21st August 2025

On the road to Emmaus Jesus said to Cleopas and another disciple, ‘How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?’ (Luke 24:25-26). Later, to the assembled disciples in Jerusalem, he said ‘This is what is written: the Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day…’ (v.46). Both the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 and the Creed assert that Jesus rose on the third day ‘according to the scriptures’, but the question that comes to mind is where does it say that?

If we look for an explicit statement like, ‘Behold it will come to pass that the Messiah will die and be raised on the third day’, we will be disappointed. The fact that Jesus had to open the minds of the disciples to this truth (v.45), indicates that this is something that wasn’t readily apparent. So, if there isn’t an explicit prophecy how does the Old Testament point to Jesus’s resurrection on the third day? The answer is through typology: a pattern in the Old Testament of God’s power to revive and restore on the third day, which is then fulfilled in Jesus’s resurrection. Let’s consider four examples:

The sparing of Issac – We know that the account of Abraham offering his ‘only son, whom [he] love[s]’ (Genesis 22:2) is a picture of God offering up his only Son whom he loves. But it is also a picture of the resurrection. Abraham tells his servant that both he and Isaac will return (v.5) and the writer of Hebrews infers from this that Abraham believed God would raise Isaac from the dead (Hebrews 11:19). Figuratively speaking, Isaac was offered up, and figuratively speaking, he was raised from the dead. And we are told that it was ‘On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.’ (Genesis 22:4 emphasis mine). 

Abraham received Issac back from the dead, and it happened on the third day.

The Lord descending on Mount Sinai – This was one of the greatest manifestations of God’s presence in the Old Testament. The Lord instructed Moses to tell the people to ‘be ready by the third day, because on that day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.’ (Exodus 19:11 emphasis mine). This prefigured an even greater manifestation of the Lord’s presence, coming back from the dead also on the third day.    

The raising of Israel – The regathering of God’s people from the Babylonian exile is sometimes described as a resurrection (Ezekiel 37:11-14), and the prophet Hosea describes the time frame, ‘After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.’ (Hosea 6:2 emphasis mine). Israel was cut down and killed in exile (Isaiah 6:11-13) and God promises to raise them up on the third day. Jesus is the true Israel (compare Matthew’s use of Hosea 11:1 in relation to Jesus in Matthew 2:13-15) cut down and raised on the third day.  

The saving of Jonah – Jonah was swallowed by a big fish, came out alive, and preached to Nineveh. ‘Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights’ (Jonah 1:17), which is described as ‘deep in the realm of the dead’ (Jonah 2:2, Hebrew: sheol). Jesus referred to this incident when predicting his resurrection from the dead on the third day (Matthew 12:39-40).

All these types, and others as well (for example, 2 Kings 20:5; Esther 5:1), show that Christ’s third-day resurrection was indeed  ‘according to the Scriptures’ and should give us confidence and assurance that what happened to Jesus was all part of God’s overarching plan and foretold long before

Local congregation:
Grace Communion West Hampstead 
Sidings Community Centre
150 Brassey Road
West Hampstead
London
NW6 2BA

Meeting time:
Sunday 12.30 pm

Local congregational contact:
Gordon Brown
gordon.brown@gracecom.church

Word of Life contact:  
wordoflife@gracecom.church