Ch. 22 - The Resurrection

Understanding the Scriptures

In this lesson, Carson begins speaking of the resurrection of Jesus not with the Gospel narratives, nor with St. Paul's testimony of the Risen Christ, but with the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, Chapter 37. It is here where we discover the theme of resurrection tied up with the idea that God will deliver his people from exile and restore them once again under David's royal successor, the son of David, the Messiah to come. So, when Jesus rose from the dead, a good Jew schooled in the Old Testament such as Saint Paul would see how it is now time for Israel to be restored, how exile is coming to an end, how it is time for sin to be forgiven. We look at passages such as John 20:21-23, Acts 2:22-33 and 22:1-16, Matthew 9:1-8 and 18:15-20 and 28:18-20, and Chapter 15 of St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians. As we examine these passages one by one, you will see how Jesus is present in the episcopal authority of his Church, how he restores Israel with the Gentiles in his Church by giving his apostles the authority to forgive sins. Ecclesiology (study of the Church), soteriology (study of salvation), pneumatology (study of the Holy Spirit), and eschatology (study of the end of time) are shown in unison as they are bound up with one another. We are saved corporately as we become members of the Church, and this salvation is none other than incorporation into the resurrected body of Jesus by means of the Holy Spirit, which will resurrect our bodies at the end of time to be like that of Jesus Christ's own resurrected body. This is the plan of God, his plan of Salvation History. Join us as we unravel the beautiful treasures buried deep in the riches of Sacred Scripture.