CHRIST AS THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE

D. E. Remmington

John 11: 25 “I am the resurrection and the life”

Our beloved brethren have already referred tonight to the Lord’s voice to us in His taking one and another to Himself recently, for He would have us all universally learn and gain from these sorrows. Now what has been said has confirmed one in a simple impression that He would seek to bring us at the present time to know Him as “the resurrection and the life”. All true believers know the Lord as their Saviour and as the One who is their Deliverer from the wrath to come, but further than that. He would draw attention to Himself as the “resurrection and the life”

now. A service which the Spirit loves to render is to draw attention to Christ, and as He is exalted and made way for by us, we prove, as we have proved today already, the support, the help, the solace that He can be to us. This would encourage us to prove that all that we need can be found in Him. He would therefore say to us at the present time, “I am the resurrection and the life”. Perhaps there is a hint in that “I am” of the greatness of His person, but in circumstances of sorrow He would draw attention to Himself with a view to our hearts being freshly drawn to Him.

When Martha said, “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died” (John 11: 21), she perhaps showed that she had queries in her mind as to why Lazarus had died, but the Lord allowed him to die with a view to teaching her that He, Himself, was to be for her “the resurrection and the life”. As passing through a scene of death, weakness, sorrow and suffering—and how much of this there has been in recent times—we are to come to an enhanced appreciation of the One who is the “resurrection and the life”. So I believe He would draw attention to Himself today as the One who is sufficient for every need and circumstance, whatever they may be. In assembly exercises, personal matters, household matters. He is the One who is great enough to be the answer to every need and sorrow. He is the One who has conquered death. How thankful we are, in a scene of death, sorrow, and suffering, to know the One who has broken the power of death, having come forth victoriously from the grave. Further He would associate us with Himself in His own realm of life on the other side of death.

Now that challenges me as to where my life really is. How much is my life just like the life of people generally around us, bound up with what is natural, occupied just with things here? We are reminded that everything here is bounded by death, and in the presence of death we are thankful for the One who is the resurrection, but I believe He has in view that every one of us should find our life in Himself where He is. He has gone through death and is now in glory, and He would attract so that we might find our life increasingly in Himself in that realm beyond death. We need to fulfil responsibilities here of course—we would all realise that—but where is your heart? Where is my heart? Where are our desires centred? Are they just centred on things of earth, things which fail, things which fade, are subject to death, weakness, suffering, and pass away? But the life which the Lord is speaking about relates to what will never pass away, nor fail, nor corrode, nor rust, nor spoil. The best and finest things of earth are subject to death, but this scene of life, which the Lord was teaching Martha about, is the realm of bliss, peace, joy, the realm where we shall soon be in actuality.

We look forward to that time, but at the present time I believe He would wean us from this present world, so that we might the more find our life now in that realm beyond death.

However, everything is centred in the Person. While the realm where He is is involved, it is the Person who would attract us out of this scene of death and sorrow. Yet it is a scene of human joys as well. We might well be glad of the relief side, but then there are the things which we naturally like to live in. He would have us be drawn away in spirit from everything here, every person here, to Himself where He is in that realm beyond death, to prove the blessedness of what He Himself can be to us.

Martha and Mary had known the Lord; He had been a good Friend of the family, they had loved Him, but He was not supreme to them. However He allowed the death of Lazarus to come in, in order that they might learn the lesson that He Himself was to be paramount in

their affections. He would draw them away from all the sorrow, and eclipse their earthly joys too. We can be thankful that God gives us all things richly to enjoy, but in spirit and in affection, do we just live in earthly things? Or do we find our life, our joy and our all in Christ and in the things of Christ? I believe He would make a fresh appeal to us again today, as our hearts have been made tender through His wondrous ways with us that He, rather than the natural, might govern us. His feelings come out in this section. How much the Lord felt for Martha and Mary! None felt that situation like the Lord Himself did, but He allowed it in order that He Himself should become supreme to that family in Bethany, and be the centre of everything for them.

May we be freshly stimulated that our affections might be drawn away from everything else to Himself where He is in glory. These sorrows would cause us to be sober and pious in relation to every matter here. They would remind us that all we go in for naturally relates to a world which is marred by death and sin, but remind us also that there is a realm of bliss of which Christ is the Head and Centre, the realm where He Himself is the resurrection and the life. May we be drawn freshly in our spirits, and in our affections away from sorrows, even from joys of earth, to Himself the resurrection and the life, for His name’s sake.

Word in meeting for ministry, Grangemouth
15 November 1994