Christ’s Resurrection: Scriptural Basis

Scriptural Basis—The Facts

Types in the Old Testament

The Dry Land Appearing on the Third Day

Genesis 1:9, 13 (9) And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear; and it was so….(13) And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.

The dry land appearing, that is, (coming up out of the death waters) on the third day was a prefigure of Christ resurrecting, coming up out of death on the third day. Out of the dry land God then created life, beginning from the plant life and culminating with the human life. Just as the natural life came forth from the dry land for God’s old creation, so the divine life came forth from Christ’s resurrection for the producing of the new creation (1 Peter 1:3; 2 Corinthians 5:17) (Witness Lee, Genesis, 33-35).

Adam’s Sleeping and Awaking to Produce His Counterpart

Genesis 2:21-23 (21) And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. (22) And Jehovah God built the rib, which He had taken from the man, into a woman and brought her to the man. (23) / And the man said, This time this is bone of my bones / And flesh of my flesh; / This one shall be called Woman / Because out of Man this one was taken.

God put Adam, who is a type of Christ (Romans 5:14; 1 Corinthians 15:45), to sleep, signifying his death (John 11:11-14; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-16). During Adam’s sleep, God took a rib out of Adam’s side and built it into a woman. After he awoke (“resurrected”), Adam was enlarged; that is, he had a counterpart who was bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh. In the New Testament fulfillment of this type, God put Christ to “sleep” on the cross. Then, out of Christ’s pierced side came forth blood and water (John 19:34) to produce the church as His enlargement and His counterpart (John 2:19-22; Ephesians 5:25) (214, 218-221).

The Ark Resting upon the Mountains of Ararat after the Flood

Genesis 8:4-5 (4) And the ark came to rest in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. (5) And the waters diminished steadfastly until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.

In order to grasp the significance of this type, it is necessary to understand that the Jews have two kinds of calendars: the civil calendar and the sacred calendar. The civil calendar is the older of the two; the more recent sacred calendar dates from the first Passover (Exodus 12:2, 12) (James Strong, Strong’s supplements). In addition, the Lord Jesus was crucified on the very day of the Passover, which was the fourteenth day of the month (Exodus 12:6; John 18:28-29; 19:13-18). Witness Lee interprets this type below.

According to the sacred calendar, He was crucified in the first month, and according to the civil calendar, He was crucified in the seventh month, the same month as when the ark rested upon the mount. The Lord was crucified on the fourteenth day of that month and was resurrected three days later. Thus, according to the sacred calendar, Christ was resurrected on the seventeenth day of the first month. According to the civil calendar, it was on the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the very day that the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat. So in the early type of the ark resting upon the mountain, we were told the exact date of the resurrection of Christ. (Witness Lee, Genesis, 423-424).

The Offering up of Isaac

Genesis 22:9-12 (9) And they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. (10) And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. (11) And the Angel of Jehovah called to him from the heavens and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, Here I am. (12) And he said, Do not stretch out your hand upon the boy, nor do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.

The Old Testament type of the death and resurrection of Christ is seen in Abraham’s sacrifice of his beloved son, Isaac. Abraham and Isaac are types of God the Father and Christ the Son, respectively.

At the time of Genesis 22, Isaac was Abraham’s only son (vv. 2, 12, 16). This typifies Christ as God’s only Son (John 3:16). Isaac was Abraham’s beloved son (v. 2), and Christ was the Father’s beloved Son in whom He delighted (Matthew 3:17). In 22:5 we see that Isaac took his father’s will, and in Matthew 26:39 we see that Christ chose the Father’s will. In the picture in Genesis 22, we see that Isaac, a full-grown man, was obedient unto death (vv.9-10)….In Philippians 2:8 we are told that Christ was obedient unto death. (769)

In God’s eyes, Isaac was put to death and resurrected (Hebrews 11:17-19). In figure, Abraham put his son to death, yet an angel of the Lord—who was God Himself—raised him up from the dead. In like manner, Christ was put to death according to the Father’s will, but God raised up Christ from the dead (Acts 2:24). (769)

The Firstfruit of the Harvest

Leviticus 23:10-11 (10) Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, When you come into the land which I am giving you, and reap its harvest, then you shall bring the sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest; (11) and he shall wave the sheaf before Jehovah for your acceptance; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it.

The Lord commanded His people in Leviticus 23 to offer the firstfruits, the fruits that ripen first, of their harvest to Him each year. The firstfruits typify Christ as the first One raised from the dead, becoming the “firstfruits” of resurrection, that is, the Firstborn from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:20, 23; Colossians 1:18). The firstfruits were offered to God on the day after the Sabbath, which was the day of Christ’s resurrection, for God’s satisfaction (Matthew 28:1; Exodus 23:19a). The fulfillment of this type can be seen in Matthew 27:52-53 where Christ together with some of the dead Old Testament saints, were resurrected as a “sheaf” of the firstfruits. It can also be seen in John 20:17 where Christ in resurrection presented Himself to the Father for His satisfaction (Witness Lee, Recovery Version, 1 Corinthians 15:20, note 1; Witness Lee, Conclusion, 324).

The Mountains in the Good Land

Deuteronomy 8:7 For Jehovah your God is bringing you to a good land, a land of waterbrooks, of springs and of fountains, flowing forth in valleys and in mountains.

The good land in the Old Testament is a type of the all-inclusive Christ (Colossians 1:12; 2:6) (Witness Lee, Recovery Version, Colossians 1:12, note 2 and 2:6, note 2). Its mountains typify the resurrected Christ. Two seas, the Mediterranean Sea and the Dead Sea, lie on either side of the good land of Canaan.

According to the types of the Scriptures, the seas represent death [1 Corinthians 10:1; Romans 6:3-4]. This means that surrounding Christ was nothing but death! But out of this death something was raised up. Christ was raised from the dead! So the high land, the land on the mountains, typifies the resurrected Christ. (Witness Lee, All-Inclusive, 27)

Jonah’s Staying in the Great Fish Three Days and Three Nights

Jonah 1:17 And Jehovah prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah up, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish for three days and three nights.

“Jonah’s staying in the great fish three days and three nights…typifies Christ’s staying in the heart of the earth three days and three nights (Matthew 12:40). Christ died and entered into the heart of the earth. He came forth from there in resurrection” (Witness Lee, Jonah, 2).

Old Testament | Summary Table

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