthew 27:41-43 In the same way the chief priests also, along
with the scribes and elders, were mocking Him, and saying, ‘He saved others;
He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel; let Him now come down
from the cross, and we shall believe in Him. He trusts in God; let Him deliver
Him now, if He takes pleasure in Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”
There is the prophecy in the book of Psalms that the suffering Messiah would
have His garments parted and lots would be cast for them. Again, Jesus of
Nazareth fulfilled this perfectly.
Prophecy: Psalm 22:18, “They divide my garments among them, And for
my clothing they cast lots.”
Fulfillment: John 19:23-24, “The soldiers therefore, when they had
crucified Jesus, took His outer garments and made four parts, a part to every
soldier and also the tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece.
They said therefore to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to
decide whose it shall be”; that the Scripture might be fulfilled, ‘They divided
My outer garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.’”
There is the prophecy of His forsaken cry.
Prophecy: Psalm 22:1, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? Far
from my deliverance are the words of my groaning.”
Fulfillment: Matthew 27:46, “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out
with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My
God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?’”
The Psalms state that gall and vinegar would be given to Him.
Prophecy: Psalm 69:21, “They also gave me gall for my food, and for my
thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.”
Fulfillment: John 19:28-29, “After this, Jesus, knowing that all things had
already been accomplished, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said,
‘I am thirsty.’ A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they put a sponge
full of the sour wine upon a branch of hyssop, and brought it up to His
mouth.”
Each of the following prophecies was literally fulfilled by Jesus of Nazareth.
Prophecy: Psalm 38:11, “My loved ones and my friends stand aloof from
my plague; and my kinsmen stand afar off.”
Fulfillment: Luke 23:49, “And all His acquaintances and the women who
accompanied Him from Galilee, were standing at a distance, seeing these
things.”
Prophecy: Psalm 34:20, “He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.”

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Fulfillment: John 19:33, 36, “but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He
was already dead, they did not break His legs; . . . 36 For these things came to
pass, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, Not a bone of Him shall be broken.”
Prophecy: Zechariah 12:10, “And I will pour out on the house of David and
on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that
they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him,
as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him, like the
bitter weeping over a first-born.”
Fulfillment: John 19:34-37, “but one of the soldiers pierced His side with a
spear, and immediately there came out blood and water. And he who has seen
has borne witness, and his witness is true; and he knows that he is telling the
truth, so that you also may believe. For these things came to pass, that the
Scripture might be fulfilled, “Not a bone of Him shall be broken.’ And again
another Scripture says, ‘They shall look on Him whom they pierced.’”
Prophecy: Amos 8:9, “And it will come about in that day, declares the Lord
GOD, ‘That I shall make the sun go down at noon and make the earth dark in
broad daylight.’”
Fulfillment: Matthew 27:45, “Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon
all the land until the ninth hour.”
Prophecy: Isaiah 53:9, “His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He
was with a rich man in His death, because He had done no violence, nor was
there any deceit in His mouth.”
Fulfillment: Matthew 27:57-60, “And when it was evening, there came a
rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who himself had also become a
disciple of Jesus. This man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.
Then Pilate ordered it to be given over to him. And Joseph took the body and
wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and laid it in his own new tomb, which he
had hewn out in the rock; and he rolled a large stone against the entrance of
the tomb and went away.”
There is no way short of being supernatural that Jesus could have manipulated
the events and people in His life to respond in exactly the way necessary for it to
appear that He was fulfilling all these prophecies, including John’s heralding Him.
So there were many prophecies concerning the Messiah that were simply beyond
the human control of Jesus: (1) Place of birth (Mic. 5:2). (2) Time of birth (Dn.
9:25; Gn. 49:10). (3) Manner of birth (Is. 7:14). (4) Betrayal (5) Manner of death
(Ps. 22:16). (6) People’s reactions (mocking, spitting) (7) Piercing (8) Burial.
The following probabilities are taken from Peter Stoner’s book entitled Science
Speaks which shows that coincidence is ruled out by the science of probability.
Stoner says that by using the modern science of probability in reference to the
eight prophecies, Stoner states the following: “We find the chance that any man

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might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled all 8 prophecies is 1 in
1017…that would be 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000…17 zeros.
In order to help us comprehend this staggering probability, Stoner illustrates it
by supposing that we take 1017 silver dollars and lay them on the face of Texas.
They will cover all of the state two feet deep. Now mark one of these silver dollars
and stir the whole mass thoroughly, all over the state. Blindfold a man and tell him
that he can travel as far as he wishes, but he must pick up one silver dollar and say
that this is the right one. What chance would have of getting the right one? Just the
same chance that the prophets would have of writing these eight prophecies and
having them all come true in any one man, from their day to the present time,
providing they wrote them according to their own wisdom.
Now these prophecies were either given by inspiration of God or the prophets
just wrote them as they thought they should be. In such a case the prophets had just
one chance in 10 to the 17th power of having them come true in any man, but they
all came true in Christ. This means that the fulfillment of these eight prophecies
alone proves that God inspired the writing of those prophecies to a definiteness
which lacks only one chance in 10 to the 17th power of being absolute.

2010 William E. Wenstrom, Jr. Bible Ministries
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The Resurrection Demonstrated the Deity of Christ
Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, the resurrection of our Lord from the dead
is a fundamental doctrine at the very heart of the gospel.
1 Corinthians 15:3-4, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I
also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Old Testament
Scriptures and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day
according to the Scriptures.”
The resurrection is fundamental to the gospel because it demonstrates that Jesus
of Nazareth is in fact God. It demonstrated the substitutionary spiritual and
physical deaths of our Lord were acceptable to the Father. The resurrection of
Jesus from the dead was central to the preaching of the apostles, who were
witnesses of His resurrection (see Acts 2:24, 32; 3:15, 26; 4:10; 5:30; 10:40; 13:30,
33, 34, 37; 17:31).
The Lord Jesus predicted several times that He would rise from the dead on the
third day in fulfillment of the Scriptures (Matt. 16:21; 17:9, 23; 20:19; 26:32;
27:63f. 28:6f; Mark 14:28; Luke 9:22; Mark 8:31; 9:9, 31; 10:34; Luke 18:33;
24:7, 46).
Our Lord declared openly that He was the resurrection (John 14:6).
John 11:25-26, “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he
who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and
believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?’”
The apostles confirmed that He had risen from the dead on the 3rd day (Acts
1:22; 2:24, 32; 3:15).
The resurrection of Christ demonstrated to all that He was indeed who He
claimed to be, namely, the incarnate Son of God (Rm. 1:1-4).
Romans 1:1-4, “Paul, a slave owned by Christ who is Jesus, called as an
apostle, set apart for the gospel originating from God, which He promised
beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning His Son,
who was born as a descendant of David with respect to His human nature.
The One demonstrated as the Son of God by means of divine power with
respect to a nature characterized by holiness because of the resurrection from
the dead ones, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Neither the Romans nor the Jews could produce the body of our Lord to
disclaim what the apostles were proclaiming to the world. It was in the interests of
these two groups to put an end to such talk by simply producing the body which
they could not since He had in fact risen from the dead. Not even a guard of
Roman soldiers protecting the tomb could prevent the resurrection of the humanity
of Christ.

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The tomb of our Lord was owned by Joseph of Arimathea who was rich and
was sealed with large rock by the Romans at the request of the leaders of the Jews
in order to prevent the theft of the body by the disciples (Matt. 27:62-66). Even our
Lord’s enemies remembered distinctly say that He would rise from the dead on the
third day. Pilate’s own soldiers were sent to perform the task of protecting the
tomb (Matt. 28:14). These hardened Roman soldiers were terrified by the angel
who rolled away the large rock which had sealed the tomb from entry on that
Sunday morning of our Lord’s resurrection (Matt. 28:4).
In fact some of the guard went into the city of Jerusalem to report the
resurrection of Christ (Matt. 28:11-15). In Matthew’s day it was common
knowledge in Jerusalem that these Roman soldiers had witnessed the angels rolling
away the great rock which sealed the tomb and had accepted a bribe from the Jews
to keep quiet about the resurrection (Matt. 28:15). It was the guards that spread the
lie that the body had been stolen.
The foundation of Christianity is built upon the resurrection of Christ since the
integrity of our Lord is at issue and as attested by many witnesses He did rise from
the dead as He said He would (Acts 1:22; 4:2, 33; 17:18; 23:6; 1 Cor. 15:14).
C.S. Lewis wrote, “A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things
Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic-on a
level with the man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the Devil of
Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or
else a madman or something worse.” (Mere Christianity, page 41; New York:
Macmillan)
The resurrection of Christ was a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy (See
Psalm 16:10).
Psalm 16:10, “For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol; Nor will You
allow Your Holy One to undergo decay.”
It is also the greatest attested fact in all of human history and is mentioned by
secular historians as well (Tacitus, Annals, XV, 44; Josephus, Antiquities, Book
18, chapter 3).
Tacitus writes, “Christus, from whom the name (Christians) had its origin,
suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our
procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for
the moment broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in
Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find
their centre and become popular” (Annals XV, 44).
Josephus writes, “Now, there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be
lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works-a teacher of such
men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the
Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ; and when Pilate, at the

