Last week we looked at the resurrection of Jesus, and how it transcends the resurrection of a mere man.  Isaiah 9 speaking of Jesus says unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and his name shall be called mighty God.  Revelation 1 says the Living One, Alpha and Omega, the Almighty, was put to death in the flesh, and is alive in his flesh forevermore, taking back the keys to hell and death.  

When we think Jesus is just a mere man, and not the Creator of all things born as a man, we can read verses that say the Father raised Jesus from the dead, and because we aren’t rightly dividing the word of truth, we can wrongly think it means Jesus was helpless to raise himself, that he didn’t have life in himself, but was just a mere mortal man dead in the grave, completely impotent, unable to raise his flesh from the dead, himself in need of being rescued from the grave.  The reason we believe on Jesus is because we see he has a life in himself that cannot die, that even when his flesh was put to death, the life he has in himself raised his flesh from the dead never to be able to die again.  

Jesus says in John 5:21-22 As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.  For the Father has given all judgment to the Son.  Jesus says the Son has authority to raise from the dead whomever he will, that includes himself.  Jesus says in John 10:18 that no one can take his life from him, but he lays it down willingly.  He says he has power to lay his life down, and he has power to take it back up again.  He says this commandment he received from His Father.  In another place Jesus speaking about his body says in John 2:19: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” And he did. 

Jesus says in John 5:26 For as the Father has life in Himself, so also he has granted the Son to have life in himself.  Jesus isnt saying there’s a time when he didnt have life in himself, and then one day the Father gave him life.  Jesus is emphasizing the divine nature of both he and the Father.  He’s talking about having the power in himself to give life to others.  Pulling from the context of Johns’ gospel Jesus is telling us He is come forth from the Father, and is therefore the same essence/nature as the Father, and just as the Father is the source of life, so is the Son.  

Thayers says the phrase “he has granted” means to communicate the same self existent life which is in the Father to the Son — an expression of eternal communication of essence, not a temporal act.  Thayers explicitly sees this as eternal communication of divine life — not that the Son once received it in time, but that He eternally has it from the Father.  

John 1:1 says “In Him/Jesus was life”.  The word “was” means to be, to exist, in the Greek.  It’s in the imperfect active indicative.  The imperfect tense in Greek describes an ongoing, continuous, or durative action in the past — something that was continuously existing or occurring, rather than something that happened once.  So when John says in Jesus was life he’s talking about something that was continually existing, not something that came to be, not something that began to exist in Jesus at some point in time. 

In John 1:3 John contrasts “in him was life” when talking about Jesus with the phrase “come into being” when talking about creation.  “In him was life” marks existence without reference to origin, whereas “come into being” marks the coming into existence of created things.  So John 1:4 signifies that life already and continuously exists in Jesus — it’s not something newly imparted.  Thayers says, to be, to exist, is used to speak of timeless existence, particularly in reference to God, or divine beings.  John 1:4 expresses that Jesus has absolute, continuous being, not merely existence at a point of time, but existence without beginning.  The Greek word “was” that’s used to describe Jesus indicates that life was inherently and eternally in him.  The context of John makes it quite clear in the beginning was God, the eternal Son, being part of the eternal Godhead, and he is the source of life, inherently having life in himself. 

We cant look at the resurrection of Jesus and say he became something he was not.  We can only look at the resurrection and say what he always was is proved for all to see.  If the Word of Life took a body to Himself what do you think would become of his body.  Yes the body he took to himself was mortal so it could be offered for the sin of the world.  But it’s not possible for it to remain dead, because it had become the very temple of a self existent Life.  The reason Jesus is Savior is because he raised his own body, demonstrating that He is the Son of God, having His being from the Father, whose Word and Wisdom and power He is.  Having destroyed death, gifting us all with incorruption through the promise of the resurrection, having raised His own body as its first-fruits, and a promise to all who believe on him.  

Now what are we going to do with the verses that say the Father raised Jesus from the dead.  And also the verses that say Jesus was raised by the Holy Spirit.  We have verses that say The Son raised himself from the dead.  We have verses that say the Father raised the Son from the dead.  And we have verses that say the Holy Spirit raised Jesus from the dead.  

