While I was teaching chapter 7 of the Confession of Faith regarding God’s covenant in our 1689 class, these three miracles in Matthew became marvelously clearer and more glorious in my mind. The Confession says the distance between man and God is infinite; God does not owe anything to us, but we owe everything to Him. The only way an independent God can deal with insignificant mankind is by coming down graciously, and every time He does so, He comes down in the form of a covenant. Without a covenant, God does not deal with mankind.
Broadly, He deals with mankind through two covenants: the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace. He made these covenants with two representatives: the first Adam and the second Adam, Jesus. The Covenant of Works was made with Adam and depended on his works; if Adam obeyed God, he would be blessed with eternal life, but if he disobeyed, he would die and be cursed. Adam broke that covenant, and we, his children, suffer under it. Even today, God deals with every person according to the covenant made with Adam. That is why mankind suffers in marriage, parenting, and labor, enduring sickness, old age, and eventually returning to the mud from which we came, destined eternally for hell.
The Confession explains that for fallen man under the curse of the Covenant of Works, God graciously made another covenant—the Covenant of Grace—with His own Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus agreed to fulfill all covenant conditions, and as soon as He fulfilled them on the cross and died, God began to freely offer all New Covenant blessings to every sinner who believes in His Son. This is exactly what God is announcing through these three miracles at Calvary. If you do not understand Covenant Theology, you will never be able to fully explain these miracles.
No human language can fully explain the monumental accomplishment of Christ on the cross, so God Himself speaks in His own language of miracles. As soon as His Son says “It is finished” and dies, God mightily announces: “Mankind, because of your sin, you are suffering under the curses of the Covenant of Works. Now, behold what My Son has accomplished. I have come down in a monumental act; I rent the veil of the Most Holy Place, I shake the earth, and I split the rocks. I, the living, eternal God of the covenant, come down announcing that all conditions of the Covenant of Grace are fulfilled. I freely welcome all sinners into My most holy presence, promising these glorious blessings.”
God now deals with mankind not according to the Covenant of Works, but according to His Covenant of Grace. There is infinite weight in these miracles; the whole New Testament is essentially an explanation of what God is announcing through them—explaining what the life and death of Christ has accomplished for those who believe.
We have seen the miracles of the rent veil and the earthquake with split rocks. Thank God there is another glorious miracle. Let us look at the third miracle, its visible facts, and the message God has placed within it.
The Facts of the Miracle
The visible facts of this miracle fall into two categories: those that happened immediately after the death of Jesus, and those that happened after His resurrection.
“And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised.” (Matthew 27:52)
In that part of Palestine, it was difficult to dig into the ground because of the rock, so bodies were generally placed in hewn caves or stone-covered tombs. You may remember that Lazarus was placed in a cave with a large stone that required several men to roll away. When the earthquake happened and the rocks split, these heavy grave stones were opened.
Some say this was merely a result of the earthquake, but that cannot be. Generally, in an earthquake, rocks would split and fall into the grave, crushing the remains. However, verse 52 says the tombs were “opened,” using a word typically used for opening a door. God was orderly opening the tombs of many saints.
The second part of the miracle is that many bodies of the saints who had “fallen asleep” were raised. Scripture uses “sleep” for the death of God’s people because death is not the end, but a temporary rest. This term always refers to the body and not the soul; while the soul is in heaven, the body sleeps here. In this miracle, their spirits rejoined their bodies, and they were raised into a full, vigorous existence.
The third part occurs after the resurrection of Jesus:
“And coming out of the graves after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many.” (Matthew 27:53)
After His resurrection, they entered the “Holy City,” which is Jerusalem. Graves were always outside the city because dead bodies were considered defiling to Jews. Unlike our Lord, who restricted His resurrection appearances to a few, these saints appeared to many, perhaps in an indiscriminate way—to both believers and unbelievers alike.
The Mystery of the Miracle
Is this believable? Many people find this miracle one of the most mysterious and “unbelievable” in the Bible, almost like a fairytale. It is a bizarre event. Did Matthew get too excited and record his dreams? Many Christians—and even pastors—hardly know about this miracle because it is rarely preached. It is complex and leaves so many questions unanswered.
Who were these saints? Were they Old Testament saints or those who died during Christ’s ministry, like John the Baptist, Simeon, or Anna? How long had they been dead? Did they rise like Lazarus and eventually die again, or did they ascend like Jesus? What did they do from Friday to Sunday while waiting for Jesus to rise?
I cannot escape these verses as an expository preacher. We believe with a “death grip” that every word in Scripture is God-breathed. As 2 Peter 1:20 says, no word of Scripture came from a man’s own thought. Every word is absolute truth and a historical event. This miracle happened exactly as the Scripture says; it is no fairytale.
I do not have the answers to those questions because God has not revealed them. But I can tell you why He hasn’t. God does not want us to focus on those people or their experience; He wants our focus on the Son of God who died on the cross. He provides the bare facts to convey a powerful message of what His Son accomplished.
