Monday, April 5, 2010

Since we are at the very place where Jesus was rose again from the dead, there is an interesting question that is often asked. It’s a fair question — one I’ve been asked numerous times. If Jesus rose AGAIN, when did he rise the first time? He did not die and rise prior to his death and resurrection, did he?”

No, it is simply a curious phraseology in English. It means he returned to the posture he was in prior to being buried. It would be like you saying, “I was standing and got knocked down but then I got up again.”

You could equally ask, “When did you get up the first time?” The emphasis of the “again” is not to point to a previous “getting up” but the point out that you again returned to your original posture of standing.

The underlying Greek word simply means, “cause to stand up, raise to life, live again, come back to life, having been once dead.”

Jesus was alive and then died. In rising again he returned again to his original state of being alive–he arose again back to being alive again.

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