Resurrection Hope and the Death of Death E-Book

Mitchell L. Chase

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: Short Studies in Biblical Theology
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

A Biblical Theology of Resurrection Hope from Genesis to Revelation  Death is a powerful and sobering reality. While everyone must face death, it is not the end for those united with Christ. Followers of Jesus Christ have resurrection hope—the proclamation that Christ has defeated death and the promise that believers shall share in his victory. The resurrection is essential to the Christian faith and is rooted in the faithfulness of God.  With scholarly insight, Mitchell L. Chase traces the theme of resurrection hope throughout Scripture, walking through each section of Scripture from the Law to Revelation. Having a proper understanding of death and resurrection will not only stir up our soberness for the reality of sin and death, but it will also motivate our praise to God.  - Founded on Scripture: Highlights the interconnectedness of the Bible  - For Learners: Ideal for students or anyone looking to grow in their knowledge of God and the Scriptures - Part of the Short Studies in Biblical Theology Series: Other volumes include The New Creation and the Storyline of Scripture, The Lord's Supper as the Sign and Meal of the New Covenant, and The Kingdom of God and the Glory of the Cross

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“In this beautifully clear book, Mitchell Chase takes us through the entire biblical witness, showing that the resurrection is woven into the fabric of the entire narrative. Chase demonstrates that the promise of the resurrection isn’t confined to the New Testament but is clearly taught in the Old Testament as well. Our hope is for life after death—bodily, resurrected life—and we are reminded in this timely book that this hope is ours in Jesus Christ.”

Thomas R. Schreiner, James Buchanan Harrison Professor of New Testament Interpretation, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

“In one of the best contributions to the Short Studies in Biblical Theology series to date, Mitchell Chase clearly and succinctly presents what is at the heart of hope set before us in the gospel—unending, embodied, glorious resurrection life on a renewed earth—which is so much more than the hope of going to heaven when we die, anticipating a disembodied existence somewhere away from this earth. Significantly, this book shows how New Testament teaching about bodily resurrection is rooted in Old Testament stories and prophecies, helping readers to connect the dots from Genesis to Revelation.”

Nancy Guthrie, Bible teacher; author, Even Better than Eden

“‘The topic of resurrection hope is dear to my heart,’ says Mitchell Chase. And so too for me. As I live out my brief life here on earth, as I grapple with sin and temptation, as I endure pain and sickness, as I say farewell to so many I’ve loved and lost, the hope that sustains me—the only hope, really—is the death of death and the promise of resurrection. This wonderful book shows how the entirety of Scripture teaches that those who are in Christ can have every confidence that they will rise to everlasting life and everlasting joy in his presence. That makes this a book of encouragement, a book of blessing, and a book of hope.”

Tim Challies, author, Seasons of Sorrow: The Pain of Loss and the Comfort of God

Resurrection Hope and the Death of Death

Short Studies in Biblical Theology

Edited by Dane C. Ortlund and Miles V. Van Pelt

The City of God and the Goal of Creation, T. Desmond Alexander (2018)

Covenant and God’s Purpose for the World, Thomas R. Schreiner (2017)

Divine Blessing and the Fullness of Life in the Presence of God, William R. Osborne (2020)

From Chaos to Cosmos: Creation to New Creation, Sidney Greidanus (2018)

The Kingdom of God and the Glory of the Cross, Patrick Schreiner (2018)

The Lord’s Supper as the Sign and Meal of the New Covenant, Guy Prentiss Waters (2019)

Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel, Ray Ortlund (2016)

The New Creation and the Storyline of Scripture, Frank Thielman (2021)

Redemptive Reversals and the Ironic Overturning of Human Wisdom, G. K. Beale (2019)

Resurrection Hope and the Death of Death, Mitchell L. Chase (2022)

The Royal Priesthood and the Glory of God, David S. Schrock (2022)

The Sabbath as Rest and Hope for the People of God, Guy Prentiss Waters (2022)

The Serpent and the Serpent Slayer, Andrew David Naselli (2020)

The Son of God and the New Creation, Graeme Goldsworthy (2015)

Work and Our Labor in the Lord, James M. Hamilton Jr. (2017)

Resurrection Hope and the Death of Death

Mitchell L. Chase

Resurrection Hope and the Death of Death

Copyright © 2022 by Mitchell L. Chase

Published by Crossway 1300 Crescent Street Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Cover design and illustration: Jordan Singer

First printing 2022

Printed in the United States of America

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated into any other language.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-8040-6 ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-8043-7 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-8041-3 Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-8042-0

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Chase, Mitchell L., 1983– author. 