Faith is not just believing what is possible or easy to understand; it is humbly bowing before God even when we do not. Our Confession of Faith (Chapter 14) says: “By saving faith, a Christian believeth to be true whatsoever is revealed in the Word.” Set aside your curiosity and look at the message contained in the naked facts of this miracle.
So as believers, let us acknowledge that You, Lord, are wiser than us. In faith, let me lay aside these curious, silly questions and believe this truly happened. Open my heart to hear the message You are giving through this most astounding, unbelievable miracle.
What is the message God intended by this amazing miracle? Two powerful messages clearly come from this visible event. Remember, God is preaching the truth of invisible realities through visible things. By seeing what happened, the people around the cross understood what they could not see.
“So when the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, ‘Truly this was the Son of God!'” (Matthew 27:54)
As soon as Jesus died, these people saw the earthquake and the splitting rocks with their own eyes. That sight caused them to grasp the unseen reality and confess: “This is truly the Son of God.” God performed these visible miracles and recorded them so that we, by reading of these events, might also understand unseen truths.
1. Christ as the Head and Mediator of the New Covenant
Firstly, this miracle teaches that Christ is the Head and Mediator of the New Covenant of Grace. All redemptive virtue and blessings purchased by His life and death become effectual in His people’s lives through this covenant union. God is announcing to all sinners who come to Him: everything Christ purchased will be applied to your life. His virtue will atone for your sins, justify you, sanctify you, destroy the power of death, and resurrect you on the final day.
God is announcing a powerfully clear message from that mountain. I feel helpless trying to convey the glory of that event with poor language. If only I could use virtual reality goggles to let you see and feel the events at Golgotha in 7D or 12D before your very eyes.
Imagine standing there with the centurion, the soldiers, and the women. You hear the loud cry, “It is finished,” as He gives up His spirit. Suddenly, the earth beneath your feet rocks and trembles violently; the earthquake is so terrible that the rocks split. You scream and fall down. Strong mountains are shaking, and rocks are splitting like tissue paper. You are gripped with fear, wondering if the world is ending.
As you look around, you notice a large graveyard outside Jerusalem. You see the heavy stones over the tombs move neatly, as if someone is opening a door. Out comes a man, then a woman, then another—people coming out of their graves! As you stand there seeing this, what are you to realize?
How did this happen? If you analyze it, the man on the cross said, “It is finished,” and died; then these dead bodies rose immediately. There is an inseparable connection between the death on the cross and the resurrection of these people. He dies; they rise and live. His head bows in death; their heads are raised in life. What does this mean? It means Christ did not live and die as a private individual, but as the Head and Mediator of the New Covenant of Grace.
2. Breaking the Reign of Death
To ask how they rose, you must first ask why they died.
“Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—” (Romans 5:12)
Death would never have been a word for humanity if sin had not entered. Adam was our first mediator and the head of the Covenant of Works. Death came as a result of our first Adam breaking that covenant. The condition was: “In the day you eat of it, you shall die.” The wages of sin is death.
As long as sin reigns, death reigns. The only way the power of death can be broken is by breaking the reign of sin. The infinite glory of Christ’s death is so amazing that it completely atoned for the sins of His people. God shows that by visibly raising these people from the dead. The tombs recognize they have lost their claim over their inhabitants and must give them up.
While all of Adam’s children were dying because of the covenant curse, these people rose because of the second Adam.
“For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.” (1 Corinthians 15:21)
In God’s eyes, there are only two men: First Adam and Second Adam (Jesus). Whatever the first Adam did affected all of us. Now, Christ is the Head of the New Covenant, and His blessings become effectual in our lives through this union. That is why when He dies, these people rise.
The Impact of the Miracle
Think of what happened that Sunday morning when these people entered the city and met their relatives. Imagine the excitement! My father died 12 years ago, and I buried him in a graveyard. I imagine him showing up at the door, calling my name early Sunday morning. I open the door with sleepy eyes and see him standing there, smiling with a bright face.
I would say, “Father, we buried you 12 years ago! I lifted your body and lowered it into the ground. We covered you with mud and built a granite tomb.” He would reply, “My son, when Jesus died, all that He purchased became effectual in my soul and body through this glorious covenant union. He died, and I rose.”
This miracle teaches that Christ’s death has the merit and efficiency to result in life for His people. Everything in your Christian life depends on grasping this: your salvation, assurance, justification, and hope of eternal life. This is the foundation of all stability.
Paul throws out a challenge to the entire moral universe in Romans 8:34:
“Who is he who condemns?”
Can any man, demon, or angel condemn me? Paul was acutely aware of his own sinfulness, yet he stands justified. Why?
“It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”
His confidence was embedded exclusively in the history and ministry of Jesus. Friends, some of you have weak faith. For every one step forward, you feel you go back five. You will continue to struggle until the Holy Spirit helps you lay hold of this truth thundering from Golgotha: what Jesus does has virtue and efficiency for all His people.
