Ephesians 2:5

2:5 even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you are saved! ¹  –

Isaiah 26:19

26:19 ² Your dead will come back to life;

your corpses will rise up.

Wake up and shout joyfully, you who live in the ground! ³ 

For you will grow like plants drenched with the morning dew, ⁴ 

and the earth will bring forth its dead spirits. ⁵ 

Ezekiel 37:4-10

37:4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and tell them: ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 37:5 This is what the sovereign Lord says to these bones: Look, I am about to infuse breath ⁶  into you and you will live. 37:6 I will put tendons ⁷  on you and muscles over you and will cover you with skin; I will put breath ⁸  in you and you will live. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

37:7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. There was a sound when I prophesied – I heard ⁹  a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 37:8 As I watched, I saw ¹⁰  tendons on them, then muscles appeared, ¹¹  and skin covered over them from above, but there was no breath ¹²  in them.

37:9 He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, ¹³  – prophesy, son of man – and say to the breath: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these corpses so that they may live.’” 37:10 So I prophesied as I was commanded, and the breath came into them; they lived and stood on their feet, an extremely great army.

John 5:25-29

5:25 I tell you the solemn truth, ¹⁴  a time ¹⁵  is coming – and is now here – when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 5:26 For just as the Father has life in himself, thus he has granted the Son to have life in himself, 5:27 and he has granted the Son ¹⁶  authority to execute judgment, ¹⁷  because he is the Son of Man.

5:28 “Do not be amazed at this, because a time ¹⁸  is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice 5:29 and will come out – the ones who have done what is good to the resurrection resulting in life, and the ones who have done what is evil to the resurrection resulting in condemnation. ¹⁹ 

John 11:43-44

11:43 When ²⁰  he had said this, he shouted in a loud voice, ²¹  “Lazarus, come out!” 11:44 The one who had died came out, his feet and hands tied up with strips of cloth, ²²  and a cloth wrapped around his face. ²³  Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him ²⁴  and let him go.”

Romans 6:4-5

6:4 Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life. ²⁵ 

6:5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will certainly also be united in the likeness of his resurrection. ²⁶ 

Romans 6:13

6:13 and do not present your members to sin as instruments ²⁷  to be used for unrighteousness, ²⁸  but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead and your members to God as instruments ²⁹  to be used for righteousness.

Colossians 3:1

Exhortations to Seek the Things Above

3:1 Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

[2:5]  ¹ tn Or “by grace you have been saved.” The perfect tense in Greek connotes both completed action (“you have been saved”) and continuing results (“you are saved”).

[26:19]  ² sn At this point the Lord (or prophet) gives the people an encouraging oracle.

[26:19]  ³ tn Heb “dust” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[26:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “for the dew of lights [is] your dew.” The pronominal suffix on “dew” is masculine singular, like the suffixes on “your dead” and “your corpses” in the first half of the verse. The statement, then, is addressed to collective Israel, the speaker in verse 18. The plural form אוֹרֹת (’orot) is probably a plural of respect or magnitude, meaning “bright light” (i.e., morning’s light). Dew is a symbol of fertility and life. Here Israel’s “dew,” as it were, will soak the dust of the ground and cause the corpses of the dead to spring up to new life, like plants sprouting up from well-watered soil.

[26:19]  ⁵ sn It is not certain whether the resurrection envisioned here is intended to be literal or figurative. A comparison with 25:8 and Dan 12:2 suggests a literal interpretation, but Ezek 37:1-14 uses resurrection as a metaphor for deliverance from exile and the restoration of the nation (see Isa 27:12-13).

[37:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “I am about to bring a spirit.”

[37:6]  ⁷ tn The exact physiological meaning of the term is uncertain. In addition to v. 8, the term occurs only in Gen 32:33; Job 10:11; 40:17; and Jer 48:4.

[37:6]  ⁸ tn Or “a spirit.”

[37:7]  ⁹ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[37:8]  ¹⁰ tn The word הִנֵּה (hinneh, traditionally “behold”) indicates becoming aware of something and has been translated here as a verb.

[37:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “came up.”

[37:8]  ¹² tn Or “spirit.”

[37:9]  ¹³ tn Or “spirit,” and several times in this verse.

[5:25]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[5:25]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “an hour.”

[5:27]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “him.”

[5:27]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “authority to judge.”

[5:28]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “an hour.”

[5:29]  ¹⁹ tn Or “a resurrection resulting in judgment.”

[11:43]  ²⁰ tn Grk “And when.”

[11:43]  ²¹ sn The purpose of the loud voice was probably to ensure that all in the crowd could hear (compare the purpose of the prayer of thanksgiving in vv. 41-42).

[11:44]  ²² sn Many have wondered how Lazarus got out of the tomb if his hands and feet were still tied up with strips of cloth. The author does not tell, and with a miracle of this magnitude, this is not an important fact to know. If Lazarus’ decomposing body was brought back to life by the power of God, then it could certainly have been moved out of the tomb by that same power. Others have suggested that the legs were bound separately, which would remove the difficulty, but the account gives no indication of this. What may be of more significance for the author is the comparison which this picture naturally evokes with the resurrection of Jesus, where the graveclothes stayed in the tomb neatly folded (20:6-7). Jesus, unlike Lazarus, would never need graveclothes again.

[11:44]  ²³ tn Grk “and his face tied around with cloth.”

[11:44]  ²⁴ tn Grk “Loose him.”

[6:4]  ²⁵ tn Grk “may walk in newness of life,” in which ζωῆς (zwhs) functions as an attributed genitive (see ExSyn 89-90, where this verse is given as a prime example).

[6:5]  ²⁶ tn Grk “we will certainly also of his resurrection.”

[6:13]  ²⁷ tn Or “weapons, tools.”

[6:13]  ²⁸ tn Or “wickedness, injustice.”

[6:13]  ²⁹ tn Or “weapons, tools.”