Title: Resurrection hope and the death of death / Mitchell L. Chase. 

Description: Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway, 2022. | Series: Short studies in biblical theology | Includes bibliographical references and index. 

Identifiers: LCCN 2021046463 (print) | LCCN 2021046464 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433580406 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781433580413 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433580420 (mobipocket) | ISBN 9781433580437 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Resurrection—Biblical teaching. | Death—Biblical teaching. | Hope—Biblical teaching. | Bible—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 

Classification: LCC BS680.R37 C43 2022 (print) | LCC BS680.R37 (ebook) | DDC 232/.5—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021046463

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021046464

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2022-10-06 08:47:20 AM

For Andrew Peterson,

whose music and books portray

the beauty and power of resurrection hope

Contents

Series Preface

Preface

Introduction

1  Resurrection Hope in the Law

2  Resurrection Hope in the Prophets

3  Resurrection Hope in the Writings

4  Resurrection Hope in the Gospels

5  Resurrection Hope in Acts

6  Resurrection Hope in the Letters

7  Resurrection Hope in Revelation

Conclusion

For Further Reading

General Index

Scripture Index

Series Preface

Most of us tend to approach the Bible early on in our Christian lives as a vast, cavernous, and largely impenetrable book. We read the text piecemeal, finding golden nuggets of inspiration here and there, but remain unable to plug any given text meaningfully into the overarching storyline. Yet one of the great advances in evangelical biblical scholarship over the past few generations has been the recovery of biblical theology—that is, a renewed appreciation for the Bible as a theologically unified, historically rooted, progressively unfolding, and ultimately Christ-centered narrative of God’s covenantal work in our world to redeem sinful humanity.

This renaissance of biblical theology is a blessing, yet little of it has been made available to the general Christian population. The purpose of Short Studies in Biblical Theology is to connect the resurgence of biblical theology at the academic level with everyday believers. Each volume is written by a capable scholar or churchman who is consciously writing in a way that requires no prerequisite theological training of the reader. Instead, any thoughtful Christian disciple can track with and benefit from these books.

Each volume in this series takes a whole-Bible theme and traces it through Scripture. In this way readers not only learn about a given theme but also are given a model for how to read the Bible as a coherent whole.

We have launched this series because we love the Bible, we love the church, and we long for the renewal of biblical theology in the academy to enliven the hearts and minds of Christ’s disciples all around the world. As editors, we have found few discoveries more thrilling in life than that of seeing the whole Bible as a unified story of God’s gracious acts of redemption, and indeed of seeing the whole Bible as ultimately about Jesus, as he himself testified (Luke 24:27; John 5:39).

The ultimate goal of Short Studies in Biblical Theology is to magnify the Savior and to build up his church—magnifying the Savior through showing how the whole Bible points to him and his gracious rescue of helpless sinners; and building up the church by strengthening believers in their grasp of these life-giving truths.

Dane C. Ortlund and Miles V. Van Pelt

Preface

The purpose of this book is to stir your hope for the life you were made for in Christ. Outwardly we are wasting away (2 Cor. 4:16), but that is not the last word. The return of Christ will bring about the defeat of death (1 Cor. 15:54–55). Reflecting and writing on the subject of resurrection hope has been personally edifying, and it is a privilege to contribute to the Short Studies in Biblical Theology. I am grateful to Crossway and to the series editors, Dane Ortlund and Miles Van Pelt, for the opportunity. I admire these men, and their encouragement has been a blessing.

My wife Stacie read an early draft of this manuscript, and her feedback and discerning pen instantly improved these chapters. How she set aside time to do this amid schooling and caring for our four boys, I’ll never know! I’m grateful that my friends Jonathan Ketcham, Patrick Schreiner, and Samuel Bierig read the manuscript and shared helpful feedback and recommendations that strengthened it. Chris Cowan, my Crossway editor, was great to work with, and his keen eye and skills were a blessing to receive.

The topic of resurrection hope is dear to my heart. I wrote on it for my doctoral work at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and I’ve enjoyed writing and preaching on it over the years. Our hope as Christians is great because the Savior we love is great, and our hope in him is sure because he himself is faithful.

