Compelling Love

The Bible records that Jesus was crucified, buried, and rose again after three days, fulfilling many Messianic prophecies including the “sign of Jonah”. Jesus (Yeshua) explains in Matthew 12 that the account of Jonah being three days in the belly of a fish and then emerging alive is a prophetic picture of his death and resurrection:

Matthew 12 (NKJV)
³⁸ Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.”
³⁹ But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. ⁴⁰ For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

In 1 Corinthians 5:20, Paul (Shaul) describes Christ’s resurrection as “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep”, recalling the promise of Daniel 12:2, “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Paul describes the promise of resurrection life this way in Romans 8:11:

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul compares the first man of the earth, Adam, with Christ, the second Man, who is the Lord from heaven, and makes this promise in verse 49: “as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.”

1 Corinthians 15 (NKJV)
²⁰ But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. ²¹ For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. ²² For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. ²³ But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming.

⁴⁷ The first man was of the earth, made of dust; the second Man is the Lord from heaven. ⁴⁸ As was the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly Man, so also are those who are heavenly. ⁴⁹ And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.

Paul goes on to teach in 2 Corinthians 5:17 that even here and now, believers have new life in Christ:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

In Revelation 1:17-18, the risen Lord announces himself to John, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. ¹⁸ I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen.” In Revelation 21, John sees a new heaven and a new earth, and the Lord declares in verse 6, “I am the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.”

Revelation 21 (NKJV)
¹ Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. ² Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³ And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴ And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
⁵ Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.”
⁶ And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts. ⁷ He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.”

This revelation of the Son of God who is also the Son of Man, the Beginning and the End, who makes all things new, is prophetically pictured in the first sixteen letters of the Hebrew Bible, as explained by Doctor Yonathan Fass in his book, “Creation’s Heartbeat”.

Genesis 1 (NKJV)
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

בראשית ברא אלהים את השמים ואת הארץ׃

Bereisheet bara Elohim et hashamayim ve’et ha’aretz

The first four words (16 letters) in the Hebrew Bible contain shorter words within them. For instance, the word, בר (bar) meaning “son” occurs within both the first and second words. (Note: Hebrew is read from right to left.) Taken with the following letters, one finds the phrases, son of Seth (the third son of Adam and Eve), and son of God.

The same two consonants, בר , also are used in forming the verb “bara”, meaning “create”. The repetition of these letters carries a suggestion of a new creation. Finally, the fourth word, את (et), is composed of the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet, Alef and Tav, and has a prophetic sense of “the beginning and the end”.

In John 11:25-26, just before raising Lazarus from the dead, Jesus declares, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.”

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4 that He who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us up, and the eternal glory we will have with Christ will outweigh any troubles we may encounter in this life:

2 Corinthians 4 (NKJV)
¹³ And since we have the same spirit of faith, … ¹⁴ knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. … ¹⁶ Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, ¹⁸ while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

David Krause, dhkrause@neteze.com, https://compellinglove.net/, 9/28/14