“Jesus said
unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever lives and believes in me shall
never die. Do you believe this? She said unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that
you are the Christ, the Son of God, who should come into the world” (John
11:25-27, KJ2000).
We are living in the end-time, the time about which
our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, prophesied that “some of you shall they
cause to be put to death. And you shall
be hated of all men for my name’s sake” (Luke 21:16-17). It is a time in which the people of God, if not
strong in faith, are likely to suffer trepidation. However, it is written that “God has not
given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2nd
Timothy 1:7). Of all the fears to which
humanity is prone, the fear of death is greatest. No man, not even the saints, are exempt from
the experience of it. It is natural with
all human beings. But the believer is
not a natural man/woman. The believer is
a spiritual person; he/she is vitally linked to God in Christ. He/she is indwelled by the Spirit Divine Who
fills his/her soul with power and love which enable him/her to overcome
fear. To experience victory over the
natural tendency to fear death, the believer must have an active mind. He must harness the mental power of believing
to such an extent that faith dominates his mind totally. Faith, active faith, is a basic
characteristic of a believer’s sound mind.
Only faith can conquer and eliminate the fear of death. In this end-time when the godless world seems
to be possessed by the hate-demons and are committed to extinction of the
followers of Christ in their territories, the people of God should not waste
time entertaining fear. We should
instead encourage ourselves in the words of our Saviour and Lord and become strong in faith.
God Almighty made us in His image and likeness. The implication is that He made us to live
forever in fellowship and communion with Him.
We were not made to die but to live and to live forever. Death was never God’s plan for us. Death came into human experience as a result
of the first man’s disobedience of clear instructions from his Maker (Genesis
2:16-17). Since all humans descended
from the first man, we have inherited the curse of death; we are all subject to
death. That notwithstanding, those who
believe in Christ are promised exemption from death as our text indicates.
Understanding
Death
Constitutionally, man individually is a tripartite
being – spirit, soul and body (1st Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 4:12;
Genesis 2:7). But existentially he is a
two-dimensional being – soul (spiritual dimension) and body (physical
dimension) (see Matthew 10:28: 1st Kings 17:21-22). Death is neither the absence of being nor the
cessation of being. Death is not a
movement from the consciousness of being to the unconsciousness of
nonbeing. On the contrary, death is a
movement from the consciousness of being in
whole to the consciousness of being in
part. Death is the disintegration/disruption of the wholeness of being in time.
For the believer in Christ, it is a guided and guarded movement, a
transition, from the consciousness of this world to the consciousness of the
heavenly realm, populated by discarnate souls of the saints, and the holy
angels. The essential thing about death
is separation. Death is of three kinds:
(1) Physical death, i.e. separation of the soul from the body in time. (2) Spiritual death, i.e., separation of the
soul from God in time. (3) Eternal
Death, i.e. separation of the soul from God for all eternity (Matthew
25:41). In the Bible this is designated
“second death” (Revelation 21:8). This
explanation of death is vital to our understanding of our Lord’s declaration:
“And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die.”
Text Context
The context of our text involves Jesus’ reception of
news about Lazarus’ sickness and His eventual visit to Bethany four days after
Lazarus’ death (John 11:1-18). The
testimonies of Lazarus’ sisters, Martha and Mary, and their sympathizers, are
noteworthy: “Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if you had been here, my
brother would not have died. But I know,
that even now, whatsoever you will ask of God, God will give it to you” (vss.
21-22); “Then when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his
feet, saying unto him, Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have
died” (vs. 32); “And some of them said, Could not this man, who opened the eyes
of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?” (vs. 37). These testimonies implies the great faith of Martha
and Mary and their sympathizers in our Lord’s power to prevent or stop physical
death from claiming its targeted victim.
Jesus
declares His identity
Martha, Mary and Lazarus their late brother were
friends of our Lord. Before now they
knew Him as Teacher, Preacher, Healer and Miracle Worker. Thus they had no slightest doubt that He
could have prevented their brother’s death if He had come back to Bethany
immediately on receiving report of his being sick. We can confidently declare that the Lord’s
delay of his return to Bethany was deliberate as He Himself suggests when He
said “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son
of God might be glorified thereby” (vs. 4; cf. vs. 14-15, 40). The Lord Christ intended to use the occasion
of Lazarus’ death to demonstrate His awesome divine power and authority over
death. Thus, in vs. 25 He uttered one of
His many awesome claims: “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.”
In fact, Jesus made claims which are not lawful for man to utter. That He uttered them shows He was and forever
remains more than man. He was and
remains God-incarnate. By the time He
raised Lazarus from dead, Martha, Mary and Lazarus and their sympathizers experienced
a definite increase in their knowledge of the Lord. They then knew Him as a Conqueror of
death. HalleluYAH!
It is spiritually rewarding and edifying to our souls
to note a few of His other awesome claims relevant to the purpose of this
piece: “He who believes in Me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life” (John 6:47-48, NKJV).