I’ve dedicated Resurrection Hope and the Death of Death to Andrew Peterson. I learned about his music nearly twenty years ago, and his albums have meant more to me and our family with each passing year. The songs from his heart are full of hope, and many of his lyrics exult in the power of God over sin and corruption and death. Whether you are listening to his Resurrection Letters and Behold the Lamb of God albums or reading his Wingfeather Saga books, you are hearing about the power of faith, hope, and love. He writes and sings to light up the dark. Thank you, Andrew, for all that you have offered to the world. Your music and books have made it a better place. Given the reality of the risen Jesus, Paul writes, “Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Cor. 15:58).

Introduction

What kind of life were you made for? Before you answer that question, here’s another: what was life like before the rebellion of our first parents? The state of their existence provides a clue, a pointer, to answering the first question.

Embodied life. Adam and Eve experienced life and God’s good creation with bodies. From the beginning it was this way. They didn’t exist before their bodies. And this pattern is affirmed and vindicated at the end of Holy Scripture, when death is done because the dead have been raised.

Death the Disrupter

Looking at the beginning and the end of divine revelation, we can see that an embodied life is good, desirable, and coming. Death is the disrupter. For now, we experience embodied life temporarily because the effects of sin and the curse will not permit unending life. Outside Eden, we outwardly waste away. Our breath of life will, at some near or distant moment, cease.

Yet the biblical authors essentially say to death, “You shall surely die.” Those wrapped in death’s cords will be raised, and the saints will dwell in immortal bodies to experience the life they were made for, an existence surpassing even the glories of the garden. We might consider this world to be the land of the living, but the reality is more complicated than that. We can just as well consider this world to be the land of the dying. We’re breathing now in the valley of the shadow of death. Under the sun nothing lasts, not even us.

Risen Hope

The sinner’s only hope in life and death is Jesus Christ—a hope that is grounded in his victorious person and work. He is the Savior of sinners because he lives and reigns. He has broken the cords of death, and he lives as the firstfruits of the life that will be fully ours. For Jesus, the valley of death’s shadow led to vindication and exaltation, and that is the path we walk.

The good news about Jesus includes his virginal conception, his sinless life, and his sin-bearing death, but the gospel is incomplete without the empty tomb. If Jesus remained defeated by death, his perpetual entombment would call into question everything he said and did before the cross. The resurrection of Jesus on the third day is crucial to the good news, and the good news is emptied of its power without it. Paul says that if Jesus hasn’t been raised, then we’re still in our sins, our preaching is powerless, and our hope is in vain (1 Cor. 15:12–19).

When Jesus rose from the dead, the perishable put on the imperishable; and because he did, we will. Our hope is risen, so our hope is sure. He died never to die again.

The Biblical Landscape

Jesus’s resurrection is announced in the New Testament, but the hope for resurrection is older than the empty tomb. To consider such a vibrant topic as resurrection hope, we will need the whole Bible. All its genres will help us. Many biblical authors will weigh in as we construct a vision of how resurrection hope unfolds across the sweep of Scripture.

When you think of resurrection hope, you might naturally turn to the New Testament. And that’s understandable, because that hope is loud and lively there. But the volume was getting loud already in the Old Testament, and we will begin there.

The Old Testament of Jesus’s day was divided into three parts: the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. This book will treat each part in chapters 1–3. Then chapters 4–7 will investigate the New Testament, treating the Gospels, Acts, the Letters, and Revelation. The biblical landscape is vast, but that’s appropriate to the vast nature of resurrection hope.

Resurrection Sightings

The resurrection of Jesus, and the hope for our own liberation from death, is foretold and foreshadowed in the Old Testament. The prophet Daniel says that people will rise from death, some to everlasting life and others to everlasting judgment (Dan. 12:2). The prophet Ezekiel depicts the exile and return of the Israelites as a corporate death and resurrection (Ezek. 37). Jonah descends into the depths in a fish before ascending to the shore after three days (Jonah 2; cf. Matt. 12:40).

The psalm writers sing about being brought out of the pit, about being taken from the clutches of death. They herald their hope to see God and to stand before him. These songs are from the lips of those who live in the land of the dying, and they write with their gazes fixed on the future land of the living. The suffering and sorrowful psalmists write as if death is not the end and something greater than earthly life is on the way.

Pushing deeper into Old Testament history, we remember that the Lord used both Elijah and Elisha to deliver people from death (1 Kings 17; 2 Kings 4). These are historical narratives where the power of death faced the power of God. And let’s not forget that Elijah himself ascended to God without dying first (2 Kings 2). A whirlwind of fire carried him above the earth, and suddenly—as with Enoch many generations earlier—death didn’t seem so inevitable.

