“Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believeth thou this?” John 11:25f. (Read all of John 11.)

If only Jesus had been there, Lazarus would not have died! So thought both Martha and Mary, Lazarus’ sisters (John 11:21, 32). We too may have had similar thoughts when we have lost a loved one to death — if only Jesus would have been here!

Yet Lazarus’ death was for the glory of Jesus Christ, God the Son in human flesh (John 11:4). Jesus was going to raise him up from the dead. When those who have trusted in Christ are raised up again on the Last Day and given everlasting life in heaven, this too will bring glory to God the Son; for without His innocent sufferings and death in our stead and His glorious resurrection, we would only rise to the eternal torments of hell!

When Jesus told Martha that her brother would rise again, she said, “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day” (John 11:23,24). It is then that Jesus said, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” (John 11:25-26).

Jesus was telling Martha that, not only would her brother rise again on the Last Day, but He (Jesus) is “the resurrection and the life”! Jesus is the One who will raise up all the dead on the Last Day, and Jesus is the one who gives life. He breathed life into Adam’s breathless body at creation (Genesis 2:7); He breathes spiritual life into us today (John 1:4; 5:21,24-26; 10:10); and He will raise up all the dead on the Last Day and give eternal life to all who have believed on Him (John 5:27-29)!

And so it is that the one who trusts in Jesus as his Savior, even if he dies, shall live again; for Jesus, the resurrection and the life, will raise him up at the Last Day. And whoever lives and trusts in Jesus shall in no way ever die [Greek double negative], forever and ever into eternity; for even when the believer’s body dies, his or her soul goes to be with the Lord Jesus in heaven (Phil. 1:21-23; 2 Cor. 5:1-9; Rev. 7:9-17). Then on the Last Day, when Jesus returns and raises up the dead, the bodies of believers will be raised up and reunited with their souls, and they will live forever with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:13-18; 1 Cor. 15)!

Do you believe this? Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that it is He who will raise the dead and give everlasting life to all who believe on Him? Consider the evidence. Not only did He heal the sick and open the eyes of the blind, He raised the dead. When Jesus went to the tomb of Lazarus who had been dead four days, He said “Lazarus, come forth” (John 11:43); and Lazarus walked from the tomb alive! Not only this, but after His own death upon the cross for our sins, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day in victory that we might be assured of forgiveness and everlasting life in His name!

O dearest Jesus, grant us faith to trust in You as our Savior and hold fast to You, even in death, that we might be raised up on the Last Day, at the sound of Your voice, unto life everlasting and to the glory of Your holy name. Amen.

[Scripture from the King James Version of the Bible.]

“Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.” Lamentations 3:22

Where would we be without the mercy and kindness of the LORD God?

The Bible makes it pretty clear: Because of our sinfulness and rebellion against God and His ways, we would be consumed by His wrath and suffer forever the torments of hell! But because of God’s loving-kindness and because His mercies are not ended, we live on in this world and are blessed of Him with life, food, clothing, shelter, family and loved ones.

Even more importantly, we are blessed with the Word of God and His long-suffering, giving us time to repent of our sinful ways and receive through faith His mercy and forgiveness in the crucified and risen-again Messiah Jesus.

The Bible says of Christ’s second coming and His judgment upon this evil world: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

That means that this world continues on a little longer because God is being patient and merciful toward us, not desiring that any should perish and be condemned to hell but that all of us should come to repentance and place our faith and hope in the Lord Jesus and His holy life and innocent sufferings and death in our stead. God is giving us more time to repent and come to faith in Jesus.

And so it is true: “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.”

Every one of us – and that certainly includes me – are deserving of the cessation of God’s mercy because of our sinfulness, but His mercies are not ended. He continues to reach out to us in mercy and with forgiveness, calling upon us to repent and look to Him for mercy and forgiveness for the sake of Christ Jesus and His atoning sacrifice upon the cross.

O gracious and merciful Lord God, thank You for Your mercy upon me. Thank You for not giving up on me and condemning me. Grant me forgiveness and life for the sake of the Son, Christ Jesus, my Savior. In His name, I seek Your mercy. Amen.

