In John chapter 11, Jesus used His close personal relationship with one family to bring us a spiritual truth that is part of the very foundation of the Christian faith. When Martha and Mary sent word to Jesus that their brother Lazarus was very ill, Jesus waited two days before making the long journey on foot to their home in Bethany. Having already performed many miracles by this point, Jesus could so easily have hurried to Bethany and healed Lazarus. Instead, He deliberately chose to wait until it was seemingly too late to clearly illustrate to all of us who He was and what His God-given purpose was.
Jesus explained to Martha that He is the Resurrection and the Life and that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life, even though their physical bodies will die. He was saying that the whole power to restore, impart, and maintain life, resides in Him, under God’s authority. And He was claiming to have in Himself the very fountain of life, including both the physical sense and the eternal sense.
Four days after Lazarus succumbed to his illness and died, Jesus called for Lazarus to come out of the tomb in which he had been placed. Before a crowd of witnesses, Lazarus came out and was restored to physical life and health, a very real illustration of Jesus’ power and authority over death. And a little while later, after Jesus died for our sins on the cross, He rose from the dead Himself. Jesus is not only the Lord beyond death, but He is also the Lord over death.
The factual story about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead is an illustration of the free gift of salvation that God offers to each one of us. Just as Lazarus was physically dead, the whole world was dead in sin. But God had compassion on us, and He sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins, and to raise us to life with Him.
Jesus’ power over life and death is inextricably linked to His God-given power to forgive our sins. Whoever believes in Christ has a spiritual life that death cannot conquer or diminish in any way. For the believer, this is not simply a future, eternal life that we will experience one day, it is also a present life that we can live now in fullness with Him.
Be encouraged, Andrew Iles