Question:
Will you kindly give me some light on the following text? “And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” John 11:26.
Answer:
The meaning of this statement becomes clear when we read it in connection with the verses just before it.
Jesus had said to Martha, “Thy brother shall rise again.” Martha answered, “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” John 11:23, 24.
So Martha was thinking of the future resurrection, and Jesus did not correct her understanding of that event. Instead, He pointed her to Himself as the source of that resurrection life:
“I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” John 11:25.
In other words, those who have died believing in Christ will live again. Though they sleep in the grave, they are not beyond His power. At the last day, He will call them forth, and they shall live.
Then Jesus adds:
“And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” John 11:26.
This refers to the righteous living at the time of Christ’s coming. When Jesus returns, there will be two classes of saved people: those who have died in Christ and will be raised, and those who are alive and believing in Him when He appears. The dead in Christ will be resurrected, and the living righteous will be changed without seeing death.
Paul explains the same truth:
“The dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them…” 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17.
So Christ’s words do not mean that believers never experience the first death. Many faithful believers have died. Rather, He is speaking of the final triumph over death. Those who die in Him will live again, and those who are alive in Him at His coming will never pass through death at all.
The great point is this: Jesus is not merely able to give life in the future; He is life. The same Christ who will raise the righteous dead at the last day was standing before Martha with power to raise Lazarus then and there.
Therefore, the promise is sure. Whether a believer sleeps in the grave or lives to see Christ come, death does not have the final word. Christ is the resurrection and the life.
