The Claims of Jesus Christ
7 - The Resurrection
Twice in John’s Gospel Jesus says “I am the life”, and on each occasion He adds something else. In chapter 14 he adds “the way and the truth”. In chapter 11 verse 25 He says, “I am the Resurrection and the life.”
The story with which these words are connected is interesting and thrilling. Jesus had three great friends in whose home He seems often to have stayed and where He was always welcome. They were Mary, Martha and Lazarus and their home was at Bethany. One day Mary and Martha sent a message to Jesus that their brother was ill. Strangely enough He did not go immediately although He loved them greatly. There was a reason for this that we cannot go into now. Before Jesus reached Bethany, Lazarus had died. When Martha knew Jesus was near at hand, she went quickly out to meet Him. She was always the more outgoing of the two. Mary stayed in the house. Martha poured out her heart to Jesus. “If you had been here”, she said, “my brother would not have died.” Jesus replied, “Your brother is going to rise again.” “I know he will”, Martha responded, “At the resurrection, at the last day.” Then comes this wonderful claim of Jesus, “I am the resurrection and the life, he that believes in me will live, even though he dies; and he who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” Martha cried that she did believe and went away to fetch her sister Mary. Mary came with the same heartbroken words, “If you had been here my brother would not have died!”.
Jesus was deeply moved by their sorrow and sadness, but then He acted and something remarkable happened. He went to the tomb - a cave with a large stone in front of the opening. He told them to take the stone away. They were horrified because Lazarus had been dead for four days and the smell would be awful, but Jesus persisted. “Did I not tell you”, He said, “that if you believe, you will see the glory of God”. So they took the stone away. Then Jesus prayed to His heavenly Father and cried, “Lazarus, come out”, and out he came, wrapped in grave clothes, but alive and well. This was Jesus’ most striking miracle of raising people from the dead. He raised Jairus’ daughter just after she had died; He raised the son of the Widow of Nain as he was going to the place of burial; but only in this instance did He raise someone from the dead who had been in the grave four days. It was a clear demonstration of the truth of His words, “I am the resurrection and the life.”
These words of the Lord Jesus, “I am the resurrection” add some thing to the idea of life of which we have been thinking already. They add a completion and fullness to the idea. When we believe in Him and receive Him as our Saviour, Jesus gives us eternal or everlasting life. The New Testament makes it clear that if we have this life we live on after death in the blessedness of God’s presence. It also says in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 that there is going to be a resurrection of the body. All the early Christian creeds said, “I believe in the resurrection of the body”. This will not happen until Jesus returns in glory to set up His kingdom. It will be at the time of the new heavens and the new earth, which we read about at the end of the book of Revelation. We do not know what our resurrection bodies will be like. Paul says they are spiritual bodies, incorruptible, bodies that will not change or die. Obviously they will be the kind of bodies that can live in the new heavens and the new earth. It does not really matter, though, what they are like. What we do know is that through Jesus Christ, we shall once again be whole persons, with a body that is glorious and just what God wants it to be.
Paul also tells us in that same chapter that, if the Lord should return while we are still alive, as He well may do, our bodies will be changed and we shall receive our resurrection bodies there and then. Jesus not only does wonderful things for us now, but He also has a triumphant future for us when we shall serve, worship and praise Him with glorified, spiritual bodies. There will be nothing to limit or hinder us.
There is another side to this resurrection life. Paul speaks of it in a spiritual way and applies it to our lives now. In Ephesians 2 verse 6, he says that God has raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms. In the letter to the Colossians 3 verse 1, “Since you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” In both these cases Paul is obviously speaking of our relationship with God in this present life. We are to share right now in the resurrection life of Jesus. This again brings the idea of fullness in Christian living. Fullness, that is, in the life that Jesus gives us. You remember that His words in chapter 10 of John’s Gospel were,
“I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.” That is what Paul is saying - not just life, but a full, healthy, abundant life. Paul is not speaking of physical life, but of spiritual life; this refers to our relationship with God, with each other and with our circumstances. It means living a Christian life that is robust and satisfying.
Sadly, by no means all believers live a life like this, and this wrong. God wants them to live this abundant life and has provided the grace for them to do so through Christ’s resurrection and by sending his Holy Spirit to live in them. The power of this resurrection life is the power to live like Christ. We can only glorify God and serve Him as we ought by living in this way. People all around will only see what a real Saviour Jesus is, when they see Him living in his believing people.
Of course, if we are going to share in Christ’s resurrection life, there needs to be a dying. Paul says this in Romans 6 verses 10 and 11. He says that if we are to live in the likeness of Christ’s resurrection, we need to be planted in the likeness of His death. You see, the life that Jesus lived after He had risen from the dead was a very powerful one and it is that powerful risen life of his that He wants us to share and enjoy. But if we are going to do this, we must share in his death as well. In writing to the Galatians, Paul said that He had been crucified with Christ, so that it was no longer the old selfish “I” that was living, but Christ was living in Him (Galatians 2 verse 20). It was not merely idealistic dying with Christ; something had really happened. His old sinful attitudes and outlook had been yielded up to death so that Christ might live in Paul by his Spirit in all his fullness.
When we think of it this way, the words, “I am the resurrection and the life” take on a new and wonderful meaning. We too may die to sin with Christ. Because He bore our sins on the cross, then we can begin to live for God fully and completely.