The resurrection and the life

John 11:1-54 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ² It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. ³ So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” ⁴ But when Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.” …    ¹⁷ So when Jesus came, He found that he had already been in the tomb four days. ¹⁸ Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off; ¹⁹ and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother. ²⁰ Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went to meet Him, but Mary stayed at the house. ²¹ Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.” ²³ Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” ²⁴ Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” ²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, ²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” ²⁷ She said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who comes into the world.”

²⁸ When she had said this, she went away and called Mary her sister, saying secretly, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” ²⁹ And when she heard it, she got up quickly and was coming to Him…

³² Therefore, when Mary came where Jesus was, she saw Him, and fell at His feet, saying to Him, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.” ³³ When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled, ³⁴ and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to Him, “Lord, come and see.” ³⁵ Jesus wept. ³⁶ So the Jews were saying, “See how He loved him!” ³⁷ But some of them said, “Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind man, have kept this man also from dying?”

³⁸ So Jesus, again being deeply moved within, came to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. ³⁹ Jesus said, “Remove the stone.” Martha, the sister of the deceased, said to Him, “Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days.” ⁴⁰ Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” ⁴¹ So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised His eyes, and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. ⁴² I knew that You always hear Me; but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me.” ⁴³ When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” ⁴⁴ The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

⁴⁵ Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him. ⁴⁶ But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies.”    There are three types of resurrection and Jesus is the source of them all. There is the final resurrection to eternal life which we have in Christ because of the finished work of the cross. There is also the miraculous resurrection of the dead back to this physical life which Jesus Himself experienced and which He did for Lazarus and others in scripture. There is also the spiritual resurrection which we experience in Christ when we are born again, when we are made new. There is one common necessity in all three of these resurrection experiences. Regardless of which resurrection we speak of, in order for there to be a resurrection there must be death.

When we look at the resurrection of a dead person back to this physical life there is no other explanation but the miraculous. When someone is healed doubters and doctors may try to give other explanations. They may try to give credit to medicine or almost anything but God. When someone is physically raised from the dead back to life there is no explanation but the miraculous. Jesus asked Martha, “Do you believe this?”  He asks us the same question today, do we believe He is the resurrection and the life? Do we believe that He is able to physically raise the dead back to life today as He did then?

Do you believe this? Do you believe that Jesus came to give us victory over death, that as Jesus says:  “he who believes in Me will live even if he dies”  Do we believe as Jesus says that He is the way, not a way to eternal life? John 14:6 says: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”         Only through Jesus, the resurrection, can anyone have eternal life with God. There is no other way. If we believe this we should then be faithful to share it with others. Each person has only one life to live and physical death will come to all. Should we not want all those we know to know that: “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) Yet knowing that Jesus is the resurrection is not enough, they/we must believe.

To know and believe that Jesus gives us eternal life we must first believe that He also gives us spiritual life. To know the eternal resurrection we must know the new birth in Christ in this life. Jesus says:  “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10) That too is the resurrection that Jesus gives, abundant life here and now. A life filled with all the blessings and promises of God. In Luke 17:20-21 it says:    Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed,  nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”      In your midst is literally translated to be within you. The abundant life Christ gives us, as the resurrection is a life in which we possess all of the kingdom of God within us. In fact God Himself, His Holy Spirit dwells in us.

Remember though, for there to be a resurrection there must be death. In order for us to live the abundant life Jesus gives us we must die to the life we have. If we would have the abundant life of Christ, if we would live in His resurrection power, if we would possess the kingdom of God and all that it has, we must die. Jesus says:      “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.  What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?  Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” (Luke 9:23-26)    It may be possible to gain eternal life without changing how we live, simply by believing Jesus is the Christ, but Jesus Himself says that if we would be His disciples, if we would truly follow Him we must deny ourselves daily. We must choose between the life we have and the life He gives. We cannot choose to remain alive to sin and expect to live in the resurrection and abundance of Christ. In order for there to be a resurrection there must be death. Jesus asks:  “What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?”     Nothing this world can offer, no material thing, no pleasure or self satisfaction is worth losing what we gain in Christ.

Lord Jesus Christ thank You that You are the resurrection, You give life where there is death. You are the way to the Father, both now and forever. I choose to deny myself what the world offers and live the abundant life You give. I choose to die to self and to sin and live in the resurrection You give. Holy Spirit, fill me, abide with me dwell in me that I may walk in the resurrection power of Christ.   Amen