Part two of a two part post.

“Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said to Him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day!’ Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to Him, ‘Yes Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.’” John 11:23-27.

Martha knew a great deal of the Christ, His teachings and the Scriptures. This family must have had a very strong faith in the God of Abraham long before they met Jesus.

Scripture reveals to us how this happens.

“It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.” John 6:45.

Herein is salvation; all are taught by God, however, not all are interested in hearing, if they do not listen, they cannot learn. On this principle, eventually everyone will make their eternal decision.

Jesus said “I am the resurrection and the Life”, if you want to be taught by God, if you really want to hear, listen to these words. Jesus is the resurrection. As God the Son, His power extends to reaching into the grave itself.

The Lord limited the use of His power so he could be dependent on the Father in this life, because of this you look at Him and you see a man.

Do not be fooled, as God the Son His power is infinite. There is no force known to man, in nature or of man’s own creation that comes remotely close to the God of creation.

All our power is less than a soap bubble popping compared to a hydrogen bomb. When Jesus resurrected Lazarus, He called out, “Lazarus, come forth!” Some say if He had not specified Lazarus, all the graves would have emptied!

Jesus is the resurrection; He is also the life. There are many ways of looking at the life. He is the sustainer of physical life:

“And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist [are held together].” Colossians 1:17.

“All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” John 1:3.

“For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible. Whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him”, Colossians 1:16.

It could mean the quality of life.

“I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly”, John 10:10b.

When He says, “I am the Life”; it means all of this. However, in this verse the life is something we never had. All of mankind needs to grasp an immutable fact, and that is we are all born dead.

We were without any, any, hope in the world. Men and women go through life asking, “What can I do to please God?” “What must I do to be saved?” What can a dead person do to please God?

The answer is this:

“Because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (By grace you have been saved)”, Ephesians 2:4-5.

This is not the physical death that we see around us. A good illustration of this is found in Genesis 2.

“[God said] But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” Genesis 2:17.

When Adam and his wife ate of it, did they die?

No, they did not. Adam lived for nine hundred and thirty years altogether. Since God cannot lie, he must have meant something else.

Adam’s death was a spiritual death. Having died to God, Adam was now separated from God by sin; as are all of his descendants who are born dead and doomed to eternal separation from God.

Now that is shortsighted of God to create a humanity, which is destined to go to hell with no hope of changing their destination. You must never believe that.

God is omniscient He knows everything. He knew your name in eternity past. He knew Adam and Eve were going to sin, He knew all of history before it happened, He knew that His Son would be nailed to a cross for all of our sins.

God is infinite in knowledge. You cannot use the word infinite about anything else. All things are finite, they begin and they end. This is not true of God. God would not have created us if there were no way to save us from hell.

We have only to confess that we are sinners, as our father Adam was, and turn away from them as we accept the gift for which Christ paid such a terrible price. This is the reason that He is the life.

“And when she had said these things, she went her way and secretly called Mary her sister, saying, ‘The Teacher has come and is calling for you.’ As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to Him. Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met Him. Then the Jews who were with her in the house, and comforting her, when they saw that Mary rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying ‘She is going to the tomb to weep there.’” John 11:28-31.

Verse 31 tells us when Mary left the house a group of people followed her. The ripples which began with the words, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” John11:3b now spread outward to a group of people who will be stunned beyond belief in just a few minutes.

“Then, when Mary came where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying to Him, ‘Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.’” John 11:32.

When Martha heard of the Lord’s arrival, she went out and met Him; but Mary remained in the house. Martha met Jesus; Mary fell at His feet and cried out the same words as her sister.

Martha was broken; Mary was shattered. Sisters, yet so different, remember that. Words of comfort may work on one while sending another into greater despair. Choose your words of comfort carefully.

“Therefore, when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her weeping, He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. And He said, ‘Where have you laid him?’ They said to Him, ‘Lord, come and see.’ Jesus wept.  Then the Jews said, ‘See how He loved him!’” John 11:33-36.

This is the end result of sin: death, weeping, misery, loss. This was not just a fact of life, it is a vivid picture of what the Lord was going to shoulder when He was lifted up to die on a cross. Scripture says this of Jesus.

“Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:2b.

Another passage puts it this way.

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all”. Isaiah 53:6.

We strayed, we sinned and the resultant misery has been our part for thousands of years. Yes, the Lord empathizes with us. He groans, is troubled and He weeps for us.

The payment for our sin is done. There is nothing to be added to that. Yet death and misery will remain until His return. Then all those who recognize Him as Lord will experience eternal joy.

Even now He is with us always and continually sympathizes with our weaknesses.

“For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:15-16.

We also have Christ’s indwelling Holy Spirit who; “…Makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” Romans 8:26.

“Then the Jews said, ‘See how He loved him!’” John 11:36.

Jesus loves us too. He died for our sakes that we might live with Him. God the Father loves us too, so much so that He turned His back on His only Son on the cross for our sakes.

“And some of them said, ‘Could not this Man, who opened the eyes of the blind, also have kept this man from dying?’” John 11:37.

The statement, the eyes of the blind, is a reference to the man born blind in John chapter nine.

“Then Jesus, again groaning in Himself, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, ‘Take away the stone.’ Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to Him, ‘Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Did I not say to you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?’ Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying.” John 11:38-41.

Two women, disheveled, red swollen eyes, tear streaked cheeks; standing hand in hand before their brother’s tomb as the stone is rolled away. Why would Jesus want to view a rotting corpse? Then Jesus lifted His eyes heavenward and prayed.

“Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me”, John 11:41-42.

Then He cried with a loud voice words that no one there that day would ever forget.

“Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus come forth!’ And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with grave-clothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Loose him, and let him go’” John 11:43-44.

The tremendous emotional upheaval from rock bottom grief to the height of joy must have been unbelievable.

Consider Lazarus for a moment now. How like his resurrection is our salvation. The first thing he must have noticed in that little cave was the awful stench.

When salvation comes to a person the first thing they will notice is the stench of their own sins. To escape this they, like Lazarus, arise and make their way toward the light of Christ; though their eyes too may be dimmed as were Lazarus’s eyes.

While Lazarus may have been able to remove his own grave clothes, Jesus tells others to loose him. The new Christian needs help no matter how odious the task.

Under those grave clothes, there was a healthy man, not a rotting corpse. This will hold just as true for the new Christian.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17.

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.” 2 Corinthians 4:16.

Do you recall the ripples in the pond? Well they are still spreading but it takes on an odd twist at this point.

“Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things Jesus did, believed in Him.” John 11:45.

In John 11:45-57 many of these Jewish witnesses came to believe in Jesus, but others went away and told the Pharisees of this.

The Pharisees must have believed the word of the eyewitnesses because they convened a council to discuss the matter.

“What shall we do? For this man works many signs.” John 11:47b.

“Then, from that day on, they plotted to put Him to death.” John 11:53.

The ripples swelled outward until they crashed up against the stony hearts of those who hated Jesus. What will you do with Jesus?

Two Women taken from godisrevealed.com
published on 1-19-13 and updated on 12- .

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.