Near the end of his first letter to the Corinthian church, the apostle Paul summarizes what he deems to be “of first importance”: “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to [numerous people whom Paul names in 1 Cor 15:5–8]” (1 Cor 15:3-5).
In this passage, we find four key words about Christ: He died, was buried, was raised, and appeared. This is the gospel in a nutshell—and a great sermon or Bible study outline! It is absolutely core to the gospel that Jesus died for our sins, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, and that he appeared to numerous individuals and groups. As we look closely at this passage, it is also clear that these things were taught in the Old Testament—what Paul calls “the Scriptures.” Specifically, Paul says Christ’s death for our sins and his resurrection on the third day are “in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3–4). This is extremely glorious on many levels: Our sins have been paid for by Christ’s death. And his death and resurrection were not plan B in the mind of God. No, they were the plan all along—these things were taught in the Old Testament.
This New Testament passage not only leads us to revel in our standing in Christ; it also compels us to read the Old Testament with a fresh set of lenses. If the apostle Paul’s ministry was marked by preaching that Christ died for our sins and was raised on the third day according to the Old Testament Scriptures, then we should read the Old Testament and ask, Where? Where does the Old Testament teach that Christ would come and die for our sins? And where does the Old Testament teach that Christ would be raised from the dead, particularly on the third day?
Unfolding Redemption: The Heart of the Gospel in the Story of Old Testament History
Ian James Vaillancourt
Purchase on AmazonPurchase on InterVarsity PressUnfolding Redemption: The Heart of the Gospel in the Story of Old Testament History
Ian James Vaillancourt
Initial help for putting this together comes from the lips of Jesus. In response to a request for a sign from the scribes and Pharisees, he says,
An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just 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. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. (Mt 12:39–41, emphasis added)
According to Jesus, we are meant to read the book of Jonah and recognize that Jesus is greater than Jonah—he didn’t merely live in the belly of a great fish (like Jonah did) but actually died a real death and then was raised from the dead. Also notice that Jesus mentions three days and three nights for both Jonah and the Son of Man (see Jon 1:17). Jesus read the Old Testament and was pointed to his coming third-day resurrection.[1] In fact, the people of Nineveh, who repented when the “resurrected” Jonah preached to them, will rise up and condemn those who in Jesus’ day did not repent when one greater than Jonah came to fulfill the Old Testament hope. And Jesus calls this a sign that will authenticate his entire ministry.
This leads us to ask whether any other Old Testament passages hint at a third-day resurrection for the coming Messiah. Stephen G. Dempster is insightful as he leads us to search for occurrences of the phrase “third day” or “day three” in the Old Testament.[2] Of course, some of the references have nothing to do with a coming resurrection of Jesus on the third day. But a surprising number of these do show someone who was as good as dead and was delivered from death on day three.
For example, Genesis 22 is the powerful account of God testing Abraham by telling him to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, on a mountain. On the journey, Abraham makes a startling claim: He and Isaac will go and worship, and he and Isaac will come back again (Gen 22:5). As readers, we may be tempted to ask whether Abraham was lying to the people in the story. After all, he knew that he was about to sacrifice his son on a mountain. But the author of Hebrews interprets this differently: “By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back” (Heb 11:17–19).
Since the New Testament is the inspired answer key to the Old Testament, we learn that Abraham made this statement in faith because he believed that Isaac would return with him. Why? Because he believed that God was even able to raise the dead. So when God stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son, the author of Hebrews tells us that Abraham did, figuratively speaking, receive his son back from the dead. Why? Because Isaac was as good as dead. This was a sort of resurrection that pointed to the actual resurrection of the coming Messiah, the one greater than Isaac.
As we look closely at the details of Genesis 22, we see, “On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar” (Gen 22:4, emphasis added). In this text Abraham makes a three-day journey to sacrifice his son. For three days, Abraham journeys, knowing what he is going to do. And for three days, Abraham trusts that God can raise the dead. Therefore, according to Genesis 22:4, Abraham received Isaac back on the third day.
