Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life he that believes on me, though he have died, shall live;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
and every one who lives and believes on me shall never die. Believest thou this?
Martha stands outside Bethany. Her brother has been dead four days. Jesus takes the whole question of resurrection out of the distant future and puts it into His own Person. Then He presses her with a direct question. The verse holds two promises in one sentence: life for the believer who has died, and no death at all for the believer who is alive. Commentators have long weighed when each one is fulfilled.
The verse before it speaks of believers who have died. This verse speaks of believers who are still alive. Together they cover every possible case a Christian can be in.
He is the Resurrection, so He will call His sleeping saints out of the tomb. The one who believes in Him, though he die, yet shall he live. He is also the Life. So He will keep all those who are alive when He comes, and they shall never die: "everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die." He is the full answer to all that His saints will need.
The power to raise the dead was not something far off in the future. It was standing in front of Martha.
The Lord speaks here as already present to bring about the great results of His power. That power was still hidden in His Person, but He was about to give the proof of it in the resurrection of Lazarus. Power is in His Person. He gave the present proof of it in the resurrection of Lazarus. He will carry it out in full when He comes back to use this power in its fulness.
The reason a believer never dies lies in what Jesus gives.
In His presence a dead person should live, since He was the Resurrection. And in His presence a living person should never die, since He gave what is called "life more abundantly" — that is, a life that death cannot touch.
One writer points to the order of the words. Living comes before believing, and the promise covers the body.
Notice here the order of thought: "lives and believes," not believes and lives. The never dying has to do with the body. In the case described, the body and the soul will never part.
Many take the second clause to point forward to the Lord's return. He changes living believers then, without their dying.
As the Resurrection, He will raise all His sleeping saints when He comes down into the air. As the Life, He will change the mortal and corruptible bodies of His living ones, and make them like His own body of glory. These last will never die at all.
Others read the wording as present tense. To push it into the future, they say, misses the line Jesus is drawing between now and then.
At His coming there will certainly be the most perfect fulfilment of what is said here. But nothing except that fulfilment makes us think of putting the words off to the future. And that goes right against the division of time the Lord is making: "everyone who lives and believes" — now; not, shall be living and believing at My return. He says not a word about that here.
Commentators differ on the timing. They do not differ on what death can still do to the believer.
Against the life He gives, which is eternal life, death has no claim and no rule. The body still waits for its change and its redemption. Even so, for the one who now shares His resurrection life, death is behind him, and not ahead of him.
The verse ends with a question put straight to Martha. One writer explains why so much hung on it.
The Lord puts the question formally to Martha: "Do you believe this?" This was the great crucial question. Death reigned over man, and Christ Himself was about to go through it. Was there anything more powerful in the world, on the part of God?
Her reply was genuine, yet it did not touch what He had just revealed.
Martha, feeling that the Lord went beyond her spiritual understanding, makes a correct confession of faith… but altogether general.
- Person — Resurrection is not an event Christ arranges. It is something He is. Martha looked to the future; the power was standing in front of her.
- Gift — What He gives is a life death cannot touch: "life more abundantly," not bare survival.
- Reach — The two clauses cover every believer. He raises those who have died. Those alive at His coming never die at all.
- Timing — Commentators differ. Some apply "never die" to living saints changed at His return. Others hold that the wording is present tense and speaks of now.
- Result — For the believer, death lies behind, not ahead. The question that closes the verse is still personal: do you believe this?