The raising of Lazarus from the dead was the climactic sign in the Gospel of John.
Lazarus, alive and well, proved to be a sign that could not be disputed or refuted. For this reason, some of the Jewish leaders wanted to kill Lazarus as well as Jesus.
The resurrection of Lazarus proved Jesus to be the One who came from God, full of power and faith.
Not only did Lazarus’s resurrection show Jesus to be the very Son of God, but it also occasioned the confession of faith by Martha, the sister of Lazarus. She confessed that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God.
That confession is exactly what John the Apostle wanted to see. He wrote in order that people without God might know the Christ as Savior and Lord. He also wrote that those who believed would continue to believe that Jesus is the True One who came from God.
John 11 shows us many significant points in the life of Jesus.
First, Jesus contrasted life and death. He showed the difference between physical death and spiritual death. As Jesus taught, he showed us the great danger of life is dying spiritually instead of dying physically. Spiritual death means you are apart from God now and also apart from God for all eternity.
Second, Jesus saw eternal life as something that comes from a life-giving relationship with Him. Eternal life is not something that comes to us when we die but when we die to sin and are made alive to Christ.
Eternal Life is what you experience now because of your relationship to Jesus.
Third, Jesus emphasized the difference between light and darkness. To live in the dark (spiritual death) is to stumble and fall. To live in the light (spiritual life) means that you have light for your path and a relationship with the living God.
Jesus obviously came to be the light of the world and to bring life and light to all those living in darkness.
The resurrection of Lazarus shows without question that the real issue of life is whether or not you are living in the light.
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