Jesus Proves He Is the Resurrection And the Life Part 2

by John Lowe
(Laurens SC, USA)

It is because we are all sinners, that we are told in Romans 3:23, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The outcome of enslavement to sin is quite different from that of obedience to Christ. Payment is the principle by which we become heirs of death. Sin always pays a wage, and that wage is a drastic one. But just as payment is the principle by which we become heirs to death, unmerited favor is the principle by which we become heirs to eternal life. Death is earned; eternal life is purely a free gift.

When Jesus touched the dead body, it must have been a moment of suspense and wonder, for His disciples and the crowd. “And he said, ‘Young man, I say unto thee, Arise.’” Our Lord spoke as a man who had the keys of death and the grave. His divine power went along with His words. One of the proofs that He is God was that He raised men from the dead. Actually, this was a miracle done for our sakes, to show what takes place when Jesus touches a person who is dead spiritually because of sin. When we are saved, we are raised from death into life. This spiritual resurrection is far more important than the resurrection of our physical bodies. The one, spiritual resurrection, is unto life that has no end; the other ultimately dies again.

By giving life to the child, Christ once again showed the nature of God’s plan of salvation. He showed us first in Numbers 21. We read there that sin had caused God to punish the Israelites with serpents. God commanded Moses to make a brass serpent and to lift it up so that when the sick looked to that serpent, they would be healed. The Son of Man must be lifted up (on the cross) so that man bitten by the serpent of sin can be healed of sin and have eternal life.

Jesus spoke to the mother and also to the body of the dead child. Death does not extinguish the real person, which is the departing spirit of a man or woman. Resurrection of a dead body involves the return of the departed spirit to the body. The dead body could not hear anything, but the departed spirit could hear Christ’s command. Christ, while on earth as the God-man, was the only one who could give instructions to the spirit world.

He brought this boy’s spirit back to Him resulting in the reconstituted personality being able to hear Jesus say, “Arise.” The Greek word used here means, “rise on your own.” The boy could do it because he was already alive. He was dead, or they would never have brought him out of the city to bury him. But it was now clear to everyone that he was alive. He sat up, just like the daughter of Jairus did, and just like Lazarus did. He arose and spoke; obeying immediately, the command to live. Setting up and speaking were proofs that he was alive.

We read, “And he delivered him to his mother.” Jesus, after that, took him by the hand and presented him to his mother. It was for her sake that He raised him from the dead. Christ revealed His power in raising him from the dead, but through delivering him alive to his mother He displayed kindness and tenderness.

Friends, the same thing is going to happen to you and me, because that is what is going to take place on the resurrection day when the Lord will bring a new body to us. He will unite it with our spirit which departed from the old body. In 1 Corinthians we read, “But God gives it a body as He pleases and to each seed its own body” (1 Corinthians 15:38).

We have a living hope.Jesus Christ will come again, and the dead in Christ will be raised. We will have glorified bodies like Christ’s body. Keep in mind that resurrection is not reconstruction. God does not reassemble the original body that has turned to dust. Like flowers and fruit from the planted seed, the glorified body is related to the “planted” body but different from it.

Nobody knew that Jesus would arrive and break up the funeral! So never give up hope, because your Lord may surprise you at the last minute and do the impossible for you.

Jesus’ miracle was undisputed. No one ever denied His miracles, instead, they tried to discredit Him by saying that Satan was the one behind them. But in this case, Satan was on the sidelines, because only God can give life, while Satan brings only death.

You can be saved only if you believe on the Lord Jesus, not as a great man, but as the only begotten Son of God who came to earth to save sinners. In the first Chapter of John, it says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). Jesus Christ, the eternal Word of God and Second Person of the Trinity “became flesh.” To His divine nature, He added a perfect human nature. As Paul later explained, this involved His “taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:7). As God in the flesh, His totally divine and perfectly human natures are forever united in one Person. John wrote that “No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven” (John 3:13). Jesus described Himself as the One who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

The description “Son of Man” appears more than 80 times in the gospels, but only four times in the New Testament outside the gospels. “Son of Man,” points to Jesus’ special ministry and commission from God; that is, it refers to His suffering, His death, His Resurrection; and His return. Jesus is the Son of Man, and He is the Son of God come down from heaven. He is the serpent on the pole that Moses wrote about. He is the Father’s love gift. He is the Light in a dark world. Like the serpent, He was lifted up, and He died on a cross for the sins of the world. All who look to Him by faith receive eternal life.

Although no response from the mother is recorded, she must certainly have joined her neighbors in praising God. She learned the validity of the Savior’s claim, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25). Her encounter with the Lord of life previews for us that when death comes, we do not “sorrow as others who have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Paul explained that the last enemy to be destroyed is death (1 Corinthians 15:26); yet its terror is only temporary.
Amen.