A close look at the Greek text, the testimony of the apostles, and Ellen White’s interpretation offers a surprisingly profound perspective on the cross and the resurrection. By Kai Mester

Reading time: 10 minutes

The question of whether Jesus raised Himself from the dead arises from His words in the Good Shepherd discourse:

“This is why the Father loves Me: because I lay down My life, so that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father.” (John 10:17–18 SLT)

At first glance, this does indeed sound as if Jesus had been commissioned to raise himself from the dead after his sacrificial death.

Yet at the same time, the New Testament repeatedly emphasizes:

God raised Jesus from the dead!

This is explicitly stated in numerous passages (Acts 2:24; 3:15; 4:10; 5:30; 8:1; 10:40; 13:30; 17:31; Romans 4:24; 6:4; 10:9; 1 Corinthians 6:14; Ephesians 1:20; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 1 Peter 1:21).

An example: “Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.” (Galatians 1:1)

How does this fit together?

A closer look at the Greek text

The solution may lie in the wording of John 10. Four verbs are crucial there:

Many translations, including the King James Bible, render them in this order:

take – take – take – receive

“This is why the Father loves me: because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father.” (John 10:17–18 SLT)

This sounds like an active, self-willed taking back of life.
In Greek, however, the order is different:

receive – take – receive – receive.

“That is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have the authority to lay it down, and I have the authority to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father.” (John 10:17–18, adapted)

This suggests:

Jesus receives His life back just as obediently and willingly as He received the commission from the Father.

Two different verbs: lambano and airo

Examples from the Gospels:

lambano (λαμβάνω)
= to take, to grasp, to receive

• receiving the word with joy (Matthew 13:20)
• to take bread (Mark 8:14)
• to be circumcised (John 7:32)
• To put on an apron (John 13:4)
• to receive the Holy Spirit (John 20:22)

This verb can mean active taking—but it can also mean willing or entirely passive receiving.

It is used three times in John 10:17–18.

airo (αἴρω)
= to take up, to take away

Examples:

• Gathering up the leftovers (Matthew 15:37)
• Take up your bed and walk (John 5:8)
• Picking up stones (John 8:59)
• Removing fruitless vines (John 11:41)

The main idea here is:

Something is removed and is no longer in its original place.

This verb appears only once, in John 10:18.

Why is this important?

While *airo* emphasizes taking away, *lambano* implies receiving—often from someone who gives it.

That is why the 2017 Luther Translation states:

“… so that I may receive it again …”
No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have the power [exusia/ἐξουσία = permission/freedom/right] to lay it down, and the power to receive it again. I have received this command from my Father.” (John 10:17–18)

This changes the perspective:

Jesus does not take His life back Himself—He receives it back from the Father.

Who raised Jesus from the dead?

This resolves the apparent contradiction.

• Jesus laid down his life of his own free will.
• The Father raised him from the dead.
• Jesus received life again in obedience to his mission.

For a dead person can do nothing.

The New Testament clearly confirms that Jesus was truly dead:

“I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever.” (Revelation 1:18 SLT) “God freed him from the torments of death and raised him to life again, for death could not hold him” (Acts 2:24 NLB); literally: death had no power (dynamis/δύναμις) to hold him.

But the text goes even deeper

Ellen White quotes John 10:18 in the context of the resurrection narrative. Her remarks are thought-provoking and point to an even deeper meaning in these words of Jesus.

Let us first read a few excerpts from her four-part series of articles on the risen Savior, published in the summer of 1898 in the weekly newspaper *Youth Instructor*.

“The tomb was bathed in heavenly light, and the whole sky was illuminated by the angel’s radiance. The angel approached the tomb, rolled the stone away as if it were a pebble, and sat upon it. Then his voice was heard: ‘Son of God, come forth! Your Father calls you!’ And Jesus came out of the tomb with the stride of a mighty victor …


‘I am the resurrection and the life.’ (John 11:25) He who said, ‘I lay down my life, that I may take it up again’ (John 10:18), came out of the tomb to the life that was in himself.

Humanity died; divinity did not die. In his divinity, Jesus had the power to break the bonds of death. He declares that he has life within himself to “give life to whom he will” (John 5:21).

All creatures live because God wills it and gives them the power to do so. What they receive is the life of the Son of God. No matter how capable and talented they may be, no matter how great their potential, they are filled with life from the Source of all life. He is the Source and Origin of life. Only He who alone possesses immortality and dwells in light and life says: “I have the power to lay down my life, and I have the power to take it up again.”

The law of God’s government was to be glorified through the death of God’s only-begotten Son. Jesus bore the guilt of the sins of this world. What we need can be found only in the incarnation and death of the Son of God. He was able to suffer because He was sustained by divinity. He was able toendure because He was without blemish of disloyalty or sin … 



Jesus was endowed with the right to bestow immortality. The life He gave as a human being, He took up again and bestowed upon humanity …

“I have come,” he says, “so that they may have life and have it in abundance.” “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life; and I will raise him up on the last day.” “Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst again; rather, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 10:10; 6:54; 4:14)

All who become one with Jesus through faith gain an experience that is life itself and leads to eternal life. “Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.” He “abides in me, and I in him.” “I will raise him up on the last day.” “For I live, and you shall live also.” (John 6:57, 56, 40; 14:19) Jesus became one with humanity so that humanity might become one with Him in spirit and life.”

(Youth Instructor, July 28 + August 4, 1898; emphasis added)

The Father was at work in Christ

Anyone who reads the full quote carefully will recognize where Ellen White places the emphasis: God the Father—the source of all life—was present in Jesus and worked through Him. The Father Himself did not die. That is precisely why He was able to raise the Son from the dead.

The visible revelation of the invisible God

Jesus Himself had described this unity: “Whoever has seen Me has seen the Father … I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me.” (John 14:9–10)

When Ellen White refers to God as the one who alone possesses immortality, she echoes the words of Paul:

“…who alone possesses immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal power!” (1 Timothy 6:16)

It is clear that this refers to the Father: The risen Jesus could be seen and touched (Luke 24:39; 1 John 1:1). The invisible, immortal God, however, remains the source of all life.

Jesus’ words are the Father’s words

Yet we easily forget: Jesus’ words are never independent of the Father:

“The words I speak to you I do not speak on my own.” (John 14:10)

“For the words that you have given me I have given to them, and they have received them and have truly come to know that I came from you, and they believe that you sent me.” (John 17:8)

So when Jesus says, “I lay down my life so that I may take it up again,” the Father is speaking through him at the same time. In Christ, God himself is at work—the Giver of life, who “was in Christ and reconciled the world to himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19).

The Mystery of Divine Self-Giving

Yet a mystery remains.

The Father is immortal and could not die. It was only in his Son that God could give himself completely. In Christ, he gave the most precious thing he has: his life—voluntarily limited to human mortality and, even after his resurrection, limited for all eternity to a three-dimensional space that, compared to the vastness of the universe, is no larger than a speck of dust. Nevertheless, Jesus was, is, and remains filled with the full abundance of divine love and faithfulness, and he seals this as the Bridegroom at the Wedding of the Lamb.

The Paradox of the Gospel

Here we touch upon the paradox of the Gospel:
God remains the Eternal One—and yet gives Himself completely.

And precisely therein lies the overwhelming depth of His love.