Witness Lee on Christ’s Resurrection

Deeper Meaning—The Revelation

The Person and the Process

“Resurrection is a person. The Lord Jesus said, ‘I am the resurrection’ (John 11:25a)” (Crystallization 10). As a context to these verses, the Lord Jesus was on His way to resurrect Lazarus, who had died and had been buried for four days (vv. 11-14, 17). Meanwhile, his sister Martha heard that Jesus was coming and went to meet Him (v. 20). Martha immediately began complaining to the Lord, “If You had been here, my brother would not have died” (v. 21). The Lord responded by assuring her that her brother would rise again. “This meant that the Lord would raise him immediately” (Witness Lee, Recovery Version, John 11:24, note 1). Nevertheless, Martha replied, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection in the last day” (v. 24), thereby expounding the Lord’s word so as to postpone the present resurrection to the last day (Witness Lee, Recovery Version, John 11:24, note 1). The Lord then took the opportunity to declare to her, “I am the resurrection” (v. 25). The Lord told her, in effect, that resurrection is not a matter of time or space, but a matter of Christ Himself. He is the resurrection. (Witness Lee, Economy, 134)

Resurrection is a person.

On the one hand resurrection is Christ, and on the other hand, resurrection is also a process which Christ experienced. This process of Christ’s resurrection can be seen in John 12:24 and 1 Peter 3:18.

In John 12:24 Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless the grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” In this passage, Christ likens Himself to a grain of wheat. Just as a grain of wheat has an inner life germ and an outer seed coat, or shell, Christ also possessed the divine life within the “shell” of His humanity. The life within a grain of wheat is limited while contained within the seed. However, as the seed is sown into the ground, two things take place simultaneously. On the one hand, the pressure and the elements of the earth work to “kill,” or break down the shell of the grain; and on the other hand, the life germ within the shell is activated to “resurrect” or rise up. Thus, as a grain of wheat is dying, resurrection is simultaneously taking place (Witness Lee, God’s, 58).

While Jesus as the grain of wheat was physically dying on the cross, He was also inwardly rising up.

This is a clear picture of the process of resurrection experienced by Christ. While Jesus as the grain of wheat was physically dying on the cross, He was also inwardly rising up. First Peter 3:18 provides us with a unique view as to what was actually transpiring as Christ was dying on the cross. It says, “For Christ also has suffered once for sins, the Righteous on behalf of the unrighteous, that He might bring you to God, on the one hand being put to death in the flesh, but on the other, made alive in the Spirit.” Christ was put to death in His flesh, in His body, yet He was simultaneously being made alive in His spirit (58). The following excerpts from God’s New Testament Economy elaborate.

When He was dying in the flesh on the cross, at the same time He was rising up in His spirit. This rising up was the beginning of His resurrection. His resurrection did not take place suddenly early in the morning on the third day after His death. It began when He was on the cross, when He was under the killing. (58)

The Process of His Resurrection

In this way His resurrection was going on until the morning of the third day when His entire body was resurrected (1 Cor. 15:4)…. His resurrection began from His spirit and was consummated in His body. While He was being killed on the cross, His resurrection began in His spirit. His resurrection was a process that lasted for about three days, beginning from the time when He was being killed on the cross and fully accomplished at the time of His body’s resurrection…. Eventually this resurrection saturated His body and “invaded” His body to raise it up. Then His resurrection was completed. (60-61)

Person & Process | Intrinsic Significance