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suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those
that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again
the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other
wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christians, so named from him,
are not extinct at this day” (Antiquities Book 18, chapter 3).
Talmud states, “On the eve of Passover Yeshu was hanged. For forty days
before the execution took place, a herald went forth and cried, ‘He is going forth to
be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy. Any one
who can say anything in his favor let him come forward and plead on his behalf.’
But since nothing was brought forward in his favor he was hanged on the eve of
the Passover.”
The omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit raised our Lord from the dead (Rom.
1:4; 8:11). The same Divine Power that raised Him from the dead will raise us
from the dead at the Rapture of the Church.
The Lord Jesus Christ was trichotomous: (1) Body (2) Soul (3) Spirit.
Therefore, our Lord’s death was unique: (1) His physical body went to the grave
(Luke 23:50-53). (2) His human spirit went to heaven (Luke 23:46; John 19:30).
(3) His human soul went into Paradise a compartment of Hades (Luke 23:43; Acts
2:27; 2:31; Eph. 4:9).
God the Father and God the Holy Spirit are agents in the resurrection. The Lord
was brought back from the dead by three categories of divine power: (1)
Omnipotence of God The Father sent back our Lord’s human spirit to the body in
the grave (Acts 2:24; Rom. 6:4; Eph. 1:20; Col. 2:12; 1 Thess. 1:10; 1 Pet. 1:21).
(2) Omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit sent back our Lord’s human soul to the
body in the grave (Rom. 1:4; 8:11; 1 Pet. 3:18). (3) Omnipotence of God the Son
raised His physical body from the grave (John 6:39-40, 54 10:17-18).
Christianity is based upon the resurrection of Christ. It stands or falls with the
resurrection of Christ. If Jesus Christ didn’t rise from the dead, then He is the
greatest deceiver of all time. If He did rise from the dead, then He is indeed the
Son of God and we are obligated to worship and adore Him as our Lord and
Savior. If the resurrection of Christ never took place, then as Paul says we as
Christians are of all people to be most pitied (1 Co. 15:15-23).
As William Lane Craig states: “Without belief in the resurrection the Christian
faith could not have come into being. The disciples would have remained crushed
and defeated men. Even had they continued to remember Jesus as their beloved
teacher, his crucifixion would have forever silenced any hopes of His being the
Messiah. The cross would have remained the sad and shameful end of His career.
The origin of Christianity therefore hinges on the belief of the early disciples that
God raised Jesus from the dead” (Knowing the Truth About the Resurrection,
pages 116-117).

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The apostles always appealed to the resurrection of Christ when evangelizing
(cf. Acts 2:14-41). Not merely is the resurrection of Christ the principle theme of
apostle’s message but if that doctrine were removed from his message, there would
be no doctrine left. If you remove the doctrine of the resurrection of Christ from
the Bible, everything else in the Bible is meaningless.
For the resurrection is considered as being: (1) The explanation of Jesus’ death
(2) Prophetically anticipated as the Messianic experience (3) Apostolically
witnessed (4) The cause of the Baptism of the Spirit (5) Certifying the Messianic
and Kingly position of Jesus of Nazareth.
Without the resurrection Jesus’ claims as the Messiah would not be established.
Without the resurrection there would still be no fulfillment of the prophecies
concerning the Messiah’s suffering and glory. Without the resurrection the
Baptism of the Spirit would not have taken place.
If the resurrection of Christ is not historic fact, then the power of death remains
unbroken, and with it the effect of sin and the significance of Christ’s death
remains uncertified, and accordingly believers are yet in their sins, precisely where
they were before they heard the name of Jesus. There is no hope for this lost and
dying world under the deceptions of the Devil if Christ did not rise from the dead.
The Gospels record the teaching of Jesus that He must be betrayed, killed and
rise again (Mk. 8:31; Lk. 9:22). All the apostles testify as witnesses to the fact that
the tomb was empty and that Jesus appeared to His disciples as He said.
The book of Acts records the proclamation of the resurrection of Christ as its
central fact. The New Testament epistles and the book of Revelation are
meaningless unless Christ did indeed rise from the dead. The resurrection of Christ
has been and always be the central tenet of the church. It is one of the most
fundamental doctrines to the Christian faith.
As W. Robertson Nicoll states: “The empty tomb of Christ has been the cradle
of the church.”
From her infancy, the church has not only believed in the resurrection of Christ,
but that her whole existence is totally dependent upon it. Without faith in the
resurrection of Christ there would be no Christianity at all. Christianity stands or
falls with the truth of the resurrection. If you can disprove the resurrection of
Christ, then you have destroyed Christianity.
The resurrection of Christ is the doctrine that turned the world upside down in
the first century that lifted Christianity above Judaism and the pagan religions of
the Mediterranean world. The resurrection of Christ is of critical, practical
importance because it completes our salvation.
If Christ has not risen, then we are not justified before God for Christ has been
raised for our justification according to Romans 4:25. If Christ has not risen, then

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we will not rise from the dead according to Romans 8:11, and if we will not rise
from the dead, then we have no hope.
What are the consequences of such an even in history? It is the concrete,
factual, empirical proof that life has hope and meaning. With the resurrection of
Christ, God defeated through His Son our greatest enemies as human beings:
death!
The Lord Jesus Christ has three credentials: (1) Impact of His life through His
miracles and teachings upon history (2) Fulfilled prophecy in His life (3) His
resurrection. During His ministry, He pointed to the sign of His resurrection as His
single most important credential. He boldly declared even to His enemies that He
would rise from the dead. He said something only a fool would dare say. No
founder of any world religion known to men ever dared say a thing like that! But
Jesus did!
Christ predicted His resurrection in an unmistakable and straightforward
manner. His disciples didn’t understand the fact that He had to suffer and rise
again, but His enemies, the Jews took His assertions quite seriously (Mt. 27:62-
66).
Think about this for a minute regarding Jesus’ claims of rising from the dead. If
you or I should say to any group of friends that we expected to die, either by
violence or naturally, at a certain time, but that, three days after death, we would
rise again, we would be quietly taken away by friends, and confined to an
institution until we got our act together. You would have to be a fool to make the
claims that Jesus made unless you knew without a doubt that this was going to take
place.
Only someone who was the Son of God could know these things about Himself
and make the claims that Jesus made! Paul said that the resurrection demonstrated
to all that Jesus Christ was indeed who He claimed to be, the incarnate Son of God
(Rm. 1:1-4).
Jesus never predicted His death without adding that He would rise again. Look
at the list of Scriptures in which Jesus predicted His resurrection: Matthew 12:38-
40; 16:21; 17:9, 22-23; 20:18-19; 26:32; 27:63; Mark 8:31-9:1; 9:10, 31; 10:32-34;
14:28, 58; Luke 9:22-27; John 2:18-22; 12:34; chapters 14-16.
Jesus not only predicted His resurrection but also emphasized that His rising
from the dead would be the “sign” to authenticate his claims as being the Messiah
(Jn. 2:13-22). You must always remember that the fact of the resurrection of Christ
is a historical matter.

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Resurrection of Jesus Christ is Supported by Evidence and Witnesses
Christianity is based upon the historical fact of the resurrection of Christ. It is
based upon facts and these facts are verified by eyewitnesses that testify as to it
taking place. The resurrection of Christ is either the greatest miracle of history or
the greatest delusion which history records.
The meaning of the resurrection of Christ is a theological matter. The
resurrection of Christ is an event in history.
The nature of the resurrection body of Christ might be a mystery but the fact
that the body disappeared from the tomb is a matter to be decided upon by
historical evidence.
Here are the basic facts surrounding Christ’s death and resurrection: (1) Jesus
was a Jew crucified by the Romans in the 1st century. (2) There is a vast mass of
literature that tells us that Jesus was a historical person. (3) He was condemned by
the Jewish Sanhedrin who then handed Him over to be executed by the Romans.
(4) Pontius Pilate passed the death sentence. (5) Jesus died at 3pm in the afternoon
at the Jewish Passover, the 14th day of the Jewish month of Nisan (April). (6) The
body of Jesus was placed in a tomb near the crucifixion site, which was owned by
a friend of Jesus. (7) The Romans soldiers verified that Jesus was dead by thrusting
a spear into Jesus side, which pierced His heart, which released blood and water
from the heart. (8) The Jews requested of Pilate that he seal the tomb and place a
guard over it to prevent the disciples of Jesus from taking the body. (9) The place
where Christ’s body was laid is a specific geographical location near Jerusalem.
(10) The man who owned the tomb was a man living in the 1st half of the 1st
century. (11) Jesus was buried according to the Jewish custom of burying dead
bodies. (12) The tomb was composed of rock in a hillside near Jerusalem. (13)
There are many witnesses who claim to have seen Jesus on the 3rd day after His
death. (14) The disciples went out and proclaimed that Jesus had risen. (15) The
disciples were men among men, they were historical individuals. (16) The tomb of
Jesus was sealed with a large bolder. (17) The disciples of Jesus were not
expecting His resurrection. (18) The enemies of Jesus understood His claims that
He would rise again therefore they placed a seal on the tomb and assigned a
Roman Guard to prevent the body of Jesus from leaving the tomb. (19) The tomb
of Jesus was empty on the 3rd Day after His death. (20) The Seal on the tomb was
broken and rolled away from the tomb of Jesus. (21) Grave clothes of Jesus were
found undisturbed in the tomb by His disciples. (22) The enemies of Christ could
not produce the body of Jesus in order to refute the claims of Jesus’ disciples that
He rose from the dead. (23) The Jewish Sanhedrin bribed the Roman soldiers to
say that the disciples of Jesus stole the body.

