An Easter Study:
The Deaths and Resurrection of Our Lord
A Teaching Manuscript by Pastor Jim Oliver
2006 – Current
Updated Here
Updated Here
Outline
- Introduction
- The Crucifixion
- Our Lord’s Spiritual Death
- Our Lord’s Physical Death
- Our Lord’s Resurrection from the Dead
Pertinent Passages
As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten 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, but that the world might be saved through Him. John 3:14-17
He…was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification. Romans 4:25
For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh. Romans 8:3
But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power. Acts
He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying. Matthew 28:6
A. Introduction
To prepare for this Easter season, I want to discuss some aspects of our Lord’s work so that we may be able to appreciate Him better for what He has done for us. Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3:18, “But grow in grace and in knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…” I present this lesson to you to fulfill that mandate, that we grow in knowledge, and therefore in grace.
We will look at one point of introduction then launch into a narrative of the events from His crucifixion through our Lord’s resurrection. The format we will follow will be this: we will look at the various Scriptures, jumping from one Gospel to the other keeping as accurate chronologically as we can, discussing both the events as they happened and their significances. We will also jump to other books of the Bible as well in our discussion of significances.
Our point of introduction explains the outline we will be following. You have no doubt noted that I have emphasized that our Lord died two deaths upon the cross. I know that you all are very familiar with this fact, but I want to keep emphasizing it. Without this understanding, you do not thoroughly understand what Jesus Christ did on the cross for you. If you do not understand it then you will not fully appreciate Him nor will you grow spiritually beyond a certain point. Our spiritual growth revolves around understanding and appreciating Him, and coming to love Him.
The Scripture well documents that our Lord died two deaths while He was hanging on the cross. Not only do two verses, at last count, document this fact but doctrinal developments indicate this truth as well. Our thorough understanding of this subject will put to rest any false doctrines that are so prevalent about His work on the cross. There is much ignorance as well, concerning His work on our behalf. As we noted in our outline, He died spiritually, which was His sacrificial substitutionary death then after completing that, He died physically. If you recall, we noted some aspects of His spiritual death in our dispensational study. We discussed Adam and Eve’s spiritual death and how our Lord atoned for this by means of His substitutionary spiritual death.
A popular misconception alleges that Christ died physically for our sins. Certain denominations go so far as to say that an angel captured His physical blood and carried it up to heaven, somehow atoning for our sinful state! However, most just state the fact that He died for our sins, without ever questioning how the physical death of a human body, even of His perfect body, the only death they understand, can atone for sin, much less our spiritual death. This is fine, because it is a part of the Gospel message, which leads to eternal life. We as growing believers, however, need a greater understanding of every facet of His substitutionary work. Again, it leads to a greater love and appreciation for Him. It leads to our spiritual growth and edification. His substitutionary spiritual death atoned for our spiritual death.
Why did He die twice? Christ died twice on the cross, so that we might be born twice. Upon our first birth, God imputed soul life to our human bodies. The imputation of Adam’s original sin to our bodies as well as the fact of our old sin natures came as a result of as Adam’s original sin, resulting in our being born physically alive yet spiritually dead. I am sure you remember how we are all born spiritually dead from the dispensational study. Because we are born spiritually dead, God has provided, by means of our Lord’s work the opportunity to be reborn, born again to a second birth or more specifically, regenerated. Our second birth, our regeneration, which occurs when we believe in Jesus Christ, involves the imputation of eternal life to our newly created human spirits. In the process of regeneration, God the Holy Spirit creates a human spirit for the imputation of that eternal life. In other words, Christ died upon the cross, both physically and spiritually that we might be born twice, physically and spiritually, becoming partakers of His eternal life.
Let us first look at two verses that provide literal documentation of His two deaths. This first one is one of Isaiah’s Messianic prophecies, speaking of His burial following His physical death:
ü His grave was assigned with wicked men, yet He was with a rich man in His death…Isaiah 53:9a
Because the Romans crucified Him with criminals, had His body not been claimed, as it was by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, it would have been buried in a potter’s field or laid in a pile of refuse; thus assigning it to obscurity. However, these two men, being prepared for His execution, laid him in the tomb Joseph of Aramathea, the rich man, had acquired. He most likely acquired that tomb specifically for our Lord’s burial because a rich man would not have planned a burial tomb for himself so close to a place of execution. They had also acquired the necessary burial spices and grave clothes. They did not acquire these, impulsively, because no one could buy those articles during that festival period. Note that this verse, first, documents, prophetically, His physical death. The Romans would not have released His body to them, had He not been physically dead, nor would He have been buried had He not died physically.
Secondly, note the phrase, “in His death.” This is more to our point. As it stands in most English translations, it is mistranslated. The word “death” is the plural of מָוֶת MAWET. It is a plural noun. It should read, “deaths,” not as most English translations read, “death” in the singular. Most commentaries, at least the ones I have access to, recognize the plural of the word, “death” but ascribe its plurality to a Hebrew idiom used to intensify, in this case, the concept of death. A notable exception to this is the Commentary on the Old Testament by Jamieson Fausett and Brown, published in 1871, which clearly teaches Christ’s two deaths. The singular reading, however, is an erroneous interpretation of that use of the plural. It actually refers to our Lord’s two deaths. We know that because of other verses which describe the many facets of His substitutionary work on the cross, which He completed before He died physically.
Hebrews 9:16-17 also designates deaths, not death. We are not going to get into a deep exegetical study of this verse at the moment but listen to this:
ü For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives. Hebrews 9:16-17 NASB .
