“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith…”(Hebrews 12: 2NIV).

“Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy…Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, and others to shame and everlasting contempt…I stand on trial because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead”(Isaiah 26:19a; Daniel 12:2; Acts 23:6b).
Death is inevitable for both those who believe in God and those who insist
that God does not exist. But for those who do not know the LORD personally
through His Son, one of their worst phobias in the world is the fear of dying!
Job is the most ancient patriarch recorded in the Bible. Although the LORD
God considered him as an upright man, Job lost his ten children in one day. In
addition, he was afflicted by boils that he scraped himself with potsherds while
he laid in a heap of ashes. Job was ruined. Yet, he endured suffering patiently.
The three friends who paid Job a visit, instead of providing comfort, exasperated Job. During the lengthy and frustrating dialogue with his friends, Job asked a penetrating question: “If a man dies, will he live again? Sometime later Job answered his own rhetorical question: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own
eyes—I and not another. How my heart yearns within me” (Job 19:25-27) In spite of his intense sufferings and immense losses, Job was looking forward to the promised Seed of the woman—that is, the Christ (cf. Genesis 3:15).
At the fullness of the times (cf.Gal.4:4), God who so loved the world (cf.
John 3:16), sent His only Son not to condemn the world, but to save the world.
During His earthly ministry, Jesus demonstrated His mighty power over
death. The Lord Jesus raised Jairus’ twelve-year-old daughter from the dead
(cf. Mark 5:47), and a young man during his funeral at Nain (cf. Lu. 7:14-15).

Later, Jesus did an extraordinary miracle. One day He learnt that His dear
friend Lazarus was very sick, but He intentionally delayed going to him. In
fact, the Lord Jesus let Lazarus succumb to death from his illness not only to
demonstrate that He had power over death, but also to declare to all the
witnesses that He is the great I Am. He Himself is the resurrection and the life.
When the Lord reached Bethany, Lazarus had died and had been in the
grave for four days. Lazarus’ body was decomposing. Yet Jesus raised him up! Jesus declared to the grieving and disappointed Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this? (John 11:25-26).

According to John’s Gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ made seven statements
of claim. The one cited above is Jesus’s fifth solemn declaration. For Jesus had
told the Jewish leaders: “…Just as the Father raises the dead and gives them
life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it” (John 5:21).
On another occasion, the Lord had said: “Destroy this temple [body], and I
will raise it again in three days” (John 2:19). Again, Jesus had told the Jewish
religious leaders: “…As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of
a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart
of the earth” (Mt. 8:40). Only Jesus had the authority to make such statements!
Why did Jesus have that authority? Because, “Since the children have flesh
and blood, he too [Jesus] shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Heb. 2:14-15).
Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead while He stood at the shadow of the
cross. Just a few days later, Jesus was betrayed by one of his disciples who
sold Him according to the Scriptures for thirty pieces of silver, the price of a
slave! Then Jesus was arrested. Christ was subjected to three illegal trials; He
was rejected by God’s people and Pontius Pilate sentenced Him to be crucified.
Jesus hung on the cross for six hours. Whereas pathologists might be able
to describe Jesus’ physical sufferings on the cross, no one but Jesus knows the extent of the emotional, mental, and spiritual pain that He has endured when all the sins of the world were heaped upon His shoulders. And the Father turned His face from the Son He loved. Legions of angels were ready to rescue the Prince of life. Yet He refused to summon them because of His love for man!
Unlike Lazarus’ body, the body of Jesus did not see decay. The political
and religious authorities put a seal on Jesus’ tomb. But their efforts were in
vain. Exactly three days and three nights later, the sepulcher burst wide open
because God raised Jesus from the dead. As a result, Jesus is Lord over death!
So, since Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life, His unfailing promise is
still binding: “I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes the one
who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over
from death to life” (Jn 5:24). Therefore, because my Lord Jesus lives, I shall live!

As long as this world endures and, unless the Lord Jesus returns, everyone
will have to face the sting of death. For, “Just as man is destined to die once,
and after that to face judgement, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away
the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but
to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him” (Hebrews 9:27-28). This
is the born-again Christian’s blessed assurance sealed by the blood of Jesus.
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