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The resurrection of Christ is an historical fact of history that can be verified by
eyewitnesses: (1) Disciples of Christ (Lk. 24:9-11; Acts 1:1-3; 21-22; 2:23-24; 31-
32; 3:14-15; 10:39-41; 13:29-39) (2) Roman Guard Protecting the Tomb of Jesus
(Mt. 27:62-66; 28:11-15) (3) Enemies of Christ (Mt. 28:11-15; Acts 2).
The resurrection of Christ can be verified by evidence: (1) The Empty Tomb
(Jn. 20:2-9) (2) The Stone (Mt. 28:1-4; Mk. 16:1-4; Lk. 24:2) (3) Seal (Mt. 27:62-
66). (4) The Grave Clothes (Jn. 20:2-9) (5) The Roman Guard (Mt. 27:57-60;
28:11-15; Mk. 15:42-45; Lk. 23:50-52; Jn. 19:38). (6) The Silence of the Enemies
of Christ at Pentecost (Acts 2) (7) The Transformed Lives of the Disciples of Jesus
(8) The Existence of the Christian Church (9) The Observance of the First Day of
the Week (Sunday) as the Lord’s Day (10) Christ’s Appearances (500 on more
than one occasion: 1 Cor. 15:1-8; Peter 1 Cor. 15:5; 2 on the way to Emmaus Lk.
24:13-15; 11 apostles Jn. 20:24-28; Paul Acts 9).
Luke alludes to this preponderance of incontrovertible evidence and
eyewitnesses in Acts 1:1-3. The proclamation of the resurrection of Jesus could
have not been maintained in Jerusalem for a single day, for a single hour, if the
emptiness of the tomb had not been established as a fact for all concerned.
The burden of proof rests not upon those who proclaim the resurrection as a
historical fact but rather the burden of proof rests upon those who either deny that
the tomb was found empty, or attempt to explain the absence of the Lord’s body by
some other rationale.
Remember the enemies of Christ went to extraordinary lengths to ensure the
fact that the body of Jesus would not leave the tomb on the third day. The fact that
the body of Jesus was not in the tomb despite the extreme security measures by our
Lord’s enemies was indisputable evidence that He had risen.
The last thing the enemies of Christ wanted was to have His body leave that
tomb and yet it did! Neither the Romans nor the Jews could produce the body of
our Lord to disclaim what the apostles were proclaiming to the world. It was in the
interests of these two groups to put an end to such talk by simply producing the
body which they could not since He had in fact risen from the dead.
The four gospels agree that Jesus’ body was placed in a tomb after His
crucifixion and that on the third day it was empty. Even our Lord’s enemies could
not dispute that the tomb was empty. Our Lord’s enemies could have simply
disproved the resurrection of Christ and stop all the talk in Jerusalem concerning it
if they could have simply produced the body, which they knew they could not.
They didn’t even attempt to arrest the apostles in order to obtain because they
trusted in the veracity of the Roman soldiers who were under the command of
Pilate himself. The silence of the Jewish leaders is as significant as the boldness of
speech by our Lord’s disciples.

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The grave clothes were undisturbed in the tomb thus incontrovertible evidence
that our Lord’s body was not stolen by grave robbers since they would not take the
time to make sure everything was in proper order because of time constraints to
commit such a crime. Our Lord’s body was buried with myrrh, which glues linen
to the body not less firmly than lead.
The gospels describe an orderly scene, not one of confusion that would have
resulted had the grave clothes been torn from the body. That something
extraordinary had taken place is shown by the fact that John “saw and believed”
(John 20:8).
The five written accounts (the 4 Gospels and 1 Cor. 15) tell of ten different
appearances by Jesus after the Resurrection, five on the 1st day, five more spread
over forty days, then an abrupt cessation.
Only one resurrection has taken place in human history-the humanity of our
Lord Jesus Christ. He was the first fruits in resurrection (1 Cor. 15:23). There were
only resuscitations prior to the humanity of Christ’s resurrection.
The following is a list of those who were resuscitated in both the Old and New
Testaments: (1) Elijah and “the widow’s son” (1 Kings 17:17-24). (2) “The
daughter of Jairus” was resuscitated by our Lord (Matt. 9:18-26; Mark 5:21-26;
Luke 8:41-56). (3) “The widow’s son” was resuscitated by our Lord” (Luke 7:11-
18). (4) “Lazarus” was resuscitated by our Lord after being dead for 4 days (John
11:1-44). (5) “Paul” was resuscitated after being stoned at Lystra (Acts 14:19-20;
2 Cor. 12:2-4). (6) Paul resuscitated “Eutychus” who died after falling out of a 3rd
floor window sill because fell asleep during one of Paul’s doctrine classes (Acts
20:7-12).
Acts 1:1-3, “The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus
began to do and teach, until the day when He was taken up to heaven, after
He had by the Holy Spirit given orders to the apostles whom He had chosen.
To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many
convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking
of the things concerning the kingdom of God.”
In Acts 1:3, Luke tells us that Jesus showed Himself alive by many infallible
proofs (en pollois tekmeriois). This is an expression in the Greek, which indicates
the strongest type of legal evidence. The Greek word for “proofs” is the noun
tekmerion. It is a hapax legomenon in the NT meaning it appears only once in the
NT, namely, Acts 1:3. It is found in secular Greek from Herodotus to the 2nd
century A.D. Tekmerion refers to “that which causes something to be known as
verified or confirmed.”
The word indicates “something that is surely and plainly known, indisputable
evidence, a proof.” So what Luke is telling Theopholis is that the resurrection of
Christ “was surely and plainly known, and that there is indisputable evidence that

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supports that this event took place.” Therefore, the resurrection of Christ is an
event within history.
At no point within the New Testament is there any evidence that the Christians
stood for an original philosophy of life or an original ethic. Their sole function was
to bear witness to what they claimed to have taken place, namely, the resurrection
of Jesus Christ.
Consider this: Have you noticed that in the book of Acts there is an enormous
amount of emphasis upon the resurrection of Christ but not a single reference to an
empty tomb. The Gospels record that fact.
Now, why is there no mention of an empty tomb when the apostles evangelized
in the book of Acts? Simply this: There was no point in arguing about the empty
tomb. Everyone, friend and foe alike knew that it was empty. The only questions
worth arguing about were why it was empty and what its emptiness proved.
In Acts 2, did you notice that there was no refutation given by the Jews to
Peter’s bold proclamation that Jesus had risen from the dead. Why not? They knew
the tomb was empty and they could not deny this fact.
Now remember this: The empty tomb does not prove the resurrection, but it
does present two distinct alternatives: (1) The empty tomb was either an act of
divine power or a human one. (2) There really is only 1 to choose from.
The enemies of Jesus had no motive for removing the body. The friends of
Jesus had not power to do so. It would have been to the advantage of the
authorities that the body should remain where it was. The view that the apostles
stole the body is impossible. Therefore, the power that removed the body of the
Savior from the tomb must have been divine!
Thomas Arnold, was for 14 years the famous headmaster of Rugby, author of
the famous 3-volume History of Rome, appointed to the chair of modern history at
Oxford, and one well acquainted with the value of evidence in determining
historical facts, states the following: “The evidence for our Lord’s life and death
and resurrection may be, and often has been, shown to be satisfactory; it is good
according to the common rules for distinguishing good evidence from bad.
Thousands and tens of thousands of persons have gone through it piece by piece, as
carefully as every judge summing up on a most important cause. I have myself
done it many times over, not persuade others but to satisfy myself. I have been
used for many years to study the histories of other times, and to examine and
weigh the evidence of those who have written about them, and I know of no one
fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of
every sort, to the understanding of a fair inquirer, than the great sign which God
hath given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead” (The New Evidence
That Demands A Verdict, page 217).

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Former Chief Justice of England, Lord Darling states: “we, as Christians, are
asked to take a very great deal on trust; the teachings, for example, and the
miracles of Jesus. If we had to take all on trust, I, for one, should be skeptical. The
crux of the problem of whether Jesus was, or was not, what He proclaimed Himself
to be, must surely depend upon the truth or otherwise of the resurrection. On that
greatest point we are not merely asked to have faith. In its favor as living truth
there exists such overwhelming evidence, positive and negative, factual and
circumstantial, that no intelligent jury in the world could fail to bring in a verdict
that the resurrection story is true.”

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The People vs. Jesus of Nazareth
So picture yourself a member of a jury, preparing to decide one of the oldest
cases in the history of jurisprudence: The People vs. Jesus of Nazareth. The case
has to do with the claims of Jesus of Nazareth that He died and rose from the dead.
The people have been prosecuting this case based upon one of three theories:
The “Swoon theory” contends that Jesus did not actually die on the cross but
was in such a state of exhaustion due to loss of strength and blood that he
“swooned” into a coma. In that coma-like state, they contend that he was believed
to be dead but when placed in the dampness of the tomb, He was revived and then
somehow pushed the stone away and slipped out into the night, unnoticed by
anyone. He then appeared to His followers, claiming to have been raised
miraculously when actually He had fallen into a coma.
The “Kidnap theory” contends that Jesus did actually die but in the middle of
the night someone came and took His body. While unseen by the soldiers who
were guarding the tomb, this alleged kidnapper or kidnappers broke the Roman
seal and pushed the stone back and stole the body and hid it where it would never
be found. The disciples they allege claimed that Jesus was raised because the tomb
was empty, when all along, His body was kidnapped.
The “Hallucination theory” contends that the disciples of Jesus were
“hallucinating” that they saw Jesus raised from the dead and were actually seeing
an apparition or a ghost. In other words, this theory states that the claims of Jesus’
disciples that He was raised were simply a figment of their imaginations.
These three theories are the prosecution’s case but now its time to hear the
defense.
The attorneys for the defense are Matthew (Matthew 27:50), Mark (Mark
15:37), Luke (Luke 23:46) and John (John 19:30), the four gospel writers who
offer eyewitness testimony that Jesus did in fact died physically. Their case
contends that Jesus did actually die and did not swoon or was kidnapped and that
they were not hallucinating when they saw Jesus three days after His death.
Now, some would say the testimony of these men were biased so the defense
calls to the stand the centurion, the Roman soldier in charge of the squad that
crucified Jesus of Nazareth.
Mark 15:39, “When the centurion, who was standing right in front of Him,
saw the way He breathed His last, he said, ‘Truly this man was the Son of
God!’”
Let’s call to the witness stand the other soldiers in the crucifixion detail.
John 19:31-35, “Then the Jews, because it was the day of preparation, so
that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that
Sabbath was a high day), asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and

