THE KING’S BUSINESS
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(Phil. 1:23), “absent from the body, at home -with the Lord” (2 Cor. 5 :8, R.V.). So it is literally true that “whosoever liveth, and believeth ' in (Jesus Christ), shall never die.” In a similar way the Lord Jesus says: in John. 8:51, “Verily, ^verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my word,- he, shall never see death.” After uttering His wonderful words Jesus put to Martha the searching question, “Believest thou this?” Just so today the Lord Jesus is asking us concerning every wondrous promise that He uttered and which we read in the Bible, “Believest thou this?” v. 27. “She saith unto Him, Yea (add ,) Lord, ( : ) I believe (have believed) that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come (even He that cometh) into the world," Martha did not hesitate to answer yes to the Lord’s question. Can you answer in the same way, “Yea, Lord?” Nor did Martha stop even then, with burn ing heart and lips she continued, “I have believed that Thou art .the Christ, the Son of God.” Do you also really believe that? It is all-important that you should. Believ ing, that, if you really believe it, means that yotr have eternal life (John 20:31). It means furthermore that you are a child of God and will have daily victory over sin (1 John 5:1, 4, 5). vs. 43, 44. " And when He had thus spoken, He cried with a loud voice, Laza rus, come for'th. And he (He) that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes: ( ; ) and his face was t bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go." In these verses,.taken in connection with the verses that precede (39-42), yre see a wonderful interplay of the natural and supernatural, man’s work and God’s work. Before Jesus performed this, one of the most stupendous miracles of) His life, call ing back to life a man who had been four days dead, He demanded that man should do what man can do. Jesus alone can
and will raise the dead, but man can, and man first must take away the stone. There is many a man today “dead in trepasses and sins” whom Jesus wishes to get at and raise, to whom He wishes to say, “Come forth,” but He is calling to us, “Take ye away the stone” (v. 39), and we will not obey, so the man is not raised. What is the stone that lies against the door of the cave wherein your dead friend lies? What ever it is take it away. Even Martha, who had made the wonderful confession in verse 27, which we have just been studying, when she heard Jesus say, “Take ye away the stone,” forgets and protests against the moving of the stone. She says, / ‘Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath bqjsn dead four days.” As if it made any dif ference to the omnipotent “Son of God,” “the resurrection and the life,” how long a man had been dead. Why, the time is com ing when He shall speak the word and those who have been dead four thousand years shall' come forth (ch. 5:28,. 29). Jesus had prayed to the Father for the resurrection of Lazarus and knew that His prayer was heard and that Lazarus would rise (vs. 41, 42), so now He cries with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” In stantly the spirit returns to the body (cf. Luke 8:55, R.V.) from which it had been absent four days, and Lazarus rises, still bound hand and foot with the grave clothes and comes forth. Now again man is called upon to do what he can do to free Lazarus from the grave clothes. How simple and yet how sublime is John’s statement of what occurred: “He that was dead camte forth.” A plain, calm, unvarnished state ment of the wonderful fact. The story bears the marks of its genuineness in every line. And what a wonderful restraint there is on John’s part in recording it. Who is He that by a word thus raises the dead? Only those who won’t see can question who He is. Truly this is “the Christ the Son of God.”
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