Life

“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live’” (John 11:25).

This is the single greatest source of hope we have. It is the promise upon which all other promises hinge. Life, and not just any life, but new life. Every parent of a sick child prays for healing, but we know that not all of them will receive it. The grief that a parent experiences when they lose a child is too deep to comprehend or put into words. Death is an enemy to hope. But there is One greater, who has already conquered the enemy . . .

In the scripture above, Jesus is talking to Martha. Her brother and Jesus’ dear friend, Lazarus, has just died. Marth is confused and hurt. Why did this happen? Why did Jesus not heal him when she had seen/heard of Him healing so many others? Why? If you have read the story, you know that Jesus brought Lazarus back to life after having been dead four days, but Lazarus would go on to live and die again, this time not to be resurrected on Earth. But Jesus left a promise with Martha, one that I hope she never forgot. Jesus was greater than death. For the Christian, even in death, we have life.

This is a hope reserved for believers, those who have put their faith in Christ alone. Romans 6:23 tells us, “For the wages [penalty] of sin [any break in God’s law] is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The debt for our transgression was paid by Christ’s death on the cross, and the defeat over death happened that glorious Sunday morning when Jesus strolled from the tomb—alive forever! By believing in this absolute truth and confessing Christ as Lord of my life (see Romans 10:9-10), I can have the full assurance that no matter what sickness may do to our bodies, one day . . . “What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. . . . It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. . . . For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality” (1 Corinthians 15:42,43,53).