Even individuals who had not witnessed a physical resurrection could still hold out hope that God’s power was greater than death. Two thousand years before Jesus was born, Abraham and Isaac left their traveling companions and climbed a mountain for sacrifice (Gen. 22). Abraham told them that he and the boy were going to worship and would return. The aging patriarch knew he could trust God, that God would keep his promise of bringing offspring through Isaac even though Isaac had not yet fathered a child (21:12). If God’s plan was for Abraham to offer Isaac, then God’s plan must also be to raise Isaac from the dead. Abraham’s resurrection faith was reasonable because he knew from experience that God is serious about promises and has the power to bring them to pass (21:1–2).

An Everlasting Remedy

The Old and New Testaments testify that the solution to the problem of death is resurrection. The storyline of Scripture takes us from the embodied first couple in Genesis to the glorified saints in the new creation. But we do not raise ourselves. The victor over death is the one who has command of death. The tombs will open when he says so (John 5:28–29).

In the Old Testament, no one experienced an immortal existence. What Jesus accomplished through his resurrection was something new, as well as a kind of life that earlier biblical authors only anticipated. The accounts of resurrections were stories of people brought back to earthly life only to die at a later date. Stepping out of the empty tomb on the third day, Jesus embodied the everlasting remedy to the problem of death: glorified immortality.

While the first Adam did not exist as a glorified image bearer, the last Adam does. We may be image-bearers who are born in Adam, but we will be raised in Christ because we are alive in Christ by faith already. Because he lives, we live and will live.

Why Resurrection Hope Matters

There are many worthy books to read and worthy topics to consider. Why should you read about resurrection hope? Here are five reasons.

1. Individual: you are going to die. I know this isn’t news to you, but you might not ponder it often enough. Resurrection hope affords you the opportunity to think about death clearly and without delusion. You are not invincible. As you age, you will face the aches and afflictions associated with getting older in a fallen world. And since you are going to die, shouldn’t you have a clear understanding of your hope in the face of death?

2. Relational: people you know are going to die. You may even be at their bedside when it happens. You will know people who die old and others who die young. The healthy and the sick will die. The wise and the fool will die. All in all, we should count it a great privilege to point others to truth and hope in Christ. And resurrection hope is part of what we should share. The more we know about it, the more sound and helpful our instruction will be.

3. Christological: Jesus has been raised from the dead. He is the object of our faith and hope, so we must commit ourselves to learn about what he has accomplished. His victorious resurrection and glorified body are not bonus facts for an otherwise solid faith. If you negate the resurrection hope that Jesus embodies and promises, there is no gospel worth preserving or preaching.

4. Theological: resurrection hope intersects with other biblical doctrines. In thinking about resurrection hope, we must think about—for example—the goodness of creation, the nature of man, the problem of sin, and the final state of all things. As we strive to understand the Bible and to hold together its many teachings, a study of resurrection hope will prove necessary and profitable.

5. Doxological: the hope of resurrection should stir joy and praise to God. The promise of resurrection extols the power of God and showcases the faithfulness of God, all to the glory of his name. Since Christians want to be those whose hearts are aflame with worship, we should delight in whatever stokes and feeds that flame. Gaining greater clarity about resurrection hope will help us exalt the Lord with greater zeal and joy.

1

Resurrection Hope in the Law

The roots of resurrection hope run deep. Long before prophets like Isaiah and Daniel shouted the news of future life over death, the seeds of this hope were growing in fertile soil. This chapter will explore ways in which the Law—Genesis through Deuteronomy—stimulates and lays the foundation for resurrection hope.1

As we walk through the Law, or the Torah, we will begin in the garden of Eden. Then we will go through the flood and into the lives of the patriarchs. We will follow the Israelites to Egypt and then leave with them through the mighty exodus. The redeemed people must live set apart to their holy God, so we will behold how the God of life dwells with sinners. They can count on his power and faithfulness, and these characteristics—divine power and faithfulness—are central to the hope that death will die.

