The word “vindication” doesn’t seem to be an important word in Scripture—it most prominently appears in 1 Timothy 3:16, which says that Christ was “vindicated by the Spirit.” And yet, few would say that the theme of the resurrection is not important: “If Christ has not been raised, then . . . your faith is in vain” (1 Cor. 15:14). Understanding vindication not only better explains the New Testament’s frequent references to the Old Testament predicting Christ’s resurrection (Luke 24:45–46 and 1 Cor. 15:3–4), but it also gives us a strong gospel understanding and comfort as we approach death.

Christ’s Resurrection Predicted

In Luke 24 and 1 Corinthians 15, we are told that Jesus had to rise from the dead, according to the (Old Testament) Scriptures. Where do we in fact find the prophecy of Christ’s resurrection in the Old Testament? There are references to Christ’s resurrection in the Psalms (see Psalm 16 and Psalm 22), but none that mention the word “resurrection.” Certainly, Jesus cites Jonah’s experience in the deep waters in the great fish as a sure sign that he would lie dead in the earth for three days, only to rise again to life. But how many other Old Testament texts clearly prophesy Christ’s resurrection? Job speaks of a final resurrection—“I know that my Redeemer lives . . . . And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God” (Job 19:25–26)—but what about Christ’s resurrection? If you do a word study of “resurrection” in the Old Testament, again, you might come up short. Indeed, there were many Old Testament theologians in Jesus’s day who doubted the reality of any resurrection (see the Sadducees’ discussion with Jesus).

So if Christ’s resurrection is so important (and it is), then where we do see it predicted and prophesied in the Old Testament? Understanding the concept of vindication gives us the Old Testament rationale and support for Jesus’s numerous claims that the Old Testament predicts and supports his bodily resurrection (see Meredith Kline, Kingdom Prologue [Two Age Press, 2000], 214).

The underlying truths behind vindication are not controversial: God is holy and demands not only a lack of sinfulness, but also goodness and a positive righteousness— “the person who does [God’s] commandments shall live by them” (Rom. 10:5). Therefore, to not only draw near to a holy God but also to receive his affirmative blessing, we not only have to be forgiven, but we have to be good. However, we are not good, nor are our good works truly good (Rom. 3:23). We know that Christ’s work as our substitute sacrifice removes sin and guilt and God’s curse, but how do forgiven sinners become good? Christ’s substitutionary work also does not exempt us from experiencing death; we may be forgiven, but we still have to pass through the deep waters of the Jordan River, as it were. None are spared death’s trial; the forgiveness we experience from Christ’s saving work on the cross does not spare us from the grave.

So how do we have comfort when we face the deep waters of death? If forgiveness removes the curse of hell, what secures the blessings of your resurrected body in the presence of God? At some level, our sanctification can provide a measure of comfort, since it is evidence that God has begun his work in us and we are his, but looking at our sanctification is not a very good source of comfort. Our sanctification is very imperfect and very incomplete (to quote the Heidelberg Catechism Q. 114, “even the holiest men, while in this life, have only a small beginning of this obedience”). Having confidence of receiving God’s blessing after our death requires that we look outside of ourselves and our sanctification. The answer lies in the Old Testament’s teaching on vindication.

Vindication in the Old Testament

The theme of trial by ordeal is common in the Old Testament. The creation was put to the trial by ordeal of the flood waters in Genesis 7 and 8 (the number forty often referring to the number of testing or trial), and only righteous Noah with his family passed through the destructive flood, vindicated and alive. Israel, in its exodus from Egypt, also passed through the trial of the deep waters. Not because they are good, but because Moses (like Noah) was considered righteous, the Israelites, being “baptized into Moses” (1 Cor. 10:2), are vindicated and live. In the book of Daniel, the three righteous sons of Israel pass through the fiery furnace, vindicated as righteous and alive. Daniel himself passes through the trial of the lion’s den, and, since he is righteous, he is vindicated. There are numerous other examples of trial by ordeal in the Old Testament, but these four are very familiar.

Further, in the most explicit gospel proof of Christ’s resurrection, Jesus uses an Old Testament narrative—Jonah’s descent into the death waters and the great fish for three days and three nights (Matt. 12:39–40).

With all these Old Testament narratives, the bottom line is this: all who are labeled “righteous” pass through the death trial, vindicated and alive and blessed, while all who are not righteous perish and are consumed.

What comfort do these Old Testament narratives give us? The problem that we face (and that Noah, Moses, Shadrach, and Daniel also faced) is that no one is truly righteous. We all sin, and therefore we all have a date with the deep waters of the grave and the judgment throne of God. Even Noah, Moses, and Daniel waded into the waters of death and ultimately died. If only there was someone who was truly righteous, who perfectly kept all of God’s laws and commandments, who could go through the trial and be vindicated!

The Righteous One

Of course, there is One who is righteous (Matt. 3:17; 17:5; 19:17). Jesus perfectly kept all God’s laws. He is the truly righteous One to whom all the other types in the Old Testament with the label “righteous” point us. And Christ, per the reality of 1 Timothy 3:16, walked into the deep waters of death itself, and because he is truly righteous, he was vindicated—he was raised! Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of God’s trial by ordeal.

The Old Testament explicitly says that the One who does the law—i.e. the one who perfectly obeys—will live on the basis of his righteous obedience (Lev. 18:5). Jesus repeats this principle in Matthew 19:16–17 and Luke 10:25–28, saying that a perfectly obedient, perfectly righteous person will live, by implication passing through the death waters, unto eternal life. And, by the way, he mentions almost in passing that “there is only one who is good” (Matt. 19:17, the righteous Son of Man).

And in Christ’s great work as the truly righteous, obedient One, all who are baptized into him will also be vindicated! Although we will experience the reality of death and the grave, if we rest in Christ and are joined to him, we too will pass through the deep waters of death. We will be vindicated—we will be raised to life as the righteous sons and daughters of God.

The theme of trial by ordeal and the righteous being vindicated not only gives the Old Testament basis for Christ’s resurrection, but it also gives the one who trusts in Christ confidence in passing through the nastiness of the grave. As Machen, who faced an early death, said, “Thank God for the active obedience of Christ—no hope without it.” All who have Christ’s perfect obedience as their own have a certain hope of being vindicated as righteous.

The author is pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Fort Worth, Texas. New Horizons, March 2024.