Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, ²⁶ and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25-26

Jesus is commonly spoken of in the New Testament as the one who redeems and saves, as having redeemed the human race and brought it salvation; and in the Old Testament there are many references to God as redeeming and saving. (William Montgomery Watt – Professor Edinburgh)

One thing is clear–Jesus was not thinking in terms of saving our physical life; for, the man or woman who believes in him will die a physical death. We must look for a more than physical meaning when we hear the words “Jesus saves.” Instead, Jesus was thinking of the death of sin. He was saying: “Even if a man is dead in sin, even if, through his sins, he has lost all that makes life worth calling life, I can make him alive again.” A man named A.M. Chirgwin quotes the example of Tokichi Ishii. Ishii had an almost unparalleled criminal record. He had murdered men, women and children in the most brutal way. He was in prison awaiting death. While in prison he was visited by two Canadian women who tried to talk to him through the bars, but he only glowered at them like a caged and savage animal. In the end they abandoned the attempt; but they gave him a Bible, hoping that it might succeed where they had failed. He began to read it, and, having started, could not stop. He read on until he came to the story of the Crucifixion. He came to the words: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” and these words broke him. “I stopped,” he said. “I was stabbed to the heart, as if pierced by a five-inch nail. Shall I call it the love of Christ? Shall I call it his compassion? I do not know what to call it. I only know that I believed, and my hardness of heart was changed.”

Look, being saved by Jesus does not need to be so dramatic as that. Anyone can become so selfish that he is dead to the needs of others — can become so insensitive that they are dead to the feelings of others. Jesus Christ can resurrect anyone who is dead to the “Self-Sins” – selfishness, self-concern, and self-admiration to name a few. History proves that Jesus has resurrected millions and millions of people – and he is the resurrection and the life.

And there is even more — Jesus was also thinking of the life to come. He brought to life the absolute certainty that death is not and will not be the end. Through Jesus Christ we know that we are journeying, not to the sunset, but to the sunrise. In the most real sense we are not on our way to death, but on our way to life.

Pastor Dave