Resurrection and Renewal: Jesus and the Transformation of Creation

By Murray A. Rae

The resurrection of Jesus from the dead lies at the heart of the Christian faith. It is the turning point of history, with far-reaching implications for our understanding of what God is doing in the world.

Resurrection and Renewal is a fresh contribution by an award-winning scholar to the study of Jesus's resurrection. The book is not an apologetic; rather, it takes the resurrection as a given reality and examines what the Bible says about it. Murray Rae surveys the Gospel accounts, looks at the resurrection as the fulfillment of God's Old Testament promises to Israel, and examines how the resurrection reshaped the life of the apostle Paul and informed his theology. He explores how resurrection influences our understanding of Christ, salvation, the future, mission, the church, and the unfolding purpose of history. Attention is given to its implications for Christian living and ethics, the nature of Christian community, and the promises of Christian hope. This is invigorating reading for all who desire greater understanding of participation in the resurrection life made possible through the risen Lord.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
• Release date: May 21, 2024
• ISBN: 9781493446261

Book preview

This is the most important and, indeed, exciting book on the resurrection to have emerged in half a century. Whereas many focus on the associated historical debates, very few explore in depth the central place of the resurrection in God’s purposes of reconciliation and transformation. Rigorous biblical scholarship and profound theological insight define the discussion throughout. Intellectually rigorous and incisive, it is also lucid and accessible. This is obligatory reading for theologians and an ideal seminar text. But it should also be read by all those who are serious about understanding the defining affirmation at the heart of the Christian faith and its radical significance.

—Alan J. Torrance, University of St. Andrews (emeritus)

In this beautifully written, biblically rooted, and theologically rich work, Murray Rae explores the demand the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ places on scholars and Christians alike. Highlighting God’s agency and the work of the Spirit in this ‘utterly new starting point for our understanding of what is going on in the world,’ Rae offers a refreshing vision for the academy and the church. His compelling insights into the grace and power of God for renewal through the resurrection bring life, light, and hope to the conversation.

—Lucy Peppiatt, Westminster Theological Centre

"Jesus’s resurrection marks the transformation of all things. How this is so is the focus of Murray Rae’s refreshing study, which works intimately with Christian Scripture to show what we might say and how we might live because Jesus has been raised from the dead. Resurrection and Renewal is both learned and theologically formative, even edifying, as befits theological engagement with the central claim that ‘Christ is risen.’"

—Joel B. Green, Fuller Theological Seminary

"Dogmatically and scripturally rich, Murray Rae’s Resurrection and Renewal traces the cosmic logic of life that the resurrection of Jesus brings. Written in an accessible style, this book edifies as much as it educates, reminding and demonstrating to readers that the resurrection of Jesus has truly changed everything."

—Christa L. McKirland, Carey Baptist College; executive director, Logia International

Accepting Murray Rae’s invitation to read this book not as an apologetic for the resurrection but as an exercise in faith seeking understanding, one is treated handsomely to biblical exegesis and theology that resonate with the practice of the theological interpretation of Scripture. Most importantly, one is reminded afresh of the cruciality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ for all that God is doing in this world, in its past, present, and future.

—Edmund Fong, Trinity Theological College

© 2024 by Murray A. Rae

Published by Baker Academic

a division of Baker Publishing Group

Grand Rapids, Michigan

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ISBN 978-1-4934-4626-1

Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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To the faculty and students

at Trinity Theological College, Singapore,

where much of the material for this book

was first presented as the 2023 Trinity Lectures

and

To Alan Torrance,

extraordinary theologian, teacher, and friend

Contents

Cover

Endorsements    i

Half Title Page    iii

Title Page    v

Copyright Page    vi

Dedication    vii

Introduction    xi

1. The Evangelical Witness    1

2. Promise Fulfilled    23

3. Life Transformed    43

4. This Jesus Whom You Crucified    63

5. Creation Made New    81

6. Resurrection and History    101

7. Resurrection and Ethics    119

8. Life in Community    139

9. Resurrection and Christian Hope    157

Bibliography    175

Scripture Index    187

Author and Subject Index    191

Back Cover    195

Introduction

If Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain" (1 Cor. 15:14). With these words the apostle Paul emphatically affirms that the Christian gospel stands or falls with the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Were Jesus not raised, then the grieving friends and disciples who had followed him around Galilee and then on to Jerusalem, where he was crucified at the hands of the religious and political authorities of the day, would have retained, no doubt, their fond memories of Jesus’s companionship and continued to nurse their sorrow at his tragic demise, but Jesus himself, one imagines, would have largely been forgotten as human history continued on its way.