“Most assuredly I say to you, if anyone keeps My word he shall never see death”
(John 8:51). “The thief does not come
except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.
I have come that they may have life; and that they may have it more
abundantly” (John 10:10). “My sheep hear
My voice, and I know them and they follow Me.
And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall
anyone snatch them out of My hand” (John 10:27-28). “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father except through Me”
(John 14:6).
Our Lord declares His identity here as the
Resurrection and the Life. By this He
means that He is the Divine Source and Dynamic Cause of life and the Author of
resurrection. He is the Divine Conqueror
of Death. He is the One Who imparts
divine life to men who believe in Him.
Divine life is the soul’s relationship with God in Christ forever. Resurrection is the soul’s return from death
and the grave to a new bodily existence on earth. Because Jesus is the Resurrection and the
Life, those who believe wholeheartedly in Him; those who have surrendered the
rule of their life to Him, need not be afraid of physical death. They can, like Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednego, through faith in the Lord Who is the Resurrection and the Life,
despise the rulers of this world and the death with which they are
threatened. Though they be put to death
physically their murderers cannot put them to death eternally. The Master said, “yet shall he live.” They shall live eternally at the resurrection
on the last day. The acquiring of life and the experience of victory over death
and the grave in resurrection is determined by one’s standing in relation to
Christ, i.e., consistent faith and trust in Christ.
Jesus and
living believers
What did our Lord mean by His declaration: “And
whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die” (vs. 26). He means that
those who are alive on earth and are spiritually dead, if they believe in Him,
if they surrender the rule of their life to Him, they will never die eternally;
they will be exempted from the second death.
Eternal death shall not have dominion over them. They will live forever. In view of this truth, we can confidently
declare that death, eternal death, is not for the believer. Consequently, as believers in Christ we
should not be afraid of those who can only destroy our bodies, cutting short
our sojourn on earth and think gleefully that they are doing service to
God. The LORD GOD ALMIGHTY, our Heavenly
Father, has set a limit to their destructiveness. They cannot destroy our souls. Neither should we be afraid of physical
death. I believe physical death in the experience of the righteous is a sweet mystical
experience. In it we become keenly aware
of the loss of fellowship with our loved ones, but, at the same time, we are
given an acute sense of the presence of God, and we behold the holy angels sent
by our Lord to take and lead us home.
Remember Deacon Stephen? I believe this was his experience as he was
dying (see Acts 7:55-56).
It should be noted that God views death differently
from the way we view it. God views death
in terms of the second death, eternal death.
That is the death which bothers God so much. That is the death in which He says He has no
pleasure (Ezekiel 18:23, 32). God does
not want anyone of us to die the second death.
Hell fire was never meant for us (Matthew 25:41). No human being has
business going to hell. By divine design
hell is not our eternal home. The proof
of this truth is God’s sending of Jesus Christ as His Son and as our
Representative to bear the punishment for our sins by dying on the cross, and
then raising Him from death so we can
believe in Him as our Saviour and Lord, and receive God’s kind of life, eternal
life. Practically, we are given
exemption from eternal death. Thus eternal death is not for the believer in
Christ.
I should point out that the preceding does not exhaust
the interpretation of our Lord’s declaration.
There is a sense in which it is absolutely true that whosoever lives and
believes in Christ shall never die, i.e., shall never die physically. It is the eschatological sense. The Apostle Paul told the Thessalonian
believers: “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we
who
are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not precede them
who are asleep. For the Lord himself
shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and
with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we
who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds,
to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1st
Thessalonians 4:15-17, emphasis mine) By
the time the Lord returns to earth, not all believers will have been martyred. Those still living and who have not apostatized
will be taken to heaven without tasting death.
Thus our Lord’s declaration is literally true eschatologically.
What is your
response to Jesus’ awesome claim?
After declaring that He is the resurrection and the
life and that whosoever lives and believes in Him shall never die, Jesus asked
Martha “Do you believe this?” Martha’s
response is noteworthy. “She said unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that you are
the Christ, the Son of God, who should come into the world.” (vs. 27). That, exactly, is the response God expects
from every human being. It is the only
response that brings about spiritual transformation of the human soul. It is the only response which produces
salvation of the human soul. It is the
only response that moves Christ to bestow eternal life on the human soul. It is the only response that guarantees
exemption from the experience of the second death. If the reader has not met Jesus, I urge you
to make this response today.
Let me conclude with this thought: Physical death –
the separation of soul from the body – is the destiny and end of all men. No man can resist it when it comes, not even
those killing and beheading the followers of Jesus Christ. Every person will die, both the killer and
the to-be-killed. But those who are wise
and are concerned about the eternal safety and peace of their precious and
immortal souls, will prepare for their ultimate, inevitable exit from this
physical dimension of life by believing in Jesus Christ and receiving eternal
life which He alone gives to men.
Receive Jesus today and begin your walk through the old paths, the
ancient paths and the narrow way which leads to life everlasting.
THE LORD’S SCRIBE
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