April 16, 2004

THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE

"Jesus said, 'I am the resurrection and I am life. If a man has faith in me, even though he die, he shall come to life' " (John 11:25, NEB).

This ringing statement of fact was intended for a much larger audience than simply that of Martha and her bereaved family. It was a life-giving, hope-generating message of global dimensions. It was directed to all God's children across the centuries. In this title, Christ again asserts His divinity. As the Life-giver, He is both the God of creation and the God of the restoration. In His resurrection power, He guarantees life to all who sleep in Him (see 1 Corinthians 15:22, 23).

As Life-giver, Jesus has life in himself. As the Life-giver, He offers eternal and abundant life here and now to all who believe in Him (see 1 John 5:11, 12). In so doing, Jesus assures the believer of the resurrection from the sleep of death to a life that measures with the life of God. Because He is the resurrection and the life, those who believe on Him will not perish but have eternal life (see John 3:16).

Paul, in his Magna Carta on the resurrection, declared that by Christ came also the resurrection of the dead and that as the "firstfruits," Christ has also guaranteed the resurrection of all who sleep in Him (see 1 Corinthians 15:22, 23). Because Christ is the resurrection and the life, He is alive. And because He lives, we too shall live (see John 14:19). Ellen G. White says it beautifully. "To the believer, Christ is the resurrection and the life. In our Saviour the life that was lost through sin is restored; for He has life in Himself to quicken whom He will. He is invested with the right to give immortality. The life that He laid down in humanity, He takes up again, and gives [it] to humanity."--The Faith I live By, p. 183.

My Prayer Today: Lord, because Jesus is the resurrection and the life, I have the assurance of eternal life. Amen.