“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.” (Romans 6:3-5)

In this passage in Romans, we discover that the Spirit of God the “glory of the Father” raised Christ. This coincides with other passages that teach that the Holy Spirit raised Christ up:

“And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” (Romans 8:10-11)

This confusion is resolved after it is realized that the “Holy Spirit” is the “breath” or “presence” of God the Father, the one true God of Israel. This was the historic Jewish doctrine of the “Holy Spirit.” Remember, the foundation of Christianity is Judaism. God may give greater revelation, but this revelation does NOT reinterpret or negate any principles that God taught Abraham or Moses about the nature of God.

In the New Testament, Jesus claimed that He would raise Himself from the dead:

“Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body. When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said." (John 2:18-22)

We have read that: (1) God the Father, (2) the Father’s glory, (3) the Spirit that dwells in us and (4) the Holy Spirit raised Christ from the dead. And, Jesus personally claimed to raise Himself from the dead! He said “I will raise it up” (His body)! Did Jesus take the credit for something that two other persons of God would also accomplish?

Yet, if there is only one God and one Spirit, there is no contradiction. Jesus was the one God of Israel—God the Father—expressed in human terms. Certainly, He was distinct from the Father, for He was God in the lesser form of a man, experiencing a human existence from within a human consciousness.

Yet, since Jesus taught that the Father dwelt in Him (John 14:10,) and Paul taught that He is the fullness of God’s Deity expressed in the flesh (Colossians 2:9,) He could truthfully say “I will raise it up,” because He is NOT a distinct person from God, He is God in a distinct form—a man!

Next Page: Who Resurrects the Saints?

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