Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.

He minced no words. Lazarus is dead! (Jn. 11:14). His friend was dead, but His disciples could not understand when Jesus told them he was going to wake Lazarus from his sleep (11). So, he spoke in plain terms to them—Lazarus was dead!

The story moves to the outskirts of Bethany, where Jesus meets Martha. She also did not understand when the Lord told her not to worry because He came to raise Lazarus from death. Martha knew there was no life in her brother after four days in the tomb. How could Jesus raise him to life? Yes, God listens to Jesus, but this was about a dead man whose body was decaying.

I am the resurrection and the life, Jesus told Martha (25).

How could she get it? Martha needed the Holy Spirit to open her mind to comprehend it (27, 39).

When they finally rolled away the stone covering of the tomb, Jesus prayed and commanded the dead man to come out of it (41-43).

Lazarus, come out!

That, my friend, is the story of your life and mine in Christ Jesus. We were dead in our trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1). But God, in the fullness of His mercy, spoke the quickening word into our dead spirits and resurrected us. He gave us new life by uniting us to Himself and making us partakers of His divine nature (4-5; 2 Pt. 1:3-4). It is all the working of His grace in us who were spiritually dead! There was nothing we could do to free ourselves from that awful condition of separation from God, which was sending us to hell.

Just as Jesus did not leave Lazarus at the graveyard but sat with him over a meal at a dinner in His honor (Jn. 12:1-2), Christ has raised us and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Him (6).

Christian, you are an expensive treasure of God for eternity. God is parading you as the masterpiece of the incomparable riches of His grace before the heavenly host. It is all for His glory and praise (7).

For God has saved you by grace, through faith—and that not of yourself, it is the gift of God—not works, so that [you] cannot boast (8).

Grace, given to you through faith—all the work of His bounteous grace. Undeserving and unable to pay for your salvation—God has gifted you with eternal life in His beloved Son—Christ Jesus. No work of yours is involved. It leaves you with no room for boasting.

Now, He is sharpening you—honing you beautifully as a Master Craftsman extraordinaire to do the good works He has ordained before the foundation of the world for you to walk in them (10). He has started it, and He will finish it (Phil. 1:6). He works in and through you to give you the desire and the power to do what pleases him (Phil 2: 13). That is cause for celebration every moment of your life.

Give Him glory, my friend, for God has been good to you.

Shalom.