Our finite brains tend to want to compartmentalize or separate things in order to try and understand them.  We want to say it’s the Father who does this; it’s the Son who does that; it’s the Spirit that does something else.  Yes there’s a distinction in the persons but that distinction is not a separation in operation.  There’s a unity of operation in the Godhead.  We can never say that they do what they do independent of each other.  The divine nature is undivided, and works through itself in an inseparable manner.  It’s an inseparable operation.  Whatever God does all of God does … we cannot say things as if the Father does something independent of the Son and the Spirit.  Every word that comes from the Father, is through the Son, in the Spirit.  And every deed or miracle is through the Son, in the Spirit, and yet is accomplished as though from the Father.  There’s a unity of operation.  The Son is not external to the substance of the Father, and neither is the Holy Spirit.  Thats why Jesus says the Father works as he performs miracles.  The nature of the father is effective and shines forth beautifully in the son.   

When its said the Father raised the Son from the dead, or it says the Spirit raised the Son from the dead, it’s not in the sense that the Son is impotent, and weak, not having life in himself, without thought or awareness, in a grave, unable to raise his own flesh, praying the Father or the Spirit will come along and do for him what he wasnt able to do for himself.  Jesus is the fulness of the divine essence, so it’s not possible for death to hold him, or hold his flesh.  When we say the Son raised himself; we’re not saying the son was in some kind of a vacuum all alone, somehow separated from the Father and the Spirit, and in his separation he raised himself.  

All of the trinity raised Jesus up from the dead.  Acts 2:24 says whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.  Christs resurrection transcends that of ordinary men.  Death had power over every other human that ever lived, but death had no power over Christ, because he is the divine essence, come in the flesh.  

When the Father desires to do something the strength by which he does it is the Son.  The Son being His own strength, that indwells him.  Hence the Son described as the right hand of the Father.  And when the Son comes forth from the Father as the Father’s strength to accomplish the Father’s will, he does it in the Spirit.  When the Father wants to raise the dead he sends the Son to raise the dead, and the Spirit is the means by which the Son raises himself, and all those who believe on him from the dead.  It’s one divine essence that raises Jesus, and all those who believe on him.   

We can say Christ was raised by the will of the Father.  What we mean is that the power to raise the dead coexists equally in the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.   But it’s the Father who sends the Son, willing that the Son raise the dead.  Jesus doesn’t send himself.  Jesus says he does nothing of himself, but only the will of the Father.  The Fathers will is to raise the dead.  The Father sent the Son to raise the dead and conquer death in the flesh.  This is the authority Jesus has from the Father to lay his life down and take it back up again.  The Son, coming forth from the Father, that is indwelling him, and inseparable from him; being of the same divine essence as the Father; inherently has the power to take his life back up again.  Jesus has the power to lay his life down because of the mortal body he prepared for himself in the Spirit.  And he has power to take his life back up again, because he is divine by nature, and sent by the Father to raise the dead.  So what we say is, the resurrection of Jesus was by the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit.  Jesus raised himself from the dead by the will of the Father, and the Spirit is the means by which he raised himself from the dead.  

Psa 45:1   My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.  
Psa 45:6  Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre.

Hebrews 1 quotes this verse to describe the Father talking about the Son.  The Father says about the Son thy throne oh God is forever and ever.  The Father calls the Son God.  The Father is the one talking in verse 1, and He says His tongue; His Word, is the pen of a ready writer.  The Fathers pen is the Son.  The Father writes the knowledge of his own counsel in us, using the Son.  The Son writes on our hearts, the knowledge of the Father, using the finger of God.  The finger of God is the Spirit.  Jesus calls the Spirit the finger of God saying if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God(Matt 12:28), and then in a parallel verse in Luke 11:20 Jesus says if I cast out demons by the finger of God”.  Equating the Spirit with his finger.  When then Father wrote the commandments he used the Son as His pen, and the Son engraved on the Stones with his finger, that is the Spirit.  

The Godhead has a single nature and power.  Undivided in itself.  We can say the Father writes on our hearts.  We can say the Son writes on our hearts, and we can also say the Spirit writes on our hearts.  All while remaining distinct in their persons; but through inseparable union and operation, all 3 of them are penning, because it’s the divine essence that pens, the Lord our God is one.  So we can say the Father raised the Son from the dead.  The Son raised himself from the dead.  And the Spirit raised the Son from the dead.  All while remaining distinct in their persons; but through inseparable union and operation; all 3 of them are raising the dead; because it’s the divine essence that raises the dead, hear oh church, the Lord our God is one.