The Resurrection and the Life

UV 1709/10000 The Resurrection and the Life

Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

John 11 v 25

Jesus is God incarnated as man. He declared Himself to be the resurrection and the life, implying that He has the power to resurrect the dead, the hopeless, the sinful, the dying – the deceased and the diseased. Being the author of life, the one who commences life, He is also the finisher, the sustainer, the one who completes our life, the one who enables us to live fully in spirit, mind and body. We need to plug into Him or connect with Him in order to live fully and forever, to live meaningfully, purposefully and fruitfully. We connect with Him by the faculty of our belief or faith. He blesses the qualitative as well as the quantitative dimensions of our lives, the physical as well as the emotional, relational and spiritual.

Jesus resurrected Lazarus on the fourth day after the latter died physically as a sign of being the Resurrection. Lazarus was a friend of Jesus and therefore, Jesus first grieved over his physical death and then used His authority and power to recall Him from the realm of death. Jesus did not command death to depart from Lazarus. Instead, He asked him to come alive. He has the power to revoke the irrevocable, the power to repair the irreparable, the power to breathe life back into a dead man’s nostrils, to enable a spiritually dead person to hear the words of life that He speaks. Death has many dimensions: physical, mental, emotional, relational and spiritual. Man fears physical and mental death but relational, emotional and spiritual death are far more awful. Jesus referred to the death of Lazarus as if the latter was only sleeping. Physical death is only a kind of deep sleep but spiritual death is continual and eternal dying. The moment we trust Jesus and accept His friendship, we have access to His life in this lifetime on earth and we also have access to Resurrection power of Jesus after our physical death.

By His own resurrection on the third day, Jesus validated that He is indeed the resurrection. If any person died an absolute death it was Jesus while He walked on earth as all the sins of mankind were vicariously attributed to Him. His body was also physically drained of all blood and fluid. The bare bones of His body were dry and without hope. But the resurrection power vested in Him enabled Him to be absolutely alive again. The Spirit of God dwelt in Him and by the Spirit and the Word, He came alive on that first Easter. His original glory that caused His face and His clothes to shine like the sun was restored to Him. Similarly, our dry bones come alive when we are in contact with Jesus. His resurrection power surges through our veins and every part of our lives, filling us with hope and grace. When we believe in Jesus, the Spirit of God dwells in us. By the Spirit and the Word, we too shall live forever in the spirit though not in our present bodies. The Resurrection power of Jesus is applicable not only in instances of physical death but in every situation that seems dead, lifeless and hopeless. By believing prayer and by believing the Word we appropriate the Resurrection and enlivening power of Jesus in every situation, relationship, challenge and circumstance of our lives.

Prateep V Philip