Let us look carefully at the first phrase in verse 17. I have changed the NASB translation to reflect the actual Greek words. These words are:
διαθήκη DIATHEKE – This is a nominative feminine noun, translated “will,” “testament” or “covenant.”
γαρ GAR – This is the post positive conjunction translated, “for.” The term “post positive” refers to the fact that in the Greek, this word appears as the second word in the phrase, but in the English, appears as the first.
επι EPI – This preposition modifies a substantive in the dative case, translated, “on” or “upon.”
νεκροις NEKROIS – This adjective in the dative masculine plural should be translated, “deaths.”
The NASB and other translations add the word, “men” as the object of this adjective’s modification. The word fits because it is masculine and in the plural. However, if you look at the context, you will see that the referred-to covenant is our Lord’s, not “men’s.” In my research, I would have expected to see some grammars justifying the NASB translation, but surprisingly, not. One day, we will return to this entire passage and take a closer look at it. We will translate the word as “deaths” because of its context and grammatical consideration. Again, you need to look at the context of the referred-to covenant and the One who died to translate this word accurately.
βεβαία BEBAIA – This is a nominative feminine adjective translated as “valid.”
There is no verb in this clause, but the relationship between the nominative noun, “covenant” and the nominative adjective, “valid,” expresses a predicate relationship. This predicate relationship implies verbal action because of the relationship between “valid” and “covenant” and their context. Hence, the correct translation of GAR, DIATHEKE and BEBAIA should read, “For a covenant is valid…”
The dative preposition EPI goes with the dative adjective, NEKROIS “deaths” denoting the state upon which the covenant is validated. Therefore, the entire phrase should read, “For the covenant is valid upon deaths.” I’ve put “the” in front of “covenant” because only one covenant is the subject of this passage: the one covenant our Lord fulfilled by His death on the cross. This briefly explains a passage that demands much greater attention! Our point here is the fact of our Lord’s deaths, not death.
By those two verses, we have established that Christ died deaths on the cross. I am following the lead of my predecessors in assigning the deaths categorically as spiritual death and physical death. Christ then died both physically and spiritually while He was hanging on that cross. Let us take a few moments to get a better idea of what these deaths mean before we go to the narrative of those days.
It was by His spiritual death that He paid for the sins of the world, accomplishing all the facets of His salvation work:
ü God demonstrated His own love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died as a substitute for us. Romans 5:8 RBT
Note the translation, “as a substitute for us.” Your English translation probably does not use the term “substitute.” This verse’s Greek grammar demands this translation. As we will see as our study continues, His spiritual death was substitutionary, not His physical death.
In our study of the fall of the human race, we noted that Adam and Eve died spiritually immediately upon sinning on one hand, then dying physically later. Their spiritual death necessitated our Lord’s spiritual death. We established their spiritual death by explaining, “dying you shall die.” We noted also that there are two categories of spiritual death. Adam and Eve suffered the first category, real spiritual death, because of their sin. We spoke of this, again, in the dispensations series. Because of Adam’s spiritual death, every human is born into the first category of spiritual death, real spiritual death. It includes the fact of our separation from God in a state of sin and dichotomy. We have noted this in detail not too long ago, so we will not revisit it now. Therefore, we are all born spiritually dead under the category of real spiritual death. The second category of spiritual death is substitutionary spiritual death, defined as separation from God in a state of perfection and impeccability. Only the perfect, impeccable humanity of Jesus Christ fulfills this category because He was uniquely qualified to become our substitute, receiving the imputation and judgment for all sins in the history of the human race down to the last sin of the Millennium. Obviously, this can only apply to Jesus Christ. Our Lord’s substitutionary spiritual death, on the cross, provided the potential of salvation for the entire human race through personal faith in Him.
ü He Himself carried our sins in His own body on the cross. 1 Peter 2:24
The Scripture refers to our Lord’s substitutionary spiritual death as “the blood of Christ.” This is a representative analogy. Whenever you see the words “blood of Christ” in your Scripture, it refers to His spiritual death, His bearing all of the sins of the world, without exception, paving the way for your salvation and mine. The analogy goes this way. In the Old Testament sacrifices, the one who had sinned would bring an animal to the priest. That priest would place it on the altar, place one hand on the sinner’s head, the other on the head of the sacrificial animal. This represented the transfer of that sin from the one who sinned to the animal. The priest, then, cut the animal’s throat. This ritual taught that the penalty of sin is death. The physical death of the animal, the shedding of its blood, represented our Lord’s spiritual death. In the ritual, the animal died for that sin. Of course, the death of an animal never could atone for a person’s personal sins, much less, for spiritual death. This ritual taught and looked forward to our Lord’s substitutionary spiritual death upon the cross. Unfortunately, many strange interpretations have come out of “the blood of Christ,” because many do not understand even the concept of our Lord’s substitutionary spiritual death.
ü But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died as a substitute for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. Romans 5:8-9
His substitutionary death looks backward to sin and forward to the calling of many sons into glory.
ü For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. Hebrews 2:10
He died physically because His salvation work was complete, totally accomplished. When He finished His salvation work, He shouted, “TETELESTAI,” meaning, “finished, with the result that the work is completed forever.” It was only after that declaration that He died physically. His physical or somatic death on the cross relates to His resurrection because He had to die physically before His resurrection. His somatic death looks backward to His finished work on the cross and forward to His resurrection, ascension, and session. Our Lord’s physical death was unique in history due to the unique separation of His body, human soul and human spirit. When we die, we leave our body to return to the dust, our soul and spirit go to heaven, where we will live in resurrection body forever. We talked about this in some detail in our study of Sanctification. However, our Lord’s physical death was unique as we will see.
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