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Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of His disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in His name.[1] John’s account of the signs which Jesus did is intentionally selective. He mentions many other signs (poll¦ shme‹a) of which he must have had detailed knowledge. In fact, he is specifically referring to those performed in the presence of the disciples. They were observable phenomena which evidently possessed particular significance.[2] Fundamental to everything a Christian believes is the miracle of the physical resurrection of Christ from the dead. B. B. Warfield called it “the cardinal doctrine of our system: on it all other doctrines hang.” The apostle Paul went so far in emphasis as to argue that if there is no resurrection, there is no Gospel (see 1 Cor. 15).[3] In light of the ultimate relevance to Christianity, and how our eternal assurance rests on Jesus our Savior conquering death, I would not agree to the idea of it being another of the group of signs recorded by John. Although, it causes a fear of lessoning the importance of the other signs recorded, I contend that the resurrection of Christ, holds a higher place than all of the recorded signs in this Gospel. Of course all our Lord did is of great importance, however, none would be of eternal value without His Glorious resurrection. “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.”[4] Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.[5]

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In my opinion the resurrection of Jesus should not be considered one of the signs of the Gospel. Instead it should be recognized as the beginning of the new dispensation of grace.(Townes). Just as the Old Testament saints were to live righteously and sacrifice lambs until the Messiah was to come, we are to live righteously believing that He did come as the sacrificial lamb and will come again as the scriptures prophesied. Jesus performed signs and miracles during His time on earth for specific reasons. The signs and miracles He did to fulfill the prophecies of the Old Testament in order for the people to be able to recognize and believe that He was the one sent to pay for the sins of the world. He healed the lame and the sick crippled for thirty-eight years to show He is the healer and gave a blind man sight demonstrating He is the light of the world. His feeding the 5,000 to show them He is the Bread of Life which they could relate to the days of wandering in the desert for 38 years. He turned water to wine and cast out demons, and raised the dead. During His ministry, He fulfilled all of the Old Testament prophecies that only the Messiah could do, so that the people would believe that the one they have been waiting for has arrived. Now after Jesus, suffered, died on the cross, was buried and on the third day arose from the dead, He had accomplished on earth what He came here to do. His resurrection was not a sign, but a carrying out the final steps of the plan of salvation and for Him to return to the Father. He still had work to do as He told Mary not to cling to Him. Yes, it was miraculous but it was not done to get people to believe as the other miracles had been done. He was finalizing His work, part of which was to send the Holy Spirit as He promised and the Holy Spirit could not come until He left

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In this Discussion Board, I will be answering the question as to whether or not I believe that the resurrection of Jesus should be considered one of the signs or miracles of the Gospel. After doing my research, I have come to the conclusion that there is sufficient evidence to point to the fact that it should indeed be considered a miracle.

To start, we should examine what exactly is considered to be a resurrection. When we look at the signs listed in John, the resurrection of Lazarus after being dead for 4 days is the seventh and final sign/miracle in John. If the raising of Lazarus to life here on Earth is considered to be a sign/miracle, why wouldn’t the resurrection of our Savior eternity in Heaven life be the same? When we look at the Zondervan Bible Dictionary under the word resurrection, the authors clearly feel that the act alone is “The divine miracle of restoring a deceased person to life in BODY and SOUL…”[i] When you look at the overall definition of the word ‘miracle’, Miriam-Webster’s Dictionary describes it as: “An extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs.”[ii] Miracles happened in this way so that those who did not believe could not excuse it as an answer to prayer or magic. As the Morris text says, the signs were often done with open ended possibilities. This was so that when those who wanted to believe would believe, and those that did not, would not.[iii] When you look at the Towns text, he says, “…the miracle of the physical resurrection of Christ from the dead.” is what holds together everything that we believe.”[iv]

With the above being said, would it be agreeable to say that there is another sign/miracle to come? For those that have died and are in Him, the Scriptures are clear when they talk about two events: The Resurrection of the righteous and the Resurrection of the unrighteous. The question remains: Will this be considered a miracle? I believe so because miracles are nothing more than God using His divine power, through the Holy Spirit, to make things right again by defeating sin & death, and making things back into His image. [v]

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There are eight, generally-recognized "signs" given by Jesus, in which He exhibits power over space, time, physical matter, physical/natural law, death, and all of these collectively. To determine whether or not the resurrection is to be considered a sign of the Gospel, one must first offer a sufficient definition of the term, sign. In seeking this definition, an appropriate source from which to begin might be a common English dictionary, wherein one would find the meaning, "something material or external that stands for or signifies something spiritual."[1] In this regard, it would be easy to suggest then that Christ's resurrection is, in fact, a sign, as Jesus did not merely resurrect from the dead spiritually but also physically, revealing Himself to His disciples and others, and in doing so, exemplifying the spiritual victory He (and we, when in Him) had over death. Dr. Towns specifically states that Jesus used the physical evidence presented in His scars to persuade Thomas to belief. (This, of course, would support Towns' proposal that eight is the number of completion, in the eighth sign being the resurrection of Christ.)

But setting aside speculation or personal assessments regarding the number of signs and whether or not one considers the resurrection to be among them, let us consider the plain-spoken words of Christ, Himself. In John 2:18, Jesus answered those who asked specifically for a sign, and His response was, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up," and later in verse 21 we find that He was speaking of His own body. The is quite clearly a direct reference to His resurrection, and verse 22 reveals that Jesus' disciples remembered these Words of their Lord when He had risen.

So, while men may debate the subject, Christ clearly articulates in John's Gospel that His resurrection is, indeed, a sign. And given the significance of His resurrection to all of Christianity, it is the most powerful, most prolific sign of all we find in Scripture. Without the resurrection, Christianity is relegated to be just another superstitious faith based on legends and stories. Ours, however, is a faith in a living God -- One who has defeated death and the grave and proven to us by His appearances after His death that our faith is well-founded.