READ: JOHN 10:11-18, 27-30; GALATIANS 1:1-4; 1 PETER 3:13-18
I’ve heard many an argument about who raised Jesus from the dead. The truth of the matter is that God raised Him from the dead.
Something important to know about God is that He is one God, and He is also three persons—that’s why we sometimes refer to God as the Trinity (from the Latin word for triple or three at a time). Scripture tells us that all three persons of the Trinity—God the Father, God the Son (Jesus), and God the Holy Spirit—raised Jesus from the dead!
In Galatians 1:1, Paul says that “God the Father...raised him [Jesus] from the dead.” In John 10:18, Jesus, who is God the Son, takes responsibility for raising Himself from the dead when He declares, “No one takes it [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own. I have the right to lay it down, and I have the right to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.” And in 1 Peter 3:18, Peter writes that Jesus was made alive by the Holy Spirit: “For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit.”
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit work in perfect unity with each other. That’s why Jesus said, “I can do nothing on my own” (John 5:30). He totally relied on His Father in what to say and how to say it (John 12:49-50), and also in what to do. On the night before Jesus went to the cross, He said, “So that the world may know that I love the Father, I do as the Father commanded me” (John 14:31). In the same passage, Jesus shows the triune God working together in unity when He promises the Spirit: “The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you” (John 14:26). And remember that Jesus only said what God the Father told Him to say.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one God. They all love us deeply, and they all work together in our lives, for they work together in perfect harmony. • Sharon Morris
• As humans, we can’t totally wrap our minds around who God is, and that’s okay! He invites us to learn about Him, enjoy relationship with Him (which He made possible through Jesus’s death and resurrection), and continue to ask questions and wrestle with Him throughout our lives. Who are trusted Christians in your life you can talk to as you ponder the wonderful mysteries of God?
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 (CSB)
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