Read John 11 Jesus Raises Lazarus

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 NKJV)

Mary and Martha were desperate for Jesus visit. They had conveyed the message to Jesus that Lazarus was sick. Jesus came after Lazarus had died. When Jesus arrived, Mary cried in disappointment that Jesus should have come earlier, Lazarus might have lived. Instead of reacting and speaking naturally over the incident; Jesus made another declaration of the "I Am"; this time as "the Resurrection and the Life".

This passage is often used in wake services, giving as the assurance of life eternal for believers who died in Christ. Indeed, all who died in Christ shall rise again.

Can it be so easy as simply believe and live? Our natural mind think of the evidence of good work before one is given this eternal life. Yet the thief at the cross simply believed and the Lord assured him of being with Him in paradise. Just that without any work? Yes believe and thats it.

This resurrection of life is not only experiences after death but even in the present. Paul prayed, "My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead..." (Philippians 3:10-11). How can we experience this resurrection life?

It is receiving by faith on the finished work of Christ done for us through the Cross. It has nothing to do with performance but everything to do with knowing and believing what we known. Living the resurrected live is not independence, egoistic, competitive living but its letting Jesus take over. We simply need to reckon ourselves dead (Romans 6:11-15). We conformed to His death through crucifying our old nature and every vain deceit. It's death to self! Without the death of the old nature, the new cannot live freely. It is His life not ours we are living!

Through His resurrection; He releases us from the bondage of sin and death, restores us to live in the power of the Holy Spirit and reveals to us eternity.

Prayer: Lord, You are the Resurrection and the Life. I am living out Your Life by faith. I am constantly living out Your life and the power of resurrection at work in me through putting my flesh to death.

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