Articles
11 Never Die
"…and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:26).
Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life" (John 6:47).
This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die" (John 6:50).
I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh" (John 6:51).
"Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death" (John 8:51).
Yet, having made this statement, Jesus also foretold the death of disciples. In speaking of the coming destruction of Jerusalem (A.D. 70), Jesus warned them that "Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name” (Matt. 24:9). He warned them not to fear those who could kill the body but not the soul (Matt. 10:28). Stephen died, James died, Paul died, Peter died, and many of the early Christians were delivered over to death. They all died. So what DID Jesus promise?
This is one of the problems with bible study (actually, with trying to understand almost any writing) - words can have different shades of meaning. Death can refer to physical death where the spirit is apart from the body (James 1:26). Yet it is also used of spiritual death where the spirit is separated relationally from God. Paul spoke of the Ephesians has having been ‘dead’ in sin before their conversion (Eph. 2:1-4). He also wrote of some that were ‘dead while living’ (1 Tim. 5:6).
This last aspect of death can also have either a temporary situation or a permanent one. Believing in Jesus does NOT do away with physical death. Hence even Christians are subject to the fact that it is appointed ‘once for man to die’ (Heb. 9:27). YET, such death is not separation from Jesus / God. The spirits of the martyrs were seen under the altar and very much ‘alive’ unto God (Rev. 6:9).
My understanding then is that Jesus is yet again making a play on words. If a man believes in Jesus, he lives even when he dies (in fact, that is what Jesus said in vs. 25!). They can kill the body, but not the soul.
That means that believers NEED to focus their attention (Paul would say ‘set your mind upon’) upon things above. We live IN Him. The life we live is lived in a way that Christ lives in us. We make it our aim to be pleasing unto Him whether ‘present or absent’. Though the outer man grows weaker, the inner man is to be renewed daily by our fellowship with Jesus.
Martha was correct when she responded: “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day” (vs. 24). Not only does the spirit live, but Jesus will say the word and the body will be raised a glorified body fit for eternal habitation in the presence of God. Dead people live! That is, dead people who trust in Jesus live. We need to make sure that we are alive when we die. Hugh DeLong
