So the Jews said to him, “What sign do you show us for doing
these things?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I
will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build
this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about
the temple of his body. When therefore he was raised from the dead, his
disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and
the word that Jesus had spoken. (John 2:18-22)
I recently heard
someone refer to this verse where Jesus said he would raise himself. Then I was
watching some Gary Habermas videos yesterday (I highly recommend the guy) about
Jesus' resurrection.
So, when I came
today to Jesus' own words on the matter, that he would raise himself, I
considered the whole thing going on with Jesus' body/soul/spirit humanity and
his eternal deity.
I would remind you
that my focus in getting to know God through his word is not on forming
doctrinal statements, but on understanding his word and growing to know him
better each day than I have ever known him before.
In the brain
science view, I don’t just want a left-brain belief; I also want a right-brain
bond with God. I want to know the truth about him, but I also want to know him
in his truth.
As I pondered all
these things this morning, I found myself wandering into a field of thoughts I
had never really considered: What happened to Jesus in his
body/soul/spirit/deity when he died?
First off, the only
“part” of Jesus that died on the cross was his body. Like any other human, his
soul/spirit was still alive, and this was in union with his divine nature. I do
not want to do an injustice to this by reducing it down to words, but to invite
you into what G. Campbell Morgan once said, that “out of wonder, worship is
born.”
Yes, this is about feeling
wonder about Jesus as “the Word” who “became flesh” to live among us. This is
the wonder of considering the union of Jesus’ humanity and his deity during his
30+ years of living among us. We don’t need to reduce it to a perfectly worded
statement; we need to let ourselves be the children who stand in awe of our
glorious Savior in his place in the glory of the Triune God and delight in the
feelings, and thoughts, and desires that come with that. The wonder of having a
Father whose thoughts are so far above us that we cannot contain them all, but
what we can contain causes us to delight in him, and rejoice in his love, and
praise him for our security in Jesus Christ.
Which brings us
back to Jesus' claim that he himself would raise himself from the dead. Yes, Jesus,
fully alive and fully himself, raised his human body from the dead, re-entering
it in some way that seems mindboggling to me, and in his glorified body made so
many appearances to his disciples that even unbelievers and skeptics admit that
the early church absolutely believed that Jesus was divine, and that he was
raised from the dead.
Two dozen years of
watching what children are like with us in our home has helped me immensely in
appreciating why God wants me to come to him like a child, rest in his love,
feel the reverence and awe and wonder of his presence, and, today, marvel at
how Jesus now lives forever in his glorified human and glorious divine
existence because he raised himself from the dead.
And I really look
forward to seeing him as he is!
© 2025
Monte Vigh ~ Box 517, Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8
Email: in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scriptures are from the
English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text
Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers.)
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