THE CODE 16 december 2024 www.goodnewsfl.org Good News • South Florida edition "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25–26). It was a sad and somber day in the small village of Bethany on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives as Jesus stood with a brokenhearted family and their close friends at the grave of Lazarus. From His lips came an astonishing claim: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” This one statement is among the boldest and most definitive acknowledgments of our Lord's deity. The resurrection is what separates Him from the thousand other gurus and prophets who have come down the pike. After declaring Himself to be the resurrection and the life, the Victor over death, He looks squarely into their faces-and oursand asks life's bottom-line question: "Do you believe this?" One of my personal frustrations in Scripture reading is that it is, like all other writings, linear. If we had a recording of His actual words, it would reveal so much more about where He placed His inflection for emphasis. Did He ask, "Do you believe this?" Did He ask, "Do you believe this?" Or perhaps He emphasized the last word in the question, "Do you believe this?" It’s personal Christ's question is intensely personal. Perhaps in driving home the fact that our salvation is a personal and individual matter, Jesus asked, “Do you believe this?" After all, when it comes to saving faith in the finished work of Christ, what really matters is not what your mother or father, husband or wife, or anyone else believes. It is the most personal of all life's questions. What about you? Do you believe that Christ's death and resurrection should be relegated to some ancient shelf of obscurity along with other ancient myths and fables? The question is personal. Do you believe this? An issue of faith It might well be that as Jesus asked this question in the Bethany cemetery, His emphasis was placed on the word believe. "Do you believe this?” He is not interested in whether or not we were giving intellectual assent to His claims. He wants to know if we believe what He has said. That is, do we put our total trust and faith in Him and His words? With Jesus, the real issue is always one of faith. Jesus' question is not just personal, it is pointed: "Do you believe this?" Precise But now to the heart of the issue of His claim to being “the resurrection and the life." True faith must always rest on objective truth and fact. Most likely Jesus asked the question in this way: "Do you believe this?" In other words, He wants to know if we believe this — His claim of deity. When Jesus said, "I am," He captured the attention of all around. "I am" was God's own name that He revealed to Moses when He inquired of His name at the burning bush. God instructed Moses to tell the Israelites that "I AM has sent me to you" (Exodus 3:14). When Jesus said, "I am," all those listening recognized it to be an affirmation of His deity. Paul would later affirm this when he wrote, "He is the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15). In John's gospel alone, he took note of an "I AM" statement by Jesus on seven different occasions. The question is not only personal and pointed, it is precise. “Do you believe this?" Your destiny But there is more. Jesus asked if we believe this-His claim about destiny. “Though he may die, he shall live” (John 11:25). Jesus means the body may indeed die, but not the spirit. There is a part of you that will live as long as God lives, which is forever and forever. There is another life that is a million times a million longer than this one, an eternity… with Him. Do you believe this? Jesus wants to know if you believe His claim about His own deity and your own destiny. There are a lot of questions we must face in life. Where will l attend college? What profession will I choose to engage? With whom will I spend the rest of my life in marriage? But there is only one major question in death - "Do you believe this?" Jesus prefaced this question with a declaration: "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die." And then there is life's bottom-line question: Do you believe this? Settle the issue once and for all by joining Martha, Lazarus's sister, in professing, "Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God" (John 11:27, emphasis added). We find Jesus, the great I AM, walking through the pages of John — He is the Resurrection and the Life. Taken from The Bible Code by O.S. Hawkins. Copyright © 2020 by Dr. O.S. Hawkins. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson. O. S. Hawkins is the chancellor of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He has served pastorates, including the First Baptist Church in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and the First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, for more than 25 years. A native of Fort Worth, Texas, he has a BBA from Texas Christian University and his MDiv and Ph.D. from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. For almost a quarter of a century, he served as president of GuideStone Financial Resources, with assets under management of $20 billion, serving 250,000 pastors, church staff members, missionaries, doctors, university professors, and other workers in various Christian organizations with their investment, retirement and benefit service needs. He is the author of more than 40 books and regularly speaks to business groups and churches nationwide. All of the author’s royalties and proceeds from the Code series support Mission:Dignity. You can learn more about Mission:Dignity by visiting MissionDignity.org. - Dr. O.S. Hawkins - Chancellor, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Finding Jesus in the Gospel of John: He is the Resurrection and the Life Ukraine, Odessa Region, Village Petrodolinskoe: Orthodox painting The Resurrection of the Four-Day Lazarus
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