This is an excerpt from Pastor Mark’s new book “Alive: 21 Reasons to Believe in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ” as we count down to Easter. To get your physical copy, CLICK HERE to give a gift of any amount in the month of April to RealFaith to help us get more Bible teaching out. For a FREE digital copy, CLICK HERE. Thank you in advance for your generosity to help us tell more and more people about Jesus.
Psalm 6:2 – After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.
Reason #2: Jesus’ resurrection was predicted in the Old Testament.
If the evidence during Jesus’ lifetime for His resurrection isn’t enough, God also miraculously weaves prophecies about the resurrection into various books of the Old Testament. Here are a few examples, although there are more:
In 1000 B.C., Psalm 16:10 says, “…you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.”
One thousand years before Jesus, this prophecy from David speaks of One who will be Holy, but not decay, as He will raise in newness of life. This concept of individual resurrection was not a part of Jewish culture at the time, so not only is Jesus prophesied, but so is the actual concept of resurrection.
In 700 B.C., Isaiah 53:7-11 says, “He was oppressed, and…afflicted…like a lamb that is led to the slaughter…By oppression and judgment he was taken away…he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people…they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death…Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days…Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.”
In this amazingly specific prophecy, Isaiah speaks of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection 700 years before Jesus was born. It speaks of His innocence as a lamb, His crucifixion alongside sinners, the quality of His grace, and His ultimate conquering of death as the atonement for all sin.
Aside from Jesus’ resurrection, find another instance of Jesus’ birth, life, death, or resurrection that’s mentioned in the New Testament and predicted in the Old Testament (i.e. Matthew 1:23 and Isaiah 7:14 predicting that a virgin would give birth).
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