Because Jesus was raised, however, the world is not the same as it would otherwise have been. The whole course, and indeed the very nature, of human history has been radically transformed. Human life, and all of history with it, is not, after all, merely one damn thing after another, as Henry Ford is supposed to have once remarked, but the terrain upon which God is drawing humanity, and indeed the whole creation, into reconciled communion, overcoming thereby the deadly consequences of humanity’s efforts to determine its own course in defiance of the one who is the sole creator and sustainer of life. This book is an attempt to give an account of that transformation. It is not, let me be clear, an attempt to investigate whether the resurrection really happened. Much ink has been devoted to that project, with, I might say, inconclusive results. That inconclusivity does not mean, however, that the ink has been wasted. Historical investigation, for example, of the circumstances surrounding the original proclamation that Jesus had been raised from the dead, has yielded genuine insight into what the first followers appear to have meant by declaring that Jesus had been raised, and indeed what difference it made to their own lives and to the lives of others who received and believed the news. Historical inquiry has also made clear that the Christian proclamation of Jesus’s resurrection cannot be simply dismissed as nonsense. Something happened that generated a movement that has been remarkable in its subsequent impact and extent. It is not my purpose, however, to pursue that kind of historical exploration; the work has been well done by others. I remain convinced, furthermore, that the recognition that Jesus has been raised depends, ultimately, not on the well-considered results of historical inquiry (valuable though those otherwise may be) but on encounter through the Spirit with the risen Lord himself. It is in consequence of such encounter, as the apostle Paul’s own biography makes clear (e.g., 1 Cor. 15:8–10; Gal. 1:11–17), that minds and hearts are converted to a new understanding of the world, an understanding that is founded upon, and is shaped in its distinctive particulars by, the resurrection itself.

I am convinced as well that the divine agency that is the subject of the claim God raised Jesus from the dead cannot be confirmed by any process of verification that regards as finally authoritative our own (limited!) intellectual capacities. Such agency is recognized only under the guidance of God. Objections to this claim are certainly possible. The most common focuses on the possibility (some would say the likelihood) that persons claiming to have encountered God are simply deluded. This objection identifies a genuine possibility—human beings can be wrong about many things—but the possibility of being wrong does not exclude the further possibility that claims of encounter with God may in some cases be true.

The purpose of this book, then, is not to enter into an argument about whether the resurrection really happened but to explore what has changed and what may be affirmed as true in light of the fact (so I believe as a Christian) that it has happened. Any readers demanding or seeking proof of the resurrection should set this book aside, for I offer none. It was no part of the New Testament writers’ purpose to offer proofs that the resurrection had happened. Their purpose was simply to proclaim the good news that Jesus is risen, to explore how the world had changed in light of that fact, and, above all, to understand the call upon us to participate in the emerging reality of a world transformed. Those who hear the proclamation that Jesus has been raised from the dead and confess that they too believe have a lifetime then to discover what it means. This book is offered as a contribution to that process of discovery.

One of the consequences of the fact that the resurrection is to be proclaimed rather than proven is that theological speech about the resurrection will often have a homiletic tone. That is true of the chapters that compose this book. I cannot avoid the fact that the biblical proclamation of the resurrection is good news and that its reception makes an existential demand on us. I am in full agreement here with N. T. Wright, who explains that the person who claims that Jesus of Nazareth was bodily raised from the dead is committed to living in accordance with the newly envisioned universe of discourse, imagination and action that this claim entails.1 The discourse of theology, and indeed of biblical studies, is profoundly shaped, for those who believe, by their acceptance of the news that God raised Jesus from the dead.

I wish to be clear from the outset: when I refer to the resurrection in the pages that follow, I am referring, as I think is undoubtedly the case for all the writers of the New Testament, to the bodily resurrection of Jesus. The reality they speak of requires that when a group of women went to the tomb of Jesus on Easter morning, they found that the tomb was empty. We must also be clear, however, that resurrection is not the same as resuscitation; it is not a coming back to the same form of bodily existence that preceded death, such as is reported to have occurred with Lazarus and with Jairus’s daughter. It is, rather, a going forward to a transformed kind of bodily existence that is no longer subject to death. We will explore such matters more fully in the pages that follow.

Finally, some thanks are in order. Although I did not start out with this intent, some of the chapters of this book were delivered as the Trinity Lectures, a biannual series sponsored by Trinity Theological College, Singapore. The lectures would have been delivered much sooner had the COVID-19 pandemic not disrupted many plans for travel and scholarly collaboration around the world. Had they been, the critical engagement from the audience at Trinity would undoubtedly have had a constructive impact on the content of this book. I am no less grateful, however, for the invitation extended by the college to deliver the Trinity Lectures and for the engagement that the lectures made possible. The warm and generous hospitality extended to my wife, Jane, and me during our visit to Singapore and the stimulating theological conversation I enjoyed with the faculty of Trinity, the students, and others who attended the lectures is deeply appreciated. Anticipation of that engagement kept me always mindful, as I wrote these chapters, of my concern to communicate not just with the academy but also with the wider community of believers who likewise confess with joyful hearts that Jesus is risen.

