John 11:1-45
‘A certain man was sick, named Lazarus…. Jesus…said: “This sickness is not unto death!… Our friend Lazarus sleeps; but…I awaken him from sleep!… Lazarus is dead!”… Jesus…found that he had laid in the grave four days already…. Jesus said…: “I am the resurrection and the life! He that believes in Me, though he were dead, yet he shall live! And whoever lives and believes in Me, shall never die!”… He cried out with a loud voice: “Lazarus, come forth!”‘ John 11:1-43.
Calvin comments: “By raising Lazarus, Christ…set before our eyes…our…resurrection…. Lazarus was in danger of death, when He wanted to manifest His Own…glory….
“‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep!’… He (Jesus) had said that the sickness was not mortal. But now…, He tells them that Lazarus is dead — but gives hope of His resurrection…. Christ shows that He is the Lord of death, by saying that He wakens those whom He restores to life….
“‘(When Jesus came, He found that he had laid in the grave four days already!… Martha said to Him, “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day!” Jesus said to her:) “I am the resurrection and the life!”‘… He calls Himself the resurrection. For restoration from death to life, precedes the state of life (everlasting)…. The whole human race, is plunged in death. Therefore, no man will possess life — unless he is first risen from the dead. Hence, Christ teaches that He is the beginning of life!….
“Plainly…, He is speaking of spiritual life: ‘He that believes in Me, though he die, yet he shall live!’…. Those who believe in Christ, although they had before been dead (in their sins), begin to live. For faith is a spiritual resurrection of the soul, and…quickens the soul so that it may live unto God…. It transfuses to us the life of Christ, and thus liberates us from death….
“‘Whoever lives and believes in Me, (shall never die)!’… Christ…will never allows the life to be lost which He has once given, but keeps it to the end…. He may finish, what He has begun! Believers are said never to die, because their souls…, born again of incorruptible seed, have Christ dwelling in them by Whom they are continually quickened…. Although the body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness (Romans 8:10). The fact that day by day the outward man decays in them — so far from destructing anything from their true life, in fact aids its progress. Since the inward man is renewed, day by day (Second Corinthians 4:16)…. Death is itself a sort of liberating from the bondage of death!”
Calvin also says in his Institutes III:25:9 & IV:19:29: “Christ has come to be the resurrection and the life (John 11:25)…. He said to Lazarus: ‘Come forth!'”
Calvin further says in his Treatises III:250 and in his Psychopannychia: “Faith is the resurrection of the soul…. ‘He that believes in Me, though he were dead — yet he shall live!’… Whosoever lives and believes in Me, shall not die for ever!’ (John 11:25-26).” Jesus said: “I am the resurrection and the life!” Do you so believe?
