John 11:25-26

John 11:25-26. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he have died, yet shall he live; And every one that liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? The emphasis falls on the first two words, ‘I,' ‘am.' Martha's first expression of faith and hope had shown how imperfectly she knew Jesus Himself: to Himself alone His words now point. Her later words dwell on the resurrection in the remoter future: Jesus says, ‘I AM the resurrection and the life.' Alike in the future and in the present, life is unchangeably in Him (chap. John 1:4) , and that the life which triumphs over death (‘resurrection'), the life by which death is excluded and annulled. In other passages we read of Jesus as the Life, here only as the Resurrection: the latter thought is in truth contained in the former, and needs not distinct expression save in the presence of the apparent victory of death. It is possible that the meaning of our Lord's words is that He is the resurrection and the life which follows the resurrection, in Him His people rise again, and, having risen, live for ever; but it is far more probable that this is only one part of the meaning. Because He is the Life, in the highest and absolute sense of this word, therefore He is the resurrection. He that believes in Him becomes one with Him: every one, therefore, that believes in Him possesses this victorious life. If he has died, yet life is his: if he still lives among men, this earthly life is but an emblem and a part of that all-embracing life which shall endure for ever in union with the Lord of life. In all this the law which limits man's life on earth is not forgotten, but a revelation is given to man which changes the meaning of death. As Godet beautifully says: ‘Every believer is in reality and for ever sheltered from death. To die in full light, in the serene brightness of the life which is in Jesus, and to continue to live in Him, is no longer that which human language designates by the name of death. It is as if Jesus said: In me he who is dead is sure of life, and he who lives is sure never to die.' The original, indeed, is much more expressive than we can well bring out in English, ‘Shall never unto eternity die.' To the question, ‘Believest thou this?' Martha answers (and the form of her answer is characteristic):