Take and Eat and Live Forever

In the beginning, God made embodied image bearers. From the ground he made Adam, and from Adam he made Eve (Gen. 2:7, 21–22). This first couple didn’t exist before their physical forms. God breathed life into their bodies, and these bodies—like everything else God had made—were good (1:31).2

Adam and Eve lived in the abundance of God’s blessing. Sources of food were plentiful, and the couple could fulfill the divine commission to be fruitful, multiply, and exercise dominion over God’s creation (1:28). They would be God’s viceregents, representing the King of creation as his agents, his royal ambassadors. Their physical bodies were integral to how they would rule and fulfill their commission.

But the bodies of God’s image bearers were not immortal. He had warned Adam about eating from the forbidden tree: “In the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (2:17). In those words, the notion of death occurs for the first time in Scripture. God is the God of life, and his ways are the ways of life; therefore, to reject God and his ways is to embrace death.

Another special tree was in the garden of Eden: the tree of life (2:9). This tree represented more than sustenance. The fruit of this tree enabled one to live forever. We know this because of God’s words when he expelled the rebellious image bearers from Eden: “lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever” (3:22). Adam and Eve left the garden in their perishable bodies, and they would experience what God promised:

for you are dust,

and to dust you shall return. (3:19)

The tree of life held out the hope of physical immortality, which was something Adam and Eve didn’t have but were made for.3 The problem of sin corrupts God’s good design, so they died outside of Eden. Barred from access to that tree, their bodies eventually returned to the dust. The question for sinners, then, is this: will the perishable ever put on imperishable, so that the hope of immortal bodily life might be attained after all?

In the fullness of God’s Word, resurrection life is how sinners will experience the fruit from that Edenic tree. The hope of immortal bodily life was not lost forever.4

The Forces of Death

When you think of death, do you think exclusively about the stopping of the heart and breath? The ending of breath and heartbeats is most surely death, but in the Bible death is more than this. The forces of death are visible and active in this fallen world.

We should allow the Bible’s depictions of death to influence how we think about the problem of death in this world. Interpreters may not see how resurrection hope is present in some passages if they haven’t noticed how death is present in other passages.

The outworking of death takes manifold forms. Whatever inhibits, harms, or destroys life is a kind of death.5 When the biblical authors tell of God’s power that restores, frees, heals, or raises, you are reading about the power of life overcoming the forces of death.6 The reason resurrection hope is more prevalent in Scripture than it may first seem is because the promises and actions of the God of life pervade the testimony of the biblical authors.

Death through Exile

Although God warned that eating from the forbidden tree would bring death (Gen. 2:17), Adam and Eve did not immediately die physically. But their disobedience corrupted their relationship with God (3:7–13). Sin brought alienation and shame. The blessings of marriage and childbearing would be affected (3:16), and the privilege of labor and vocation would be affected as well (3:17–19).

We shouldn’t read God’s warning in Genesis 2:17 as a threat unfulfilled. Adam and Eve sinned and fell short of the glory of God. There is more to dying than physical death. Eden was the realm of God’s presence and bountiful provision; it was the realm of life. Exile from Eden meant separation from where God had placed them. Since God barred reentry to the garden and access to the tree of life, their exile was a kind of death. The separation from sacred space meant a move away from life.7

When we see a reversal of this direction, when a figure moves from the realm of death into sacred space, we are watching the power of life at work. The exile of Adam—and thus of all people—from sacred space leads to this question: will the God of life bring his people out of the realm of the dead? Returning from exile, moving from death to life, would be resurrection.8

The Taking of Enoch

Outside Eden, the generations die. The widespread reality of death is clear in the genealogy of Genesis 5. The rhythm of death is in verse after verse. The pattern consists of a person’s name, a descendant, the total years of life, and then the report that “he died.” The repetition builds such an expectation of death that the words about Enoch jolt the reader: “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him” (Gen. 5:24).

The taking of Enoch did not involve death. Since the onset of human death in a post-Genesis-3 world, every person had died. Then suddenly and mysteriously, Enoch was taken after walking with God for hundreds of years. Enoch did not return to the dust from which he had come. Instead, God delivered him from death. This rapturous report is a light of hope against the dark backdrop of the dead.

If God could deliver someone before death, could he deliver someone after death? If the God of life could disrupt the rhythm of death that permeated the generations in Genesis 5, what else could he do? The example of Enoch isn’t meant to provide any guarantee that the faithful will be delivered before earthly death, but his example does show that God is greater than death. Death wasn’t so invincible after all. Its claim on sinners could be overruled.

Decreation and Recreation of the Earth

The genealogy of Genesis 5 ends with the family of Noah (Gen.