[Scripture is taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.]

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9

Are you smarter than God? Do you know more than the Lord God who created the heavens and earth and still preserves them?

You may say, “Of course not!” But why do you act as though you do?

Whenever people doubt and question what the Bible says, aren’t they doubting God? When people pick and choose what parts of the Bible they believe and what parts they don’t, aren’t they really saying they know better than God who gave us the Scriptures to teach us of Him, His will for us and what He has done to save us?

And when we disobey God’s commandments and set our own standards for what is right and wrong, aren’t we pretending to be smarter and wiser than God in determining what is good and best for us?

And what about us when we refuse to repent of our sinful and erring ways and look to Jesus and His cross in faith for mercy, forgiveness and life everlasting? Aren’t we really living and acting as though we know better than the God who loved us and sent His only-begotten Son into the world to suffer and die and make full atonement for our sins and the sins of all?

The fact is that we often live and act as though we are smarter than God, but the truth is that God is far smarter and wiser than we can begin to grasp! He knows what is good and right. He knows what is best for us. And, He calls upon each of us to repent of our sinful ways and look in faith to Jesus and His cross for pardon, forgiveness and life eternal!

God grant us the wisdom to believe and take Him at His word! Amen.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

“By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, ‘and was not found, because God had taken him’; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God.” Hebrews 11:5 (Read Genesis 5:21-24)

The Bible tells us of Enoch, the seventh generation from Adam, that he “walked with God; and he was not, for God took him” (Genesis 5:24).

At the relatively young age of 365, Enoch was taken directly, without seeing death, to be with the Lord God in heaven. Enoch was translated; that is, changed from a temporal, earthly existence to an eternal, heavenly one. His body and soul were taken from this earth into his eternal and heavenly home.

Such a conveyance directly into heaven is hard for us to understand. In all of human history, Elijah the prophet is the only other human being to escape death and be taken directly to his heavenly home (cf. 2 Kings 2:11). Even the Lord Jesus Christ first died for the sins of the world before He rose again on the third day and then 40 days later ascended into heaven.

Enoch walked with God by faith, trusting that God’s ways are right and that God would send the promised Seed of the woman to redeem him from sin and eternal death. In the book of Jude, we learn that Enoch also testified in his time of God’s coming judgment upon all who continued in their ungodly and rebellious ways (v. 14f.).

To walk with God by faith is no different today. Believers know and believe that God’s ways are true and right and trust in God’s mercy and forgiveness for the sake of His Son, Jesus Christ, who suffered and died for the sins of the whole world and rose again on the third day.

Believers walk in fellowship with God the Father, agreeing with Him about their sinfulness but trusting in Him to graciously forgive their sins and accept them as His own dear children for the sake of Jesus Christ, who lived a righteous and holy life in mankind’s stead and made full atonement for the sins of all when He suffered and died upon the cross (cf. 1 John 1:7 – 2:2).

Like Enoch, believers are pleasing to God and righteous in his eyes because all their sins have been washed away in Jesus’ blood. Their works too are pleasing in His eyes because they flow from faith in Him and are made pure through the blood of Jesus.

Believers have already been conveyed. The Bible says of believers in Jesus that the Father “has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:12-14). God has graciously translated or conveyed His children from the kingdom and rule of darkness and sin into the kingdom of grace and forgiveness – the kingdom of His own dear Son.

Believers will be conveyed into God’s eternal and heavenly kingdom when Jesus returns. The Bible says to all who believe: “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself” (Philippians 3:20-21).

So, Enoch walked with God by faith and was taken directly into heaven. All who today walk by faith in the Son of God, trusting in Him for mercy and forgiveness, have been conveyed from the kingdom of darkness and spiritual death into God’s kingdom of grace and life. And, on the last day, they too will be conveyed into heaven – their earthly bodies will be changed into glorious and heavenly bodies like that of the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:35ff.).

Jesus, let me ever walk with You by faith so that, as Enoch was conveyed from this world into your heavenly kingdom, so I may arise and live with You forever in Your eternal and glorious kingdom. Amen.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.