Sequence for Life

Jesus said to her, "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?" (John 11:25-26)

I just finished reading a sermon about the theories of why Jesus had to die. It was well thought out and stimulating and insightful. Upon finishing that article I opened my Bible to meditate again on this story of Lazarus and the first thing I read were these verses again. In the context of what I just finished reading these verses suddenly take on even more significance.

What I am starting to see now is a two-stage process of being returned to life that Jesus may be describing here. First of all Jesus refers to the fact that He Himself is both the origin of life, the only valid Source of life that exists, and also that even where death is present Jesus, as the originator of life can bring life back even when it has been taken away. There is no limitation on God's part as to His ability to produce life, and death from God's perspective is not an insurmountable enemy like we tend to view it.

But just because God has all the capability and power and desire to bring life into places of death, it does not follow that this is what is always going to happen. After explaining His own role as the ultimate life-giver, Jesus next exposes one of the most vital elements of the mix by talking about belief. And why is belief in Jesus/God so important?

It has to do with the issue of love and the nature of what true love is and how it operates and exists. Most people have not understood the truth about love and confuse it with amorous feelings or even lust. But true love is radically different than what most of us have ever experienced that we termed love. True love is totally selfless, but more than that real love values our freedom to reject or accept it more than anything else. Without this freedom to spurn love, to turn away from love and even to abuse it if we choose, love itself cannot exist or be experienced.

God is love itself. Everything God does, thinks or acts out is an expression of true love. Because of this reality and the nature of love itself, God has the greatest regard for our right to make our own choices. God is fiercely protective of our right to choose because He wants us to be able to respond to His love. Belief is a word intimately involved in this formula for life, for what we choose to believe about God and His intents, His character and His desires concerning us makes all the difference in the world as to how much God is allowed to do in saving us. If we choose to really believe in God's true love for us, enough to submit ourselves without reservation to everything He asks us to do, trusting that He has our best in mind all the time, then God is given permission in the supernatural realm to do all sorts of things in our lives that He is prohibited from doing without our vital permission.

On the other hand, if we choose to cling to lies about God circulated by His enemy and allow those lies to prejudice us against God and turn away from His offers of love and discipline, then God cannot finish bringing healing and life or restore us back to wholeness as He longs to do through the plan of salvation. He is limited by our own choices to barricade our hearts against His attractions of love for us and ends up watching us self-destruct as we wither away disconnected from the only Source of power that available to keep us alive.

It now is making more sense to me why Jesus put these elements in the sequence that He did in these phrases. Here is what I see Jesus saying to Martha and to all who are willing to pay attention.

I am the resurrection and the life – Jesus is the great and only power source that exists for anyone to remain alive, both for those who are currently alive and hope for those who have died.

he who believes in Me – Anyone who chooses to lay aside their fears and turn away from the lies about Him will be reconnected with this vital source of power, of life, of love.

he who believes in Me will live – The result of choosing to connect with Life in Christ is the establishment of something like an umbilical cord through which regenerating life is allowed to flow into our lives and even into our physical bodies as well. A person upon connecting with Jesus through trust in Him begins to come alive. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. (John 10:10)

even if he dies – Even if a person's physical body dies that vital but hidden umbilical cord is not lost though it may for a period be inactive while they sleep in the grave. That person's eternal existence after the resurrection when they receive a new and much better body is guaranteed. Their choice to embrace the Source of Life as their dependence and trust His heart in implicit obedience brings them into vital connection with the presence of Life and frees them from the doom of eternal death to live with Him forever even if they fall asleep in death here on earth.

everyone who lives and believes in Me – All who have ever come into existence, who have been endowed with the power of choice and have chosen to turn away from the lies about God circulated by His enemy and have chosen to trust His love and His ways in their life are brought into this class of people Jesus refers to here.

will never die – Those who choose to be part of the above-described group will never experience the second death that comes from rejecting God's offer of life. This is the death that heaven calls death, not like the sleep that occurs when we die today.

This belief is not just a mental assent kind of belief that Jesus is talking about here; this is a deliberate choice to trust in God's goodness, fairness, righteousness, mercy, forgiveness and dangerous purity. Why is it vital we believe in God's dangerous purity and holiness? Because coming into close proximity with the intensity of God's powerful presence without being first brought into harmony with His purity is a disastrous idea that always results in death.

To believe in God and in Jesus is not just an intellectual decision though that is important. Jesus is talking about coming into harmony with the will of God for us, submitting our will to be molded within His will, surrendering our resistance to Him and allowing Him to flush out our rebellion and sinful, selfish desires, replacing them with character traits and a disposition in full harmony with the source of Life. To live forever in the presence of Jesus requires a belief that goes far beyond theory, a belief that is totally transforming in every part of our thinking and living. But it is also a work that only God can accomplish as we allow Him to dwell within us by our trust in His heart.

Too many have assumed that being saved for eternity is little more than a legal issue that can be settled by intellectually accepting a 'substitute punishment' born by Jesus on the cross. But this is a very dangerous shortcut that has deceived millions and causes many to miss the most important issue in the controversy between Christ and Satan. The belief Jesus is talking about here in His conversation with Martha is a fully surrendered trust where we allow God to have full access to all of our being and our thinking and existence. It really is an all or nothing proposition. If we want to have life we have to embrace it fully in Christ. Anything less will end eventually in death.

The final part of Jesus' statements to Martha is the most important. Do you believe this?

Do I believe this? This is the great pivot point for my and everyone's eternal destiny – our personal and powerful ability to choose our own destiny for ourselves by how we choose to relate to Jesus' offer.