John 11:25

New King James Version

 

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.

 

For Encouragement

Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up (Jn. 11:11).

His disciples could not understand Him. If he sleeps, he will wake up. So why go where the people tried to stone Him?

So, he spoke to them in plain terms.

Lazarus is dead, and for your sake, I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe! (14-15).

Martha and Mary could not understand Jesus either. Their brother will rise again sounded like an excuse for the Master’s four-day tardiness (23).

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

How could Martha get it (27)? How could her sister, Mary, understand through her grief (32)? Tears and sorrow had blinded them to God’s glory, like all of us. The prospect of future resurrection was not comforting to them. Yes, Martha knew God listens to Jesus, but this was about a corpse in the tomb for four days and decaying.

Their pain and ignorance touched the Master’s heart so deeply that He wept with them in His humanity. Yet He was there to do just what they could not fathom with their natural minds—to reveal the glory of God before their eyes by bringing their brother back from the dead.

Reluctantly, they rolled the stone away from the tomb. Jesus prayed, and with a loud voice, commanded the dead man:

Lazarus, come out! (40-43).

The Creator and giver of life commanded, and the dead responded with life. That, my friend, is your life’s story 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 the working of His grace in us who were spiritually dead! We could do nothing to free ourselves from the penalty of sin, death, 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 (Jn. 12:1-2), God has raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Him (Eph. 2:6). We dine at the Lord’s Supper now and will sit and dine with Him in glory.

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 by grace through faith, and all for His glory and praise (7-8).

Now, He is sharpening you—honing you beautifully as a Master Craftsman to do the good works He has foreordained for you (10). He has started it, and He will finish it (Phil. 1:6). That is cause for celebration every moment of your life.

Give Him glory, my friend!

Pray with Me

What a wonderful God you are! For your grace that saved us from sin and raised us from the grave with Christ, we cannot thank you enough. Receive our praise and worship, now and into eternity in Him. Amen.