Believe and Speak--On the third day, He rose again in accordance with the Scriptures;

Isaiah 53:4-5

Matthew 12:40

Matthew 16:21

Matthew 27:63-64

Matthew 28:6

Luke 24:5-7

Acts 2:24

Acts 3:14-15

1 Corinthians 15:3-4

1 Peter 1:20-22

1 Peter 2:24

Romans 10:8-9 and 2 Corinthians 4:13

This phrase of the creed is from 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, "in accordance with the scriptures". It's the same phrase from our main verse--"Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written". It means to occur or fulfill. So we can think of it like a "to-do" list. Jesus took the list of everything God required for our salvation, and He checked every box. He fulfilled the list. Jesus taught His disciples that He would be wounded for their transgressions, but on the third day would rise again. He used the story of Jonah--3 days and 3 nights in the belly of the whale--to warn of His death. He talked of it so often, even the Roman soldiers in charge of his tomb made sure that it was secure, so Jesus or His disciples couldn't trick them. But all the security in the world couldn't stop Jesus from rising again, because God raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it. 😭😭 This plan for Jesus to be crucified, buried, and risen again was not plan B. It was the only plan from the foundation of the world. Jesus died to loosen us from the sin of slavery, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

1 Corinthians 15:1-4 is the first Scripture I worked to memorize when I was a pre-teen. (KJV of course 😁) It is a creed in itself. It had not been many years since Jesus died, rose again, and went to heaven (spoiler alert, we will learn about Jesus going back to heaven tomorrow 💓). As you can imagine, urban legends had built up around the circumstances surrounding it. Paul is teaching his students, fellow believers, how to correctly condense all they need to know about the gospel. This is what we're doing through this study, too. We are learning the story of the gospel, according to the scriptures. We don't have to try to explain it with our own words. The word is near us--in our mouth and heart--to confess that Jesus is Lord and to believe that God raised Him from the dead. Since we have the same word of faith--statement of truth--so we believe, and so we also speak.