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that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the
first man and of the other who was crucified with Him; but coming to Jesus,
when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one
of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water
came out. And he who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true; and he
knows that he is telling the truth, so that you also may believe.”
Let’s now call to the witness stand those who belonged to the burial party of
Jesus of Nazareth.
John 19:38-40, “After these things Joseph of Arimathea, being a disciple of
Jesus, but a secret {one} for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take
away the body of Jesus; and Pilate granted permission. So he came and took
away His body. Nicodemus, who had first come to Him by night, also came,
bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds {weight}. So
they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as
is the burial custom of the Jews.”
The body of Jesus was wrapped in eight-inch to one-foot-width strips of linen
that were wrapped tightly by the gummy consistency of the spices. During the
wrapping, the spices were pushed into the folds so that ultimately the body was
encased in a hardened wrapping of linen, from the shoulders to the ankles.
The head was wrapped in a face cloth that was wrapped about the top of the
head and tied under the jaw to keep the jaw from sagging. This preparation of the
body in this manner would have left the appearance of Jesus’ body looking like an
Egyptian mummy. These men who prepared the body of Jesus would never have
wrapped the burial clothes around Jesus and laid Him in the tomb if there was the
slightest sign of life in Him. Therefore, as a jury member, you have heard the
eyewitness testimony as to the death of Jesus, which refutes the so-called “Swoon
Theory.”
Now, with the death of Jesus of Nazareth firmly established, we come to the
cornerstone of the defense’s case: the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
John 19:41-42, “Now in the place where He was crucified there was a
garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.
Therefore because of the Jewish day of preparation, since the tomb was
nearby, they laid Jesus there.”
The tomb was a cave, one of many that pockmarked the area around Jerusalem.
A large one ton stone, circular in shape, was rolled in front of the entrance to the
tomb and was set into an inclined groove leading down to the mouth of this
opening. The stone was held in place, away from the opening by a wedge at the
bottom and when the burial preparations were completed, the wedge was removed,
allowing the pull of gravity to roll the stone into place, sealing the opening of the
cave, which kept the body safe from would be robbers or wild animals.

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In the burial of Jesus, extra precaution was taken because of the insistence of
the chief priests and the Pharisees. The Romans placed a seal on the tomb and
posted a guard to insure that no fanatical follower of Jesus would try to steal the
body. The enemies of Jesus did not want an empty tomb since that would verify
Jesus’ promise that He would rise from the dead.
In this regard, let’s call Mary Magdalene to the witness stand who is another
eyewitness.
John 20:1, “Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early
to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away
from the tomb.”
The displaced stone and broken seal is the first piece of historical evidence for
the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, which brings us to the second piece of
evidence for the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, namely the empty tomb.
John 20:2-9, “So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple
whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken away the Lord out of
the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.’ So Peter and the
other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. The two were
running together; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came
to the tomb first and stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying
there; but he did not go in. And so Simon Peter also came, following him, and
entered the tomb; and he saw the linen wrappings lying there and the facecloth
which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but
rolled up in a place by itself. So the other disciple who had first come to the
tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not
understand the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.”
Now, the prosecution would jump up and state that Mary stated that she thought
someone took the body away, which leads us to three possible alternatives in
answering the question as to why the tomb was empty. The first possibility is that
Jesus was really alive and got out of the tomb under His own strength but this
would have been a physical impossibility for a man to roll back the one ton stone
from inside the cave, especially for a man who had just suffered through a
crucifixion.
The second possibility is that Jesus was dead, and somebody took the body and
hid it somewhere. There are only two groups of individuals who could have moved
the body, namely, Jesus’ friends or His enemies. The last thing the enemies of
Jesus wanted was for His body to leave the tomb and in fact, all their efforts with
the extra security precautions around the tomb give every indication that they did
not want to remove the body from the tomb.
Also, if the enemies of Jesus removed the body then why didn’t they produce
the body when the disciples of Jesus proclaimed He had risen from the dead. So if

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the enemies of Jesus did not take His body then that leaves only one alternative,
His disciples, which is exactly what the Pharisees claimed but the disciples of
Jesus, were terrified of the Jewish and Roman authorities. In fact, the only apostle
that was at the crucifixion was John, Peter had denied three times of ever knowing
the Lord, thus, the disciples could never have overpowered the Roman soldiers and
took the body of Jesus Christ from the tomb.
Matthew 28:2-15, “And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an
angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone
and sat upon it. And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as
white as snow. The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men.
The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid; for I know that you are
looking for Jesus who has been crucified.’ He is not here, for He has risen, just
as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying. Go quickly and tell His
disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of
you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you. And they left
the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples.
Now while they were on their way, some of the guard came into the city and
reported to the chief priests all that had happened. And when they had
assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of
money to the soldiers, and said, ‘You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night
and stole Him away while we were asleep.’ And if this should come to the
governor’s ears, we will win him over and keep you out of trouble. And they
took the money and did as they had been instructed; and this story was widely
spread among the Jews, and is to this day.”
So we see that the second theory that the disciples of Jesus took the body was a
story falsified by Jesus’ enemies. Now, we come to exhibit three, namely, the
grave clothes, the most tangible, material evidence.
John 20:3-8, “So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were
going to the tomb. The two were running together; and the other disciple ran
ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first and stooping and looking
in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there; but he did not go in. And so Simon
Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he saw the linen
wrappings lying there and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not
lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. So the other
disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and
believed.”
The first “saw” in verse five is the Greek verb blepo, which denotes a casual
glance whereas the next “saw” in verse six is the verb theoreo, which indicates a
careful observation of details. What Peter observed carefully was that the grave
clothes, the hardened mummy-like wrappings were still intact. This gave the

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appearance that a body was still within the wrappings, revealing the contour of
Jesus’ body, but they were like a hollow cocoon and the head cloth was shaped as
though still wrapped around a head, but there was no head.
The third “saw” in verse eight is the verb eidon, which means that John had
come to an understanding that Jesus had risen from the dead as the result of
perceiving the grave clothes.
Now to solidify the case of the defense we have over five hundred eyewitnesses
who state that they saw Jesus alive after His death including the apostles.
1 Corinthians 15:3-8, “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, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He
appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom
remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James,
then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared
to me also.”
The fact that over five hundred people claimed to have seen Jesus of Nazareth
raised from the dead destroys the “hallucination” argument presented in this case
since it is highly unlikely that all these people could have been hallucinating. Not
only do we have the testimony of eyewitnesses recorded in the Word of God but
also the testimony of changed and transformed lives of innumerable individuals
throughout the centuries, up to this very day, both men and women, of all races and
backgrounds.
Therefore, since you have heard the eyewitness testimony and the presentation
of evidence, what is your verdict? If you are an unbeliever, your response to the
testimony of the witnesses and evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ should
be one of faith in Jesus Christ (John 3:16-18; Acts 16:30-31). If you are already a
believer, your response to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ should be one
of obedience and total commitment to Him (Mark 12:30).

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Order of Events in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ
First in the order of events of the resurrection of our Lord is Mary Magdalene,
Mary the mother of James, and Salome start for the tomb (Luke 23:55-24:1). Then
they find the stone, which was used by the Romans to seal the tomb, had been
rolled away (Luke 24:2-9). This is followed by Mary Magdalene going to inform
the disciples (John 20:1-2).
Next, Mary, the mother of James, draws near the empty tomb and sees the angel
(Matt. 28:1-2). She then goes back to meet the other women following with spices.
Meanwhile Peter and John arrive, look in and depart (John 20:3-10). Mary
Magdalene returns weeping, and then sees two angels, then Jesus Himself (John
20:11-18). The risen Christ bids her to tell the disciples (John 20:17-18). Mary
(mother of James) meanwhile returns with the women (Luke 24:1-4). They return
and see the two angels (Luke 24:5; Mark 16:5). They also hear the angel’s message
that Christ has risen as He said He would (Matt. 28:6-8). On their way to find the
disciples, they are also met by the resurrected Christ (Matt. 28:9-10).
The Scriptures describe fifteen post-resurrection appearances by the resurrected
Christ. There are a great variety of witnesses to the resurrection of Christ. Both
men and women were witnesses to the fact that He had risen. He appeared before
large groups to individuals as well as small intimate gatherings of individuals.
The Lord Jesus appeared to one person (e.g. Peter 1 Cor. 15:5), to two on the
way to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-15), to the eleven (John 20:24-28), and on one
occasion to more than five hundred (1 Cor. 15:6).
Especially important is Paul also known as Saul of Tarsus who was the greatest
enemy of the early church. He was an intelligent and well-educated man and one
with a bias against the Christians. But he is emphatic that he saw the risen Jesus,
and this certainty altered the whole course of his subsequent life of suffering and
persecutions. Importantly Paul made the claim early, for his letters, the oldest
available documents that record this claim, were written within twenty or thirty
years of Jesus’ death.
Paul says that “most” of the five hundred to whom Jesus appeared were still
alive (1 Cor. 15:6), thus they could be interrogated as to the veracity of such a
claim. That there is no evidence of any serious attempt to refute the testimony to
the resurrection of Christ is significant.
Chronology of the Post-Resurrection Appearances of Christ are as follows: (1)
Mary Magdalene (John 20:14-18; Mark 16:9). (2) The women returning from the
tomb (Matt. 28:8-10). (3) Peter later on the day of the resurrection (Luke 24:34; 1
Cor. 15:5). (4) The disciples going to Emmaus in the evening (Luke 24:13-31). (5)
The apostles (except Thomas) (Luke 24:36-45; John 20:19-24). (6) The apostles a
week later (Thomas present) (John 20:24-29). (7) In Galilee to the 7 by the Lake of

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Tiberius (John 21:1-23). (8) In Galilee on a mountain to the apostles and 500
believers (1 Cor. 15:6). (9) At Jerusalem and Bethany again to James (1 Cor. 15:7).
(10) To the 11 disciples (Matt. 28:16-20; Mark 16:14-20; Luke 24:33-53; Acts 1:3-
12). (11) At Olivet and the ascension (Acts 1:3-12). (12) To Paul near Damascus
(Acts 9:3-6; 1 Cor. 15:8). (13) To Stephen outside Jerusalem (Acts 7:55). (14) To
Paul in the temple (Acts 22:17-21; 23:11). (15) To John on the island of Patmos
(Rev. 1:10-19).
There evidently were more appearances that the Scriptures do not record but
which are implied by John at the end of his gospel since our Lord gave the
disciples many infallible proofs that He had indeed risen from the dead (John
21:25).