Although we could look at many other examples of Old Testament pointers to a third-day resurrection of the coming Messiah, we’ll consider just one more: Esther 5:1. In context, Haman has already convinced King Ahasuerus to sign orders “to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews” (Esther 3:13). In response, Mordecai has gone into mourning and sent word about this plan through one of Esther’s attendants. Mordecai then commands Esther “to go to the king to beg us favor and plead with him on behalf of her people” (Esther 4:8). Esther then points out the problem with this plan: “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law—to be put to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter so that he may live. But as for me, I have not been called to come in to the king these thirty days” (Esther 4:11).
Through the back-and-forth of messengers, Mordecai hears of the risk this plan will bring to Esther, but he is adamant: “Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:13-14). Esther then responds with resolve: She will risk her life by going to the king, but only after all the Jews in Susa fast—with prayer implied—on her behalf for three days.
Does this sound familiar? In the moment that Esther decides to follow through with Mordecai’s plan, she is choosing death for herself. After a period of three days, she will go to the king. Even though this is against the law of Persia, Esther will do it. She adds, “And if I perish, I perish” (Esther 4:16). She is willing to die for this cause. Esther 5:1 then reveals when Esther went to the king: on the third day. As the story unfolds, Queen Esther enters the presence of the king, he holds out the golden scepter, and she touches its tip (Esther 5:2). In that moment—on the third day after she chose sure death for herself in order to save God’s people—she is given life again. In the end, the Jews are saved, the wicked Haman is put to death, and Esther receives her life back.
As we take our cues about how to read the Old Testament from the apostle Paul (in 1 Cor 15:4), Jesus (in Mt 12:39–41), and the author of Hebrews (in Heb 11:17–19), we discover that we should be searching the Old Testament for people with as-good-as-dead experiences whose plights were turned around on the third day. God intends these stories to point us to the one who would experience the true and ultimate third-day resurrection, because Jesus died a real death for our sins and then was raised from the dead on the third day (1 Cor 15:3–4). Karen Jobes puts it beautifully:
This scene [in Esther 5] pictures a gracious act of a king who holds life-and-death power. Had God not extended the cross of Jesus Christ to the world, all would die in his presence. “On the third day” after the final judgment transpired on the cross, Jesus Christ arose to imperishable life, guaranteeing safety to enter God’s presence to all who reach out in faith to touch that cross-shaped sceptre.[3]
All of a sudden, Esther’s resolve is not merely an example for us to follow. It also gives us a powerful Old Testament picture of chosen death and deliverance from death on the third day that prepares us to understand, accept, and revel in the work of Jesus for us.
Taken from Unfolding Redemption by Ian J. Vaillancourt. Copyright (c) 2026 by Ian James Vaillancourt. Used by permission of InterVarsity Press. www.ivpress.com
[1] Stephen G. Dempster is helpful on this point: “The ancient Israelite conceptions of death and life should not be viewed in a reductionistic manner as the mere termination of physical existence, a view associated more with notions in modern, western medicine. In my judgment this is the major problem with the predominant view of scholarship which argues that belief in resurrection was an extremely late development in the OT. It constructs the theoretical net of resurrection belief in a certain western way so that it is only able to catch a certain type of ‘fish,’ and then it concludes that other smaller examples of the same fish that have slipped through its mesh do not exist. The problem of course is with the mesh, not the existence of the fish…. The biblical view, however, is far more dynamic.” Dempster, “From Slight Peg to Cornerstone to Capstone: The Resurrection of Christ on ‘The Third Day’ According to the Scriptures,” Westminster Theological Journal 76, no. 2 (2014): 385.
[2] See Dempster, “From Slight Peg,” 371–409.
[3] Karen H. Jobes, Esther, NIVAC (Zondervan Academic, 1999), 147.
