In the previous post I wrote about a physical resurrection of all the dead, the day when those lying down shall stand up, awakened out of sleep to meet the Lord Jesus is the air. But as I said at the end of that post there is a deeper way to look at these things.
Jesus was speaking to Martha near where her brother Lazarus was buried in a tomb. He had been dead 4 days and Jesus is wanting to establish something in the spirit….
Joh 11:23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Joh 11:24 Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
Joh 11:25 Jesus said to her,“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in(to) Me, though he may die, he shall live.
Joh 11:26 And whoever lives and believes in(to) Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Joh 11:27 She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
It is obvious that Martha was holding a future coming of the Messiah in her mind. She believed in a future coming of a Messiah to save Israel. She believed in a future resurrection. Because she believed in a future resurrection she could not enter into a NOW RESURRECTION.
Jesus stood right there telling her that HE IS THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE. I AM the RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE!!
This is similar to what I wrote about 1 John 4:2 when most versions say Jesus Christ has come in the flesh…..BUT IT SHOULD SAY…Jesus Christ IS COME in the flesh. “Has come” makes it a past event….long ago….and so of no use to us now. A faith based on an historical long-ago Jesus is a dead faith.
God wants us to believe INTO JESUS the Person He sent to live inside your heart. In that way you believe into a LIVING PERSON Who IS COME to your flesh right NOW!!
In the same way, we see here in John 11, Jesus clashing with a “one day Jesus will come” mentality. Jesus is not a “one day I will come” Messiah. Jesus is I AM!! I AM COME!! I AM RESURRECTION AND LIFE!! BELIEVE IT!!
If you have believed in Jesus….you have believed INTO Him. God has put you into JESUS…and you INTO Him. Jesus is come to your flesh…..Jesus is the resurrection and the Life to be enjoyed and experienced fully now…here…on this earth , in these bodies.
BY FAITH….It is all by faith.
He who believes into Me, though he may die….
You (have)died with Jesus on the cross…you were buried with Jesus in His tomb…and you are raised with Jesus and seated in union with Jesus in the heavenly places.
Jesus is the Life in your flesh NOW….Jesus is the resurrection of your body NOW!! If you believe.
This is the same as what Paul wrote in Romans 8….
Rom 8:10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Rom 8:11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Not one day in the far future…but now.
Jesus is asking you to believe this.