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The Resurrection of Jesus Christ Makes Christianity Unique
The resurrection of Christ makes Christianity distinct from Buddhism, or Islam
or any other religion on the face of the earth. The original accounts of Buddha
never ascribe to him any such thing as a resurrection. In fact the earliest accounts
of his death, we read that when Buddha died it was “with that utter passing away in
which nothing whatever remains.”
Mohammed died on June 8, 632 A.D. at the age of 61, at Medina, where his
tomb is annually visited by thousands of devout Mohammedans. All the millions
and millions of Jews, Buddhists and Mohammedans agree that their founders have
never come up out of the dust of the earth in resurrection.
The resurrection sharply distinguishes Jesus of Nazareth from all other religious
founders. The bones of Abraham and Muhammad and Buddha and Confucius and
Lao-Tzu and Zoraster are still here on earth.
You might say well many individuals have died for their religion such as the
Muslims. When a member of Islam dies for his religion it is in vain whereas when
the Christian dies for the sake of Jesus Christ it is not in vain. Why? Simply the
Christian dies for someone, namely Jesus Christ who rose from the dead. The
member of Islam cannot make that claim.
The difference between a member of Islam dying for his religion and the
Christian dying for his, is that the Christian’s faith is based upon an historical
Person, Jesus Christ, who died and has risen from the dead whereas the member of
Islam cannot make that claim.
The Christian dies for that which he knows to be true and what he knows to be
true is based upon factual historical evidence…the same cannot be said of those
who belong to the Islamic faith or any other religion on the face of the earth.
The Founder of Christianity has been raised from the dead…the same cannot be
said for the founder of Islam or any religion on the face of the earth. The
resurrection of Christ lends credibility to the Christian’s faith in Jesus. Christianity,
whose basis is that of the resurrection of Christ, is not a blind faith, but rather it is a
faith based upon verifiable factual evidence and witnesses.

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The Effect of the Resurrection of Christ on His Disciples
The tomb of Jesus is empty. How else can we account for the transformation of
the apostles? Before the disciples were a frightened lot, who for the exception of
John were not even there at the cross when our Lord was crucified. They denied
ever knowing Him as in the case of Peter according to Matthew 26:69-75. They
were huddled behind lock doors in fear and confusion according to John 20:19. But
after the resurrection, they were transformed…they were courageous, and willing
to give their lives for the Man from Nazareth according to Acts 4:1-13 and many
other passages.
After the resurrection, the apostles were confident, embarking on massive
missionary projects, evangelizing the entire Roman Empire. What could account
for this transformation? Simply, it was the resurrection of Christ. Something
happened to them that so utterly effected their innermost being. They became
courageous martyrs, rejoicing as ambassadors for Christ. They were not afraid of
death. Why? Simply, the resurrection of Christ.

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The Resurrection of Christ in Relation to the Christian
In the book of Romans, Paul teaches how the resurrection relates to the
Christian. In Romans 4:25, Paul declares that the Lord Jesus Christ died because of
the Christian’s sins and was raised from the dead because of the Christian’s
justification. Christ was raised for the Christian’s justification in the sense that the
resurrection of Christ demonstrated that God the Father had accepted His Son’s
spiritual and physical deaths on the cross to resolve the problem of personal sin
and the sin nature in the human race.
Romans 4:25, “Who has been delivered over to death because of our
transgressions and in addition was raised because of our justification.”
In Romans 6:4-5, Paul taught that just as the Christ was raised through the glory
of the Father so in the same way the Christian would be as well since the Christian
has been identified with Christ in His physical death and resurrection.
Romans 6:4, “Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism
with respect to His physical death in order that just as Christ was raised from
the dead ones through the glory of the Father, in the same way, we, ourselves
will also walk in the realm of an extraordinary life.”
In Romans 6:5, the apostle teaches that the justified sinner is identified with
Christ in His resurrection in order that the believer might receive a resurrection
body like the last Adam, Christ so as to replace his sinful body.
Romans 6:5, “Therefore, if and let us assume that it is true for the sake of
argument that we are entered into union with Him, conformed to His physical
death. Of course, we believe this is true. Then, certainly, we will also be united
with Him, conformed to His resurrection.”

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Romans 10:9 Teaches That Faith in the Resurrection is An Acknowledgement of
the Deity of Christ
In Romans 10:9, the apostle Paul teaches that if the Jew acknowledges with his
mouth to the Father that Jesus is Lord, which is equivalent to believing in his heart
that the Father raised him from the dead, then the Jew will receive eternal
salvation. This passage teaches that to acknowledge with one’s mouth to the Father
that Jesus is Lord, i.e. God is the same as believing in one’s heart that the Father
raised Jesus from the dead since the resurrection demonstrated the deity of Christ
and faith alone in Christ alone is the only way to receive eternal life. A person can
only be saved if he or she acknowledges the deity of Christ and to do so one must
believe in the resurrection since Romans 1:4 teaches that the resurrection
demonstrates the deity of Christ. So Romans 10:9 lends further support for the
deity of Christ.
In Romans 10:9, Paul is teaching the mechanics of how the Jew can get saved.
This continues his discussion of his desire and prayer to see the nation of Israel
saved.
He teaches in Romans 10:1 that he desires and prays to the Father for Israel’s
salvation.
Romans 10:1, “Spiritual brothers, indeed, the desire produced by my own
heart and in addition my specific detailed request on behalf of them is always
for their deliverance.”
Then, in Romans 10:2, he testifies to Israel’s zeal for God, though he says it is
not according to an experiential knowledge of Him in the sense that they did not
personally encounter God through faith as He is revealed in the person and works
of Jesus of Nazareth.
Romans 10:2, “Because I testify concerning them that they possess a zeal
for God, however by no means according to an experiential knowledge.”
Next, the apostle Paul in Romans 10:3 teaches that the reason why unsaved
Israel did not have an experiential knowledge of God is that they rejected God’s
righteousness, which is offered in the gospel. He also teaches in this passage that
because the Jews zealously sought to establish their own righteousness, they never
submitted to God’s righteousness, which is offered in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Romans 10:3, “Because they have in the past rejected the righteousness
originating from God the Father and continue to do so up to the present
moment. In fact, because they have in the past zealously sought to establish
their own and continue to do so up to the present moment, they never
submitted to the righteousness originating from God the Father.”
In Romans 10:4, Paul presents the reason for what is implied in Romans 10:3,
namely, that the Jews were wrong for not submitting to God’s righteousness

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because they zealously sought to establish their own righteousness. They were
wrong “because” faith in Christ is the goal or purpose of the Mosaic Law resulting
in the imputation of divine righteousness to everyone who believes in Christ as
Savior.
Romans 10:4, “Because (faith in) Christ is, as an eternal spiritual truth, the
purpose of the Law resulting in righteousness for the benefit of each and every
member of the human race to those who at any time do exercise absolute
confidence (in Christ).”
Then, in Romans 10:5, Paul cites Leviticus 18:5 to support his teaching in
Romans 10:4 that the purpose of the Law was to lead Israel to faith in Christ.
Romans 10:5, “Because Moses writes concerning this particular
righteousness, which is based upon obedience to the Law (as constituting a
source of justification): ‘The person who obeys them will cause himself to live
by means of them.’”
The apostle in Romans 10:5 presents the reason why faith in Christ resulting in
the imputation of divine righteousness and justification has always been the
ultimate purpose of the Law rather than obedience to the Law and to support this
he begins to cite a series of Old Testament passages. In Leviticus 18:5, Moses
writes concerning the righteousness that is based on obedience to the Law that the
Jew who obeys the commandments of the Law perfectly will live by them or in
other words, obtain eternal life. Of course, every person born into the world is
spiritually dead and possesses a sin nature, making it impossible to render the
perfect obedience that the Law requires.
Then, in Romans 10:6, Paul quotes from Deuteronomy 9:4 and 30:12 to teach
that the righteousness that originates from and is based on faith in Christ is nonmeritorious
and attainable unlike perfect obedience to the Law.
Romans 10:6, “However, the righteousness originating from and based on
faith speaks in the following manner: ‘Do not think in your heart, ‘Who will
ascend into heaven?’ This does imply bringing Christ down.”
Paul quotes from Deuteronomy 9:4 to teach that the righteousness originating
from and based on faith in Christ is non-meritorious since in the context of this
passage the Lord emphasizes with Israel that He would bring them into the land of
Canaan not on the basis of their own righteousness.
Paul quotes from Deuteronomy 30:12 to teach that the righteousness that
originates from and is based on faith in Christ does not ask the question “Who will
ascend into heaven?” which is an implicit denial of the incarnation. This question
also implies that the righteousness that originates from and is based on faith in
Christ is not an impossibility and is attainable unlike attempting to obey the Law
perfectly, which he mentions in Romans 10:5.

