Names of Jesus: Resurrection and the Life

Jesus makes seven I Am statements throughout the Gospel of John, five of them are absolute statements in which He uses the exact same words God used when identifying Himself to Moses at the burning bush. Each of these I Am statements teaches us about His omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. When Jesus goes to see Mary and Martha after their brother, Lazarus, has died He declares “I Am the resurrection and the life”.

²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.

John 11:25 NKJV

• Resurrection – G386 – anastasis
  • a rising from the dead
    • that of Christ
    • that of all men at the end of this present age

• Life – G2222 – zōē
  • life real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God, blessed, in the portion even in this world of those who put their trust in Christ, but after the resurrection to be consummated by new accessions (among them a more perfect body), and to last for ever.

Resurrection is the divine miracle of someone who is dead being raised to life in body and soul. This is either temporal life, such as with Lazarus, or eternal, glorified life, which is the case for Jesus when He rises from the dead after the crucifixion, and will be the case for His followers upon His return.

⁹ He is the one who saved us^[a] and called us with a holy calling, not based on^[b] our works but on his own purpose and grace, granted to us in Christ Jesus before time began,^[c]10 but now made visible through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus. He^[d] has broken the power of death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel!

2 Timothy 1:9-10 NET

In declaring that He is the Resurrection and the Life, He is declaring that He is God, and He is also foretelling His own resurrection. He is also teaching that He is the source of the resurrections of the righteous and unrighteous; the living and the dead.

⁶ Jesus told him, “I am^(A) the way,^(B) the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷ If you know me, you will also know^[a] my Father.^(C) From now on you do know him^(D) and have seen him.”

John 14:6-7 CSB

Jesus being the Life indicates that He is the giver of life – all things are created through, by, and for Him, through faith in Him those who believe obtain spiritual life, and one day will obtain eternal life. Not only this, but with eternal life everything will be made new, and the righteous will also receive new spiritual bodies that will, by the power of Christ, be immune to the power of death.

¹¹ Moreover if the Spirit of the one^[a] who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ^[b] from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in you.^[c]

¹² So then,^[d] brothers and sisters,^[e] we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh ¹³ (for if you live according to the flesh, you will^[f] die),^[g] but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live. ¹⁴ For all who are led by the Spirit of God are^[h] the sons of God.

Romans 8:11-14 NET

Those who have faith in Jesus are given the gift of the Holy Spirit, and have personal access to the power of Him who was raised from the dead defeating sin and death. By the power of Jesus, we can resist sin in this life and obtain the promise of eternal life. Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we can rely on His almighty strength in our own battles, and cling to Him, enduring until the end of our earthly lives in faith, whenever that may be for each of us.

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To expand on your understanding, explore these studies as well:

• Read more: Names of Jesus: I Am
• Read more: Names of Jesus: Risen Lord
• Read more: Names of Jesus: The Way, the Truth, the Life

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The Resurrection of the Dead

There will be a resurrection of life for the righteous, those who are followers of Jesus, and another resurrection of condemnation for the unrighteous, those who died in their unbelief. There will also be a resurrection of the body – those who have faith in Jesus as the Resurrection and the Life will be blessed with an eternal spiritual body and death will no longer have any power over them, while the unrighteous will be condemned to suffer for their unrighteousness.

²⁸ And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in ^[a]hell.

Matthew 10:28 NKJV

²⁸ Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice ²⁹ and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.

John 5 28-29 NKJV

¹⁵ I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection ^[a]of the dead, both of the just and the unjust.

Acts 24:15 NKJV

Those who have done the will of God, believed in Jesus Christ as the Resurrection and the Life, and endured to the end of their earthly life in faith and obedience to the Lord, will obtain the promise of eternal life after Christ returns. Those who have fallen away or clung to unbelief, dying without personal faith and relationship with Jesus, will have died in their sin, without the blood of Jesus to cover them, and will not have their names written in the book of Life. Those whose names are not written in the Book of Life are sent to spend eternity in the Lake of Fire, separated from God and all that is good with no chance of relief or release.

²⁸ “Do not be amazed at this, because a time^[a] is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice ²⁹ and will come out—the ones who have done what is good to the resurrection resulting in life, and the ones who have done what is evil to the resurrection resulting in condemnation.^[b]

John 5:28-29 NET

³¹ But concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was spoken to you by God, saying, ³² ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

Matthew 22:31-32 NKJV

• Read more: How do we test what is pleasing to God?
• Read more: How to Glorify God with Acts of Service
• Read more: How living in obedience can change your life for the better

¹² Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ is not risen. ¹⁴ And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.

1 Corinthians 15:12-14 NKJV

¹² Then He also said to him who invited Him, “When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. ¹³ But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the^[a]maimed, the lame, the blind. ¹⁴ And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

Luke 14:12-14 NKJV

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The Resurrection of the Body

Because of the resurrection of Jesus, we get to benefit from the power of resurrection by means of receiving a resurrection body. Those who have died for their faith will get to reign with Christ as part of the first resurrection, while the rest will be given their resurrected bodies after Christ’s 1,000-year reign. Just as we share in the earthly body given to Adam, those who have faith in Jesus as the Resurrection and the Life will inherit a spiritual body as Jesus has a spiritual body after His resurrection.

⁴ Then^[a] I saw thrones and seated on them were those who had been given authority to judge.^[b] I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. These^[c] had not worshiped the beast or his image and had refused to receive his mark on their forehead or hand. They^[d] came to life^[e] and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. ⁵ (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were finished.)^[f] This is the first resurrection. ⁶ Blessed and holy is the one who takes part^[g] in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them,^[h] but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.

Revelation 20:4-6 NET

²⁰ But our citizenship is in heaven—and we also eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, ²¹ who will transform these humble bodies of ours^[a] into the likeness of his glorious body by means of that power by which he is able to subject all things to himself.

Philippians 3:20-21 NET

³⁵ But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” ³⁶ Fool! What you sow will not come to life unless it dies. ³⁷ And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare seed^[a]—perhaps of wheat or something else. ³⁸ But God gives it a body just as he planned, and to each of the seeds a body of its own. ³⁹ All flesh is not the same: People have one flesh, animals have another, birds and fish another.^[b] 40 And there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. The glory of the heavenly body is one sort and the earthly another. ⁴¹ There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon and another glory of the stars, for star differs from star in glory.

⁴² It is the same with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable.^[c] 43 It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; ⁴⁴ it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. ⁴⁵ So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living person”;^[d] the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. ⁴⁶ However, the spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. ⁴⁷ The first man is from the earth, made of dust; the second man is from heaven. ⁴⁸ Like the one made of dust, so too are those made of dust, and like the one from heaven, so too those who are heavenly. ⁴⁹ And just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, let us also bear^[e] the image of the man of heaven.

1 Corinthians 15:35-49 NET

Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life. He is the author and perfector of life, gives new, spiritual life to those who believe in Him, and one day all who believe will also be resurrected as He was resurrected. Those whose names are written in the Book of Life will be with Him for eternity one day, and those who choose to continue in their rejection of Him as the Resurrection and the Life will inherit eternity separated from Him and all that is good. Today is the day of salvation – we are not promised tomorrow and should seek to know Jesus Christ as our Risen Lord while there is still time before time runs out and He returns to judge the world.

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