Jesus Foretold: Will Be Resurrected (MP 63)

If only men could live and never die,
Has been the greatest wish of humankind;
Jesus died, but lives again, in the sky,
The wish became truth, in believing mind!
“I must die,” Jesus said, “but live again;
He who believes in me will never die;
When I call, graves will vomit up their slain—
Most to live in hell; saved to life on high!”
O death! Where is thy sting? You are no end,
But the beginning of eternal life;
New bodies of old He’ll ev’ry one mend,
To live forever, whatever the strife!
Jesus rose, first man to overcome death,
Leading all people to regain their health!

Scripture Quoted (NIV) [Brackets added]
Prophecy Made: Psalm 16:9-10—“Therefore my [Jesus/
Christ’s] heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you [God] will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One [Jesus/God] see decay.” (Written in the 10th century B.C.)

Prophecy Fulfilled: Mark 16:5-6—“As they [Mary, mother of Jesus, Magdalene, and Salome) entered the tomb, they saw a young man [an angel] dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. ‘Don’t be alarmed,’ he said. ‘You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene [of Nazareth], who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.’ “ (Written in the 1st century A.D.; also Matt. 28:5-9; Luke 24:5-7; John 20:11-16; Acts 1:2, and 2:22; etc.)

Commentary On: “Jesus Foretold: Will Be Resurrected”
God’s Plan not only included his coming to earth as the man, Jesus of Nazareth, and dying on a Roman cross for all the sins of men, but also included His miraculous resurrection from the dead. In Psalm 2:7 (quoted above) King David of Israel wrote a hymn of praise to God which contained the prophecy that God’s Holy One, His only begotten Son, would not be allowed to decay, meaning He would be raised to live again. Jesus had told His disciples that He would die, but that He would also be raised on the third day,

God created Adam and Eve and their descendants to live forever. He did not intend for us to ever die. However, God hates sin so much that He commanded Adam (and all of us) not to eat of one particular tree in the Garden of Eden. He had decreed that the “wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). When Adam and Eve ate fruit from the forbidden tree, God condemned them to die; and since Adam represented all of his descendants, including you and me, his sin was imputed to us all; Adam died physically, and so do we. That is why Jesus of Nazareth (who was God in the body of a man) also died, but His was voluntary, because Jesus committed no sin, not even the imputed sin of Adam (His mother was a virgin, His Father God). Death could not hold Jesus/God; He arose and still lives today. He is now in heaven directing all the affairs of men and the universe. When Jesus lived, He offered to all men and women everlasting life as a free gift with one condition—whoever BELIEVES that Jesus is sent from God will be given life after physical death; those who do not believe in Jesus will be condemned.

Jesus was crucified on a Friday; He died about three or four o’clock in the afternoon; since the sacred Sabbath began at 6 p.m., after which no work could be done, not even burial. He was hurriedly placed in a nearby tomb. I believe He was brought back to life immediately; in any event, 36 hours later, early on Sunday morning, the ladies (See above) found the tomb empty. You see, the Jews’ counted Friday as one day, Saturday as one day, and the pre-dawn hours Sunday as one day. He was resurrected in the same body, because He showed His disciples the nail scars in His hands after He arose. Do you recall that when God created the first man, he was made in the image of God? Hence, when we, too, are resurrected, our bodies will look much the same as they did when we lived; there will be no handicaps such as might be the case before our deaths. There will be no decay.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)