16th Day of Advent: The Resurrection and Life

"Jesus said to her, 'I am the resurrection and the life.  The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.  Do you believe this?'"

John 11:25-26

Let's take a second to recognize the power in these sentences from Jesus.  First He says "I AM" which from Exodus 3:14a: "God says to Moses, I AM WHO I AM", we know this is God's name.  So Jesus is stating that He is God.  Then, He says I am the resurrection and the life.  He is talking to Martha and Mary who are coping with the death of their brother, Lazarus.  They know who Jesus is and they realize that one day their brother will live again.  However, they don't realize that day will be sooner then they expected (John 11:38-44) 

While they still may believe in Jesus and the distant future of resurrection, it is still a humanly impossible concept to wrap our minds around.  Most people who think about rising from the dead think about zombies, but this isn't what Jesus is saying.  When we are resurrected we aren't going to be the walking dead, we are going to be the walking living!!

Jesus died on the cross.  He had a physical death that day to pay the price of the sins of the past, present and future people of the world.  When He rose from the grave three days later, He wasn't skin and bones or any of those creepy visions of zombies.  He had a resurrection body, not spirit or ghost.  It had special qualities (like walking through walls and appearing suddenly (John 20) but for the most part normal.  He could walk, talk, and eat.  

This is the hope of the Christian believer: even though our bodies will physically die, we will spiritually live with God (all three persons of the Trinity) in Heaven.  Then one day, after The Judgement, we will be reunited with our bodies with the same special resurrection qualities of Jesus' body.  

WOWWW!!! That's soo powerful.  There will be no more pain and suffering in Heaven and one day your body will be whole again!

Lastly Jesus asks the question "Do you believe?"  Everything I just stated can only be true IF you believe in Jesus.  So my challenge to you is to really think about if you believe and accept Jesus' work on the cross?  

With His Love,

A