I Am the Resurrection and the Life

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"I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” – (Jn. 11:25-26, NASB)

A brief excerpt from yesterday's message.

   Context is everything in Scripture. Knowing and understanding the context of a verse is key in understanding the meaning of the verse itself. In the above passage Lazarus had died, and Jesus was "too late" by most accounts. However, man could not understand the power of God. It had always been Jesus' plan to raise Lazarus from the grave. Therefore, had He arrived any earlier, then the miracle would have not been possible. After Jesus arrives He is greeted by Lazarus's family. As Jesus was talking with one of Lazarus's sisters, Jesus tells her, "I am the resurrection and the life." Now, I am not a Greek scholar, so there is much about the original Greek that I do not understand. However, I noticed something interesting when studying this passage. Jesus does not tell Martha that He has resurrection power and the power to give life, He tells her plainly that He is the resurrection and the life. In the Greek, these two words are nouns. In the following verses, where Jesus talks of those who believe and live, and never die, verbs are used. When you put those thoughts together it looks something like this: We are resurrected(v) and live(v) because He is the resurrection(n) and the life(n).  As Christians, we will never see spiritual death. Not because we have life, but because we have Jesus. We don't have life because Jesus gave it to us, we have life because he gave us Himself, and He is Life.

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