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Next in Romans 10:7, Paul does not quote exactly from Deuteronomy 30:13 but
rather only the principle taught in this passage to further emphasize that the
righteousness that originates from and is based on faith in Christ is not an
impossibility and is attainable unlike attempting to obey the Law perfectly.
Romans 10:7, “Or, ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ This does imply
bringing Christ up from the dead ones.”
In this passage, Paul cites the principle taught in Deuteronomy 30:13 to teach
that the righteousness that originates from and is based on faith in Christ does not
deny the resurrection has taken place in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
Just as he used the question “Who will ascend into heaven?” in Romans 10:6
as an implicit denial of the incarnation, so he uses the question “Who will descend
into the abyss?” in Romans 10:7 as an implicit denial of the resurrection.
Just as it is impossible for someone to ascend into heaven since that would
imply that Christ did not come in the flesh so it is impossible for someone to
descend into the abyss since that would imply that Christ did not rise from the
dead.
Just as Paul taught in Romans 10:6 that it is impossible for someone to ascend
into heaven since that would imply that Christ did not come in the flesh so in the
same way he teaches in Romans 10:7 that it is impossible for someone to descend
into the abyss since that would imply that Christ did not rise from the dead.
Just as Paul taught in Romans 10:6 that the righteousness that originates from
and is based on faith does not reject the incarnation, so in Romans 10:7, he
describes this righteousness as not reject the resurrection as well.
Now, in Romans 10:8, Paul cites Deuteronomy 30:14 to teach that the
righteousness that originates from and is based on faith in Christ is easily
accessible available unlike the righteousness through perfect obedience to the Law.
Romans 10:8, “But in contrast what does it say? ‘The word is always
readily accessible and available with respect to you,’ in your mouth as well as
in your heart, namely, the word, which brings about faith, which we make it a
habit to publicly proclaim as heralds in a dignified and authoritative
manner.”
It is “readily accessible and available” in the sense that with the sinner’s heart
he or she can trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and with his or her mouth they can
audibly acknowledge to the Father that Jesus is Lord. This is indicated by a
comparison of the expression “in your mouth and in your heart” in Romans 10:8
with Paul’s statements in Romans 10:9-10.
Romans 10:9 presents the basis for Paul’s statement in verse 8 that the word,
i.e. the gospel is always readily accessible and available to the Jew, in his mouth as
well as in his heart, namely, the word, i.e. the gospel which brings about faith. The
gospel, which brings about faith in Christ, is readily accessible and available to the

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Jew “because” if the unsaved Jew acknowledges with his mouth to the Father Jesus
is Lord, which is equivalent to believing in his heart that the Father raised Him
from the dead, then the unsaved Jew will be saved.
Romans 10:9, “Because, if you acknowledge with your mouth Jesus is Lord
in other words, exercising absolute confidence with your heart that God the
Father raised Him from the dead ones, then you will be delivered.”
To acknowledge with one’s mouth to the Father that Jesus is Lord is the same
as believing in one’s heart that the Father raised Jesus from the dead since the
resurrection demonstrated the deity of Christ and faith alone in Christ alone is the
only way to receive eternal salvation.
Therefore, Romans 10:9 emphasizes that it is absolutely essential for salvation
that the sinner acknowledges the deity of Christ. John does this as well.
John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw
His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and
truth.”
1 John 1:1-3, “Who has always existed from eternity past, who we have
heard, who we have witnessed with our eyes, who we observed, even our
hands touched concerning the Word who is the life (of God). That is, this One
who is the life (of God) was revealed (by the Holy Spirit) and we have
witnessed and we testify and we are proclaiming (from God) at this particular
time for the benefit of all of you this One who is the eternal life (of God), who
indeed by virtue of His divine nature has always existed face to face with the
Father and was revealed (by the Holy Spirit) for the benefit of all of us. Who,
we have witnessed and we have heard, we also are proclaiming (from God) at
this particular time for the benefit of all of you in order that all of you without
exception might also continue to experience fellowship and this fellowship is
with the Father and with His Son, Jesus who is the Christ.”
1 John 4:2-3, “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that
confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit
that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist,
of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.”
2 John 7, “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do
not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and
the antichrist.”
Romans 10:9, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and
believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
This passage presents the basis for Paul’s statement in Romans 10:8 that the
word, i.e. the gospel is always readily accessible and available to the Jew, in his
mouth as well as in his heart, namely, the word, i.e. the gospel which brings about
faith.

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Romans 10:8, “But in contrast what does it say? ‘The word is always
readily accessible and available with respect to you,’ in your mouth as well as
in your heart, namely, the word, which brings about faith, which we make it a
habit to publicly proclaim as heralds in a dignified and authoritative
manner.”
In Romans 10:9, the conjunction hoti introduces a statement that gives the
reason why the gospel message, which brings about faith in Christ, is readily
accessible and available to the Jew. The gospel, which brings about faith in Christ,
is readily accessible and available to the Jew “because” if the unsaved Jew
acknowledges with his mouth to the Father Jesus is Lord, which is equivalent to
believing in his heart that the Father raised Him from the dead, then the unsaved
Jew will be saved.
Some interpret hoti as introducing a content clause specifying the content of
“the word, which brings about faith.” However, Paul’s statement in Romans
10:9 is not presenting the content of the gospel since Christ Himself and His death
and resurrection are the content of the gospel according to 1 Corinthians 15:3-4.
Paul’s statement in Romans 10:9 is not presenting the content of the gospel but
rather it is explaining “how” the gospel is readily accessible and available to the
Jew. Namely, if the Jew acknowledges with his mouth to the Father Jesus is Lord,
which is to believe in his heart that the Father raised Him from the dead, then he
will be saved.
If the emphasis was on content then Paul’s statement would simply present
Christ Himself and His death and resurrection. However, his emphasis is upon the
basis as to why the gospel, which brings about faith in Christ, is readily and
accessible to the Jew.
It is readily accessible and available “because” all the Jew has to do to be saved
is acknowledge with his mouth to the Father that Jesus is Lord, which is equivalent
to believing in his heart that the Father raised Him from the dead since the
resurrection demonstrated the deity of Christ and faith alone in Christ alone is the
only way to receive eternal salvation. Therefore, we will translate hoti, “because.”
Romans 10:9, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and
believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
“If” is the conditional particle ean (e)anv ) (eh-an), which is employed with the
subjunctive mood of the verbs homologeo, “you confess” and pisteuo, “believe” in
order to form the protasis of a third class condition.
The apodasis is implicit and involves the future indicative form of the verb
sozo, “you will be saved.” The protasis: “if you confess with your mouth Jesus
as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead.” The
apodasis: “you will be saved.”

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The third class condition in Romans 10:9 indicates the “certain fulfillment in
the future” that the Jew will be saved if he fulfills the condition of acknowledging
with his mouth to the Father Jesus is Lord, which is equivalent to believing in his
heart that the Father raised Him from the dead since the resurrection demonstrated
the deity of Christ and faith alone in Christ alone is the only way to receive eternal
salvation.
In Romans 10:9, we have a third class condition, which offers a condition that
is certain to be fulfilled in the future since Paul is speaking of salvation through
faith alone in Christ alone.
“You confess” is the second person singular aorist active subjunctive form of
the verb homologeo (o(mologevw), which means, “to acknowledge” that Jesus of
Nazareth is Lord, which is a word here that denotes His deity.
The question arises, “to whom does the unbeliever have to acknowledge that
Jesus is Lord in order to be saved?” Is a public affirmation to men required or is
this an acknowledgement to oneself or to God?
Some interpret homologeo in Romans 10:9 as a “public affirmation” to men and
use Luke 12:8 to support this interpretation. However, Jesus is speaking to
believers in Luke 12:8-9 and in Romans 10:9 he is writing concerning unsaved
Jews. That Jesus is speaking to believers in Luke 12:8-9 is clearly indicated by the
context since Luke 12:1 reveals that He is addressing His disciples and in Luke
12:4, He calls those whom He addresses “My friends” and in Luke 12:4-7, He
teaches those whom He addresses regarding the Father’s care for them.
Luke 12:8-9, “And I say to you, everyone who confesses Me before men,
the Son of Man will confess him also before the angels of God; but he who
denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.”
Therefore, confessing or acknowledging Jesus before men is not a reference to
getting saved since Jesus is teaching those who are already His disciples and thus
already saved. But rather the person who confesses the Lord before men in Luke
12:8 is a reference to the believer living an obedient life.
When Jesus says He will acknowledge the person who acknowledges Him, it
refers to the public testimony by the Son of God to the faithful life of the obedient
Christian who executes the Father’s will. Thus, in this passage, when Jesus says He
will deny the believer before men, it doesn’t mean that they are denied salvation
since He is talking to those who are already believers. Neither does it mean you
will lose your salvation since that is obviously false doctrine, which we have
refuted in previous studies of Romans. It means that He will deny the believer of
rewards.
2 Timothy 2:12, “If we deny Him, He also will deny us.”
Therefore, those who interpret homologeo in Romans 10:9 as a “public
affirmation” to men of the deity of Christ can not use Luke 12:8 as support for this

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interpretation since in Luke 12:8 our Lord is addressing believers and Romans 10:9
is addressing how unsaved Israelites can get saved.
Remember Paul in Romans 9-10 is addressing the nation of Israel’s rejection of
Jesus of Nazareth as Messiah.
Now, in John 12:42, John writes that many of the Jewish rulers believed in
Jesus but because of the Pharisees they were not acknowledging before the public
that they believed Jesus to be the Messiah for fear that they would be put out of the
synagogue.
The Lord Jesus Christ taught Nicodemus that if he believes in Him that he will
receive eternal life and be saved.
John 3:16-18, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His uniquely born
Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For
God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world (Christ would die
in their place), but that the world should be saved through Him (faith alone in
Christ alone). He who believes in Him (the Lord Jesus Christ) is not judged.
He who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed
in the name of the uniquely born Son of God.”
John 3:36, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not
obey the Son shall not see eternal life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
Paul also makes this clear throughout his writings that salvation is by faith
alone in Christ alone (Romans 3:22, 26, 30; 4:3, 5; 5:1; Galatians 2:16; 3:24, 26;
Ephesians 2:8).
Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and
that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no
one may boast.”
Paul also makes it clear to the Philippian jailor in Acts 16:31.
Acts 16:30-31, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved? They said, ‘believe in the
Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.’” NASU
All of these passages make clear that no public affirmation is essential for
salvation. Therefore, in Romans 10:9, the verb homologeo does not refer to a
“public affirmation” or “admitting to people” that one has faith in Jesus Christ as
Savior since the Scriptures teach that the sinner can receive eternal life and thus
eternal salvation only through faith alone in Christ alone.
There is no public acknowledgment of Christ necessary. Rather, the verb refers
to the sinner acknowledging to the Father that Jesus is Lord and which
acknowledgement is, in and of itself, exercising faith that the Father raised Jesus
from the dead. This is clearly indicated in the Scriptures because as we noted the
Scriptures teach that it is through faith alone in Christ alone that one is saved. It is
also indicated in that to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord is the equivalent to having