I am grateful too for the opportunity to deliver the annual international lecture hosted by the Logos Institute at the University of St. Andrews in February 2020. The content of that lecture, titled ‘Behold, I Am Making All Things New’: Resurrection and New Creation, has found its way into this book in scattered form, though mostly in chapter 5. Again, the warm and generous hospitality shown by students and staff at St. Andrews is deeply appreciated, especially that of Alan Torrance, Andrew Torrance, Oliver Crisp, and the late Christoph Schwöbel. Various parts of the book have been tried out in the staff and postgraduate seminar of the Theology Programme at the University of Otago. My colleagues here at Otago and the vibrant community of postgraduate students are a constant source of joy and encouragement. They constitute together a community of theological scholarship that is enthusiastically interdisciplinary in its conception of theological scholarship and committed to serving both the academy and the church.

Bob Hosack at Baker Academic deserves special commendation for his patience and persistence in shepherding this book toward publication. He first expressed interest in it more than ten years ago, and he has been willing to accept my excuses along the way for not delivering it as soon as might have been hoped. I am deeply grateful for his patience and for his trust that it would eventually arrive on his desk in a form suitable for publication. His advice and support throughout have been invaluable.

Finally, I wish to mention again Alan Torrance, who extended the invitation to deliver the Logos Institute international lecture at St. Andrews in 2020. Alan was my teacher at Knox Theological Hall in Dunedin, New Zealand, where I first embarked upon formal theological study. He was also my doctoral supervisor at King’s College in London. He has become a lifelong mentor, adviser, and friend. I am one of many students whom Alan has encouraged, inspired, and supported in their pursuit of theological study. His passion for the subject matter of theology, his own considerable gifts as a theologian, and his generous encouragement and praise, unworthy though I have been of it, have meant more to me than I can possibly express. It is with deep gratitude and admiration that I dedicate this book to him.

1. See Wright, Resurrection of the Son of God, 714.

1

The Evangelical Witness

On the first day of the week following Jesus’s crucifixion, so we are told, some women went to the tomb where the dead body of Jesus had been laid. The four Gospel writers offer mixed testimony as to who the women were and how many there were. The one figure who consistently appears in all four Gospels is Mary Magdalene. So let us follow her story as it is variously told across the four Gospels. We do not know much of Mary. She appears only once in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’s public ministry. In Luke 8:1–2 she is identified as one of a group of women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities and who now traveled with Jesus and the twelve as he made his way through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The proximity of this mention of Mary to the immediately preceding story of a woman who was a sinner bathing Jesus’s feet with her tears and anointing them with ointment (Luke 7:36–50) led the Western (though not the Eastern) church to erroneously conflate Mary Magdalene with the woman who anointed Jesus and whose sin was widely regarded as prostitution.1 Mary Magdalene’s reputation suffered much in consequence, and she became in medieval imagination an archetype of the loose woman; a penitent sinner; and in some extreme renditions that persist in present-day fables like Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, the secret lover of Jesus himself and mother to his children.2 None of this colorful rendering of Mary’s identity is true, but it has left its mark nevertheless on the popular imagination. We will do well to stick to what the biblical narratives about her actually say.

Beyond the passing reference to her in Luke 8, Mary becomes prominent in the biblical narrative only when she is named as one of the women who had followed Jesus from Galilee, had provided for him, and was present at his crucifixion (Matt. 27:56; cf. Mark 15:40–41). John also names Mary Magdalene as one of the women who was present at the crucifixion but makes no mention of Mary or the other women having followed him from Galilee. Luke tells us that there were women present during Christ’s passion who followed him as he made his way toward the place of crucifixion (Luke 23:27). These women are not named, but it is possible given the Markan and Matthean accounts that Mary was among them. Then in Luke 23:55 we learn that the women who had come with him from Galilee, still unnamed by Luke, followed Joseph of Arimathea to the tomb and saw how Jesus was laid. A series of further actions undertaken by these women is described by Luke, until finally in 24:10 he names three of the group as Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James.

Luke’s report that the women saw the tomb where Jesus was laid is supported by Matthew (27:61) and by Mark (15:47), both of whom name Mary Magdalene as one of the two women who witnessed Jesus’s burial, the other being Mary mother of Joses, in Mark, and the other Mary, in Matthew. The witnessing of the burial by these women is a detail omitted by John, but the Synoptic authors may have considered it an important detail in order to counter allegations that on Easter morning the women, now convinced that the tomb was empty, had gone to the wrong tomb. Perhaps at the time of John’s writing that allegation was no longer circulating.

We have learned of Mary Magdalene thus far, largely on the basis of the Synoptic testimony, that she was among the women who had followed Jesus from Galilee and had provided for his needs, had been present at the crucifixion, and had seen where Jesus was buried. John, for his part, as noted above, offers confirmation that Mary was present at the crucifixion.

