I Am The Resurrection And The Life

I Am the Resurrection and the Life

Whenever we hear these words from Jesus, we think about His resurrection from the dead. He arose from the grave and lives eternally. Case closed.

But, let’s look at something that most of us fail to see. Here is the actual quote from Jesus:

John 11:25-26

“Jesus said to her, ‘I Am the Resurrection and the Life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies...’”

Now, here is Mary’s account of Jesus’s actual resurrection:

John 20:18

“Mary Magdalene came announcing to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord.’”

Look at those verses again. Notice anything? Jesus was talking about a resurrection nine chapters before He came back to life. He hadn’t been resurrected yet. So, if He wasn’t talking about His own resurrection, what was He talking about?

He was talking about ours. In John 11, He had just given life back to His friend Lazarus and He took the opportunity to teach those around Him something about life and death. This is what Jesus was getting at: We are dead.

Let me say that again. You and I are dead. We are born that way. I know … you are breathing and reading these words, so you must be alive. But that is not what Jesus is talking about. He is telling us is that our sin has resulted in our spiritual deaths.

We are lost and forever separated from God. So, here comes the good news from Jesus. Jesus is Life! He is the Resurrection! He can bring us back to life in God! Paul writes:

Ephesians 2:4-6

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.”

This is what the life and death of Jesus was all about. It wasn’t so that HE could live, it was so that WE could live!

He defeated death and saved us from our sin. So we can live again, with a new life in Him! He is the Resurrection and the Life!

Next week is Holy Week. Let’s look very closely at that life Jesus offers. We’ll start that on Monday.