Do You Believe This?

Today, millions of people are faced with the reality of another young death. News outlets are sharing articles and articles about the untimely death of a young celebrity, one that many young people either followed through their teenage years or heard about on social media. Regardless of how well known this person was to them, young people are faced with a haunting reminder - the reality of death. The biblical witness also recognizes this reality, as Paul declares in Romans 5:12 (ESV), “death spread to all men…”

What’s worse, young people are reminded of another haunting reality in these reports, “When will I die?” While contributing details concerning the death of this young star are still being investigated, the question still lingers all the same. How do young people confront and answer these difficult realities of death?

If we read the rest of Romans 5:12, we find a readily available answer to the cause of death in the world. Paul writes,

“Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned…” (Rom. 5:12).

The death problem may start with the sin of Adam, but we contribute to it as well. Thus, we all are susceptible to death. But, God does not leave us to this fate. Although we may face the reality of death, Paul confesses One who comes to amend our dreadful state:

“For if, because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:17).

Where Adam fails, and we follow in that failure and fail ourselves, and receive the consequences of death, Christians place their hope in Jesus, who offers His grace and justifying righteousness to us so that we might instead “reign in life” (Rom. 5:17).

What does this mean? Do those who have faith in Jesus get to skip the reality of death? 

No, death still affects us. But Jesus offers us a promise that changes the way we approach this current reality.

After the death of the man Lazarus, Jesus went to visit him in order to “awaken him” (John 11:11). Despite his disciples’ confusion at this statement, Jesus and company travel to Lazarus’ town, Bethany, where He is met by Lazarus’ sister, Martha. In meeting Jesus, Martha confessed that Jesus could have prevented Lazarus’ death if He had been with them sooner. Although she does not know what to ask of Him, Jesus tells her, “Your brother will rise again” (John 11:23). Martha mistakes this admission as Jesus reiterating the expectations of the Jews in their eschatology - that one day, resurrection awaited God’s own. Yet, Jesus has something else in mind. He answers her this way, instead:

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25–26).

These words may confuse us. Will those who believe in Jesus die, or not?

Death, though it may affect the believer temporarily, has no lasting claim on the believer. Jesus is telling us that, for “everyone who lives and believes” in Him, they will not be subjected to the reign of death for eternity. Instead, though they might experience physical death, those who partake of Christ’s free gift will continue to live in and through Him and will experience life eternal. As Paul says, “Much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:17). For believers, life goes on, even after physical death.

Jesus did indeed resurrect Lazarus in Bethany, long before the Jewish expectations that Martha knew so well (John 11:43-44). Her wildest hopes were realized; her brother was alive again! 

The gift of resurrection awaits us, too. “The resurrection and life,” Jesus Himself, offers us this same hope of bodily resurrection for eternity (John 11:25; 1 Cor. 11:50-53). While resurrection may not come when we want it in our timetable, resurrection is still a promise to believers on God’s timetable. Once we experience the fulfillment of this promise, we will realize and confess, 

“Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:54-55).

The reign of death will be forever and finally supplanted by the forever and final reign of life through Jesus. This is our hope. So, regardless of what may come, regardless of the fact that death is a part of our timetable, for “everyone who lives and believes” in Jesus, we “shall never die” (John 11:26). 

The same question that Jesus asked Martha confronts you and I: “Do you believe this?” (John 11:26).