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faith that the Father raised Jesus from the dead since the Father’s act of raising His
Son Jesus from the dead demonstrated that Jesus was in fact God.
Remember, the term “Lord” in Romans 10:9 is a reference to the deity of
Christ. To acknowledge that Jesus is Lord, i.e. God is to believe that the Father
raised Him from the dead since the Father’s act of raising His Son Jesus from the
dead demonstrated that Jesus was in fact God. This is clearly indicated by Paul in
Romans 1:4 and in this passage he teaches that there is a direct connection between
the resurrection of Jesus Christ and His deity in that the resurrection demonstrated
that Jesus of Nazareth was in fact the Son of God.
Romans 1:1-4, “Paul, a slave owned by Christ who is Jesus, called as an
apostle, set apart for the gospel originating from God, which He promised
beforehand through His prophets in the Holy Scriptures concerning His Son,
who was born as a descendant of David with respect to His human nature.
The One demonstrated as the Son of God by means of divine power with
respect to a nature characterized by holiness because of the resurrection from
the dead ones, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
If the Father does not raise Jesus from the dead, then He is not God. The fact
that the Father raised Jesus from the dead makes clear that Jesus is the Son of God
and that He is also the object of faith for salvation and justification. The
resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth was the ultimate proof to the human race that He
was God and that the Father approved of Him and accepted His substitutionary
spiritual and physical deaths on the Cross as the solution to the problem of
personal sins and the sin nature.
Therefore, in Romans 10:9 when Paul teaches that if the Jew confesses with his
mouth Jesus is Lord and believes in his heart that the Father raised Jesus from the
dead he is referring back to what he taught in Romans 1:4, which teaches that the
resurrection of Christ demonstrated the deity of Christ. Thus, when Paul teaches in
Romans 10:9 that if the Jew confesses with his mouth Jesus is Lord and believes in
his heart that the Father raised Jesus from the dead he means that to believe in
one’s heart that the Father raised Jesus from the dead is in fact, an
acknowledgment to the Father that Jesus is Lord, i.e. God.
To acknowledge to the Father that Jesus is Lord is to believe that the Father
raised Him from the dead since by raising Him from the dead, the Father was
demonstrating that Jesus was His Son and thus God.
Therefore, in Romans 10:9, Paul is giving only one condition for salvation
when he teaches that the sinner must acknowledge with one’s mouth that Jesus is
Lord and believe in his heart that the Father raised Jesus from the dead.
That there is only one condition being presented in Romans 10:9 and that faith
alone in Christ is the only way to receive eternal salvation and be declared justified
by God is further indicated in Romans 10:11.

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Romans 10:11, “For the Scripture says, ‘WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM
WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.’”
So when Paul teaches in Romans 10:9 that in order to be saved the sinner must
acknowledge with his mouth that Jesus is God and believe in his heart that the
Father raised Him from the dead he is saying acknowledging in one’s heart that
Jesus is Lord is to believe that the Father raised Him from the dead. In other words,
to exercise faith that the Father raised Jesus from the dead is, in and of itself, an
acknowledgment that Jesus is Lord, i.e. God since the resurrection demonstrated
that Jesus is God and one is saved only by faith alone in Christ alone! Therefore,
we can also say based upon this principle that faith in Jesus as Savior is an
acknowledgement to the Father or agreeing with the Father on the part of the
sinner that one is a sinner and that Jesus is the Savior and God.
Also, we can conclude that the verb homologeo in Romans 10:9 is an
acknowledgement “to the Father” that Jesus is His Son rather than an
acknowledgement to men because the Father raised Jesus from the dead to
demonstrate that Jesus was His Son. Therefore, because of the connection between
the resurrection of Christ and the deity of Christ, Paul is presenting only one
condition for salvation, and not two. To acknowledge that Jesus is God is to have
faith that the Father raised Jesus from the dead since the resurrection demonstrated
the deity of Jesus.
Romans 10:9, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and
believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
“With your mouth” is composed of the preposition en (e)n), “in” and the
articular dative neuter singular form of the noun stoma (stomv a) (stom-a), “mouth”
and the genitive second person singular form of the personal pronoun su (su)v
(soo), “your.”
The noun stoma refers to that organ of the human body that gives one the
capacity for speaking. In Romans 10:9, it is used in relation to the unsaved Jew
acknowledging with his or her mouth to the Father that Jesus is Lord. This is
equivalent to believing in his heart that the Father raised Him from the dead since
the resurrection was a demonstration of the deity of Christ and salvation is only
through faith alone in Christ alone.
The preposition en functions as a marker of means and the noun stoma
functions as a “dative instrumental of means.” This denotes that “with” his mouth,
the unsaved Jew’s mouth must acknowledge to the Father that Jesus is Lord in
order to be saved.
The definite article before the noun stoma is used with the personal pronoun su,
“your” to denote possession. The personal pronoun su refers to no particular Jew
and functions as a “genitive of possession” and “possessive” pronoun indicating
that this mouth in question “belongs to” the Jew.

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“Jesus” is the accusative masculine singular form of the proper name Iesous (
)Ihsou~$), which refers to the impeccable human nature of the Lord Jesus Christ
who is the God-Man.
The word functions as an “object” in an object-complement double accusative
construction. Generally, in such constructions the first accusative is the object, and
the second is the complement, but this is not always the case.
In Romans 10:9, the first accusative kurios, “Lord” and in apposition to it is the
proper name Iesous, “Jesus.” Now, it appears that because of word order that the
former is the object and the latter is the complement but this is not the case.
Dan Wallace presents the following principles of Greek grammar to determine
which accusative is the “object” and which is “complement” is a follows: (1) If one
of the two is a pronoun, it will be the object (2) If one of the two is a proper name,
it will be the object (3) If one of the two is articular, it will be the object. (Daniel
Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics-Exegetical Syntax of the New
Testament, An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament, page 183; Zondervan
Publishing House, 1996)
Therefore, in Romans 10:9, since Iesous, “Jesus” is a proper name, even though
it follows the noun kurios, “Lord” by way of word order, Iesous, “Jesus”
functions as the direct object of the verb homologeo, “you acknowledge” and the
other accusative, kurios, “Lord” is its complement.
So the double accusative construction in Romans 10:9 indicates that the
acknowledgement that is required is that “Jesus is Lord,” i.e., Yahweh, the God of
the Old Testament.
“Lord” is the accusative masculine singular form of the noun kurios (kurv io$),
which is a reference to the second member of the Trinity, Jesus Christ since up to
this point in the book of Romans, it is used of Him and there is nothing in the
present context, which indicates otherwise. In fact, in the book of Romans, kurios
is always used of Jesus Christ.
When the noun kurios is applied to Jesus Christ it indicates the following: (1)
His equality with the Father and the Spirit. (2) His joint-rulership with the Father
over the entire cosmos. (3) His highest ranking position as Chief Administrator in
the divine government. (4) His absolute sovereign authority as Ruler over all
creation and every creature. (5) His strategic victory over Satan and the kingdom
of darkness in the angelic conflict.
In His deity, Jesus Christ is “Lord” (See Luke 20:42), however in His human
nature He received this title as a result of His obedience to the Father’s will, which
called for Him to suffer a spiritual and physical death on the cross as a substitute
for every member of the human race-past, present and future (See Philippians 2:5-
11).

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In Romans 10:9, Paul employs kurios, “Lord” to emphasize that Jesus of
Nazareth is God.
As we noted earlier, the word functions as the “complement” in an objectcomplement
double accusative construction. This means that it is complementing
the accusative form of the proper name Iesous, “Jesus” in that it predicates or
affirms something about it. Therefore, kurios, “Lord” is affirming the deity of
Jesus of Nazareth.
Romans 10:9, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and
believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
“And” is the “epexegetical” or “explanatory” use of the conjunction kai (kai)V ,
which introduces a statement that “explains” the previous statement of
acknowledging with one’s mouth to the Father that Jesus is Lord.
In Romans 10:9, the conjunction kai is connecting the previous statement “if
you acknowledge that Jesus is Lord” with the one to follow “believe in your
heart that God raised Him from the dead.”
As we noted both of these statements speak of one condition for salvation. To
acknowledge to the Father with one’s mouth that Jesus is Lord is equivalent to
believing in one’s heart that the Father raised Him from the dead since the
resurrection demonstrated the deity of Christ and faith alone in Christ alone is the
only way a sinner can receive eternal salvation.
The previous statement “if you acknowledge that Jesus is Lord” looks at
salvation from the perspective of acknowledging the deity of Christ. The statement
to follow “believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead” looks at
salvation from the perspective of believing that the Father raised Jesus from the
dead. Therefore, because these two statements speak of one condition and are
looking at salvation from two different perspectives, the deity of Christ and His
resurrection, the conjunction kai is “explanatory” meaning that it is introducing a
statement that “explains” salvation from a different perspective. We will translate
the word, “in other words.”
Romans 10:9, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and
believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
“Believe” is the second person singular present aorist active subjunctive form of
the verb pisteuo (pisteuvw) (pist-yoo-o), which refers to making the nonmeritorious
decision “to trust” or “to have absolute confidence in” the fact that the
Father raised Jesus from the dead.
In Romans 10:9, the second person singular form of the verb is a reference to
the unsaved Jew who needs to hear what Paul is saying in this passage to be saved.
“In your heart” is composed of the preposition en (e)n), “in” and the articular
dative locative feminine singular form of the noun kardia (kardiva) (kar-dee-ah),