We must engrave this truth on our hearts using the pen of meditation and the ink of the Holy Spirit. If you want stability in your life, deeply meditate on this voice from Golgotha: the death of Christ is effectual for His people.
Secondly, this miracle is a powerful declaration that the death of Christ has destroyed the power of death and secured the certainty of resurrection for all His people.
Put yourself on that mountain again. You see Christ bowing His head in death, and immediately you feel the earth tremble. Rocks split, and then you see tombs open and bodies come out. If you think according to Scripture, you do not have to be a genius to understand that something happened in that death that saved these people from the greatest enemy in the world. His death saved them from their death; His death gave them life.
Funerals, mourning, grieving, and graveyards—none of these would be meaningful words in our dictionary if sin had not entered the world. Because of sin, death entered; the wages of sin is death. But because Christ has atoned for our sins, the power of death in our lives is broken.
What a testimony those graves were! Those tombs recognized they had lost their claim over their inhabitants and had to give them up. He died, and the tombs opened, saying, “We cannot righteously hold them anymore.” The grave lost its death-grip, and out came resurrected bodies.
These saints rose and went into the Holy City for a specific purpose: to appear so that people—mostly family members living in Jerusalem—could recognize them. They appeared as witnesses to tell the world that the death of Jesus destroyed the power of death and raised them to life. The power of His death is so glorious that it exhausted the claims of sin, leaving death with no more claim over us. This is exactly what the writer of Hebrews explains:
“Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” (Hebrews 2:14-15)
The Victory Over the Tomb
In this marvelous miracle, God is eloquently declaring that the death of Jesus conquered, disarmed, and disabled death. These risen saints were the victory trophies of Christ’s triumph.
This gives us a glorious view of death. Because of His sacrifice, we become victors even over the tomb. Paul boldly mocks the enemy: “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” This may not seem exciting now, but in a few short years, we will all grow weak and sick. Eventually, we will be taken to the grave. It is a scary thought—being lowered into the mud and left alone.
But blessed be God, because of His death, I will not stay in that mud. My life will not end in meaningless dust. The sting of death is destroyed. The Shorter Catechism tells us that at the very second of death, the souls of believers are made perfect in holiness and immediately pass into glory, while their bodies, still united to Christ, rest in their graves until the resurrection.
How can I trust this promise in the face of the horrible reality of death? Behold the message of Calvary. When Christ died, God gave us this amazing miracle as a pledge. He is saying to every believer: “I promise by My Son’s blood that I will never leave your body in the grave.” He showed this by raising many saints and sending them as witnesses into the city.
A Glorious Resurrection
Just as death could not keep those saints, it cannot keep anyone whom Christ has redeemed. We shall be raised with a glorious spiritual body, fashioned after His own, never to die again. It will be a body without weakness, sickness, or the failings of our current frame.
While we do not have explicit scriptural proof of what happened to those saints later, it is likely they ascended to heaven with Christ. They appeared to many, just as Jesus appeared to His disciples. It would be absurd to think they were delivered from the grave only to live another cursed earthly life and die again. They serve as the eternal hope through Christ’s death and resurrection.
This miracle validates everything Jesus said, especially His words in John 11:25: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.”
The Three Miracles of Calvary
Here are the three miracles of the Cross:
- The Rent Veil: God invites sinners of all backgrounds to come to His presence. The way is open.
- The Earthquake: God shakes the earth to announce that He has come down with New Covenant blessings to pour upon those who come.
- The Open Tombs: God announces that all conditions of the New Covenant are accomplished. By Christ’s death, your death is destroyed and your resurrection is guaranteed.
Sinner friend, what will you do now? God has split the veil, shaken the earth, split the rocks, and raised the dead to show you His love. Will you tell Him you are not interested? Will you continue to wallow in a meaningless life and die in your sins? Ask your conscience: what else can God do to melt your heart? Do not hug your sins any longer. Hear the message from the open tombs and flee to the Christ of the cross.
A Note on Biblical Balance
For the child of God, meditating on this should fill you with limitless gratitude. Our hope is not a myth; it is rooted in historical facts. We also learn the necessity of both the death and resurrection of Jesus.
However, we must be careful with our theological focus. While the resurrection is the pledge of our own, it was the death of Christ that purchased it. The resurrection validates the virtue of His death, but the virtue itself is in the death. Be wary of any theology that hides the shame of the cross by only talking about the resurrection. Paul was determined to preach “Christ crucified.” The Cross is the central piece of our faith and the only message that can save sinners.
Every part of our salvation was purchased by the death of the Son of God. Until you see that bleeding, shamed Christ on the cross and realize your sins were imputed to Him, you have no real hope. But when you believe and come to Him in faith, God provides His own pledge: the veil is open, the earth is shaken with blessing, and the tomb is conquered forever.