Christ's Doctrine of Faith: A Study of "Believing" in John's Gospel (John 11:25)

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We find the sixtieth use of the idea of “believing” in John 11:25. In the passage, we find this: “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:” (KJV). So, what is the context of this passage, and what are some truths about faith that we can gather from it?

First, what is the context? Right after Jesus tells His disciples that they will go to Lazarus (who, as we previously saw, died), Thomas (who, the text tells us, is called “Didymus”) says that he and his fellow disciples should also go with Him, so that they may die with Him. Then, when Jesus arrives, He finds that Lazarus has been in the grave for four days already. The text then informs us that the town of Bethany was near to Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off, before telling us that many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning Lazarus, their brother. As soon as she hears that Jesus is coming, Martha makes her way to Him to meet Him, while Mary remains in the house. Next, we see Martha saying to the Lord that, if He had been there, her brother would not have died, before she adds that she knows that, even at that moment, God would give Him whatever He asks for. In response, Jesus tells her that her brother will rise again, to which Martha replies that she knows that Lazarus will rise again in the resurrection on the last day. Christ then tells her that He is the Resurrection and the Life, and that he who believes in Him, though he dies, will yet live. This is the context of John 11:25!

Second, what are some facts about faith here? First, Christian faith, or saving faith, is the belief that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is the Resurrection and the Life, because Christ introduces Himself in that way before talking about the one who believes on Him. Second, faith (when Christ is its sole Object) is a guarantee of eternal safety in death, because Jesus says that the one who believes in Him will live (eternally) despite the fact that he will die (temporally). Third, part of what it means for Jesus to be God is the fact that He is the Resurrection and the Life. Biblical scholars have noted how Jesus uses many “I Am” statements in the Gospel of John, referencing God’s Name in Exodus 3:13-14 [1]. John 11:25 contains one of these “I Am” statements in John’s Gospel, where Jesus declares Himself the Resurrection and the Life. Fourth, part of what it means for Jesus to be the Christ, or God’s “Anointed One” [2], is the fact that He is the Resurrection and the Life. Because, as we often covered before in this series, John’s thesis statement for his Gospel is John 20:30-31, where he says that the signs recorded in his Gospel are so that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and, believing, we may have life in His name. Since the signs (and, we may legitimately assume, all the other features in this Gospel) are for us to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, we can reasonably conclude that all the facts about Jesus we learn in this Gospel are aspects of what it means for Him to be the Messiah. And two of those aspects are 1) the Resurrection and 2) the Life. And another confirmation of our theory that this passage shows us an aspect of Jesus’s Messiahship is that John 11:25 clearly says that belief in Him, the Resurrection and the Life, results in “life,” just like John 20:31 says! These are some facts about faith from John 11:25!

[1] One of these Biblical scholars is a man who was my Gospel of John class professor while he was at Maranatha Baptist University: Dr. Bruce Meyer, who now works at Bob Jones University.

[2] https://biblehub.com/greek/5547.htm