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“heart” and the genitive second person singular form of the personal pronoun su
(su)v (soo), “your.”
The noun kardia denotes that aspect of the heart, namely the volition exercising
absolute confidence or in other words, faith that the Father raised Jesus from the
dead. This is equivalent to acknowledging with one’s mouth to the Father that
Jesus is Lord since the resurrection was a demonstration of the deity of Christ and
salvation is only through faith alone in Christ alone.
The preposition en functions as a marker of means and the noun kardia
functions as a “dative instrumental of means” denoting that the heart is “the means
by which” the unsaved Jew’s must believe that the Father raised Jesus from the
dead in order to be saved.
The definite article before the noun kardia is used with the personal pronoun su,
“your” to denote possession. The personal pronoun su refers to no particular Jew
and functions as a “genitive of possession” and “possessive” pronoun indicating
that this heart in question “belongs to” the Jew.
“That” is the conjunction hoti (ot^ i) (hot-ee), which is used with the indicative
mood of the verb egeiro, “raised” in order to introduce a direct object clause
meaning that is introducing a clause that is receiving the action of the verb pisteuo,
“exercising absolute confidence.”
“God” is the articular nominative masculine singular form of the noun theos
(qeov$), which refers to the Father since the articular construction of this noun in
the New Testament commonly signifies that it is a reference to God the Father.
The Lord was brought back from the dead by three categories of divine
omnipotence. First of all, the omnipotence of God the Father raised Jesus from the
dead (Acts 2:24; Rom. 6:4; Eph. 1:20; Col. 2:12; 1 Thess. 1:10; 1 Pet. 1:21). The
omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit also was an agent in Jesus Christ’s
resurrection (Rom. 8:11; 1 Pet. 3:18). The omnipotence of God the Son raised His
physical body from the grave (John 2:20-23; 6:39-40, 54 10:17-18). Here in
Romans 10:9, Paul is emphasizing the Father’s part in the resurrection of Jesus
Christ.
“Raised” is the third person singular aorist active indicative form of the verb
egeiro (e)geivrw) (eg-i-ro), which means, “to raise from physical death” and is used
of the Father raising His Son from the dead.
“Him” is the accusative masculine singular form of the intensive personal
pronoun autos (au)tov$) (ow-tos), which refers of course to the Son, Jesus Christ.
“From the dead” is composed of the preposition ek (e)k), “from” and the
genitive masculine plural form of the adjective nekros (nekrov$), “the dead.”
The plural form of the adjective nekros, “dead ones” refers to members of the
human race who have died physically.

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The preposition ek denotes separation and the adjective nekros functions as a
“genitive of separation” or as some grammarians call an “ablative of separation” in
which the genitive substantive is that from which the verb or sometimes the head
noun is separated indicating point of departure. Thus, the adjective nekros
functions as a “genitive” or “ablative of separation” indicating that the human
nature of Jesus Christ was raised “out from” those who are physically dead.
Romans 10:9, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and
believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
“You will be saved” is the second person singular future passive indicative
form of the verb sozo (swv|zw) (sode-zo), which means, “to deliver.”
In Romans 10:9, the verb refers to being delivered by God from eternal
condemnation as well as the sin nature, personal sins, Satan and his cosmic system
since Paul is speaking with reference to unsaved Israel in our present context.
So in Romans 10:9 Paul is teaching that if the unsaved Jew acknowledges with
his mouth to the Father that Jesus is Lord (i.e. God), in other words, if he believes
with his heart that the Father raised Jesus from the dead, then he will delivered
from eternal condemnation.
The acknowledgement that Jesus is Lord is an affirmation of His deity and to
believe with his heart that the Father raised from the dead is connected to it since
the resurrection demonstrated that Jesus is God. Since the Bible teaches that faith
alone in Christ alone is the only way to receive eternal salvation and the
resurrection demonstrated that Jesus is the Son of God, we can conclude that to
acknowledge that Jesus is God is to believe that the Father raised Him from the
dead.

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The Apostle Paul In Philippians 2:6 Affirms The Deity of Christ
Once again we return to the book of Philippians to continue with our discussion
regarding the person of Christ and in particular Philippians 2:6 in which Paul
affirms the deity of Christ.
Philippians 2:6, “who, although He existed in the form of God, did not
regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.”
“In the form of God” is the prepositional phrase en morphe theou. The noun
morphe, “form” appears only three times in the Greek New Testament (Mark
16:12; Phil. 2:6-7) where it is used only with reference to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Morphe means “essence” and is used in two antithetical or contrasting statements
in Philippians 2:6 and 7. In verse 6, the word is used of the divine “essence” of the
Lord Jesus Christ whereas in verse 7, it is used with reference to God the Son
adding to His divine essence, the “essence” of a servant or slave.
Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary defines essence, “the properties or
attributes by means of which something can be placed in its proper class or
identified as being what it is.” They also define attribute, “an inherent
characteristic.”
Vine quoting Gifford writes, “Morphe is therefore properly the nature or
essence, not in the abstract but as actually subsisting in the individual and retained
as long as the individual exists.” (Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament
Words Unabridged Edition, page 463)
Vincent gives an excellent definition of morphe in Philippians 2:6, he writes,
“We must dismiss from our minds the idea of shape. The word is used in its
philosophical sense, to denote that expression of being which carries in itself the
distinctive nature and character of being to whom it pertains, and is thus
permanently identified with that nature and character. Thus it is distinguished from
schema fashion, comprising that which appeals to the senses and which is
changeable. Morphe is identified with the essence of a person or thing” (Vincent’s
Word Studies in the New Testament, volume III, page 431).
Wuest makes the following comment he writes “Our Lord was in the form of
God. The word ‘God is without the definite article in the Greek text, and therefore
refers to the divine essence. Thus, our Lord’s outward expression of His inmost
being was as to its nature the expression of the divine essence of Deity. Since that
outward expression which this word ‘form’ speaks of, comes from and is truly
representative of the inward being, it follows that our Lord as to His nature is the
possessor of the divine essence Deity, and being that, it also necessarily follows
that He is absolute Deity Himself, a co-participant with God the Father and God
the Holy Spirit in that divine essence which constitutes God, God” (Word Studies
in the Greek New Testament, volume II, page 63).

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The English word “essence” is derived from the Greek adjective ousia, which
means “being, substance.” Essence means “inner nature, true substance, a person’s
qualities or attributes.” Some of these qualities of a person are visible and some are
invisible. Essence implies being or existence. God exists and there are certain
qualities or attributes which belong to His essence.
The divine essence has the following attributes: (1) Sovereignty (Father: Matt.
6:10; Son: Matt. 28:18; Holy Spirit: 1 Cor. 12:11) (2) Righteousness (Father: John
17:25; Son: 1 John 2:1) (3) Justice (Father: Rom. 3:24-26; Son: 2 Tim. 4:8; Spirit:
John 16:8-11) (4) Love (Father: John 3:16; Son: Rom. 5:8; Spirit: Rom. 5:5) (5)
Eternal life (Father and Son: John 1:1; Spirit: Heb. 9:14) (6) Omnipotence (Father:
Mark 14:36 and Luke 1:37; Son: Col. 1:16-17; Spirit: Rom. 15:13) (7)
Omniscience (Father: Matt. 6:8; Son: John 2:25 and 18:4; Spirit: Isa. 11:2) (8)
Omnipresence (Father: Eph. 4:6; Son: Matt. 28:18; Spirit: Ps. 139:7) (9)
Immutability (Father: Jam. 1:17; Son: Heb. 13:8; Spirit: 1 John 5:7) (10) Veracity
(Father: John 7:28; Son: John 14:6; Spirit: 1 John 5:7).
The Scriptures teach that God is three co-equal, co-infinite and co-eternal
Persons with the same identical essence or attributes: (1) God the Father (1 Cor.
8:6; Eph. 1:3) (2) God the Son (John 10:30; 14:9; Col. 2:9) (3) God the Holy
Spirit (Isa. 11:2; Ex. 31:3; Isa. 6:8, 9; cf. Acts 28:25-26; Jer. 31:31-34 cf. Heb.
10:15-17).
God is one in essence but three in Person. All the invisible attributes of God are
always present in Him, but not all are revealed to man at the same time. Essence is
the Being which is attributed to God since the characteristics of His essence are
eternal and inherently in Him.
So therefore, in Philippians 2:6, the noun morphe means “essence” and is used
as the object of the preposition en, which expresses a condition or a state. Now,
this prepositional phrase is employed with the nominative masculine singular
present active participle form of the verb huparcho, “although He existed.”
Paul does not use the simple verb of being here which is eimi but instead
employs the stronger huparcho to denote existence, which proceeds or issues from
the beginning. In Philippians 2:6, huparcho denotes the inherency and expression
of the divine attributes by our Lord in His preincarnate state. It refers to eternity
past in which our Lord functioned as infinite and eternal God. The verb expresses
the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ prior to entering the human race permanently in
Bethlehem was the eternal Son of God, and who expressed all the attributes of
deity. Therefore, the expression en morphe theou huparchon, means “who
although existing from eternity past in the essence of God.” This expression
affirms that our Lord is infinite and eternal God and has a divine nature.
Philippians 2:6, “who, although He existed in the form of God, did not
regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.”

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The Greek expression to einai isa theo, “equality with God” also affirms the
deity of our Lord and explicitly teaches that Jesus Christ is God, equal to the
Father and the Spirit. This expression should be translated “existing equally in
essence with God.”
In this expression, we have the present active infinite form of the verb eimi,
which means “to exist.” The present tense can be regarded as “stative” and a
“gnomic” present. The former denotes that our Lord “always existed in the state of
being” equal with God. The latter denotes that our Lord “as an eternal spiritual
truth” has always existed equally in essence with God.
The adjective isos, “equality” pertains to that which is equal, either in number,
size, quality or characteristics. (Louw and Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the
New Testament Based on Semantic Domains, 58.33). In Philippians 2:6 the
adjective describes Jesus Christ as being equal with God in character, nature and
essence. So it is explicitly affirming that Jesus Christ is equal to God.
Therefore, we can see that the expressions “form of God” and “equality with
God” are among the strongest expressions of our Lord and Savior’s deity in all the
New Testament.