The Empty Tomb

We now follow Mary’s story through to Easter morning, beginning with the Synoptic accounts. While there are many parallels in John’s account, there is also some distinctive detail that we will consider further below. The Synoptics jointly testify that when the Sabbath was over (Matthew and Mark), on the first day of the week (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), Mary Magdalene with some other women went to the tomb.3 Their intent in going, Mark tells us directly and Luke by inference, was to anoint Jesus’s body with spices, as was the Jewish custom. Only Mark has the women pondering how they would gain access to the tomb, given that its entrance had been sealed with a large stone. When the women arrived, however, they discovered, according to Mark and Luke, that the stone had already been rolled away. In Matthew’s account, there was an earthquake and the women saw an angel descend from heaven and roll the stone away. Mark and Luke are noncommittal at this point, but Matthew is wanting to stress, apparently, that there are features of the events he is narrating that cannot be explained in merely human terms. The earthquake has been invoked before in Scripture as a sign of divine presence (Exod. 19:18; Ps. 114:7), while the angel, having descended from heaven, is clearly a divine emissary. Matthew’s insistence that the women saw the stone being rolled away is a detail coherent with his concern about the security of the tomb (see Matt. 27:64–66). Floyd Filson observes that in Matthew’s account the grave was not opened until the women came, so no one could have removed the body by stealth. [Jesus] must have risen and left before the tomb was opened.4 Matthew’s reference to the guards who had been stationed at the tomb precisely to prevent any such stealthy removal of the body (28:4) further bolsters his insistence that a surreptitious removal of the body could not have occurred.

Whatever the means by which the stone had been rolled away, the effect was that Mary and her companions were able to enter the tomb and see that it was empty. The empty tomb, attested in all four Gospels, does not in itself offer any explanation of what happened. The most natural explanation—that someone removed the body—is the one that, as we have seen, Matthew takes pains to discount (e.g., Matt. 28:6–17). But in John’s Gospel, that is precisely the explanation that comes most readily to Mary’s mind. Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb alone, in John’s account, and upon discovering it empty, she runs to tell Simon Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved that they have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him (John 20:2).

This is an interpretation of the empty tomb that lies wholly within the bounds of human comprehension. It was the most plausible conclusion to draw given what Mary knew, and what we know, of the everyday realm of historical occurrence. Despite Jesus having indicated, according to the Synoptic record, that he would suffer and be killed and on the third day be raised (Matt. 17:22; Mark 8:31; Luke 9:22), the prospect of resurrection seemed so far beyond the realm of possibility that neither at the time of Jesus uttering those words nor in the days immediately following his crucifixion was any such hope generated among those who followed him. It was a grieving Mary Magdalene, rather than a hopeful one, who went to the tomb with her companions at dawn, after the Sabbath, in order to complete the rites of burial and anoint Jesus’s body with spices. That Jesus’s body had disappeared could mean only that somebody had taken his corpse away. Faultless human logic could offer no other explanation.

Human logic and human estimations of the way things work in the realm of historical occurrence is constrained, understandably, by the cumulative record of human experience and by what the human mind can comprehend of everyday causal relations. This was the constraint insisted upon by Ernst Troeltsch, who formulated in the late nineteenth century a set of principles by which could be determined, so it was argued, the likelihood of a reported event having actually taken place. The first was the principle of analogy, according to which the probability of an event having happened is proportionate to its agreement with normal, customary, or at least frequently attested happenings and conditions as we have experienced them.5 In other words, our readiness to accept an account of something having happened—or in the case of Mary and the other women discovering the empty tomb, the explanation we offer for a particular state of affairs—is determined by our prior experience of how things work in the world. In order for us to find something believable it must be a repetition of or similar in kind to other things that we have experienced in the past. This Troeltschian principle is applied instinctively as we make our way in the world and helps us to distinguish fact from fantasy within reasonable margins of error and to guard against foolish gullibility. Yet this constraint, reasonably applied in most circumstances, can blind us to the possibility of anything radically new and unprecedented ever occurring. Our minds are programmed to expect the same sort of things happening again and again. Upon discovering the empty tomb, therefore, Mary Magdalene, according to John’s account, can only imagine that someone has removed Jesus’s body and laid it somewhere else. Such an explanation conforms to all that Mary has known of the world thus far.

However, human judgment is not infallible. Our capacity to discern the true nature of things is limited, and our judgments on many matters must be regarded as provisional—hence the oft-heard plea that we must approach the world with an open mind. Just as an open mind is recommended within the realms of art and of scientific inquiry, in case the objects of apprehension reveal aspects of themselves that are not anticipated, so too an open mind is required in biblical studies and in theology. The consideration of previously unimagined possibilities is